Creamy Lobster Risotto at Sandrine's Bistro

 The first and the last time I was at Sandrine's Bistro  was in 2011 when I tasted rabbit for the first time. Since that exquisite dining experience, I have been meaning to visit again, but because Sandrine's Bistro is not the most affordable restaurant, I have kept away from my promise. Before I leave Cambridge for the summer, though, there was one item on the menu that I really wanted to try. I decided to dine out here on my last Friday night for a while.

My friend ordered the first item on the menu: Magret de Canard a I'Orange Sanguine ($28). In plain English, that means roasted peking duck breast with pea risotto and blood orange reduction. I am not a huge fan of duck because of its natural fattiness, but I read somewhere that duck fat isn't that bad. I tried a little bit of the pea risotto, and it was seasoned quite nicely.

Without any dilemma, I chose the Lobster Risotto ($32) with spinach and cognac lobster sauce. I asked the waiter if it would be possible to skip the cream, cheese, and any other dairy products to accomodate my lactose-intolerance. The waiter came out a few minutes later, telling me that the Lobster Risotto is the only dish that they can't make dairy-free because the lobster is already cooked in cream. Nonetheless, because it was the dish that I had been wanting for a while, I decided to suffer from stomach cramps later and enjoy the dish.

...and I had no regrets! The lobster risotto was so savory, and the cream wasn't overwhelmingly nauseating either (though I still would have preferred it without cream...). The spinach added nice bitterness to the otherwise creamy risotto. The rice was cooked just the right amount to have enough texture without tasting too mushy.

 There were plenty chunks of lobster for my $32 worth of money. I wished the seasoning of the dish had been richer. Perhaps a dash of salt would have done the magic? Sadly there were no salt & pepper on the table.

I ate everything on the plane, even the decorative greens on the top! Inevitably, my stomach was growling at me all night, but the 45-minutes of euphoria in my mouth was totally worth it :)

Crab and Lobster for Lunch at the Red House

Restaurants in Harvard Square offers plenty of patio seatings even though they are utilized only a couple months during the year. When the weather is nice, it is definitely to your best interest to take advantage of outdoor seatings. I went to the red house for lunch. I have been here before a couple times, but this was my first time coming for lunch. For a starter, my friend and I ordered the baked stuffed Cape Cod oysters ($9) with spring onions, shiitakes, & buttered crumbs to share.

The color of the dish was phenomenal, especially the pink hue of the pickled onions. I personally prefer raw oysters. The stuffed oysters were a bit heavy for my liking and I wasn't a huge fan of the artificial taste of the buttered crumbs. The thin bed of lettuce left something more to be desired.

The Maine crab cake sandwich ($13) with chipotle-caper remoulade was served as two sliders. It also had a side of greens and potato salad.

The buns for the sliders were nothing special. They just tasted like dinner rolls you get in the dining hall. The crab cakes were fried crispy (I asked to see if they could be baked instead, but no luck), but it lacked the lumpy texture of a rich crab cake. The potato salad, made with red potatoes with skins, also had lots of mustard seed. Interesting.

The chipotle-caper remoulade added creamy, a little spicy tang to the sandwich. I think they should change the name to crab cake sliders as opposed to crab cake sandwiches...

Finally we had the lobster risotto ($25) prepared with fresh lobster meat, dandelion greens & triple cream brie.

The dandelion greens were really bitter! Granted that I have a salty taste, this dish was sort of bland and had too strong of a creamy, cheesy taste rather than savory. I would have liked to see more lumps of lobster meat.