Café Rouge has long been one of those "ladies who lunch" places for me; whenever my mom is in town, we invariably end up there or at the Rotunda at Neiman-Marcus (aka, "Needless-Markup") for refreshment after a few hours of power-shopping.
But in all honesty, I can't remember the last time I actually had dinner at Rouge, which explains why I've never written about it. Because, after all, a restaurant can't be judged on Salades Nicoise and white wine alone.
This past Saturday night, after hemming and hawing for hours over what we felt like eating and how far we wanted to drive, and never actually making a reservation at the one place C's parents really wanted to go (House of Prime Rib), we narrowed our choices down to Eccolo and Café Rouge. As it happened, Rouge had a reservation at the time we wanted to eat, so off we went. Turned out to be quite a fine choice.
A couple of glasses of Bortoluzzi Pinot Grigio ($7.50) for Mom and me, with a Trumer Pilsner for C got things started. Tasty but slightly tired Pains Epi were brought to the table along with sweet butter while we perused the menu and the room.
The room, which I'd never been in after dark, was really pleasant to be in. Fun lighting and warm paint colors made the rather vacuous space seem cozy, and despite the high ceilings and full room, it never got too loud.
We ordered a couple of Arugula Salads with sweet peppers, cucumbers, Marcona Almonds and Vella Jack ($8.75). Though the salad was "glistening", there was no flavor at all to the dressing, which surprised me. Each of the individual ingredients was lovely, but they didn't play together particularly well.
Entrees were far more successful, fortunately.
My Spit-roasted chicken with tomato, asiago, porcini & chanterelle mushroom bread pudding ($18) was quite good. I ordered the dish primarily because of the bread pudding, but found the the juicy, flavorful chicken was what stole the spotlight. The bread pudding was nice, but extremely assertive and I finally had to let the last couple of bites go.
C, of course, ordered the Grilled Dry-Aged Niman Ranch T-bone with red wine shallot butter and French fries ($32). People on Chowhound have balked at the price of Cafe Rouge's steaks, but I'm willing to forgive them because they do their own dry-aging. This was really one of the better steaks we've had locally. 'Course, few places hold a candle to Bern's!
Dad had Sauteed Local King Salmon with spagettini, tapenade and romano beans ($19), which he proclaimed delicious. A small bite of the salmon proved that it was cooked just right, and delicately seasoned.
Mom's Grilled Fig-stuffed pork chop with warm chicory & bacon salad ($20) was perhaps the big surprise of the night. I expected the stuffing to be far too sweet for my taste, but it struck a very nice balance of sweet, tart & savory. Very delicious.
By this time, we were all rather full, but with C's parents, there's no getting out of sampling dessert. (Poor me, right?)
So, I've long loved that Cafe Rouge usually has one fruit dessert... and by that, I mean JUST FRUIT. No whipped cream, nothing. Just a perfect bowl of cherries. Or this time, perfect Watermelon and Concord grapes ($4.50). It's not something many places do, but it's a fabulous idea, and I am glad they've continued it.
Of course, we could not be convinced to order simply perfect fruit. Nope. C went for the Italian Cream Cake ($7), which was WAY. TOO. MUCH for me. Over the top cream and cake and more cream.
Dad ordered Tim's Apple Pie with Rum Raisin Ice Cream ($7). Wow. This was so good. The pie was enormously tall, and just tart enough for me. The crust wasn't my favorite (I prefer flaky to tender), but the ice cream was out-of-this-world good. And I don't even so much like Rum Raisin.
Finally, I was wavering between a nice, simple Affogato ($5) and the Toffee ice cream sundae with chocolate sauce and biscotti ($7). Yeah, you know what I went with.
And man, was that housemade toffee ice cream good. I love, love, love slightly salty desserts, and this was perfect. The toffee bits (of which there were an obscene quantity) had a salty kick that went perfectly with the ice cream. So very good.
Service was capable and efficient throughout. Parking was easy. Getting a reservation, same day, was even easy. But, I have to say, I think Cafe Rouge will remain in my mid-day repertoire as opposed to moving into the dinnertime rotation. I can't put my finger on it, but for some reason, it just feels better suited to a glass of wine, a small sandwich and perhaps a bowl of cherries.
Café Rouge
1782 Fourth Street
Berkeley
510.525.1440
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