Monday, July 4, 2011

UnCookish: Eating Out


Welcome to a new feature of Bookish & Cookish: Restaurant Reviews!
First up: Patois, a restaurant in uptown New Orleans. Someone was kind enough to give me a gift certificate as a show of appreciation (a habit I'd like to encourage). So I decided to have a girls' night with my good friend J. We managed to snag a 9 pm reservation on a Saturday (I felt very European). I do encourage you to get a reservation; the restaurant is small--a converted house, which is not uncommon uptown--and it is popular.

We started with the gnocchi and the moules frites. Both were delish, but I have a weakness for mussels, so I give them the edge. The fries were insanely tasty. Oh, I should also mention the bread they serve is buttery brioche, which is tasty, but if you are getting either of the apps I mentioned, I recommend saving it until your appetizers arrive because both have very tasty sauces and you might like the bread for soppage. I ate mine as soon as it arrived, unfortunately. Buttery as it is, I would have spread some butter on it, given the opportunity, which I was not because they don't bring you any butter. Probably a good thing for my arteries!

Next, I had the almond crusted Gulf fish, which was not your typical trout amandine, but was insanely good. They go heavy on the black pepper, which I found delicious, but not everyone is as fond of pepper, so be aware. J had the seared scallops, which is slightly different on the menu now than is described on the website. It's served with cold glass noodles, and the sauce on them was a little odd, but overall the dish was delicious. The scallops were huge and perfectly cooked.

Finally, we had dessert. J ordered the Almond bread pudding (the dessert menu on the website does not match what they were serving when we were there), which was like a cupcake on a pool of creme anglaise and a scoop of ice cream on top. Tasty, but no match for what I ordered.

I had the "Snickers." O.M.G.
I would come to Patois just for this. It's a layer of cake, topped by chocolate mousse, a triangle of toffee, and a scoop of dark chocolate ice cream. On the plate is chocolate sauce, salted caramel, and peanuts. Insane.

J had a cappuccino, which came with a tiny biscotti, and I had a cup of coffee. The perfect end to a truly excellent meal.

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