11 April 2011

A Double Date at Mercy’s

Expect to see more evidence of my undying love for eating out now that I have a very portable camera! Exploring new restaurants absolutely ranks among my favorite activities, and this weekend, I got to indulge.

My boyfriend [henceforth referred to as A] took my parents and I out for a double date at a relatively new restaurant in town, Mercy’s. The ambiance was pretty subdued, but elegant. We got one of the booths.

The restaurant touts itself as French/Burmese/Asian fusion, though I would have liked to see a bit more Asian influence throughout the menu. There wasn’t a whole lot of fusing going on — a dish seemed to be either French or Burmese/Asian, but not a fusion of the two.

Take the apps, for instance. On the Asian side, there was the Drunken Shrimp.

I loved the texture of the udon noodles in this dish. Usually, I haaate udon noodles. The texture reminds me of slimy worms. But the sauce in this dish had a little bit of stickiness to it, so the texture of the noodles didn’t bother me. Plus, the flavor of the shrimp/noodles was really nice. Definitively Asian, but subtle.

The second app we got was from the French portion of the menu — a filet mignon that I didn’t take a picture of. It came with tiny asparagus and a tiny portion of rice. Good, but we all agreed the soy sauce-based glaze was a bit overpowering for the delicate meat.

My dad also got an amazing romaine wedge salad that looked so pretty I had to take a pic.

Our lovely dining companions. I mean, come on, how cute are my parents?

For my entree, I got (what else?) steak. I know I’ve mentioned it before, but steak au povire, mashed potatoes, and green beans is my dream meal (it was what I requested my dad make on my bday a couple years ago). So I asked them to sub mashed potatoes for the shoestring fries in their Steak Frites dish. A got the same thing, but with roasted potatoes instead of mashed.

HELLO. The green beans were so well-seasoned and garlicky — they’re often a throwaway component, so I was happy. And I loved the pepper sauce. It was perfectly spicy and peppery (I like my au poivre really poivre-y). The mashed taters (Yukons) were a little sweet for my liking.

My dad was loving his lamb shank dish, but lamb isn’t really my thing.

After a meal like that, we had to sample dessert. All four of us wanted the same thing, so we got two orders of the Challah Beignets — one for me and A, one for my parents.

They were just what you’d expect: crisp and full of cinnamon sugar on the outside, doughy and soft on the inside. I really enjoyed the beignets, but thought the accouterments (ice cream and chocolate/caramel sauces) were a bit lacking and sort of overpowered the star of the show.

All in all, I enjoyed Mercy’s. I have no complaints about a place where I can get a good steak au poivre and some challah for dessert! And I loved being able to take my new camera out for a spin at a very worthy restaurant. But I think my dad had a little too much fun playing with the effects…