Ten Tables Cambridge - Josh

Last night Jess and I went to the new Ten Tables that just opened in Cambridge. The original Ten Tables (in Jamaica Plain) is really a pretty unique and perfect restaurant, and we’d go to it way more often if we could ever get reservations. As the name implies, it’s tiny. It makes excellent French countryside food at a price that’s lower than any even moderately fancy restaurant in Boston ($9-10 for appetizers <$20 for entrees), and it teems with perfect design choices and small shows of generosity. Unlike almost every other restaurant in Boston, they start each meal with an amuse bouche[1] (typically a light, flavorful soup), and last time we went, their $45 tasting menu included that, three savory courses, a tiny cheese course (goat cheese on a toothpick with a hazelnut), sorbet, and desert. The service at JP has always been low-key but precise, and watching the balletic efficiency of the 4-5 people who work in the restaurant at any time (2 chefs in the (very) open-kitchen and 2-3 servers/hosts on the floor) is always an impressive side-show. The original Ten Tables is a very very good restaurant that becomes a great one by the way that all the little pieces fit together to provide an experience that transforms something well-done to something wonderful. 

 

This is all in the way of trying to explain why the new Ten Tables in Cambridge was so disappointing.[2] It seemed like a generic good restaurant instead of something special. This was more due to service and setting than to food. Interestingly, the restaurant took over the space of another one we’d been to before (Craigie Street Bistrot, which has gotten bigger and nicer digs on Main Street), so it was neat to see the same space done a new way. Craigie Street Bistrot had very subtle plain decoration (beige walls, a couple of rustic French framed posters). Ten Tables seemed more formal and felt more deliberately designed. Dark wood, dark walls, lots of candle-light (though not on the tables). I liked the orchids they had as centerpieces for the tables, but I didn’t like how little light was in the restaurant. It felt like they were trying to force a romantic feel that they didn’t quite achieve.

 

The restaurant has only been open for seven weeks and the waiter seemed inexperienced. Within ten minutes of sitting down, he asked us twice if we were ready to order. The second time we said we were interested in the four course tasting menu, asked what it was (they won’t tell you), and said we’d like to do it if Jess could have hers without fish (which she doesn’t eat). He told us he’d have to check with “Chef”[3], which we were surprised by given that they also offer a vegetarian tasting menu (which would seem to make substitutions pretty easy). He came back and told us that the fish couldn’t be taken out and immediately asked if we were ready to order. Later, when Jess wanted a Diet Coke, he reported that Ten Tables (apparently takings the pretentiousness of its Cambridge locale to heart) doesn’t serve soda and only offered an alternative when Jess asked (they only have iced tea). All small stuff, but it definitely removes the charm from Ten Tables Cambridge and reduces the appeal to the well-priced food, which was very good but not really spectacular.

 

I started with a fluke crudo (with chives, fennel and grapefruit). I thought this was well-done but unexceptional. The raw fluke had a subtle, clean taste, and the chives and grapefruit were a good combination (particularly with the olive oil), and the dish looked very pretty. At the same time, I thought the dish was a bit bland and could have used some salt.[4] My second course was the best of the night: boudin blanc sausage (basically a combination of chicken and pork, as I understand it) with earthy veggies (I think turnips and carrots) and little doughy pieces that must be spatzle and deliciously soaked up the flavors of the dish. I also like how Ten Tables sausage tends to be coarser grained and looser than what you can find pre-made, because I think it’s a neat texture. I think that type of rustic, earthy deliciousness is what Ten Tables does best, but for that to really stand out as exceptional it needs a perfection of ambiance that wasn’t present when we went.

 

To accompany those courses, we had a wine that, to say the least, didn’t work out as expected. It was a half bottle of a Rex Hill pinot noir from Oregon, and we couldn’t figure out whether it was corked and had gone bad or if we just didn’t like it.[5] The final course I had was the chocolate terrine with Thai basil ice cream and sea salt. I’d had it the last time I went to Ten Tables (with Jess and our friends Britney and Greg); I basically never get the same dish twice, but the first time I had it I thought it was basically perfect and worth getting again. I loved the idea of basil with chocolate (since I thought it was just a more exotic version of combining chocolate with mint), and the gooey texture of the terrine (somewhere between a cake and a ganache) went perfectly with the crunch of the sea salt, and the harsh saltiness of the salt, the richness of the chocolate, and the funky vegetableishness of the ice cream were perfectly balanced flavors. The Cambridge version was good, but a bit off. There was very little salt, and too little ice cream for the chocolate, so it didn’t quite have the same balance (though it was still pretty good nonetheless, which basically sums up the meal -- good, not great).

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[1] Perfect from a kitchen perspective because they’re so easy to ladle out and cheap to make; perfect for me because getting something unexpected, tasty, and free makes me happy to a completely irrational extent..

[2] Disappointing compared to my high expectations of the original. If I had never been to Ten Tables JP, I would have thought the new restaurant was perfectly good (not great) and would probably never get around to going back to it (always somewhere new to try or great to go to). As is, I’ll give it another shot since it’s so convenient and the original is so good.

[3] I hate that affectation; I feel like it’s somewhat goofy when high school football players say things like “Coach told me to run ten laps for dating his daughter; that’s typical Coach for ya,” but I find it completely annoying and pretentious when a waiter says, “I’ll have to ask Chef about substituting out the fish course.”

