Vin Rouge, the reprise
May. 24th, 2009 01:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ilex_cassineYesterday was our sixth wedding anniversary so we went for a nice dinner at Vin Rouge, the French Bistro in Durham.
The food, as usual, was lovely. Ample portions (perhaps too ample, I always regret ordering anything but a salad for an entree by the time the entrees come out) and good quality. The hubby had his usual hanger steak in blue cheese butter and I had a special- duck and greens w/roasted tomato vinaigrette over gnocchi. The cheese plate portions were really good and fairly well put together (five cheese - I would've liked a goat's milk cheese among them- but oh well I'll be getting more of that than I want in a couple of weeks when I go to Burgundy).
The problem was with the dining area. We had wanted to eat out side, but it was raining and the porch area was full up. The area next to the bar was awful with traffic and it was cold. And, to top it off, when I took my first bite of cheese I was shocked to discover that it tasted like cigarette smoke. Ah, that wasn't the cheese, that was the guy less than two feet away from me smoking camel straights at the bar. I'm sorry, but even the French don't smoke in dining rooms anymore. They moved us after the hubby went and asked, the back dining room was much better.
But I didn't intend to write a bitch out of Vin Rouge over smoking. I want to alert the locals to a Good Deal. They have a prix fix menu before 6. 4 or 5 courses for 20 or 25 respectively. That's the price of an entree alone most of the time and a good number of their regular entrees are on the prix fix menu (like the hanger steak and frites, the salmon over a bed of marinated lentils, the Gruyere cheese macaroni etc.). This is a fantastic deal and I totally intend to take advantage of it at some point (unfortunately last night we got there at 7 so couldn't).
The food, as usual, was lovely. Ample portions (perhaps too ample, I always regret ordering anything but a salad for an entree by the time the entrees come out) and good quality. The hubby had his usual hanger steak in blue cheese butter and I had a special- duck and greens w/roasted tomato vinaigrette over gnocchi. The cheese plate portions were really good and fairly well put together (five cheese - I would've liked a goat's milk cheese among them- but oh well I'll be getting more of that than I want in a couple of weeks when I go to Burgundy).
The problem was with the dining area. We had wanted to eat out side, but it was raining and the porch area was full up. The area next to the bar was awful with traffic and it was cold. And, to top it off, when I took my first bite of cheese I was shocked to discover that it tasted like cigarette smoke. Ah, that wasn't the cheese, that was the guy less than two feet away from me smoking camel straights at the bar. I'm sorry, but even the French don't smoke in dining rooms anymore. They moved us after the hubby went and asked, the back dining room was much better.
But I didn't intend to write a bitch out of Vin Rouge over smoking. I want to alert the locals to a Good Deal. They have a prix fix menu before 6. 4 or 5 courses for 20 or 25 respectively. That's the price of an entree alone most of the time and a good number of their regular entrees are on the prix fix menu (like the hanger steak and frites, the salmon over a bed of marinated lentils, the Gruyere cheese macaroni etc.). This is a fantastic deal and I totally intend to take advantage of it at some point (unfortunately last night we got there at 7 so couldn't).
