Cakes & Ale

What could be better than a restaurant that serves up great drinks and in house-made desserts? A restaurant that also offers amazing food! That's exactly what Cakes & Ale in Decatur is. Cashew took me there for dinner for my birthday a few weeks ago, and we had a great experience. We went there without a reservation on a Saturday night, so the only available seats were at the community table. That worked out really well because the people sitting next to us seemed really nice. At the same time, we didn't feel forced to interact with them the whole time.

If you look at the dinner menu, it is a little confusing because there are no headings to separate appetizers from entrees and so on. It turns out that the first few items are cold appetizers. All the items after the space are warm dishes, but the fist few of them are small, appetizer-size plates. Only the last few items, the pricy ones, are true entrees. With that said, Cashew and I shared three of the "appetizers." We had the a carpaccio-like dish, gnocchi with duck ragu, and an octopus dish. The carpaccio came with chopped kale and cranberries. We ended up rolling them inside the beef pieces. The taste was just ok. Surprisingly, it was pretty bland. I just tasted a lot of sweetness; I don't even know where it came from.

In contrast, I loved the potato gnocchi. That was a very filling dish, so we weren't too worried about eating three small things. The gnocchi just melted in your mouth. The ragu had that "warm me up on a winter night" feel to it. I can't remember any flavors standing out, but the texture and the feel of the dish made it a successful choice for me.

I can't complain about the octopus either. It was the first time I've had cooked octopus (not in sushi), so I was simply surprised by the texture. It was a lot smoother than I expected. And it had a wonderful smoky taste that contributed to the melt-in-your-mouth taste. The octopus rested on a piece of garlic bread with harissa sauce on the side. They were as delicious as expected as well. My only disappointment was with the endive. It was a little too bitter for my liking, but I finished all of it anyway.

And because it was my birthday, we couldn't leave without dessert. We got a hazelnut-honey tart that was just divine. Somehow, the hazelnuts were so soft and easy to eat, but they still retained some of the crunch that you expect of a nut. And the honey added a lot in terms of taste with its characteristic sweetness and flavor without making the tart cloyingly sweet. I was very impressed with how they accomplished such an amazing taste because it could have gone horribly wrong in many different ways. Oh, and let me not forget about the parsimmon ice cream! I don't even like parsimmons, but I liked it here :)

Finally, I want to say a word about the drinks. We did not order any at the restaurant because we had other plans for the rest of the night, but there were some very interesting options on the menu. The great thing about Cakes & Ale is that the menu changes all the time, so I'll definitely go back to try some of the other things it offers.