Restaurant Week #1

I went to lunch at TenPenh for Restaurant Week yesterday. I had been there last year for dinner during Restaurant Week, but went there again because my friend wanted to try it. I didn’t object because I had been so impressed the last time. I have to say that unfortunately I was pretty underwhelmed this time. None of the food was bad, but none of it was great either. For the appetizer course I had the lobster bisque. I found it to be not nearly as creamy as I would have preferred and it just tasted a little too much like beef broth. For the entrée course I had the grilled salmon with Wasabi mashed potatoes, Szechuan green beans, and Hoisin butter. The salmon was nicely cooked, but there was some sort of sauce on top of it in addition to the hoisin butter and after a few bites it just got too rich. As far as the mashed potatoes, I don’t mind spicy, but I think the wasabi was too much and actually took away from the taste of the potatoes. And believe you me I LOVE mashed potatoes, so it takes a lot for me to say I didn’t really enjoy them. For the dessert course I had the ginger cake with strawberry sherbet. This was probably the best part of the meal, but there wasn’t nearly enough of it. I also have to say that the service left me annoyed. While our server was polite, service was incredibly slow. It took us at least 20 minutes to get our soup after we ordered. And if not equally as long to get our entrées after we had finished with the soup. Maybe I just picked the wrong menu items. Maybe our waiter was having an off shift. I’d like to give TenPenh another try sometime, but I don’t think it will be soon.