So last Friday, La Dee says to me: "Russian Ballet in town. Shall we brave it?" Hm. You have to understand, my tastes in art are rather particular and entirely limited by visceral feeling. I get: syncopated beats, heavy brass and percussive strings, electric guitar, the color blue, righteous vocals. I don't get: ballet, woodwinds, chinese opera, italian opera, modern painting. Still, you have to try to expand your boundaries...
Luckily for us, the tickets were sold out. Plan B turned out to be excellent- since we were in town we were at liberty to explore Boodles Bar and Restaurant at JM Mall. Their ads have been teasing us with the promise of Creole food* for a while now, and we finally had a chance to see if they would have some jambalaya and gumbo, blackened catfish, jazz and moonshine. We went for the A la Carte menu.
I was going to write a long review but I haven't the heart for it. Here, instead, is the condensation:
A la Carte menu = Unacceptable substitutions. Unacceptable omissions. Dried out fish, ugh. Good vegetables. Exceptional honey mustard dressing. Decent salad. Middling dining room. Charming view. Suitably heavy, matching cutlery. Clean linens, if musty. Decent staff. Dismal lighting. Nice South African wine list. Surprisingly manageable prices. Maniacal air-conditioning. Soulless atmosphere. Overall: okay, I guess, for a conversational dinner where the food should not distract. But the wine is Not Box. That's the best I can do.
*Yeah, right. And the jazz? Not so much either.
