Nobel Rot was visited by Frankie and us about one year ago (click here). The restaurant where we had a reservation had electrical problems and so closed for the day and we decided to repeat since our visit last year was so wonderful. It was a different day though so it wasn’t nearly as magical. This visit we sat upstairs which was cozier and had nice murals painted on each of the walls – one of the street where the restaurant is located. Small marble tables were set closely opposite bench seating lining both walls. A small bar/service area was at one end. Curtained windows to the street added little to the lowered lighting of the room. No music was in the background and the menu was printed daily. Service was fine but the food did not measure up to last year’s. It’s still a fine place for a casual meal but it didn’t have the lick-the-plate quality I remembered.
Set-up
Food
Culatta di Montagna was a plate of thinly sliced Italian ham. It had good flavor.
Bread and butter was to go with the ham but they are ordered separately. It was 3 types of bread – a multigrain, dark and focaccia. All were soft with a fairly dense interior. The butter was fine.
Roquefort custard and crudités was my choice. It came with very fresh vegetables including celery, purple and yellow carrots, red and white chicory and some nicely ripe slices of pear. The custard was very smooth with a light Roquefort flavor. It was also good spread on the bread. The crudités were so fresh they were a pleasure to eat on their own too.
Hispi Cabbage is a sweeter, pointy-shaped cabbage. This plate was very fresh and lightly cooked to a perfect texture. It was very good.
Roast chicken, morels and vin Jaune came with Riz au pilaf. This was where they let me down. The scrumptious vin Jaune sauce last year was thinner and the morels had little flavor and were almost rubbery. The rice was mostly dry and good to cover with the sauce but it was too thin to stick to it well. The white part of the chicken was dry. I’m sure ingredients vary and this may have been the culprit that night. But it was disappointing enough I didn’t even want to consider dessert.
