A Fantastic Birthday Dinner At Ten Tables In Cambridge

Alls I have to say is, why didn't we go here sooner?! Ok, that isn't all I have to say, I of course, have more :)

Tucker and I went to Ten Tables for his birthday dinner last week and had an incredible meal. I think this may be my new favorite restaurant in Harvard Square (move over, Rialto). I don't have pictures because it is quite dark in there and I only had my iPhone for a camera, bit I can describe in detail my favorite courses. But first, a bit of history on the place. This location used to be the home of local favorite Craigie Street Bistro, which moved over to Central Square and became Craigie on Main. This is the second location of Ten Tables, the first being in JP, BUT, interestingly enough, the original chef from JP came over to cook at the Cambridge location. Anyhow, enough of the history, on to the food! The first course we had the Morrocan carrot puree with cucumber raita and za'tar crackers. This was probably my favorite dish of the night. The soup was very smooth and flavorful and the cold raita made a great contrast to the hot soup. The za'tar crackers were great dipped in the soup, I also happen to love za'tar and don't see it too often in American restaurants (although I think it is gaining in popularity, I had a za'tar spiced fish at Oleana not too long ago). We also got a plate of mixed baby beets, mache, pepitas, and pickled shallots over a puree of very stinky blue cheese, which tasted great, but had an unpleasant coloring (blue-gray). 

The second course, I made the wise choice of ordering the pasta with roasted delicata squash (the menu claims this was "spicy" delicata squash, and even though the dish was a bit spicy, I've never heard of spicy delicata squash, so I remain skeptical) in a porcini broth with crushed amaretti on top! Wow. This was a great combo of the sweet (the amaretti cookie), spicy (the squash, I guess!), and unami (the porcini broth).Tucker got the Scottish salmon over pickled pears and cabbage (which weren't as exciting as they sounded) and pureed turnips. The turnips were divine, but the salmon didn't blow me away. It was cooked nicely, but was a little bland compared to my pasta.

The dessert was good, but didn't bowl me over (note, my dessert standards are probably unreasonably high. In fact, I can't remember being bowled over by a desert in a restaurant in the past five years). Tucker got the chocolate terrine with sea salt (yes!) and thai basil ice cream. The ice cream and the terrine were both great, but I couldn't decide if I actually liked the combo of the basil and the chocolate (Tucker did like it). It was an interesting and compelling dessert. My dessert was pumpkin bread (I LOVE PUMPKIN DESSERT) with bourbon caramel and butter pecan ice cream. It was definitely good and very enjoyable, maybe a little on the sweet side. Tucker thought the texture of both the ice creams was perfection.


All in all, a very very good meal, the best I've had out in a while. I say four and half stars.
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Comments

I absolutely love that chocolate terrine and basil dessert. It is an interesting combo to get used to, but I think it's subtle enough on the basil that it works. Glad you finally got there... the food is so good!