Often, a new restaurant opens in Hamilton, and I'm so excited to go. I love everything that this city comes up with, food-wise. And my friends are excited to go. And then schedules conflict, and we don't wind up going for a while. This is what happened with Rapscallion. I wanted to go, and wanted to go, and wanted to go. But it took a friend's birthday to make it actually happen. And I was so excited! And rightfully so. My experience is one I hope to repeat over and over and over again.
I don't even know where to begin.
The cows. I think I'm going to start with the cows.
When I go into a gourmet restaurant, I think I have an expectation of what I'm going to see. And it's not anything even remotely whimsical. Which I think is a shame, since there's so little whimsy to be found in the world. So, I get to Rapscallion and I'm completely charmed by the decor. In the back section opposite the open kitchen (Have I mentioned before how much I love open kitchens? Because I do.) there are pictures, paintings, drawings, of cows. Some are professional looking pieces, some are photographs, and a couple look like children’s' drawings (probably professional and worth more than my car, I'm a food critic, not an art critic). And I find them all whimsical, and maybe a little (delightfully) inappropriate considering how much meat they serve.
The rest of the decor is also interesting for a gourmet eatery. But I guess I should expect nothing less from a self-titled "rogue" dining establishment. Their menu and wine list are written on chalk boards. The seating is unassuming but comfortable. No plants. Simple and delightful. Everything about the place is unassuming and friendly and...delightful.
So the food. We didn’t try everything on the menu, because there was only four of us. But we managed to hit about a third of it.
We started with the full charcuterie board: seven kinds of meat, pickled vegetables, and quail eggs. All of the meat was delicious, my favourite being the duck. It was so smooth and buttery! And while a couple of the offerings were spiced, they were lightly done and enjoyable to my baby palette. And while I couldn’t eat the pickled vegetables, the quail eggs were interesting. They were so tiny, and...different tasting. I know "different tasting" is a cop out, but I've never eaten anything like them before. It was kinda like a sour egg, but vinegary at the same time?
For the main course, we all decided to order a dish and share. On the table, we wound up with Bacon Wrapped Filet Mignon, Grilled Cheese, and the Pear and Chevre Salad with House Made Pancetta.
Pickled Pork Shoulder & Triple Cream Grilled Cheese. Yes, that is a thing. It happened in my mouth. You are jealous. The grilled cheese is amazing. I can't even express to you just how amazing it is. And there's a lot of delicious grilled cheese to be had in Hamilton (I'm pretty sure View Magazine gave it it's own category in their "Best of" edition), but this beats them all out. The pork melted in my mouth. I don't think I've actually had a meat do that before. I had to force myself to eat it slowly because I didn't want it to be gone.
Mini Bacon Wrapped Fillet Mignon with Frank’s Hollendaise and Truffle Chips. I have to start out by saying that the presentation of this plate was very nice. It's hard to dress up chips next to filet mignon, but they managed it. Again, the meat melted in my mouth. Lightly spiced, so that the delicate flavour of the meat could shine through. Plus bacon. Because everything is better when you wrap it in bacon.
Pear and Chevre Salad with House Made Pancetta. Very delicious! Okay. So I have (had, I'm working on it) this thing where I don't eat fruit in my salads. I'm slowly breaking myself of this. But at the time I was still firmly against fruit in my veggies; so I didn't actually get any of the pear on my fork when I tried this. But the bites I had with the chevre and pancetta were so amazing I don't feel like I missed out (I probably really missed out). The house made pancetta is not to be missed. I'd never had pancetta before, and it was so soft and just a little sweet. It complimented the salt of the chevre perfectly.
And just as an aside, something that struck me as I tried all the salads with each of the dishes that I just have to mention. Each salad had a different oil based dressing on it. Maybe this doesn't surprise you, but every time I've eaten out somewhere and they serve the little field green side salad with a fancy dish, it's the same oil based dressing for all of it. But at Rapscallion, they crafted a dressing for each dish to compliment the whole dish, not just to juice up the lettuce. That impressed me out of all proportion, but I think it speaks to the dedication and creativity of the owners and chefs that they bothered. And I was delighted by it.
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