Old Mill Room - Boar's Head Inn

Date
7/15/09

Location
The Boar's Head Inn, just out Ivy Road
200 Ednam Drive

What I ate
Two potato porcini lasagna
Smothered steak stuffed with mustard greens and corn pone
Lemongrass creme brulee

Who came
Anne, Matt, Rebec, Constance

Website
http://www.boarsheadinn.com/Dining/The-Old-Mill-Room.asp

Thoughts
Now I know why it's so expensive. This was a great meal from start to finish. First off, the place is just outside of town but feels like it's much further out. Unfortunately, there was a decent amount of construction, which kinda broke that mood, but the ambiance came right back as we stepped inside. The name is pretty spot on as there are touches of an old mill but it's clearly a swanky joint. Our waiter was really courteous and upbeat. Enough about that whatnot, time for the important stuff.

The food was great. The lasagna was both light and filling, not to mention delicious. The potatoes were balanced really well against the cheese and pasta, and the mushrooms and sauce were a nice accent. If I had the recipe, I could see myself making a full tray of that and using it as a main dish and not just an appetizer. Both of the other appetizers drew lots of praise, too.

Due to how it was cooked, the steak only came at one temperature. Unfortunately, that means it was just a little bit past the way I liked it; it was a bit drier than I would've hoped. That said, it was still really tasty. The description is a little misleading - they gave us a thin steak with a layer of corn pone (a new foodstuff for me) and some mustard greens on top, rolled the whole thing up, and cooked it like that. It was all topped with a tasty onion gravy and some sauteed onions. The steak wasn't great by itself, but it was delicious if you included every piece of the dish. That is, every piece except the overly starchy black-eyed peas. That was my only real complaint about the dish.

I like creme brulee and, after having a delicious herb-infused version at another restaurant a few months ago, I have been seeking out other variants. You can understand why I was excited about the lemongrass offering. The dish was very good, but I was a little disappointed; the lemongrass was present for the first two or three bites, but that faded shortly thereafter. Also, this creme brulee lacked the traditional hard crust, giving us a relatively disappointed Rebec. The little ginger basket was a nice touch and the mango was nice and refreshing. All told, it was a delicious dessert, but I would've liked a bit more uniqueness.

Recap
Pros - delicious food, great service, a nice, comfortable ambiance
Cons - the steak was a little dry by itself and the peas were really starchy, the lemongrass didn't really come through in the creme brulee after the first few bites
Overall - I'll probably never go here unless something like Restaurant Week happens again, but I was very happy with this dinner. The food was great, the place was really nice, the service was really quite good; I can see why it's usually so expensive. If you can find a deal or just afford the hit, I highly suggest going here.