Cafe Adelaide

On Monday night I dined at Cafe Adelaide along with The Pope and the Battle House Honey, and I would have to say that my overall feelings on the restaurant are similar to Ian McNulty's. The intended playfulness of the menu just did not appeal to me, but the more "classical" dishes were well done. (I apologize in advance for not having pictures.)

The highlight of the meal was the shrimp remoulade salad with shrimp boil vegetables. This was a great little twist on a classic which worked wonderfully. Boiled potatoes, corn-off-the-cob, and shrimp tossed in a mellowed remoulade dressing. I could eat 4 or 5 orders of this and leave happy.

Unfortunately, all of the entrees missed. BHH had the shrimp and grits which were served head and shell on. The shrimp were beautiful and I personally have no problem with cooking shrimp whole, but how do they expect diners to tackle this dish at the table? I think that a better idea would be to cook the shrimp whole and then peel them before serving (possibly leaving the head intact). But what do I know?

I had the quail and waffles which was just too tough to eat. The "waffle" was just a slab of cornbread which served as a base for a whole quail, and then the entire mass was deep fried. Again, I was confused as to how to disassemble the dish, so I just started hacking away. From what I remember, the bird was mostly deboned besides the legs and wings, but those tiny bones still proved to be a nuisance.

Cafe Adelaide - Bogey.