Cafe Dario’s prix fixe dinner offers sophisticated cooking with Latin twists

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This article was published 15/04/2015 (4206 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

One convenient restaurant custom in France is the prix fixe — a set-price meal of three or four courses (sometimes more, in higher-end establishments), with choices in each course. It can take an effort of will, or a money-is-no-object attitude to order la carte.

Dining in these parts is almost always la carte, and if you’re hungry enough for more than just one course, money can often be an object. Although la carte lunches are available, the only all-week prix fixe I know of is Cafe Dario’s five-course, $39 dinner.

My first — and last — full-scale review was eight years ago, when this cosy wee bistro was still feeling its way, and the dinner menu was partly prix fixe and partly la carte. I called it a little gem and awarded it four stars at the time.

These days, that little gem shines even more brightly, and rates an extra half-star for food that is delicious enough to entice a host of regulars to this bleak corner of Wellington and Erin.

The two snug, candlelit rooms are adorned by striking masks, weavings and other mostly Colombian artifacts, which (like some of the cooking) reflect chef-owner Dario Gutierrez’ roots. There are also two outdoor areas — a charming enclosed veranda and a few tables on the sidewalk.

The menus change daily, offering a varying number of appetizers and main courses. Don’t expect home-style ethnic fast food here; what this kitchen specializes in is sophisticated, accomplished cooking with occasional Latin twists.

Some of the appetizers, in particular, were outstanding. I could happily make a meal of the fabulous sautéed braised bison shreds on a bed of creamy polenta. It was rivalled by the Shrimp Two Ways — two jumbos: one chilled with mango horseradish; the other, stuffed with spinach and escargot, coated in rice crumbs and deep-fried. The frog legs were wonderfully sweet, delicate and moist, but the meat would have been more accessible in a simple sauté instead of hidden in batter and deep-fried, so we never knew when we’d be biting into a bone.

I also liked the crisp fritters of smoked salmon, if not the aioli, which tasted pretty much like sweetened mayonnaise. Cassava dumplings filled with rabbit were nice, if a tad stodgy, but the Colombian cashew and egg salad garnish was pleasant. Other possible starters on the ever-changing menus might be Guyanese goat curry, marinated beef skewers or spicy baked escargots.

Main courses also vary nightly. Game turns up often, and one night’s bacon-wrapped venison tenderloin was memorable — very rare (the chef insists), in a reduction of blueberries, apple and rum. Also excellent was the savoury osso buco of bison bedded on garlic- and oregano-flavoured lentils.

Other delicious main courses were a tender, juicy beef tenderloin with a caper chimichurri sauce, and rack of lamb with (on our visit) green peppercorns. And although meats dominate the menu, the kitchen did just as well by a pan-seared salmon fillet drizzled with papaya and passion fruit juices.

Other choices might be chili-rubbed pork tenderloin; chicken breast stuffed with asparagus and cream cheese; duck breast (with a $4 surcharge) and (at $12 extra) broiled lobster tail. Garnishes have included simply but perfectly prepared beets, carrot and zucchini, as well as dollops of mashed potatoes. Portions aren’t overwhelming, but neither are they skimpy, and doggie bags are available.

There are no choices among the soups, salads or desserts — they are whatever the kitchen has planned for that day. The soup of one jour was a superb salmon bisque, dotted with corn niblets and other veggies. Another night’s Swiss onion was unimpressively bland, but the green salads in citrusy dressings were perfect on both visits.

Also perfect was one night’s luscious chocolate-cum-passion fruit mousse. Another night, though, there was only port-soaked blackberries — nice but not exciting.

The wine list is decent, and there are familiar cocktails — a really good caesar among them, but also (to stay in a Latin mood) a refreshing, if not particularly potent pisco sour, topped by a froth of egg white. The staff are friendly, attentive and knowledgeable, but I wish they’d do something about the music. I can’t figure out what it is — all I heard was a sometimes dim, sometimes loud “thump-thump.” Why not some Latin-American rhythms?

marion.warhaft@freepress.mb.ca