“That creme brulee was how much?!”

Although some may not believe it, Raleigh has a fair share of great restaurants. While most of these restaurants are usually worth their high price tag, there are some that just haven’t proved to be worth the pretty penny you have to pay to dine there.

I would have to say that The Mint is one of those restaurants.

Now, I honestly think that I have given this restaurant numerous chances to redeem itself, and I have heard a few people say that they love the place. And while the inside of the restaurant is actually very beautiful, most people who I know would agree that the prices on the menu are way too high for the food that comes out of the kitchen.

After hearing surprisingly good things about their summer menu, the Russian and I decided to try it out before it was gone.

He decided to go for their $30 3 course prix-fixe menu: appetizer, entrée, dessert all for $30.. not too shabby seeing how expensive everything else was. And while two of the three dishes were only sub-par, the truffle mac n cheese he ordered was actually quite delicious.

In the past I have thought that all of the food at The Mint was way too salty, but this mac n cheese was creamy, cheesy and perfectly seasoned. I have to say that this is probably the one and ONLY thing that I’ve ever consumed there that I would actually pay full price for ($7 for a side).

I started out with a chilled carrot and ginger soup (which was OK, but was seriously lacking presentation with no garnish) and a duck small plate that was (surprise!) too salty.

After we finished our first two courses the waiter came by to ask if I would like dessert. I was not originally planning on getting any (or I would have gone with the $30 prix fixe), but once I heard what the dessert special was I knew that I just had to have it!

The waiter was very enthusiastic about the dessert special and kept referring to how amazing it was.. but that sales pitch was of no need for me because it contained passion fruit, my all time favorite flavor. I love passion fruit. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it! I will order just about anything with passion fruit in it, so I was very excited to hear that the dessert special for the night was passion fruit creme brulee.

When the food runner dropped off our desserts she also seemed very excited about the creme brulee, raving about how amazing it was.

My first disappointment came in the size of the dish.  I am certainly not a huge eater, and I actually do not care for restaurants that serve desserts the size of my head, but I don’t want to be given a quarter size creme brulee either.

My second disappointment came when I realized that the creme brulee itself was not passion fruit flavored. It was instead vanilla creme brulee topped with half of a fresh passion fruit that I was to scoop the seeds out of. I don’t mind doing a little work for my food, but I do have an issue with foods that have a weird texture, and passion fruit seeds are something that I quickly learned I don’t care to eat.

This  “spectacular!” dessert quickly turned into a normal vanilla creme brulee with a little passion fruit flavor and a creepy texture from the seeds (yes, creepy.. slimy, crunchy seeds are creepy).

After another sub-par meal I was at least enjoying my last swigs of wine, until the bill came. It wasn’t until I saw the price of the creme brulee that I realized it had never been told to me during the description from the waiter.

Let’s just say that you can not imagine my shock (and the probable look of horror on my face) when I saw that the dessert was in fact $12. Yes, $12 for a tiny pot of vanilla creme brulee and half a passion fruit! I know that passion fruits aren’t cheap, but really.. $12?! Unreal.

Needless to say, I think I have given The Mint enough chances to redeem itself in the “quality justifies price” category. And after all of these chances my conclusion remains the same: I will only go if someone else is paying. And then I will fill up on truffle mac n cheese.

~ by ladywithafork on October 24, 2010.