A Review of "Winter Warmer Thursday" at Jamaica Plain's Ten Tables

I love food. As soon as I'm done with one meal, I'm thinking about the next. Although, in all seriousness, I must confess; I actually think about several meals ahead, not just the next one... Sometimes I wonder if the amount of time I spend thinking about food might be a problem... :)

Homemade meals are usually my preference. Creating and cooking in the kitchen is very enjoyable for me, and I love cooking for and eating with loved ones. However, every now and then it's nice to have someone else do the cooking for you, and I'm sure many of you would agree! Once in a while I just really want to go out to eat. Fortunately, on one of those recent occasions when I "craved' going out to eat, Mike and I could just take a 10-minute walk down the street and head to Ten Tables in Jamaica Plain (or "JP" as we residents and locals call it!). Last spring I wrote a blog post about our 3-year anniversary dinner that we had at Ten Tables, so it may sound familiar to you! And for all you locals in and around Boston, I'm going to go ahead and assume you definitely know Ten Tables. In addition to the JP location, there are restaurants in Cambridge and Provincetown.

I believe it was the last Thursday in December that Mike and I went to Ten Tables for their Thursday special "Winter Warmer" night. This consists of their mac n' cheese and a glass of wine for $14. You can rarely get dinner and a drink for $14 anywhere around here! It's definitely a steal. We arrived shortly before 6:00 and were seated quickly on the bar side of the restaurant; the Winter Warmer night is only on the bar side, and the other side is the main restaurant (and yes, it has only ten tables, as you may have guessed!). Our service was prompt and friendly, and we each started with a glass of wine. I had the house white on tap (you read that right - on tap!), which was a local wine from Westport Rivers Vineyard in Westport, MA. I have to apologize because I don't actually remember which specific Westport wine it was. Mike enjoyed a red, Montepulciano d'Abruzzo. Within 15 or 20 minutes of our arrival, the place was full! We had arrived just in time to snag a table before there was a wait.

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As we enjoyed conversation, in the back of my mind I thought our mac n' cheese was taking a little longer than I would expect it to, but I didn't think much of it since Mike and I were chatting, sipping our wine, and enjoying a delicious, soft dinner roll dipped in olive oil (the roll is one of my favorite aspects of eating at Ten Tables!). After a time, our server came over to let us know that they were very sorry that our mac n' cheese was taking longer than usual and that they'd "take care of it" for us. We honestly didn't  think it was taking too long, but we thanked our server and continued to chat. A few more minutes later, a manager (I believe) came to the table, and he also apologized for the longer than usual wait we were having for our food. The manager offered to give us a second glass of wine on the house because of the wait. Mike and I weren't quite ready for a second glass yet, so we thanked him and he went away. At this point we were a little confused about what "deal" we might get due to the contradicting messages; would they comp our mac n' cheese or would we get an extra glass of wine? Either way, it didn't matter to us! Anyway, very shortly thereafter, our mac n' cheese was served, piping hot and each one in its own adorable little cast iron skillet. The portion size was perfect. It was definitely filling, but not too much so, like pasta dishes often can be. We each finished the entire dish, as it was delicious! I can't remember what types of cheese were used in it (sorry!), but it was very tasty. Part way through our meal, the manager returned to offer us that second glass of wine, and we both took him up on the offer. :) I enjoyed a second glass of the same white I began with, and Mike switched over to white for his second glass. I'm not a wine connoisseur by any means (as you may know if you're a regular blog follower, I'm much more of a craft beer gal!!), but I do enjoy most kinds of wine even if I might not be able to critique them like an expert would. This white from Westport was very crisp and refreshing. It was very easy to drink two glasses. :)

Once we finished our meal and the bill came, we were both curious as to what it would say. As it turns out, we were only charged for the mac n' cheese ($12 for each) and our total of four glasses of wine was free. Yummy, comforting mac n' cheese and two glasses of wine for $12 each. Not bad at all, I'd say! The night we went was definitely a cold winter night too, so the "winter warmer" theme was quite appropriate. Ten Tables was the perfect place to be for us on that night! So warm and cozy. If you live in JP or in and around Boston and have not yet been to Ten Tables, you must go. Soon! 

