This month we headed to Farmstead Table in Newton, a cute little place right by the Newton Centre T stop. The space was hot, as in temperature hot, and our server didn’t seem to find us very amusing. He was very very anxious to take our order, but then kind of disappeared once he took the order. He even forgot to bring the bottle of wine that we ordered, and said he thought we wanted it with our entrées. Perhaps he was new or having a bad day…I’d give him a pass.
My winner in the appetizer round was the crispy calamari with Eva’s pea greens, lemon aioli, and chili oil. We also tried the homemade potato gnocchi, the farm greens salad, and the golden beet carpaccio.
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| Crispy salt-and-white-pepper calamari |
I had the day-boat fish for an entrée, which was haddock with parsnip puree, white asparagus, mushrooms and pea greens. I kind of stopped listening after the server said “parsnip puree”.
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| Day-boat haddock |
Two people were torn between the grilled Delmonico steak (with mashed potato, haricots verts, cabernet demi) and the lamb burger (with salsa verde, goat cheese, brioche roll, and salad of curly spinach, pickled beets, and walnuts), so they decided to share. The kitchen split the dishes for them, and that small but thoughtful gesture never fails to impress (for me anyway). The word at the table was that the cow was mightier than the lamb. I also heard that the herb-basted roast chicken (with roasted baby sweet potato, shitake greens, roasted chicken jus) was “bland”.
We also ordered a couple “For the Table” items, the curry-fried chick peas and the red beet pickles. I wanted the pickled beets to be a little more sour, and our server to be a little more sweet. But I guess not everyone can be as charming as Ming Tsai (no post last month, I was so bummed to have to miss RC at Blue Dragon). But the fried chick peas might have been my favorite part of the meal. Who knew you could fry a chick pea? And I loved the little Le Creuset dishes they arrived in!
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| Curry-fried chick peas |
As I write this more than one week after we went, I am finding it hard to remember anything about the desserts. Based on photographic evidence, I know we ordered three desserts:
- Caramelized apple bread pudding with ginger essence caramel, vanilla bean ice cream, and walnuts
- Banana almond tart with brown butter filling, caramelized bananas, butter almond ice cream, and lime zest
- Sea salt baklava with pistachios and almonds, orange blossom honey, and apricot sorbet
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| Baklava |
The damage
$66 each
The rundown
Farmstead Table
71 Union Street, Newton
Kara Cooks and Eats 