Café la Gaffe

So we went to Café La Gaffe last night for dinner. Having just discovered Baldwin street and having a disappointing previous experience we decided to go upscale with mixed results.

Zuimei ordered the soup of the day was a seafood tomato soup that was phenominal. The hint of spice made the flavors dance on the tongue and made it “hurt so good”. The chunks of veggies were near perfect as well being still just a little crisp.

I ordered the warm brie and bacon salad. I am a total sucker for bacon. What I got was not bacon, it was jambon. Which is French bacon or ham, or pig meat. It wasn’t bad, but when you put warm meat on lettuce it tends to wilt. It would have been better if the meat was cool. The flavour however was nice. The bacon was nicely offset by the sweetness in the basalmic dressing.

For the main course I ordered the Orange Ruffie with mango sauce with the scalloped potatoes and veggies. First the bad: The veggies were, in my opinion, grievously undercooked. The broccoli, zucchini, carrots and cauliflower were cut so large that I had to cut them up.  I am not complaining about having to cut my food but a chunk of zucchini the size of my fist is too much.  I suspected the chef was just being lazy. Also because they were still mostly raw, cutting them without a proper knife was not easy.

Zuimei had the seafood pasta which was the special of the day and while most of it was good, there was a very large, very undercooked sea scallop. He had cut it in half to share with me and I had to spit it out. Under done fish is a total no-no in my book.

Speaking of fish, the Ruffie was delicious and very well cooked. Personally I didn’t like the mango dressing, I found it too sweet but that is my fault for ordering it. I wanted savory but ordered sweet.  There was however a small piece of fish that didn’t have sauce and when I tried that it was so good I wished my fish was just plain.

The scalloped potatoes were magnificent. I could have eaten another plate of just those. I have no idea how hard it is to cook but “oh my god” they were good!

We had to rush home so there was no dessert, but they do make a creme brulée so I will return just for that alone. The bill was reasonable at $85 including tip, but we don’t drink so I think with a bottle of wine it could get up there.  Service was fine, not over to the top but not bad.

All in all it was okay. The ambiance was nice. The temperature of the restaurant was good, even with the door open. We were eating late and it made it feel very European. We will definitely go back for another try.