[4] This was actually true of all the dishes I had at Ten Tables, including dessert (it’s not me being crazy, the dessert listed sea salt as one of the ingredients and had like five flakes).

[5] Jess took the first view and I thought the second. She’s probably right, but I didn’t think it was that terrible, just a little thin, astringent, and unsubtle. My understanding was that you would definitely know if you had a corked bottle of wine, but embarrassingly, maybe I’m just really dumb and unobservant.

Ten Tables, Cambridge MA

Ten Tables
5 Craigie Circle
Cambridge, MA 02138
(617) 576-5444
www.tentables.net

After being big fans and pretty frequent patrons of Ten Tables in Jamaica Plain, we decided to try the new Ten Tables in Cambridge, right down the street from us.

Location:
Ten Tables is located on Craigie Circle, a little side street right off Concord Ave. There is permit parking & a couple spaces owned by the restaurant, which faces a condo/apartment complex.

Decor:
It's a small, quaint little stone building, and you walk down a flight of stairs to get into the restaurant. Inside, there are about twenty tables (much larger than it's JP counterpart) in two open rooms, which were all occupied when we entered the restaurant at 7:45. The space is pretty dark, with hanging lights illuminating each table with a soft light, and done in light brown/black hues throughout. The tables are somewhat close together, so although you could hear everyone's conversations around you (the couple next to us was fighting about her job & his criticism of her work),the place felt homey.

Food/Service:
The waiter came over and told us a little bit about the restaurant. He told us that there was a four-course tasting menu for $45, which includes both a vegetarian and a meat-lovers option. Josh and I quickly decided on the tasting menu (which we've done at Ten Tables before), and we were informed that it would be the Chef's "surprise" - meaning, you don't know what you're getting into before you order it. This was fine with us, but I informed the waiter that I didn't eat fish - something I had done with the tasting menu at JP's Ten Tables before. He told me that the Chef could not do the tasting menu without fish, which I thought was a little strange because they could just substitute the vegetarian options for the fish ones; the waiter didn't mention this as a possibility. Ultimately, we decided to choose our own courses (the tasting menu must be done by all members of the party), and elect what we both wanted seperately.

Josh ordered a bottle of wine, and chose the Red Hill Pinot Noir (Pinot Noir is my favorite). He did the whole sip-the-wine-and-say-its-good ritual, and the waiter poured us both glasses. I'm about 95% convinced the wine had gone bad, but we didn't want to say anything because our "expert" taster had already confirmed that it was okay. I drink a decent amount of Pinot Noir (as my friends will attest), so I'm pretty confident in saying that the wine had gone bad. If not, it was just an awful bottle of wine...lol.

After taking a few sips, I decided I couldn't sit here all night and drink the wine, so I asked the waiter for a soda. He informed me that Ten Tables did not serve soda, and I was kind of surprised, and just said "nevermind". We've been to a couple restaurants that don't serve soda (the idea is that they want to be fancy, and soda cheapens their brand), and I think the idea in general is pretty ridiculous, but restaurants that do this usually make their own non-alcoholic drinks. I asked the waiter the next time he came back if this was the case, and he said that they only had iced tea and sparkling water. So I ended up just drinking water throughout the meal, which was highly annoying to me ;)

The bread was yummy.. soft little rolls with olive oil, which Josh and I added a little salt to later (the salt at Ten Tables is on the table in a tiny bowl, with a miniature spoon, which we always think is a cute touch). The bread was hot and (unfortunately for my diet) extremely tasty, so we asked for more.

For my first course, I ordered the Ten Tables Handcrafted Sausage: Merguez with roasted peppers, French feta and fennel ($10). The sausage came served over a bed of white beans and some sort of soup with green foam, and in a sizeable portion. The sausage itself was good, and the meat was very tender and flavorful, as I cut and ate it with my fork. The underlying "bean soup" was good as well, but could have been a little saltier. I think it would have been even better if it were served with little pieces of bread or crostinis.

For dinner, I ordered Ten Tables ever-changing pasta dish; tonight, it was Handcut Fettucine Carbonara Style with Native Parsnips, Peas and Pancetta ($18). I really liked the Carbonara, and thought it was (comparitively) light and creamy. I liked the pasta and sauce a lot, and the little breadcrumbs on top were an interesting touch, while the parsnips were kind of a cool and unique addition to the dish. I think I ate almost all of it. I would have loved if there were little pieces of chicken or more pancetta throughout, though... I thought the dish was missing a little something.

Dessert was by far my favorite part of the meal, the warm Sticky Toffee Pudding ($8). It came in a little round ramekin, which had been baked and vanilla bean ice cream spooned on top. The top was a harder caramel-like crust, while inside was soft, moist layers of cake and warm toffee sauce. The ice cream was a perfect compliement, and I ate every bite of the decent-sized dish they gave me. I did share with Josh, but I kinda wanted to keep it all for myself. I wish I could make something like that at home.

We weren't crazy about our waiter, who we felt kind of rushed us and wasn't as accomodating as he could have been. He wasn't bad, just wasn't very graceful either.

Reaction:
All in all, I think Cambridge Ten Tables was a decent meal, but not comparable to similar restaurants in the area in the same price range. I think it's lost some of the quaint little charm that goes along with Ten Tables in JP, but still seems to serve solid dishes that aren't entirely creative, but pleasing nonetheless. We probably wouldn't be back to this location, but I'm sure we'll give JP Ten Tables another shot.

Grade:
B