This week’s Craig LaBan review pick is Dream Cuisine, a new French restaurant in Cherry Hill. Yes, a French restaurant in Cherry Hill. Owner Vincent Fanari, the former executive chef of Plough & the Stars, has created a damn good menu loaded with specialties from his native Nice.
Here’s what we learned from Craig LaB’s review:
1) The food critic doesn’t like chain-styled Italian restaurants:
When the food arrived, the smell of seafood in garlic butter and tomato sauces piqued with Nicoise olives wafted up invitingly. I inhaled the aromas and poised my fork for a taste of Provence, when …
“Happy birthday to you!!!”
The recorded music was being piped out of Toscana, the cheesy Italian restaurant a dozen yards from our table. And it blared across the pedestrian plaza of the Village Walk for what seemed like the fourth time that hour. The reverie was broken, yet again.
2) French pasta doesn’t have to stink:
I’m pleasantly surprised by Fanari’s homemade pastas, but they are a reminder of Nice’s proximity to Italy. Delicately spun capellini come beneath a tender chicken breast topped with melted Gruyere and the soft folds of pink prosciutto - a simple dish that I’ve lately come to crave.
Important lessons both.
Dream Cuisine [Official Site]
Dream Cuisine [Cherry Hill]
