Bar Kismet is a highly regarded restaurant in Halifax. Everyone from servers at other restaurants, to chefs who have been there told me I had to go. Its even ranked as one of the Top 50 Bars in the world. The bar is nice.
…but I’m here to talk about the food. So lets go. We started with some oysters which were good. How could you go wrong with fresh oysters in Atlantic Canada?
The raw scallop was beautiful to look at and fresh, but lacked any sort of “wow” factor despite all the garnishes.
The carrots, crab and bearnaise, which were highly recommended to me by a chef I had met, were not that great. The crab was overpowered by the bearnaise and the dish was too sweet.
Finally, the chicken ragu with pappardelle. The use of chicken to make a ragu was interesting and quite delicious. There was a bit of heat that also made the dish good. However, the pasta was cooked beyond al dente which ruined the dish for me.
Overall, service was ok, but the food had a lot of misses. I think there is clearly potential but they need to fix a few things before I’d recommend going there.
sounds like a classic example of poor execution (pasta not cooked properly, seasoning on scallop not tasted prior to serving) undermining tall tales of innovative chefery and flourishes. fft – thanks for remaining tunnel visioned to give us the real deal. lesson – execute first, then, elevate