And you know what else you should check out at Ten Tables? If you're not a vegetarian, you should absolutely go to their "Beerger" night on Mondays (also on the bar side like Winter Warmer Thursdays). We've been to Beerger night about 5 or 6 times, I'd say, and it's deeelicious! The deal on Mondays is the signature Ten Tables burger and a beer for $15. And the burger? One of the best burgers around, we think. You can catch a glimpse of this awesome burger on the "bar bites" page of their website.

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Ironically, on one of the nights we enjoyed our burgers, we had another slight mishap in service. When Mike took the first bite of his burger, he bit into plastic! Oops. It turns out that each burger bun is individually wrapped, and the plastic from the bottom of his bun wasn't fully removed. Our server quickly fixed the error by having a new burger freshly made for him, and his meal was comped that night, as was the right thing to do in our minds. 

I don't mean to mention these two errors in a negative light; these things certainly happen from time to time in the food industry! I wanted to mention them though because I think that both times, the ways in which Ten Tables handled the situations were appropriate. And that's another reason why we love Ten Tables. Not only do they have delicious food and a warm, cozy, friendly atmosphere, they also have wonderful customer service. 

Now, after reading this, don't you want to go to Ten Tables? I hope so! I didn't really intend this to be a "review" of Ten Tables, but I suppose it turned out that way. Well, it's a review of their Monday and Thursday night specials anyway. :) Since I've been trying to reduce the amount of cooking and baking I do because of my wrist tendonitis, I thought I'd change it up and share my thoughts on a recent dining experience. As a JP resident who loves eating and drinking locally, I wanted to give this top-notch restaurant a positive nod. If you love a good deal like we do, I'd highly recommend the Beerger night on Mondays or Winter Warmer night on Thursdays. You won't be disappointed! And if you're thinking about having a more elaborate meal, definitely look into eating on the restaurant side (the side with the signature ten tables). You can review my blog post from last April about our great experience sitting at the chef's table. We've only eaten on the bar side since that meal, but perhaps it's time for us to return for a special occasion dinner there!

I'm sorry I don't have any pictures for you in this post! When we went to Ten Tables that night, I wasn't planning on writing a blog post about our experience, so I didn't take any pictures. But you can rest assured that the mac n' cheese both looked and tasted great. :)

Happy almost weekend, friends!

Friday Favorites, 4.22.11 (A Review of a Wonderful Dining Experience at Ten Tables!)

Happy Friday, blog friends! I have a slightly different twist on my Friday Favorites this week. I'd like to share a recent dining experience Mike and I had at Ten Tables, an excellent restaurant in Jamaica Plain (or, JP, as we who live in Boston call it!). We went there last Friday for our 3-year anniversary (our actual anniversary was on April 13th - lucky 13! :)). Oh my goodness, what a wonderful meal we had. Ten Tables has quickly become a favorite place of mine; hence, it makes it to an edition of Friday Favorites on the blog! If you live in or around Boston, I'd highly recommend making a trip to Ten Tables if you haven't dined there yet. And even if you're not in the Boston area, keep this place on your list in case you ever have the chance to go when you visit our lovely city!

A very unique part of our experience at TT (I'm just going to say TT from now on!) was that we got to sit at the Chef's Table. This is a table (actually, a higher counter) that's right next to the kitchen, allowing you to overlook the kitchen activities as the head chef and others prepare your meal. When you call to make reservations here (and reservations are usually a must because it does only have ten tables and is very popular!), you can request to sit at the Chef's Table if it's available. It was a really neat experience for us and I'd definitely recommend it. The kitchen itself was quite small, and its atmosphere was generally very calm. I mean, it almost has to be calm if you know customers' eyes are on you! I often picture restaurant kitchens as being very busy and "crazy," but this one was not. We had a great time watching our food being prepared and studying how the kitchen works. From our perspective, Friday night's dinner at TT seemed to be going smoothly!

Within a couple minutes of sitting down, our waiter brought over fun little "shot glasses" for us that contained TT's soup of the night. I believe it was a cream of celery soup (it was definitely celery; I don't remember exactly what he said it was). It was out of this world delicious! I thought about requesting a whole bowl of it... :) No really, I did. We were also given yummy rolls to start, and we each ordered a glass of wine. I had a wine that was actually on tap! How fun. I've never been to place with wine on tap. My wine was delicious too. It was a light, crisp, and fruity Riesling (of course, I can't remember the actual name of it).

