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SIDNEY'S GRILLE
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Telephone: 617-551-0300
Prices: Lunch: appetizers: $4.25-$5.50; salads, sandwiches: $7.50-$9: entrees: $7.50-$10.50; dinner: appetizers: $4.50-$8.50; entrees: $12.50-$19; desserts: $4-$5.50
Good Choices: Three-cod chowder; grilled King oyster mushrooms with greens; Angus burger; grilled layered eggplant with black pearl barley ragout; Sidney's steak with blue cheese vinaigrette; rhubarb strawberry cobbler; pecan-apple tart.
Noise level: Hard surfaces, high ceilings could make it noisy if room was full.
Hours: Lunch, Monday-Friday: 11;30-2;30; dinner: 5:30-10, Sun.-Thu. 5;30 Fri-Sat. brunch Sat., Sun. 11:30-2:30.
Credit cards: all major
Access: Fully accessible.
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Sidney's Grille
1/41/2 20 Sidney St.
Cambridge, MA
617-551-0300
(Get Directions)
Restaurant reviewed 05/06/99 by Alison Arnett
The halibut sat on an attractive triangular plate, surrounded by a colorful honey tangerine salsa. White fish against bright oranges, reds and greens: a pleasing first impression. On top was a mound of sprouts, which should have been another nice touch, wispy dark green against the fish, a peppery counterpoint to the mild fish and the sweet-hot salsa. Or it would have been, if about half the mound of sprouts hadn't been yellowed, too old to dance on the palate or beguile the eyes.
Sidney's Grille in the University Park Hotel at MIT could be a place that sparkled. The decor is striking and contemporary - gleaming wood floors interspersed with rugs, sweeping ceilings enrobed in coppery tiles, a stainless steel kitchen exposed to full view, lots of light from floor-to-ceiling windows and some interesting nooks and crannies. When the hotel, part of the Doubletree chain in partnership with MIT, opened the restaurant, the idea was haute cuisine. Because of the heated competition in fine dining in the Boston area right now, and because the restaurant is tucked away behind Massachusetts Avenue, the management decided several months ago to change emphasis.
The menu, scaled back and moderated from the opening months to appeal to a broader cross-section of diners, now offers dishes that sounded interesting with many references to organic products and housemade ingredients.
And there were good tastes sprinkled among the dishes by a new chef, Todd Young. But there were also many integral pieces that tasted as though they'd been cooked long ahead, and dishes that were boring. Sidney's offered the right language and the right look - but a lackluster performance.
Young, who worked for many years at Henrietta's Table, makes his own soft cheese, like a farmer's cheese, every day. It's served as a simple salad with oven-roasted tomatoes and olives. The cheese itself is very good, the texture just right and the flavor very subtly tangy from the buttermilk used in it. But the balsamic dressing drizzled over the cheese and tomatoes has a lick too much sweetness. A Maine Jonah crab cake was a handsome plump portion surrounded by a multicolored cabbage and vegetable slaw. It made a pretty picture. But the crab cake was dry, and the slaw blandly seasoned. A salad of King mushrooms, big white and firm ones from New Hampshire, plus sturdy greens like endive and radicchio sounded great, and looked good, too. But everything - greens and mushrooms - was limp with oil, possibly done ahead of time. And the foccacia spread with Vermont chevre was tough.
In fact, several of the dishes at lunch one day tasted as though at least components had been precooked and stored. A Yukon gold potato and onion tart was cleverly made - the potatoes were finely julienned and the pizza-like crust that folded slightly over the top was an interesting variation on a pie-plate shape. But the potatoes were limp and greasy, the crust cold and stiff and the green salad with the tart had absorbed alot of vinaigrette, as though it had been tossed a long time before. And the tart would have benefited from being warm. Cold, greasy potatoes hold no appeal for me.
Smoked beef brisket was not hot as advertised and could have used some sauce to perk the rather sloppy, wet mass of meat. And French fries with a burger had definitely spent some time hanging around before being put on the plate.
That's not the whole story at Sidney's, though. Three-cod - fresh, smoked and salted - chowder had an excellent depth of flavor and yet was light in texture, a nice beginning to dinner. Grilled eggplant layered with tomatoes was served with a ragout of black pearl barley and vegetables, a rather tenuous connection. The eggplant was only so-so, but the barley and vegetable ragout was delicious, an appealing way to approach a vegetarian dish - a must in any restaurant in Cambridge.
Sidney's 12-ounce steak filled the need for red meat with hearty dollops of a blue cheese vinaigrette. A side order of mashed potatoes definitely hit the jackpot, freshly made or at least mashed, hot, really buttery and wonderful.
Probably because of Sidney's earlier life, the wine list is diverse and interesting. And Sidney's desserts, by pastry chef Allison Oberbeck, also were quite good. A rhubarb-strawberry cobbler with a nice biscuity crust admirably held the line between tart and sweet. A pecan apple tart was another appealing dessert, with a crumbly crust and a crunchy nut topping. Only a chocolate hazelnut concoction was drab and disappointing.
Service in this big room, busier at lunch than at dinner, generally was perky and friendly but sometimes forgetful. The single best dish I tasted at Sidney's occurred because an order for a hamburger was forgotten. One lunchtime the meals for three of us arrived, leaving one young eater bereft. The waiter was apologetic and rushed to the kitchen, coming back to report that the burger was being made and would be on the house. As we three nibbled around the edges of our food, rather disappointed, the hamburger arrived, juicy, piping hot, and cooked just as ordered. I got a taste. It was delicious, worth the wait, and proof that Sidney's could do it right.
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