we wanted to love it

I wanted to love it, but the best I can say after last night is that I like some of the dishes. After hearing great reviews, we went with a couple of our friends to Repast (I think it has a fancy spelling, but I am not motivated enough to look it up.) for dinner.

We decided to ask for the tasting menu, which is usually the best of the chef's best, so our server brought the chef over to speak to us about our upcoming meal (likes - pretty much everything, dislikes - salmon from one of our party, allergies - none, etc.). We decided on 4 courses, because our friend is pregnant and becomes tired early in the night, and wine pairings with each course.

The meal started with a gift from the kitchen of a spoon filled with smoked salmon atop a bed of avocado cream. It was very flavorful and continued our high hopes for the night. The first course was a little bit of a shock when our server brought a different drink and dish for each person. Derek got fried oysters with a sauvignon blanc, I received crab cakes with sake, Scott's plate was foie gras with a red wine and Elizabeth was served dates (pregnant, so only water), stuffed with almonds and wrapped with bacon. Each dish was great, but the variety made everything confusing -- do we each eat our own or do we share with the table? We decided to share, but ran into problems with this -- Derek's plate came with 3 oysters, so I had to split one in half so that everyone had a taste. Also, the thought of sharing drinks freaked some people out, so the pairings no longer had any relevance.

After the first course, we decided to stop sharing so that the wine pairings matched better. I was excited when the server put a bowl in front of mine to hold my mussel shells. When the plates arrived, Scott ended up with squab, Derek had a salmon and goat cheese pizza, I received mussels, and I can't remember what Elizabeth was served. Scott wanted the mussels, and the squab looked interesting (it was so small!), so I traded. The squab was pretty good, but above all was just amazing to see how to dive into this tiny little fowl. The mussels were apparently great, since Scott wolfed them down. Unfortunately, Derek's salmon pizza (they didn't call it a pizza, but it basically was) was disappointing, more like a bagel than a gourmet 2nd course. Our disappointment mounted as the server asked if Derek wanted to take his remainder (3/4 of the whole pizza) home with him, but never thought to ask if he actually liked it. The server had a habit of asking one person at the table if the meal was good, but not making eye contact with anyone else (maybe out of fear of finding out that they didn't like their food).

The 3rd course brought scallops to Elizabeth, veal to Scott, salmon to me and duck to Derek. Derek and Scott decided to trade out, so I knew I was out of luck for a satisfying trade for my salmon. Sitting between Derek and Scott, I ended up trying the veal and duck, which were both tasty, but the veal was sinewy. I'm not a big cooked salmon person (though I love it as sushi), but I hoped for the best. I wanted to like everything, but it just wasn't good.

We were hoping for a last course of cheese, since it was a highlight of the menu and our favorite last course. We didn't get cheese, but instead a trio of ice creams and other desserts. The clear favorite was the bread pudding, with the pumpkin-like (I can't remember the type of fruit/vegetable that was the actual main ingredient) ice cream as the clear loser. Honorable mentions went to the chocolate terrine, melon shiso ice cream and the cheesecake. All of the dessert wine pairings were a hit, so the meal ended on a high note.

All in all, the meal was good, but not worth the $380 (before tip) for the foursome. If you combined the best of the appetizers and each course, it would be a satisfying dinner. Worthy of $100 a head? Maybe or maybe not.