Every time we go to Revolution, we walk away impressed. The dishes we’ve tried have ranged from very good to stellar, and often make us giddy with their innovative flavors and presentation. Recent standouts include a seafood risotto with squid ink and grana padano, a dish of exquisitely cooked risotto with a mysterious salty-oceanic-metallic flavor; a vol-au-vent pastry filled with goat cheese sauce and basil-fed escargot that’s sort of an upscale take on a volcano cake, with the cheese and snails ‘flowing’ out of the buttery pastry; a cocktail made with lychee syrup and pomegranate molasses; and a sweet potato-mole dessert tamale served with a rich, spicy, nutmeg-and-cardamom-infused sauce whose flavors rollicked on the palate.
For our anniversary, we decided to splurge on Revolution’s five-course tasting menu. It was fun trying to guess what each course would be by the silverware the servers brought out. When we saw little forks for the first course, we guessed shellfish, and got oysters with Thai chili balsamic vinaigrette, accented by watermelon and dollops of crème fraiche. The oysters were fresh and plump, and the accompanying sauces hinted at the familiar condiment, cocktail sauce.
The second course consisted of uncured prosciutto de parma, served on a wooden sushi board alongside picked vegetables and a little pile of arugula. The prosciutto was pure meat candy: sweet and salty and unctuous all at the same time.
The third course was scallops atop pork belly, served above a beet puree and accented with fried shallots. Something about the combination of onion-ring-like shallots, the classic seafood taste of the scallops, and the char on the pork belly evoked summertime: the seafood shack at the beach, and food seared on the grill. The scallops were perfectly cooked and just slightly caramelized, and the pork belly was killer: rich and fatty and meaty and eye-rollingly-good. The beet puree, which tasted like borscht, was good, but didn’t seem to mesh well with the rest of the dish.
Fourth course was New York strip with potatoes and gorgonzola sauce. The steak was flavorful but a tad chewy. The gorgonzola sauce packed a salty, stinky-cheese punch: I could have eaten it up with a spoon.
The fifth course consisted of a deceptively light-looking tart filled with peanut butter mousse and topped with caramelized bananas and crème fraiche. The mouse was so rich it was almost like eating peanut butter straight from the jar, and the pastry crust had a pleasantly crisp crumb.
Revolution impressed us once again—and left us wondering what occasion might be apropos for the seven-course menu.
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