Creole Cooking Club

Brick Oven Cafe - Kenner, Louisiana

Brick Oven Cafe is a locally owned Italian restaurant that was opened in the early 90s. Four members were able to attend this meeting; two had never been to BOC before, and two had not been for many, many years. While the two members who had been before seemed to think the restaurant had made some changes to the decor, it didn't appear that any updates had been made in quite awhile. The restaurant seemed unkempt and not too clean. While living in New Orleans teaches you that sometimes the best restaurants aren't always the cleanest, I have eaten at some phenomenal dives, a restaurant that tries to pass itself off as gourmet should be holding itself to some fairly stringent standards in this regard. The open kitchen displayed a really nice brick, wood burning oven (thus the name), but the kitchen overall was nothing spectacular to see in setup or use. There didn't seem to be very many people in there working at all, so it was sort of dull and odd.

We started off the night with a couple of appetizers: the Eggplant Rolatine and the Mozzarella in Corozza. The eggplant was pretty good. When frying eggplant, some restaurants fail to fully take out the bitter taste that eggplant can impart. This one was tender and mild. The cheese filling, however, was quite grainy. I am assuming this is because they used a lot of ricotta in the filling. It didn't seem, however, they had made any effort to cream out the ricotta (running it in a food processor for a minute or two) before using it as the base for the filling. The breading was ok, and it wasn't greasy; however, having the sauce ladled over the top of the fried rolls made them a bit soggy instead of crispy. The mozzarella toast was quite good. The cheese had been broiled to a golden brown, stretchy goodness over a toast that held its texture quite well against the marinara sauce. A bread basket was also brought to the table, and the bread was served warm, crispy on the outside, soft on the inside. Perfectly good bread.

Our server was very attentive and nice, but her knowledge of the menu seemed rather limited. When we asked for suggestions for entrees, she gave us her favorite dish and then looked in the menu to find the name of a dish she "sees come out of the kitchen a lot." She suggested the Rigatoni Quattro Formaggi and the Chicken Marsala. Right before we ordered, she gave us the list of specials. We chose to go with one of those, the grilled Mahi Mahi with shrimp served with a side of spaghetti with marinara sauce and a Margherita Pizza. We also ordered a caprese salad and were served a salad with the Mahi dish. One of our members asked to get the House Salad (a simple Italian salad), but the waitress ended up bringing us the Brick Oven Cafe Salad (featuring chicken, feta, and sunflower seeds). The Cafe Salad was very tasty. Their italian dressing is tangy and the feta complimented that very well with its salty, creamy bite. The sunflower seeds added some much needed crunch, and the chicken was tender and moist. The Caprese salad, however, was a bit disappointing. The tomatoes used as a base were very large and lacked in the tomato flavor I associate with a caprese salad. They seemed like the large, tough, generic tomatoes you can get at any supermarket that are fairly tasteless; this is a far cry from the tender, sweet, juicy tomatoes I have had with good caprese in the past. The mozzarella was very dry and grainy, as if it weren't very fresh. I am more accustomed to a moist, creamy mozzarella when preparing Caprese salads. The balsamic was pretty good, but it didn't have quite the bite I like in a good balsamic. Overall, the caprese salad was just ok, but it was nothing to write home about. I was also disappointed that we weren't offered, nor did there seem to be any used, fresh cracked black pepper or freshly grated parmesan cheese. There was a shaker of the powdered parm on the table like you might find in a chain pizza restaurant. 

Speaking of pizza, when the pizza arrived, the crust showed that the oven can certainly do its work. It was a lovely golden brown and had a very good chewy bite to it. It was a little heavy on cheese, and the kitchen used those same tomatoes from the caprese in large chunks on the pizza. The toppings greatly overpowered the crust, and the bland tomatoes weren't doing the dish any flavor. It was a shame as the crust itself was well made. The fish was very good, though a touch on the salty side. The flavors otherwise were nice, but the presentation was lacking. The side dish of pasta was pretty good, but it seemed like an afterthought to the dish as a whole. It was as if they planned a fish dish and just threw out an easy side idea based on what would be convenient. 

Overall, Brick Oven was ok, but not great. It certainly needs to improve if it wants to contend with the "gourmet" Italian restaurants in the area. While I enjoyed our dinner, it was largely because of the company, not so much the food. I would pick Vincen't or Impastato's any day over the fare I had last night, and I would suggest you do the same if you are in the mood for some really good Italian cuisine. However, if in a pinch for Italian, it would do ok.

- Brittney