Stove warms the tummy and taste buds

Stove is a quaint Irish run, French cuisine restaurant located off the beaten path on 28th Avenue and 46th street. The outside is unassuming and the interior is a clean classic restaurant. Friendly warm staff with the Irish brogue welcome you in for a delicious dinner treat. John and I arrived around 7 on Sunday evening to see that it wasn’t very crowded. I do know that there were people in the back garden, but I am unsure of how many people it accommodated. Judging from the amount of plates I saw heading that way I would say a fair few. There were a few other large parties which could possibly explain the one complaint we have.

We were seated promptly and immediately noticed the menu we were given has a few differences from the online version. There are a few more choices on the menu at Stove than online. They have quite an impressive wine list and John and I settled on a bottle of Cabernet (Dona [with a tilde over the n]Something or other, I didn’t write it down!) which was very sweet and smooth, quite tasty.

We started off with me having the Prince Edward Mussels steamed in white wine, garlic, shallots and teardrop tomatoes. It was fantastic. I was using the wonderful warm bread they gave us to try and soak up all the goodness; in a civilized way of course. The mussels themselves were fresh and I appreciated there not being a single closed one in the bowl (which has happened to me quite often at other places, usually just one, but it is kind of annoying).

John had the baked stuffed clams with bacon bits, herbs and paprika crust. I would have loved to try it, but since it’s been nearly 15 years since I have eaten bacon I would have gotten sick. John however really liked his. The crust and the bacon along with the clam all blended together perfectly.

While waiting for our entrees we noticed something kind of annoying-another server recited a list of specials to another table that our server did not. There was a tasty sounding crab cake on the specials too. Mental note for next time and for all of you, if you don’t hear about specials don’t assume they don’t have them, ask! Your server is just spacing!

I will say that I really appreciated that our entrees did not come out immediately after our starters. I like to digest a little bit and enjoy what I’ve just had and have a little more wine before diving into dinner. About 10-15 minutes later our dinner arrived (I am fine with that wait time. John got just a touch antsy). John, of course, went for the steak. He chose the 16oz New York Shell Steak. Here’s something tricky-online it lists your choice of red wine reduction and caramelized onion or peppercorn sauce. Since we looked online first and John pretty much made up his mind before we got to Stove we aren’t sure if that option is on the menu there and it’s now just peppercorn sauce or if since he didn’t choose and she didn’t ask that’s what he got by default. Either way he still enjoyed it.

I was torn between a few things; in all honesty since I am not a big connoisseur of French foods I had to look up a lot of things on the menu before we went. Never hurts to be in the know, right? I settled on the Pan Fried Trout meuniere (which merely means it was dredged in flour) with white wine and lemon glace. It was quite peppery which I wasn’t expecting. I’m not a peppery kind of person but this wasn’t bad. I’m not going to say it was awesome because I thought the pepper kind of overpowered the lemon and wine sauce. It was pretty good though if not what I was expecting. Both of our meals came with mashed potatoes (our choice) and the veg of the day which was carrots (I’ve never been a fan of cooked carrots, you cook all the fun right out of them). Portions were just right and it was a very satisfying meal.

We decided we were going to go all out-it was our four year anniversary after all-and get dessert. Here’s the one complaint we have. It did start to get more crowded as we were finishing our meal and there were a few large parties, but our server (one of two or three) took a while to check on us after we finished to check if we wanted dessert. It was a good 10 minutes or more before she came by. She recited a lengthy list of desserts and left us to choose. John immediately knew he wanted the Crème Brule; I was torn between a chocolate mousse type dessert or an apple tart. When the server finally came back again she suggested the chocolate but because she’s a chocoholic-not because it was a standout dish, so that didn’t really sell me. I decided to try and be a little lighter and got the apple tart. After this we had a ridiculously long wait for both the coffee that John ordered and our desserts. I mean over a half an hour. I had enough wine that I didn’t really notice just how long it was but John did and that’s his major complaint. Especially since twenty minutes (or more…I wasn’t really timing everything) into the wait she came to apologize and say the kitchen was backed up. But she still hadn’t brought John his coffee, which he asked for again at that point. She did bring it right over, but dessert was ten to fifteen minutes later. It was enough time that I was contemplating ordering another glass of wine or a cocktail! When dessert arrived it was very very good. John’s Crème Brule had a great caramelized top as it should be with a light and sweet filling. My apple tart was lovely. Not too sweet, not heavy and with fresh cream. Yummy.

I would say as far as service goes it was just this one server. I’m not sure how backed up the kitchen could be for dessert, 2 simple desserts that are most likely prepared earlier and just finished off (caramelize the top for his and basically warm up mine) could have taken so long. She could have checked sooner, or told us sooner. I would definitely go back; I would just try not to have this server. I’m somewhat forgiving unless you poison me.

Stove is definitely a must try and a nice place for dinner. It’s in the upper mid to lower high price-if that makes any sense. You wouldn’t go there all the time unless you were just ordering off the bar menu. It’s a nice place to have a romantic dinner or take the parents out for a nice dinner to show off the neighborhood.