Kimmy's Garden

OK, so I don’t blog regularly. I just have nothing to say unless my muses inspire me to write poetry. But I do eat, and I eat out a lot! So, witness the birth of my food opinions around the city.

My first experience worth commenting on is: The Hat. I met four colleagues downtown for drinks after work tonight. Service was great, the atmosphere was appropriate for the TGIF. The water droplet wall paper was very cool. I had everything to look forward to, and then the beer came. Delicious, now I am just fine! And a bit hungry… My colleagues ordered wraps, burgers, and some kind of dip with chips. DE-licious. And I ordered the spinach salad.

The food smelled great, as all sizzling and creamy things do, and as I was bringing the first forkful to my drooling mouth, one second later, all my tongue hopes were dashed: tasted like, um, spinach. Thsi may seem silly, but a spinach salad should not actually taste like spinach. If I wanted just spinach, I would have stayed home with my big box of “washed and ready to eat” and a fork.

Let’s review before we get into the constructive criticism: spinach, while often the main ingredient in a simple or complex salad, consisting of spinach and at least two (2) other things – salty & sweet, maybe a third of chewy – is pretty easy. This has always been a favorite, and not since 2001 have I ever had a bad spinach salad! And that one was only a let down because spinach was out of season and so not available and so I had to have the ceasar. This year alone I have had at least 10 spinach salads out, from a fruity orange segment with raspberry vinaigrette topped with almond slices to a spicy beet with goat cheese rendition drizzled with apple cider vinegar…honestly, a restaurant spinach salad has never disappointed. Until today.

The salad, while generous in portion size, had no cheese (need a salty!), the onions were cut far too large to give the proper sweet, and their bacon dressing was basically oil with little bits in it – I gave them the benefit of the doubt that perhaps the chef did not SHAKE the bottle before dispensing. After speaking discretely with the kind waitress, she brought me another oyster dish with more dressing, no charge, because it looked like there was no dressing on it! Ah, perhaps that was it. But then the oyster dish was filled with, well, oil that looked like bacon grease but lacked the characteristic saltiness. Eggs, mushrooms were there? What else can I say, it was dark where we were sitting. And, BTW, the other food was fab.

So, an almost perfect night. So, hopefully they will fix that before you go there next time.