 COUNTRY TAVERN 452 Amherst St., Nashua 889-5871; countrytavern.org
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We frequently commented that we’d never been there — or maybe we had once in the 1980s, but that was so long ago we couldn’t be sure.
Finally, on a recent Saturday, we decided to go. We made a reservation in advance, but that proved unnecessary — oddly, and a bit dismayingly, the restaurant had plenty of empty seats at 7 p.m., what is probably the busiest time of night on the busiest day of the week. The décor looked as if it had not been changed since the 1980s. The chairs and table were all a kind of Colonial style, worn and dated. It all looked a bit tired. I felt oddly transported back in time — all I needed was my big hair and some shoulder pads and the picture would have been complete.
We got comfortable — or as comfortable as possible since the room was very cold. Several women had their coats on — ordered drinks and perused the menu, which has some interesting things on it. For an appetizer, my dining companion opted for the blue point oysters baked Rockefeller ($8.95), a classic old-school dish that he said was very tasty. The oysters were moist and sweet. The only complaint he had was that there was a little too much cheese and that the oysters weren’t loosened from the shell, making them a bit of a struggle to get to.
I decided to try an old standby — French onion soup ($4.75), which I rarely order, but decided to see how they made the standard dish, the quality of which varies wildly from place to place. Plus it reminded me of the 1980s when it was on every menu, it seemed, and since I was feeling so 1980s, it seemed appropriate.
This version was quite good. The soup was piping hot and topped with Swiss and Provolone cheeses that were browned to perfection — gooey on top, crunchy as it drips down the sides of the bowl. The soup was tasty and had a nice balance of onion that offset the cheese medley nicely. It was excellent.
The start of the meal was promising, the dinner was not so much so. My dining companion chose the Veal Calabria ($19.95), which had pieces of veal (nicely tenderized) sautéed with pine nuts, fresh spinach and sun dried tomatoes. The dish is finished with a white wine and garlic herb butter and topped with grated Romano cheese. The whole thing is served over penne pasta. It wasn’t bad, but while sun-dried tomatoes can be a lovely addition to a dish, when there are too many, they sweeten things up too much. The dish, as it turned out, was too sweet for my dining companion and the pasta was a little overcooked. “Not memorable” was his assessment.
I had been in the mood for prime rib and it was on the menu, so I ordered the prime rib au jus ($19.95). It was a good-sized queen cut, but I didn’t find it particularly juicy or flavorful. It was simply adequate and really didn’t fulfill my craving for prime rib. Like my dining companion, my assessment was that it was not particularly memorable.
The dessert offerings were unimaginative and not especially appealing. My dining companion chose the apple puff ($4.25) without ice cream. Actually the ice cream might have helped because as it turned out the dish was a bit tart, and not quite sweet enough. I ordered the Kahlua crepe ($4.50), which was sweet and tasty enough, but it was essentially a couple of huge mounds of ice cream with a Kahlua sauce drizzled over it and served on a flat crepe. It was far too much to eat and not particularly interesting.
By the time we left, the restaurant had filled up a bit more. It was a mostly older crowd, some of whom seemed to be regulars.
Overall the Country Tavern was good, but not great and certainly not memorable. The food was adequate, the prices are in line with better restaurants, the ambiance was lacking and the service was alright. It’s not a place we would return to, not because it was awful, but because for the money, we feel we could have a better meal.
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