Coastal Kitchen- Gulf Coast, review-long
Stephanya Shear
This weekend, three friends and I ate at the Coastal Kitchen, which
is serving food from the Gulf Coast. Let me inform you first that I
grew up on the Gulf Coast, thus coloring my opinion.
Here is the review:
Be forewarned that Creole/Southern cooking is meat based. Most items are
cooked with or fried in meat drippings. Most options were high in fat.
We started with Fried Green Tomatoes, fried in bacon drippings. " OK",
"not soggy", and "a little burnt" were the reviews from three of us. The
smell of bacon was so overwhelming, I skipped this dish. Oleo would have
been better and just as traditional.
We also had the goat cheese and hominy timbales. Excellent but two very
small timbales, size of a quarter. At $6.00, not a good deal, unless one
person eats them and you don't mind shelling out $3.00 for a bite.
Dinner:
Gumbo with biscuits and cucumber-vinegar salad. Received an "excellent"
after addition of some cayenne from the kitchen. "Lots of seafood and
very tasty". Biscuit was not like a rock.
The Special- Marlin with Pesto (that's not Creole), black pea (bean)-
potato pancakes, roasted tomato and corn side dish. Fish was "done very
well" with the pesto not being overwhelming, pancakes were not greasy and
tasted more than just fried potatoes. Side dish was good, light but
flavorful.
Mississippi Mud flat Vegetable Platter- peas, beans, onion and spices
served with chard and dirty rice (Seattle version I guess because no ham
was in it, nor yams) with a side of cornpone (fried cornbread). We agreed
this dish closest to the real thing. We were told no meat was used as a
flavoring, but the person eaten this had doubts. A little too "hammy" in
the beans. But if you are watching you fat intake- this might be your
best choice. The flavorings were "not too hot, but spicy".
The Bar-Be-Que Pork Platter- Shredded pork with wonderbread, steak
fries and Texas Cole Slaw. The disappointment of the night. Pork was
dry and there was very little of it. Bar-be-que flavor was hardly
there. Fries were undercooked and greasy. The Slaw- five stars for hot
with the predominate flavor being onion. Probably where the spice from
the Gumbo went. The eater of this said "I ordered the wrong thing",
"no flavor", and "do they eat meat this dry in the South?". No, they
don't, in fact Bar-be-que is really messy and juicy.
Dessert-
Chocolate sundae- BIG and good. We let the person who oredered the Pork
dinner eat most of this.
Fruit Pie (biscuit topping) with Ice cream. Very good. "not too sweet",
"light and fluffy topping". No meat.
We skipped the Key Lime Pie. So I do not know if it was yellow like it
should be. If anyone has had this let me know how it was.
So there is the review. Enjoy.
Steve
Marnie Elizabeth Thorp
Me and my ex used to come down three or four times a year (from
Vancouver, Canada) just to eat there... what a stunning ( and thorough )
review....
marnie, wondering just how she'll get to dinner now that she's single,
and still doesn't drive....