Food is good, but devil's in the details
One Eleven Village Square
Route 111, Hampstead, N.H.
Telephone: 603-329-6879
Hours: Monday through Friday, 11:30 a.m.-8 p.m.; Saturday, 11:30 a.m.-9:30 p.m.; and Sunday noon-8 p.m.
Website: none
Credit Cards: All major charge cards accepted.
Access: Handicapped accessible
One Eleven Village Square is one of those old-time New England restaurants where you'd gather for Sunday dinner out, or to celebrate your cousin's birthday. It's cozy with its two massive fireplaces and rustic gazebo out back - even though the front entrance is in a strip mall.
There is plenty of comfortable booth seating as well as huge tables for big office or family parties. It could use a little updating - like losing the dated wallpaper and putting on a few coats of earth-tone paint to match those large brick hearths. But we kind of like the old-fashioned nature of the menu.
We were particularly hungry after our recent Sunday drive and stopped in at One Eleven for a late lunch, or perhaps it was an early dinner. We came in a little too early to take advantage of the Sunday dinner buffet, which runs from 4 -8 p.m. But we were there when they were setting up, and for $15 it looked like a really good deal. We overheard the chef say he changes the selections every week. Last Sunday we noticed a nice-looking meatloaf on the carving station and thought it a nice alternative to the usual hunk of prime rib.
But since we arrived earlier, we started with appetizers and drinks - warm spinach artichoke dip ($7) and Bass ale on draft ($3). We had already wolfed down the crispy, warm dinner rolls that came promptly after we were seated.
We read that the dip was served with toasted baguette rounds, but asked if we could also have some celery sticks to use for those of us at the table who were watching their carbs. Our waitress was very accommodating throughout the meal and did arrive with a big bowl of dip - wonderfully creamy and crammed with spinach and huge pieces of artichoke hearts. There was also a really satisfying portion of the bread rounds - so often when restaurants serve a dip they don't provide enough of the dippers. She also came with the celery - although we were rather surprised when we got our bill that we were charged an additional 75 cents for a side vegetable. But it was so good we're not complaining.
While dipping we had plenty of time to look over the menu. We liked the fact that our son had more than the usual offerings of grilled cheese and chicken fingers from which to choose. They also had food for people who might be young but still liked some variety in their diet. For $7 your child can chow down on chicken Parmesan or marinated steak tips while Mom and Dad are cutting into their sirloins and swordfish, although the little picky eater in our bunch went straight for the chicken tenders and french fries. But these were exceptionally good - real, juicy breast meat was used for the tenders. The restaurant also offers early-bird specials weekdays from 4 to 6 p.m. for $10.
Speaking of specials, one of us did opt for the seafood special of the day - swordfish Oscar ($18) - a large, grilled swordfish steak topped with generous chunks of lobster meat, fresh asparagus, and a really knockout sweet onion hollandaise sauce. It was rich but worth every decadent bite. The side dishes chosen didn't fare as well. The rice pilaf was dry and tasted like it came out of a box, and the cole slaw was nothing special.
Another member of our party went for the traditional New England special dinner-out choice - a surf and turf with English cut prime rib and three baked jumbo shrimp ($23). Again we were impressed by the portions. There was a generous slab of perfectly seasoned beef and three plump prawns with delightful seafood stuffing that in some restaurants would have been a meal in itself. The accompanying mashed potatoes were also superlative and tasted like Mama just mashed them a few minutes ago. But the vegetable medley - a few florets of broccoli, cauliflower, and a round or two of carrot - while fresh, was totally bland. This is another update suggestion to the restaurant: Don't serve anything that has the word "medley" in it. It conjures up images of lima beans and canned corn.
Throughout our entire meal our child diner could talk about nothing but his favorite dessert in the world - bananas foster - which was on the specials menu.
As promised we ordered him the dessert ($5), and he was a little disappointed that there was no display of matches and fire at our tableside as there had been at the last two restaurants he tried the confection. He dug in anyway, but after the first taste of banana he looked as if he'd just bitten into a raw cranberry. We tried some and understood why. It tasted as if the bananas were sautéed in rum but never flambéed. They retained a bitter alcohol taste that was pretty unpleasant, and would have burned off if there had been enough flame. He ended up eating the French vanilla ice cream around them.
Another in our party tried the blueberry-lemon mascarpone cake ($4.25) which was also a tad disappointing. The mascarpone filling was creamy and good, but the cake was dry and the fruit didn't taste fresh.
So here's the thing. We liked One Eleven Village Square. We felt the entrees were of high quality and a good value.
But if we could offer some advice, in addition to a cosmetic sprucing up, it's to pay a lot closer attention to the side dishes and desserts. The devil is in the details, and so is the flavor.
TOM LONG 