A wise woman once told me (Amburgey) that when a new restaurant opens, to get the full benefit of your dining experience you must go to that restaurant within the first 4-6 months of it being open.
To begin, I was with a group of 3 close friends who were all really looking forward to this meal, one (Paige) had even eaten at Rustic Canyon before and had nothing but good things to say. For starters we ordered the Burrata Panzanella, Crispy White Polenta and Confit Duck Leg. Of the three dishes I felt the Burrata was the best tasting (not as good as Tasting Kitchen’s though). The burata was fresh and the croutons were big and crispy, the arugala was a leeeetle awkard but by no means hindered the dish. As for the duck, while the reduction sauce under the duck was delicious, the duck itself was overcooked. The polenta, well, the egg on top was a melt in your mouth type moment and the mushrooms added an extra oomph. The polenta itself was nothing special, more a stage to showcase the other ingredients, which as the dish headliner isn’t what I expected.
For our main course we split two dishes among the 4 of us. We ordered the hand made ricotta gnocchi with bolognese sauce and the rustic canyon burger with confit bacon. The gnocchi while good (sorry for the lack of descriptive word here but I felt ambivalent towards the dish and couldn’t think of anything more creative) the meat in the bolognese sauce was overcooked. The burger was scrumptious and the bacon was a necessary addition but really lets be honest, how hard is it to make a good burger?
After having heard so many wonderful things about the food at Rustic Canyon my expectations were extremely high and I left the meal feeling disappointed. Even Paige also a discernable foodie shared my feelings and even remarked that her experience several months prior was far superior to the meal we just ate. While the food looked beautiful and the dishes were good, they overall lacked originality. We also couldn’t overlook the fact that we felt every dish had stayed under the heat lamp a little too long. For this I give Rustic Canyon One Fork Up.
the dishes and descriptions sound sumptuous. Think I”ll try it anyway.
Love the use of the word “sumptuous” I think I will have to keep that in my rolodex for future posts!