Monday, July 7, 2008

Gaslight

Yet another part of our weekend culinary journey in Boston...My fiance brought me to Gaslight in the South End of Boston. It's a French brasserie. He had drinks here last and thought it would be nice to bring me here as a reminder of Paris. The place looked pretty authentic, and had even served warm French baguettes to start off your meal. Their service was pretty authentic too - slow just like in Paris. What I didn't think was authentic was that they had gnocchi and ravioli on their menu (aren't they Italian?).

I tried out a drink that he liked here called Fleur de Lis. It was part of my research for our wedding cocktail, but sadly I didn't like it at all. This signature cocktail of Gaslight was made with "Parfait Amour Violet Liqueur, gin, Mathilde Peach, white grape juice and a champagne float." It was very purple and tasted to me like medicine. Surely, it's an acquired taste sort of thing.

We wanted a light dinner before our venture to Douzo, so we shared three appetizers (most of the time appetizers at restaurants are generally better than main course from my experience). We chose oysters, a beet salad and smoked salmon with blinis. The oysters were good - can't mess that up if they're fresh, can you. Salmon with blinis was the runner up - the overall combination of smoked salmon, red onion, hard boiled egg and capers was tasty. The only drawback was the blinis; they were not served warm like they should have been and were a bit too greasy.


Above, smoked salmon with blinis


As for the beet salad...it was my least favorite of the three. It was served with watercress, walnut, creme fraiche and dijon mustard vinagrette. It tasted flat - my opinion was that it needed more acid.

Overall, Gaslight does not seem like a bad place to meet up with your friends for drinks (they have quite an extensive list of cocktails) and oysters at the bar, or even dinner. I'd recommend it with reservation. Perhaps I'll have a more conclusive review if I pay them a visit again next time and try out their main course.

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