Walking in and looking at the layout, the restaurant had a buzz to it. People were enjoying their food, happy faces, welcoming staff, and some beautiful plates on tables. The restaurant is more of a “host a wedding here” and less of a “restaurant” vibe, which gave it an upscale charm. Restaurants with upscale charm and upscale prices are met with upscale reviews. So let’s get technical.
- Appetizer: Fried Calamari
- Main: Moules Frites
- Dessert: Sundae
Service Observations
Service was fantastic. As I said in the intro: the welcoming staff, smiling faces, and attention to detail with the upscale vibe, I expected nothing less. Our server was friendly, knowledgeable, and was trained perfectly. No mis-timings, plates and glasses were cleared at the right moments, checkups were well-timed, and I specifically noticed the host checking to make sure the front door window was smudge-free of fingerprints. All around fantastic.
Appetizer: Fried Bliss
Fried Calamari: Calamari was delicious. Very slight hint of honey which made the sweetness so subtle, but perfect. Complimented by the citrus crème fraîche, it was a really well executed appetizer. The fry was perfectly crunchy, not overdone and rubbery, no greasy leftovers on the plate. One of the best fried calamari I’ve ever had. There was not a single bad thing to note about it.
Main Course: An Authentic French Gripe
Moules Frites: Where to begin? Garlic butter, white wine, and cream sauce; the epitome of France. It was definitely French, and I say that for a specific reason. For anyone who might not know, I lived in France for years, and I’ve always had a gripe with their non-high-end restaurants: there is never any salt. I don’t understand it. Just a pinch is all that’s needed to enhance flavor. I could taste the garlic butter, the cream, the white wine, but they were all dulled. The flavors were restrained, crying out for salt to make them vibrant and pop. The fries were great, the baguette was delicious, and the mussels themselves were cooked perfectly. I really think just a bit of salt would have elevated this dish tremendously.
Desserts: Complete Let Down
Banana Fudge Sundae: This was a wild disappointment. The two things I miss most from France are the bread and the pastry. The flawless appetizer made me expect something great for dessert, but that hope was quickly crushed. The homemade ice cream was a complete letdown; any sweetness was overpowered by the taste of heavy cream. The texture was grainy, full of frozen heavy cream chunks, as if the ice cream base had split. The bananas were flambéed, which was fine, but the chocolate “fudge” wasn’t fudge at all. It was a thin, watery chocolate sauce that had no business being on the menu. A huge letdown; I expected way more.
Overall Review And Conclusion
Score: My Experience: 8/10 | Value Is Very Good
Kersey House had an amazing hit with the calamari and a big miss with the dessert. The main could have been great, but I’m all too familiar with the lack of salt in classic French cooking.
The prices, however, were very good, especially for the level of cooking on display. The class was more apparent in the restaurant than it was on the bill—something a lot of other places get backward. The Fried Calamari was $13, Moules Frites was $18, and the Sundae was $12. I’ve paid a lot more for a lot less. If you are looking for a fancy dinner without setting your credit card on fire, this is the place to be. Chef Remi knows what he’s doing, but he should definitely hire a pastry chef. A little salt and a proper dessert menu would make this place perfect. The value here is the first 10/10 I’ve given.
Full Disclosure: A Glimpse at Other Plates
I went to Kersey House with others. I tasted different plates of food but did not rate them as they were not my own. Here is a quick rundown:
- Lobster Bisque: It was great.
- French Onion Soup: Flavor wise it was perfect, execution wise, it had one issue. The bread on top was unbreakable. If you tried to break it, the pressure would force the soup to overflow on top of it. The only way to eat it was to remove the bread, break it up into pieces and put it back in to get the full effect.
- Baked Escargot: This was Americanized. Remi took the slug out of the shell and baked it with a thin bread layer on top. This removes the snail stigma around the dish, opening up accessibility; kudos to the smart decision making there.
- Chicken “Au Morrille”: This was sad. The whole point is the morels. At a whopping $28, you only get one morel, and there isn’t nearly enough morel flavor in the sauce to be that stingy. Remi needs to either boost the morel flavor in the sauce (maybe use some salt) or increase the morel count.
- The Flan: It was good, but the bottom was almost unbreakable. You had to physically rip it with your fingers to get a proper bite.
- Crème Brûlée: The Crème brûlée was classic French, but Americanized and supersized. This turned out to be a fundamental flaw. While you get more dessert and bang for your buck, the perfect ratio of rich cream to crackly caramelized sugar gets completely lost. It was an unbalanced dish where the custard was overwhelming. This was the dessert that was sold to us by Chef Remi himself when we met him.