So i'm going to a restaurant..
 

And it's not going to be too friendly with my wallet. The menu is small because it's a summerlicious restaurant (non T.O-ers might not know what that is)

Long story short, i'd like some opinions of what to eat. These are my choices (I choose one appetizer, one main and one dessert):

Appetizers
Nori cured Atlantic salmon
Wasabi sorbet
or
Fresh fine herb & baby lettuce
lemon olive oil & parmigiano reggiano
or
Watercress & potato soup
Coriander cream & mint oil


Mains:
Coutron crusted Georgian Bay White Fish
ratatouille nicoise
or
Tagliatelle & bay scallops
Fresh Tarragon fennel veloute
or
Char grilled Pork loin
White bean cassoulet & thyme glaze
or
Portobella Wellington
ratatouille nicoise


Desserts:
Summer fruit ‘Gazpacho’
Mascarpone & vanilla cream
or
Chocolate & cumin tart
or
Lemon & raspberry Cheesecake

For appetizers, i'm fairly certain that i'm going to have the salmon. Since one should not make friends with salad, and watercress & potato soup doesn't sound very appetizing (unless someone wants to say otherwise).

The mains i'm not so sure of. The food dictionary I used didn't have "coutron," so I still don't know what that is. However, i'm pretty sure I don't want the pork loin, since I can already guess what that will taste like (although the cassoulet sounds tasty). Is it worth getting the pork loin just for the cassoulet?

The desserts i'm not too certain of either. The mascarpone & vanilla ice cream sounds interesting, since i've never had mascarpone cheese.

Any thoughts?

Thanking you all in advance :)

marscapone is really just a slightly sweet cream cheese - it's the cream cheese that's used if tiramisu is made authentically...

the chocolate and cumin tart sounds interesting- it sounds almost like a mexican chocolate - with a little kick to t..

The salmon sounds divine... and the wasabi cream is just a spicey little sauce served with it...

Beef wellington is beef that's served in a puff pastry, portobello wellington is substituing a portobello mushroom for the beef, if you are mushroom fan it sounds heavenly...

Coutron I can't quite figure out - it's either going to be a breading - like panko to make it crispy - or some formof herb t0 make it healthier... I don't like fennel so i would pass on that..

The pork loin sounds good - it's simply prepared and would be tasty- the cassoulet also sounds really good

Personally, I would go with the following:

Watercress & potato soup
Coriander cream & mint oil

Char grilled Pork loin
White bean cassoulet & thyme glaze

Lemon & raspberry Cheesecake (it was a toss up with the Chocolate and cumin tart).

Other than that, Mal said what I was going to say.

Have fun... which restaurant is this?

Herbs

I googled coutron crusted and it was the only thing that came up :)

Yeah it is Herbs.

Hmm, portobella wellington is probably out of the running now. I assumed that it was actual beef wellington with some portobello mushrooms. Good thing you cleared that up for me Mal.

I guess i'd better ask my waiter exactly what coutron is when I get there :D

That really seems like a good deal to choose three things for 35 bucks, isnt that like 30 US dollar?

I'm not saying it's a bad deal. Summerlicious is a program in which us poor folk get to try out upper scale restaurants at a reduced price.

But it is however more expensive than any meal I would normally buy for myself.

1) Nori cured Atlantic salmon Wasabi sorbet
2) Coutron crusted Georgian Bay White Fish ratatouille nicoise. Any fish is for me, I would have gone with the scallops. but I don't care for fennel!
3) Chocolate & cumin tart

Yum, can I come?

Watercress & Potato Soup!!!! YUM!
no, serious. i love that stuff.

main dish: Portobella Wellington
ratatouille nicoise

and i'd get Mascarpone & vanilla cream for desert.

everything here sounds delicious, and considering that there are so few menu options, I would assume they are all incredible. You may want to ask: what is the specialty of the chef currently on duty? then get that. one of the places in my hometown has some incredible food, but each dish is better depending on who makes it.

My pick would be:

Fresh fine herb & baby lettuce
lemon olive oil & parmigiano reggiano

Coutron crusted Georgian Bay White Fish
ratatouille nicoise

Lemon & raspberry Cheesecake

The salad only because I like to try new herb combinations and keep the first course light, to better enjoy the next. The fish sounds wonderful, especially with the ratatouille. I'm guessing "coutron" is either a nut or potato based crust, since that's typically what is used with a white fish. Or they just spelled "crouton" wrong. :D And of course, to finish with the heaviest course. It's cheesecake. There's no combination better than lemon-raspberry that I've found. I'm from the South, it's been in the 90s for months so I can't even begin to try to think about stomaching the heavier entrees, forgive me. Good luck. The Summerlicious program looks awesome. Enjoy!

If anyone's curious, I had the salmon, the pork loin and the cheesecake.

The salmon was pretty much what I expected, but the wasabi sorbet was both new and delightful.

The pork loin was what I expected, however, the quality of the meat was lower than what I was expecting. The cassoulet was quite tasty.

The cheesecake was probably the highlight of the meal. It was absolutely delicious.


And if anyone was wondering, coutron, is actually crouton misspelled :D

That's what I thought! Glad to hear that the cheesecake was at least delicious, and the sorbet sounded intriguing. Looks like a very cool program. I'd probably eat out all summer that way!

I was just about to ask what you ended up getting. I'm glad that it worked out well!