X X'd

This weekend, my best friend L got married in upstate New York. Hubby and I flew into JFK Friday morning on a red-eye. Even though we were exhausted, food was still my first priority. After couple of hours of browsing and driving, we arrived at Restaurant X and Bully Boy Bar in Congers, New York for lunch. Restaurant X was one of the establishments in Peter Kelly's Xaviars Restaurant Group. Some reviewers even believed that the Peter Kelly's restaurants were better than many Manhattan eateries, so I had high hopes. I chose this one over his other restaurants because they offered a seared foie gras on the dinner menu which I had specially requested for our lunch.

Congers is a small town about 2 hours from New York. The restaurant had a free-form pond in the back, with the fountain spraying and a swan swimming, it must have been very picturesque on a sunny day. As it was pouring on and off on Friday, it looked as if it was flooding. The place opens for lunch at 12, and we were the only ones there at 12:30. Even when we left at 2, there were only about 6 tables.

Hubby went with the $25 3-course prix fixe special. He started with a frisee salad with grapefruit, walnut, and goat cheese. It was a nice salad, simple and refreshing. I had my pre-arranged Hudson Valley Foie Gras, Served Two Ways - a warm tartlet with figs and seared foie gras, and a chilled parfait with lingonberry. (Only $14.50!) The tartlet was OK, I liked the figs. The seared foie gras was on the thin side, and slightly over salted, but it was still a good dish. The parfait was intriguing with the sweetness of the lingonberry. I've never had a sweet pâté before, it was pleasant for a change. Whenever I've had pâté, it was always served with some toast of sorts. However, this one only came with two piece of over salted sesame crackers which didn't even last half way through the parfait. I was left feeling kind of silly eating the parfait with a spoon. (Maybe that's why this is the only place that I've been to that calls this "parfait" instead of "pâté" or "terrine". Hmm, I wonder...)

For entrée, I ordered the rock shrimp and seafood cake with spinach and lobster sauce. I was expecting something similar to crab cakes, maybe 2 or 3 discs. What was presented caught me off guard, as it was one big ball almost the size of a baseball. It had big chunks of shrimp meat, you'd think I'd appreciate that. It wasn't bad or anything, however, after eating it for awhile, there was just too much of it. And it tasted very similar to a Chinese shrimp dumpling (Har Gau) that you can get at any dim-sum place. Hubby had the flat iron steak with truffle potato puree, haricot vert, and port sauce. The steak was very blend if you didn't swipe some sauce for every bite. The truffle flavor in the potato puree was so overpowering that I couldn't eat it at all.

To end the meal, we shared a vanilla crème brûlée which was very good, but not good enough to turn things around for me.

Overall, I felt that the value was great, where else can you get foie gras two ways for under $15. The inspirations were good, but the execution was lacking. If I ever find myself in upstate New York again, I might try the Xaviar in Piermont or the X2O in Yonkers with a supposedly stunning view. But I don't think I will patronize Restaurant X again.

Restaurant X and Bully Boy Bar
117 N Route 303, Congers, NY 10920
(845)268-6555