I thought I’d try my hand on another restaurant critique. But, I’ve got to tell ya, Gilbert’s makes it pretty easy to critique.
Simply put, if you don’t have kids with you and your not looking to walk out of the place stuffed like the Thanksgiving turkey, you should try out Gilbert’s. It’s in an historic building, overlooking the east shore of Lake Geneva. The building itself is one you wouldn’t mind sitting around looking at. But, you also get beautiful views of the sunset over the lake while dining on expertly prepared dishes.
The menu is a la carte and not inexpensive, but I didn’t think it was outrageous either. You’ll probably run up a $50/person bill before buying any drinks. My wife and I couldn’t decide on what to eat, so we decided to let the chef do it. That’s right, you can choose to have the chef prepare you a 4 course meal, 4 course vegetarian meal, or a 6 course meal. We went with the 4 course meal and there were things on there I probably would not have ordered from the menu, but they were all excellent.
The first course was seared tuna with avocado, basil caviar and a mango sauce. If you’ve never had it the basil caviar is not actual fish eggs (looks like it), but rather basil seeds in a sauce. That was followed by soft shell crab in a split pea broth. I’m not the biggest split pea fan, so I wasn’t sure about this one. I shouldn’t have worried, it was pretty darn tasty. That was followed by a roast duck that was awesome. Lastly the dessert was a choclate cheesecake with some strawberry sorbet and a chocolate straw. That was really good as well, but not quite as good as the previous 3 courses. All of the dishes looked like little masterpieces and I almost felt guilty to disturb them.
In all, my wife and I had a great time at Gilbert’s. It was one of the better meals I’ve had dining out in quite some time. Although, when you’re usually bringing along a 5 year old and a 2 year old, you don’t usually go to a place like this. But, man, its a nice experience when you get the chance.
