Shokolaat Lobster Salad Sandwich. Photo courtesy Kitchen Gadget Girl
The first thing you see when you walk into this self-described modern bistro are the sparkling cases stuffed with rich piles of handmade chocolates and pastries. That decadent display alone would be enough to draw one back to Shokolaat, but I was after quite another attraction: a meatloaf sandwich.
I've been to Shokolaat only for lunch (truth be told, I find their lunch menu far more interesting than their dinner offerings) and I have yet to be disappointed. Last spring, I had a mushroom soup drizzled with mint oil that was incredibly satisfying without being overly rich. That soup was good, very good, wonderfully good, but the salad I paired with it was great.
There's was nothing particularly interesting about the salad in question -- if I recall correctly, it was just greens and herbs -- but the greens were fresh and springy and the vinaigrette was neither too heavy nor too sweet. Fresh salad greens seem so simple, but I've met way too many salads that are ruined by limp lettuces and bad vinaigrette and, for me, there's nothing so disappointing as a bad salad. It's surprising how many restaurants can get it wrong.
But oy, that meatloaf sandwich! I'm a meatloaf lover. I love it hot and fresh with a steaming baked potato that has the perfect salt: butter: sour cream: minced scallion ratio. I love it cold the next morning, noon, or night. However, until Shokolaat showed me the way, I never loved it on a sandwich.
