Barleycorn’s Restaurant & Bar

Since I’d already written a story about the increasing number of casual restaurants and wine bars joining the Restaurant Week promotion, I chose one of those casual eateries for my opening-night sojourn: Barleycorn’s. Besides, it’s a safe bet that no other Restaurant Week participant in history has offered entree choices of lamb chops or snow crab legs. Ever.

The appetizers were excellent: a single Crab Cake put the focus on crab, not on filler, and was served with a shot-glass full of creamy, faintly sweet, and potently spicy Firecracker sauce. A Tomato and Red Onion Bruschetta served with lightly toasted ciabatta points tasted fresh and tangy with its splash of Balsamic-style vinegar.

The Grilled New Zealand Lamb Chops was a relatively generous portion of five chops of varying thickness served atop mashed potatoes with steamed broccoli. The rosemary-mint sauce thankfully was used judiciously. The Chicken Cordon Bleu was also a generously large baked breast stuffed with ham and Swiss Cheese, though the mixed vegetables served alongside seemed an afterthought.

Desserts were a bit of a disappointment. The blackberries and ice cream in the Blackberry Cobbler were refreshing but were served atop what tasted like raw dough. The Fried Raspberry Cheesecake stuffed cheesecake inside an eggroll wrapper which was then deep-fried and topped with cinnamon sugar. But the fried eggroll wrapper turned tough and chewy.

Overall, though, the appetizer and entree courses at Barleycorn’s made its Restaurant Week menu a fine bargain.