Crystal Inn, I can see right through you!

Next up, Crystal Inn in Warwick, NY.  Should have it sometime tomorrow.  And yes, I know only one of our reviews has been for JC but we'll get back on point with the next review, promise!.

So this is how the Crystal Inn describes itself:

Four Star Fine Dining Contemporary American Restaurant and Bar in the tranquil and picturesque Orange County town of Warwick, NY.

I'd say "4 star" is a bit of a stretch.  Although the prices were pretty 4 star.  Lets start with the good parts, the steaks and mashed potatoes.  I had a "sliced  rib steak" and my friend has a 28 day dry aged NY Strip.  I actually wanted the dry aged but strip steaks don't have enough fat for me (i prefer the rib eye) and doesn't have the tenderness of a tenderloin. I suppose the aging process helps with the tenderness a bit but if i want to spend the time or money to get a dry aged steak, why start with a shitty cut of meat.  That being said, my medium rare rib eye (the called it a rib steak on the menu) was pre-sliced (weird to me, but fine) and cooked to a perfect temp for med-rare.

The flavor of the beef and the salt and pepper were levels weer also well done.  Crystal Inn locally source most of their meat.  I was told by a friend with us their beef is all grass fed and antibiotic free, but forgot to verify with the server.  However, grass fed beef is known to be big on flavor and low on fat content, and that's exactly what I found.  I tried both my rib eye and my friend's aged strip steak and both had unusually strong beefy flavor.  My rib-eye was pretty low in fat and his strip had even less.  For me that;s probably a bigger deal than most people because I love big chucks of fat in my steak (or my any other food), but on balance the were delicious steaks and no one else seemed to notice.  My second beef with my rib eye (get it, beef) was it was a bit small.  I'd say around 8-10 oz.

A big standout in the meal was the mashed potatoes which they do heavy and creamy.  Some people love light, high starch mashed potatoes made with yukon golds or whatever, but you can also make wonderful, heavy, thick mashed potatoes with low starch potatoes and lotsa of butter and cream and a food mill.  The food mill lets you really get a fine grind without turning them into a gooey which is what would happen with a food processor. In fact, there is a French version which does this and throws in some cheese called aligot which is also delicious but the Crystal Inn version didn't go quite that far.  In any case, the potatoes were delicious, and maybe the best thing I ate.

Now on to the bad.  I had mac and cheese with king crab and it was SALTY.  Which is really too bad because the cheese sauce was creamy and delicious.  The crab meat was clearly processed and frozen with salt water, leaving it with way to high salt content.  From a bit of reading I found out that Russian ships process the crabs at sea with salty sea water while Alaskan ships do it at shore with fresh water.  Not sure if this is totally accurate, but either way the salty crab meat ruined the dish.

Problem 2 was the lobster bisque (apparently crustaceans are not their strong suit).  A bisque is:

Bisque is a smooth, creamy, highly-seasoned soup of French origin, classically based on a strained broth (coulis) of crustaceans.

I think we all can agree that's what a bisque is supposed to be.  What they served was not a bisque.  According to wikipedia, a classical bisque grinds the shells into a fine paste and incorporates it into the soup.  I've never seen a recipe that actually does this and I don't even know how the hell you grind lobster shells into a paste, so apparently I'm not making a true classic lobster bisque myself, but there are some things I expect when I order lobster bisque.  Number one is strong lobster flavor, number two is creaminess.  They fucked up number two.  The lobster soup came out beautifully, server with a baked pastry top covering the bowl.  (picture to come).  Underneath this pastry, however, was a dark brown broth with little lobster meat included.  It may have been slightly thickened by some sort of starch, but was free of cream.

My guess is that they made the bisque by boiling the shells in water with some onions, bay leaves, pepper, carrots etc to create a lobster stock, then threw in some corn starch to thicken.  That's an easy but stupid way to make "bisque".  The shells should be broken down and sauteed in oil or butter, then onions added, then the rest of the stock spices along with some fish stock.  Just boiling the shells in water doesn't extract the flavor.  And of course they failed to finish with cream, which is what gives bisque its characteristic creamy texture.  Here's an example of what i consider a good lobster bisque recipe.  I could do without all the sherry and brandy it uses though.  I might add a couple ounces of sherry at most.

So, overall, I liked Crystal Inn, but it wasn't quite the "4 star" restaurant they lay claim to being.  And they prices aren't cheap.  Dinner 4 for with drinks and tip was something like $260.  In the city with higher costs for rent and payroll (and decor) etc that might seem reasonable, but in Warwick, NY for a meal that was just pretty good it seems excessive.  If you do go, stick to what they're best at, steaks.  

P.S. - Almost forgot to mention some weird old guy kept staring at my friend's wife, to the point that I had to insist he didn't fight him.  The clientele ain't exactly 4-star either.