It seems that the lunch crowd at Yelp is disappointed by Cindy's in recent reviews; we however went for dinner and weren't disappointed whatsoever. It should be noted, though, that some wine tasting and the fact that we were staying down the street meant that we were feeling... festive... and the 1/2 bottle of Conundrum did help us maintain that nice Napa Valley warm fuzzy feeling.
Cindy's got immediate bonus points for a nice patio where we sat under a fig tree. Also bonus points for two busboys that were so attentive that we ended up tipping them as well. But I'm skipping ahead.
The bread here is warm, fresh and awesome. I love good bread and it's a detail that really shouldn't be overlooked by any higher-end restaurant serious about impressing its diners.
We started with the rabbit tostada. This was absolutely delicious and lacked any lettuce - all cabbage means no sogginess from the black bean chili layer. It also means that you don't get the full irony of eating a rabbit *and his evening meal, so perhaps this is a way to subconsciously remove the diner from thoughts of eating the Easter Bunny. (No carrots in this salad either.)
In any case, mmm. Black beans in mole-type sauce = yum. And the tostada piece itself held up to the beans and dressing. Yay.
We then moved into eating game birds - my Partner in Chow (PIC) had quail and I went for the oven-roasted duck.
We were told that Giada deLaurentiis had the duck when she dined at Cindy's. This brought up the unwelcome image of Giada (and her boobs), both of which annoy the holy bajeez out of me - and I've tried so hard to like her being Italian myself and all, but watching her whine her way through the "Iron Chef" battle and then roll her eyes after Rachel Ray and Mario Batali whomped on her and Bobby Flay was the last straw. And I don't care if you speak Italian, your over-enunciation of every goddamned Italian food word is irritating and unnecessary and hearkens back to that old SNL skit with Jimmy Smits and Kevin Nealon... "You mean a tornado?..." Work with me here, Giada. Just tone it down and make it about the food, not about you. Sheesh!
Oh dear, I've been distracted. ARGH Giada.
In any case: I had the duck despite knowing that Giada had reviewed it, and that her review would invariably annoy me and lead me to wish I'd ordered something else. The duck was oven-roasted, not greasy at all, and delicious. There were two big leg pieces and some sort of mashed potato cake that was sinful and probably full of cream and butter. Yum.
The quail, though, was the standout. PIC did a little puppet show with her quail (ah, Conundrum) and had the little body dancing around the potatoes when we realized that the busboy was laughing at us - but in a nice "that girl may be crazy, but she's entertaining" kind of way. PIC enjoys eating things that were once cute (lamb, duck) and quail definitely fits. (Note: she doesn't eat them because they're cute, mind you. It's a coincidence that leads to a guilty conscience and not much meat eating.)
In any case: the quail was fantastic. Not super filling - quail are wee - but there were 2 of them and that's twice as many as you'll get on a plate at A Cote. The potatoes that came with the quail were kinda boring and a couple were undercooked, but the quail itself was great and I was sharing my potato cake.
If you're really hungry, get the duck. Or something else. But if you haven't had quail and you're not starving, go for it.
At this point we were stuffed and could eat no more, though the waitress brought me guava sorbet because it was my birthday.
Would we eat there again? Sure. There's only so many times one can eat at Market or the Rutherford Grill, after all.
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