Restaurant Weeks Recap

During Howard County's Winter Restaurant Weeks I was able to get to several local eateries. Here is my own quick summary. However, I can't hold a candle to the writing skill or gustatory fortitude of Michael and Debbie Nagle who did a terrific blog of their Restaurant Week experiences. By all means, give it a read.

Victoria Gastro Pub: Best dinner item was the fish and chips, only because the chorizo meatloaf and roaster pork tenderloin were only so-so. But the real winner that night was the chocolate praline cake. I'm not usually a big dessert fan, but this was wonderful.

Greystone Grill: The mini Beef Wellingtons were terrific, with a tasty puff pasty, mushrooms and a rich sauce. They should be a regular menu item. But fried parsnips as a vegetable side didn't go over well with anyone at our table.

Cafe de Paris: The Restaurant Week menu was effectively the Cafe's standard "Formule" menu, so in a sense, it's always Restaurant Week at Cafe de Paris. The only problem is the Formule does not include the appetizers we love, especially the escargot or the mussels. So, everyone in our party ended up ordering a la carte. The steak and frites are still the standout for us, but the veal scaloppini was a good runner up.

The good news is that each restaurant had a sizeable crowd the evenings we went. The bad news is the service at all three was close to miserable. It wasn't necessarily the fault of our individual servers, who were mostly attentive, but in each case it took nearly 45 minutes before we got our appetizers and the entire meals took well over two hours. That's too long, and it took some of the fun out of the evenings.

I hope Restaurant Weeks were a success for the Howard County participants, and I hope you got a chance to sample some good meals.