When I first found out that I was going to review Cafe Uffa I was very excited! For the longest time I had wanted to eat there because of its convenient location at Longfellow Square. And I had heard nothing but good things from people who had dined there. My experience, unfortunately, was not so good.
The Cafe was booming when we got there and seemed to be quite promising. There were waiters and waitresses running around busily and the customers all very tangled up in their own conversations. All the hurrying by all the waiters eventually distracted me. There were a number of dishes dropped and napkins flung through the air. I think eating there actually made me more nervous than I normally am.
The restaurant setting is ideal for a first date or anniversary party. Small tables with candles, each seated far enough away not to catch another’s conversation, even in the one-room dining area.
I ordered what sounded like a great meal, ‘Herb crusted free-range chicken, baked and served with a puff pastry potato tart, and port honey-glazed carrots.’ ($16)
There was no salt or pepper on the table, which I thought was a customary practice all restaurants followed. The argument that the food doesn’t need was proven wrong. There was no flavor to my free-range chicken or potatoes. In this case, the chicken would have served a better purpose still living on a farm clucking and pecking at bugs. The sauce that completely covered the bottom of my plate had a bitter taste to it, and added nothing to the meal except maybe some color.
In many ways the meal was like the painting that hung above our table: bland, distasteful and very over-priced. The oil painting was supposedly on canvas, yet being an artist myself, I knew it was cheap canvas board hung on the wall like a dark cloud over the dinner. Bad colors, bad technique . just bad.
My companion’s dinner was just a touch more tasty. ‘Oven-roasted eggplant and beefeater tomatoes with grilled baby zucchini and wild mushroom couscous, finished with a roasted garlic olive oil.'($16) It was tolerable. Definitely not enough to fill up your stomach. The garlic could be smelled across the room. The dish looked like one of those small dishes you would call a delicacy and pay twenty dollars for.
I must say I was fooled by the glamorous way it was all presented. I would have to say presentation is not everything in this case.
Dessert was another ordeal. Given no menu, our server expected us to remember all the different treats and then choose right away. This was the only fault I could find with our waiter. It’s very hard to make up your mind when being watched and expected to answer quickly.
Eventually the Apple Fritters ($6) seemed to be the safest way to help forget this dinner. Like with many things in this restaurant, I was wrong again. Is there a sugar shortage somewhere that I don’t know about? The fritters looked delicious, but once you tasted them you had no reason to finish them. They were tasteless and bland, and I even wondered why the name of the dessert had the word apple in it. These tasted like wads of flour deep-fried with as little apple as possible. For $6 I would expect at least 3 apples to make up the dish, but alas, it seems I ask for too much.
There are many possibilities that could explain why this dinner was as bad as it was: a shortage of sugar, the recent change of ownership, and maybe even the possibility that the chef was having a really bad night. Regardless of the situation, I do not recommend Cafe Uffa. I only wish I hadn’t had the chance to go there so that I could hold on to my initial belief that it was a great place to eat.
Location: Longfellow Square
Atmosphere: Nerve-wracking
Price: $44
Rating: 2 out of 5 brussels sprouts