The Silver Darling

Restaurant Review

My odyssey of learning about food started exactly two years ago today. That's the day I started working at The Little Owl, which, in my opinion, is the best I've every had and probably will every have, it is also the best restaurant food-wise in the world. And according to Facebook I've been to 8% of the world, which doesn't include the numerous Caribbean countries I don't remember going to from that cruise I took once.

Let's start somewhere I'm familiar with: Menus.
The menu presentation was nice. Shiny silver paper fit right in with the name of the restaurant. The descriptions of the dishes seemed right on, not overwhelming, but tantalizing. Unfortunately, my waiter had a hard time remembering the specials and attributed it to not have worked the night before. Not a good excuse.

The amuse bouche, was indeed fairly amusing. It was a trio of tuna & salmon tartar, pesto bruschetta and a soup shooter. I'd definitely had more interesting tuna tartar and this was pretty forgettable. The pesto was the consistency of a sauce and failed to work in that respect as an equivalent for the standard bruschetta tomato mixture. The chopped onions under the pesto overwhelmed the basil and thyme flavors pesto is supposed to have. However, the soup shooter was nice. It was creamy and warm, served in a clear shot glass. I think the favour was tomato, but since it was pleasing over all, I wasn't too fussing about figuring out exactly the flavour combination.

For a starter, I had the Sashimi, because I have an intense fondness for it and have not been able to locate any in Aberdeen. However, its appearance on the menu of an otherwise mostly Mediterranean influenced affair was curious to say the least. There was nothing overly exciting of disappointing about the slices of fish. However, the cucumber wasabi sauce was inspired, adding just enough heat to make the fish exciting, but it also cooled off the palate with the cucumber.

I had the halibut for a main. I enjoy halibut immensely and was not disappointed. The combination of fish and cheese is always a strange one for me, but the chief pulled it off nicely. Neither flavour overwhelmed the other. The fish was served over chopped beets and with a side of creamed leeks. The intensity of the flavours was equal and complimentary, but I feel the chief should have tried to put with creamy leaks onto the same plate as the rest of the dish, rather than in a separete sauce dish. I wasn't entirely sure if I was supposed to dip the fish, or pour the creamy leeks over the fish or eat them seperately. All three methods seemed to work, but I was a bit intimidated by the seperate dish.

The chocolate mouse for desert was lovely. A soft creamy mouse coated in crunchy chocolate bits, paired with a vanilla ice cream balanced on a pasty crust. Dessert was delightful.

I would go back to the restaurant to try the chief's other creations.