CulinAriane Restaurant Review

Ariane Duarte works wonders in the kitchen of CulinAriane.

Her food is art, perfectly prepared, full of color and playfully presented.

A Culinary Institute grad and former executive chef of Vine in NYC where she is pictured here.

She and her husband Michael bring a refreshing new entry to the Montclair restaurant scene.

The restaurant is bright, colorful and has lively hip club music playing in the background.

Staff is attentive, though not polished. The room is small, some tables awkwardly placed. Away from downtown, on Walnut and Pine, it's suroundings are not that appealing. But once inside..

The food is sublime. It has an Italian, Middle Eastern and Asian influence, but all seems uniquely Ariane.

To my palate woman chefs have a special touch, I can't explain it but believe it is true. Consider Jody Williams, she and her successor Sara Jenkins brought this quality to a favorite, Il Buco in New York, or Nancy Oakes of Boulevard in San Francisco and Alice Waters at Chez Panisse.

CulinAriane has a menu of 7 appetizers and 7 entrees. They offered two specials.

The meal started with, compliments of the chef, a tiny blue potato with cream fraiche and truffle oil. Delicious.

We had the Tuna Sashimi Flower. Diana was reluctant to order, she expected it to be like the many other Tuna Sashimi appetizers you see. It was totally different.

The Tuna, cut in small cubes, gently brushed with sesame oil and soy or tamari, layered on wasabi cream fraiche, atop a circle of crispy flat wantons, this formed the blossom of the flower, Down the plate was a stem of chive with parsley leaves and pickled cucumber swirls. The dish puts a smile on your face.

I had toasted gnocchi which were delicate and flavorful, in a vegetable ragout and tomato fondue, surrounded with baby carrots, red beets, squash and crispy leaks. We kept sharing the last bite, it kept getting smaller and smaller. It was so good.

We were tempted by the jumbo crab cakes with grain mustard remoulade and mache, the cornmeal crusted oysters with greens and horseradish cream or the greens with honey infused goat cheese. Next time.

Another nice touch that they have is serving these tasty little croissants with a touch of honey in place of bread with the finest butter. Although they were not served until the server came around and asked if we wanted more, when we had none, she then brought the butter even later.

The entrees we tried were a baked cod, with arugula pesto, over delicate mashed potatoes and carrot puree. A special of the night. The pure white, green, and orange colors were delightful to the eye and sensuous on the palate.

We also had the French cut chicken breast, on the bone, over Moroccan apricot stew with lentils and herbed quinoa. It made you picture nights in the casbah and made your belly dance.

Other entrees sounded very good. I am sure we will be back. CulinAriane is open Wednesday through Saturday. They pace their reservations so the restaurant was never jammed, but it get's noisy. We will be back on a week night.

Our wines were a Spanish red, Can Blau Montsant 2004. "A blend of Carignan, Syrah, and Grenache this dense ruby/purple-colored 2004 exhibits wonderful minerality along with beautiful raspberry and blueberry fruit notes interwoven with liquid slate/rock-like characteristics. Medium-bodied with gorgeously pure fruit. "Wine Library

And New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. Crossings  "Zingy style has lively lime and grapefruit flavors at  the center, picking up a green apple note as the finish lingers."  also from Wine Library.

Both inexpensive wines, very nice but not quite worthy of the food. Next time I'll bring something better.

Comments

[Mark]

Very fine preparation, very rushed service. One-two minutes after the appetizer plate is taken away, the main course is served, and not because we take our time eating the appetizer - we eat quickly - but we like to wait a few minutes between courses.