Because we were out for a special occasion at a new restaurant we'd really been wanting to try, we decided to order an appetizer. We had their "house made charcuterie with traditional accoutrements." I don't remember exactly what was included, but I do know there was a pate of some sort, a few slices of cured sausage (I think), some pickled vegetables (which were much better than I anticipated! I typically don't care for vinegar flavor generally), and a few slices of a toasted baguette-type bread. We enjoyed everything served on the appetizer plate (actually, it was a "board," a nice wooden cutting board type serving platter). However, I do have to say that the portions were a little on the small side for the price... But still, it was certainly a decent choice for an appetizer. It wasn't something I'd normally order, so it was fun to branch out!

Now, onto our entrees... You can view the TT menu here. Several delicious options! I had heard that the bass was an excellent choice, so I went with that: "striped bass with chick peas, cauliflower, escarole and seville orange vinaigrette." Fabulous! The bass was cooked wonderfully (it was seared), and I loved the bed of chick peas, cauliflower, and escarole upon which it was served. I ate every bite! Mike really enjoyed his entree too, which was the "moulard duck breast with red rice, shiitake mushrooms and spring onion jam." Mmmm. I had a bite of his too; mouth-watering delicious! By the way, sadly I did not take pictures of our appetizer or entrees. I felt too "touristy" doing that! However, as you can see below, I got over the anxiety of being "that person" who takes pictures of their meal when it came time for dessert...

Finally, our last course! At this point, we were full but not overly full. The proportions of our dinners were just perfect. In the words of Goldilocks, they were "juuuust right." :) Clearly I was quite excited about trying dessert since I'm such a fan of baking, so we just had to order two desserts to share, not only one! We chose the chocolate terrine cake with thai basil ice cream and malden salt AND the olive oil cake with rosemary ice cream and pinenut brittle. Wow. Both of these desserts were so amazing!

I really really liked my dinner, but I think that dessert was my favorite course overall! You may be thinking that the flavors of basil and rosemary are a little odd for ice cream, and at first, I'd agree with you. But when you try them, they wow you! Seriously. Both were very light, refreshing, and simply delicious. The rosemary flavor was more prominent as compared to the basil flavor, which was more subtle. Both flavors of ice cream were so unique!

And I won't forget to talk about the cakes, don't you worry. Similarly to when I tasted the ice creams, I was pleasantly surprised by the olive oil cake. You could definitely taste the olive oil, and I loved it! Such a difference from the typical cake flavors we normally enjoy. The chocolate terrine cake was deeelicious too. It was dense and almost fudge-like, yet had a nice cake texture at the same time. As I am typing, I find myself wanting to go back for more desserts ASAP!! I'm so glad we got two desserts to share. :)

As you can tell, we loved our first experience at TT! Want to hear something ironic? We went back to TT again the next Monday! Monday night is their "BEERger" night, when they offer a special of their signature TT burger and their TT Porter beer, brewed by Berkshire Brewing Co. in Massachusetts. The burger and beer together are just $16! Normally we wouldn't go out to eat this often (and not at the same place within four days!), but we had such a positive experience on Friday night and it was Mike's school vacation week...so we thought we should "live it up." Once again, TT did not disappoint! The burger was amazingly delicious. It was a tad on the messy side, but we didn't mind because the flavors were soooo good. Here's the description of the burger on the menu: "humanely raised all natural meyer beef with lettuce, farmhouse cheddar, caramelized onions, A10 sauce, housemade bacon aioli, and potato salad." Wonderful! I feel like a broken record saying this, but I'd definitely recommend going to TT for the burger! The bacon aioli was out of this world. And the side of potato salad was great as well; I typically don't care for side salads like that with mayonnaise, but their potato salad was awesome! Can you tell I like this place? ;-) Oh, and the porter was a very tasty beer as well; it tasted slightly smokey to me, but I think that was a great characteristic of the porter and helped it match well with the flavors of the burger. A great pair, that porter and beer! The picture below is of a great pair too. :) Happy anniversary, Mike!

I hope you've enjoyed my informal review of Ten Tables in JP! I didn't mention it earlier, but the service was great too! Every server with whom we interacted was very friendly and attentive. Did you know there are locations in Cambridge and Provincetown as well? I've heard through the grapevine that the JP location is the best, and although I've never tried the other two to compare, with these two positively delicious experiences we recently had, I'd gladly jump on board and say the JP restaurant is the best! It's "just perfect" in JP. :)