Foodie Digest

I’m sure everyone has their favorite special spot. The place where you forget about, then remember, and always recommend wholeheartedly. Canteen is that spot for me. It’s teeny, so you need reservations, and it’s just a far enough walk that we don’t go too much. Instead, it’s a nice surprise each time we go. We were looking for a last minute celebratory spot and remembered (at 6:30) to try Canteen. Luckily for us they had seatings available at 9:15.

Things to know: Canteen is tiny and only does 2 seatings nightly. The largest booth they have seats 4. A larger group would need to be seated at the counter. You need reservations for dinner because they are small. Tuesday night is prix fixe night; they have one set menu for the evening, although they’ll make substitutions (vegetarian, for example) as necessary. Other nights there tend to be 4 appetizers, 4 entrees, and 4 desserts to choose from.

What we ate (and didn’t):

• amuse bouche of scallop, roasted cauliflower and oil (I can’t remember the oil). Scallop was incredibly sweet and well prepared. I liked it but the cauliflower could overwhelm the scallop.
• crab and cardoon soup in case you didn’t know, a cardoon is a member of the artichoke family but has the texture and flavor of celery. This soup was rich and buttery with large chunks of crab. Pretty tasty. We shared this and:
• seared foie gras with quince and duck confit this was actually a substitute for a chicken liver and foie gras terrine. Fine by me The foie gras was prepared perfectly. I didn’t have any of the duck confit (much to the pleasure of my dining companion). He loved it (but duck and I do not get along..) We didn’t get the other 2 options: shrimp poached in butter and one that I don’t remember (oops). We were also served:
• Dennis Leary’s legendary rolls. They are served with butter. I’m not sure why; they are oozing with butter when you eat them (but really, what could make butter taste better? besides bacon, just more butter). The entrees we had:
• Polenta and goat cheese clafouti with mushrooms: This was my dish and was fantastic. Think of an uber light corn pancake. The richness of the polenta was matched by the lightness of a clafouti, but still had the crispy edges. Topped with goat cheese and earthy wild mushrooms. I shared this dish, but I loved it and ate most of it. Would order it again in a heart beat.
• Pork schnitzel topped with red cabbage. Again, he achieved a lightness one doesn’t normally expect with schnitzel. This was John’s dish; he loved it as much as I love the clafouti (in a here you should try this I’m happy to share it while secretly hoping the other person didn’t love it as much as you did). We didn’t get:
• Tenderloin topped with truffle and a fish dish. They both sounded good but neither as intriguing or appealing as the two we selected. For dessert we had:
• Vanilla bean souffle which we shared. This comes out perfectly risen to the table, then is cut and topped with creme anglaise tableside. This is the one constant that’s always on the menu at Canteen (except or Tuesday nights, that is). It’s a phenomenal dessert so we have a hard time not getting it. We split this (and we were pretty stuffed when it arrived so it was a good choice). We didn’t get the gingerbread with caramelized pineapples (though clearly I thought about it since I remember the description) or either of the two other choices.