=" /> The Mile High Eater: Jul 13, 2008

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Terroir

Hi all!

Barb and I went out to Terroir in Longmont last night and had a very nice dinner. The chef there is Timothy Payne.
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Coming into the restaurant had a very nice open feel the tables were placed far enough away from each other to not feel crowded and overall just a very comfortable feel. The room also has bar seating running down one side and in the back. The kitchen is half open so you can watch them working to create the wonderful food you're about to be served. When we arrived we were greeted and promptly seated and asked about our drink preferences, when the drinks arrived our server told us about one menu subsitition (flank steak instead of hanger steak) but forgot to tell us what the soup de jour was. We had to hear that when she greeted another table, but that was the one and only service problem we had and that was such a minor thing. Before the small plates came out we were served some very fresh focaccia bread that was wonderfully soft and had a very pleasing taste.

The menu they have changes often and looked very good over all. We started out with 2 small plates.



The first one was a Gnocchi (a potato dumpling pasta) with golden west sugar snap peas and garlic. The sauce had a wonderful slightly sweet taste with a hint of citrus. The peas were perfectly cooked they still had the nice crisp freshness that I just love. The longer this sat the better it became as the gnocchi soaked up some of the sauce and the creamy rich texture of the gnocchi was just fantastic.

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The second was Gambas-Ai-Ajillo. Chili and white wine sauteed shrimp with 2 pieces of that wonderful focaccia bread that had been grilled. The sauce was very rich and had a definte buttery taste but the wine and the chili really came through and blended so well that we both ended up using the bread to help soak up some of it just to enjoy more of it. I am not much into having spice just to add heat so am always cautious of sauces or items that have chile and the like but this sauce was just fantastic and the little bit of heat it did give felt very pleasant and didnt send me running for water.

Next came our main courses.
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The first was Grilled Flank Steak with a crispy potato cake, heirloom tomatoes and a chimchurri sauce. The steak was cooked pretty well but in my opinion even though the sauce was good it really took over the dish. The bold herb and vinager taste jumped out and grabbed your taste buds as soon as you put it in your mouth and was strong enough that the meat really didnt have room to have much flavor. That being said the sauce was very good with the parsley sweetening up the vinager and blending into a nice strong taste. A second problem I had with this dish was the first few pieces I had were fairly chewy and tough. Now I know flank steak is a very lean cut of meat but when served in a restaurant I do expect it not to take 5 min to chew down. Luckly after the first couple pieces the rest were fine and the potato cake had a nice texture and a satisfying taste. Overall I did enjoy the total package of the dish.

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The second dish was a Pork Loin Chop. Long farm pork with a potato (both normal and sweet) hash with tochey farms greens and a great peach compote. Ok YUM (yes I am back to the yum word again, lol) The peach compote was just fantastic. The sweet flavors of the peached blended in so very well with this very tender perfectly cooked pork chop that Barb almost had to fork duel me for it. The presentation looked great and the hash had a great flavor this was defintly our favorite of the evening.

Next came deserts and they had several options the first one we had was:

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A Vanilla Creme Brulee. This was well done with a nice fresh vanilla taste and a nice crispy top.

The next:

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Was a Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp with a scoop of strawberry ice cream. Before I go further I must admit to being a Rhubarb crisp snob so maybe should of gotten something else. This desert had a very strong strawberry smell that hit you right before you took a bite and really strawberry was the main focus as I could taste very little of the rhubarb and there was also little crisp. I am not saying this was bad it had a nice strawberry taste that pleased the taste buds and lol not a bit was left over when we were done, but it was lacking in the rhubarb and crisp area.


Overall, I would reccomend Terroir. The atmosphere is comfortable and the food well thought out and executed and I am pretty sure we will be going back the next time we want to go out with friends in the Longmont area and for me going back to a restaurant a second time is the mark of a good restaurant. What we rated the restaurant overall was a 7.3 before the .1 decuction for the soup of day missfire. so a 7.2 overall. If this sounds low at all given my mostly overall praise please look at our rating system explanation a few posts back. Basicly it comes to this a 7.2 is a pretty darn good rating while nothing we had made me go OMG thats just incredible two of the items I would say were great and everything is very good. The cost for the meal was $73.

Well thats it for now as always thanks for coming by and if have any questions or suggestions, please let us know.


Jonathan & Barb

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