Harlequin

A new chef for the Beechwood Hotel

by Margaret LeRoux

Harlequin 363 Plantation St. Worcester (508) 754-5789 Lunch Mon.-Sat. 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Dinner Mon.-Sat. 6-10 p.m. Sun. 5-9 p.m. Major credit cards Full bar Handicap accessible

There's a new chef and new digs for the Harlequin restaurant at the Beechwood Hotel. Nicolai Vuxinic, formerly of the Ritz Carlton in St. Louis, is building a new menu to give international flavor to the restaurant's typically American dishes. After sampling several of the new items, I can report on the success of his imaginative efforts. However, the level of service at this pricy restaurant isn't in the same league as the food is.

A friend and I arrived on a week night, slightly later than the usual dinner hour, to find only three tables occupied, so we were seated immediately. Since the dining room was virtually empty, we thought it odd that we were seated right next to another table of diners. While waiting for our waitress, we surveyed the room. The harlequin theme is given sophisticated treatment on the walls, with diamond patterns in shades of burnt orange, deep green, and purple. A wall-size wine rack dominates one end of the room.

We spotted a French Chablis, Domaine Gerard Trembly ($34) on the wine list which prompted memories of those limp, pale, jug wines that were so popular at college parties. Chablis from France is made from chardonnay grapes; US winemakers use the term generically for white wine. French Chablis is not aged in oak barrels as is most American chardonnay, so it has more of a mineral taste. The Chablis we drank at Harlequin was delightful and downright flinty.

We noticed that the restaurant's signature soup, butternut squash and crabmeat bisque ($5) is still on the menu. I've enjoyed this rich broth before and remembered how filling it is, so in order to save room for dessert, I skipped the soup course.

Appetizers include some creative offerings: shiitake mushroom Napoleon ($7), marinated mushrooms in puff pastry with saffron cream, and pepper crusted carpaccio ($8). We shared Thai-inspired rock-shrimp salad ($10) in a bright-tasting sauce -- a balance of sweet and sour flavors with bits of red pepper for heat. The sauce was restrained enough to enhance the sweetness of the shrimp rather than overpower it. In an interview later, chef Vuxinic explained that the sauce gets its sweetness from pineapple juice and its bite from chili peppers. The small shrimp were sautéed in a light batter, just enough so they were crunchy. They were served on a bed of field greens with paper-thin slices of pickled ginger and sprinkled with sesame seeds. We ate every bit of this superb appetizer.

Entrées are appealing, though pricey. A 12-ounce New York sirloin is $26, porcini-dusted beef tenderloin, $27. Pan-seared lobster with porcini stuffing is $29. At the lowest end of the price range is seafood-saffron risotto ($19). We made our choices, ginger-rubbed salmon ($20), and toasted-pecan crusted veal chop ($26), then waited a very long time before they were brought to our table.

The veal chop was large, thick, and more well-done than I would have chosen, but I wasn't given an option of ordering it medium rare. There was a surprise stuffing of chopped apples that helped keep it juicy. I'd looked forward to the goat-cheese polenta that accompanied the chop, but the cute diamonds of cornmeal were so bland, I gave up after a couple of bites. My friend's plate of salmon was literally a tasteful picture, the perfectly grilled fish spilling out of an edible rice-paper seashell over a bed of jasmine rice sweetened with coconut milk. A colorful stir-fry of vegetables completed the tableau.

The bill for our meals was just over $100, not including tip.

Since the Beechwood Hotel opened eight years ago, the Harlequin has been touted as a fancy restaurant, one of those places where you dine to impress your date, your parents, or a client. The hotel caters to business travelers, like the high-tech-talking group at the table next to ours. They were way past the appetizers and on to the second bottle of wine by the time we arrived. A congenial group, they asked the waitress for a selection of cheeses rather than the dessert tray. You'd have thought they asked for pancakes or scrambled eggs from the startled look on her face.

"Cheese?" what kind of cheese do you want?' She was clueless.

"How about some goat cheese, a little camembert, or gorgonzola?" the group's spokesman requested. He didn't even ask for brie, and it should be noted both gorgonzola and goat cheese were on the menu as ingredients.

The waitress returned a few minutes later and informed the group there was no cheese platter to be had.

"But there was cheese at the reception in one of the rooms upstairs," one of the diners protested to no avail.

It seems to me that a hotel staff with a little imagination could have filled their request without difficulty. I found it hard to believe there was no cheese in the kitchen and couldn't help remembering the Monty Python skit where there was no cheese at the cheese shop.

Am I making too much of the cheese platter? I use it as an example of the lackluster service we all experienced. At both our table and our neighbors' there was no bread served, though according to Chef Vuxinic the restaurant offers a selection of focaccia, dinner rolls, and a baguette. Our wine was placed in an ice bucket, but the waitress never attempted to refill our glasses. An overly long lag between appetizer and main course was quite noticeable (especially since there was no bread to nibble on and there was no other table being served at this time).

Our overly chatty waitress served like she was in a pub, certainly not an appropriate manner for a restaurant that claims a five-star rating (and charges five-star prices). I commend Harlequin's chef for his imagination; the restaurant has potential. With better staff training and more attention to detail, Harlequin would better live up to its reputation.