86 Winter Street Restaurant Review
The first thing to know about the 86 Winter restaurant is that it is *not* located at 86 Winter Street! It used to be there but it moved and kept its name. It is around the corner now, in the big brick building at 65 Water Street. Its downstairs location gives you the nice feel of building, with its worn wood floors and open brick walls. This looks pretty - but it can be really noisy in there if you have more than a few other tables occupied. If you're going there to have any sort of conversation, try to plan it for off hours when you figure there'll only be a few others there.The decor is an intriguing blend. I loved the painting by the entryway and one or two of the other pieces. On the other hand, they had two images of pretty much naked women on the other wall, one a plaster cast made of a naked woman's torso. I'm not sure I'd feel comfortable taking non-adults here, and even some of my more religious adult friends would probably be less than thrilled.
The prices are in the range of high end restaurants in the area, so we had fairly high expectations of the food. We asked about the item shown on their website, with multi-colored ravioli, and were told that they only serve that a few times a year but everyone who comes in asks for it. It seems a little odd that they'd promote something that wasn't usually available. Several appetizers weren't available either. Still, we found a selection of items to order and were on our way! We asked for larger water glasses or warned him that we'd need fairly frequent refills. He said he'd take care of us.
We asked various questions about the dishes. He didn't know how the French onion soup was served, but highly recommended the macaroni and cheese with meatloaf.
For appetizers we shared an order of stuffed mushrooms and one of calamari. The breaded calamari was apparently soaked in some sort of a marinade - it was fairly soggy which made it a bit less than ideal tasting. The stuffed mushrooms were filled with an extremely spicy filling. One of our party couldn't eat hers. We asked the waiter what the stuffing was and he said seafood. We doubted that and asked him to check. He came back and said it was actually sausage.
On to the French onion soup and the salads. The soup came in a tiny coffee mug which was hard to eat out of. The soup spoon was nearly the size of the opening. The cheese on this type of soup is usually browned and melted over the crock as part of the preparation - here it wasn't anything like that. It was low on onion content. The salads were good - we liked the pear in it - but pricey. We asked what the cheese was in it, and he had no idea. He did check and come back to let us know it was gorgonzola.
The main dishes were served. One person had the stuffed veal. He found the veal extremely tough and without much flavor. The person who had the macaroni and cheese with meatloaf was disappointed with it - the mac and cheese was not properly crusty on top with the crunchy noodles. Much like the onion soup it seemed like they aimed for the "look" of the dish without taking the steps to make it the long, slow, tasty way. The mahi-mahi's mango salsa was considered OK but not great. The veal parm had much better, more tender veal than the stuffed veal had.
We ran out of water at this point and had to wait a fair while before he came by again - and then had to ask to have it refilled. When you're eating food and have no water to drink, it can reduce the pleasure of the meal.
On to dessert. This is where they really shone. We tried three different desserts and greatly enjoyed them all. There was an apple tart, a chocolate brownie, and a coconut dessert based on the Samoa Girl Scout cookie. All three were delightful and we shared them around the table.
We had high hopes when we went in, but in the end none of us wanted to return here. If I did have someone who really wanted to come here to take a look, I'd suggest we come in for desserts only and enjoy that aspect of the meal. I'd just make sure they were the type of person who was OK with having breasts hanging on the wall first.
Here are some photos:
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