Small B&B in Brockville offers diners eclectic menu

BROCKVILLE, Ontario — Down by the river in downtown Brockville there's a neat little restaurant tucked away in a two-century-old historic stone building. It's called Kazuko, located in the Robertson House Inn, a small two-bedroom B&B.

If "Kazuko" sounds oriental, that's because the owners are Asian. A husband and wife team runs the operation. An accomplished chef, he does the cooking. A gracious, soft-spoken hostess, she does the serving.

There are two small dining rooms with restored maple floors, peachy-pink walls and blinking miniature lights strung inside and around the fireplaces.

The menu is as eclectic as the restaurant itself: Dim sum for starters. A page of Japanese entrees. A selection of dinners in the French style.

Are you familiar with dim sum? Dim sum has Chinese origins; it's an assortment of delicacies consisting of a variety of dumplings, steamed dishes and other goodies — similar to what we know as hors d'oeuvres.

I guess you'd call it the appetizer section of Kazuko's menu, so we started there.

Each plate or steamer basket ($5 on average) contains four or five small bite-sized treats.

Chicken tempura dumplings were light and lovely; the distinctive deep-fried tempura batter coating was devoid of any greasiness — almost fluffy, you might say.

Pork shao-mai were steamed dumplings, similar to little meatballs of ground pork with subtle flavors of ginger, sesame oil and rice wine vinegar. The perfect size to pick up with chopsticks and pop in our mouths.

Thai shrimp was nicely prepared, but devoid of any heat you might expect from a Thai dish, lightly sauced and placed on a bed of greens. The greens were touched with a delightful dressing, seemingly yogurt-based and wonderful all by themselves.

Our favorite was the plate of vegetarian spring rolls prepared Vietnamese style (more like a wrap) and not deep-fried. They're made with rice paper wrappers, softened in water until they become translucent. The wrapper is folded around fresh, steamed vegetables that included shredded bok choy, red and yellow sweet pepper, carrot and a touch of cilantro.

Three dipping sauces accompanied the dim sum dishes: plum sauce, soy sauce and a not-too-hot hot sauce.

A cup of the soup de jour ($3.95), cream of curried chicken, was quite enjoyable, with a good amount of chicken and just the right amount of curry. The chef's judicious use of curry in his soup was appreciated.

A basket of bread arrived at the table, a whole grain baguette, sliced, soft and warm with just a suggestion of a crust.

Salads come with most entrées, either a "green" salad or a Caesar salad.

The green salad consisted of field greens with a wedge of ripe red tomato, circles of cucumber and slices of colorful sweet peppers. Homemade salad dressings were excellent. We loved the sundried tomato dressing as well as the creamy garlic.

Caesar salad utilized crisp, fresh, finely chopped romaine tossed with a subtle Caesar dressing, standard croutons and finished with grated parmesan.

Kazuko's salmon presentation was simple and effective, priced at $18.95. A modest portion of salmon was lightly poached and covered with a lightly herbed cream sauce. Rice pilaf accompanied, perfectly cooked and dotted with minced veggies that added color and flavor.

The only chicken offering is a sautéed boneless breast of chicken with a lemon pepper cream sauce ($17.95). Like the salmon dish, it was very simple, strips of tender chicken carefully fanned out on the plate and covered with a delicate cream sauce. The lemon was there, but overall the sauce was more creamy than lemony. Rice pilaf accompanied.

Fresh-cut New York sirloin is on the menu. Since we traveled from New York, we felt it our duty to give it a try. (Don't be misled — this was not New York strip steak, it was just old-fashioned sirloin steak).

It's available in four portion sizes from 6 ounces ($17.95) to 12 ounces ($23.95).

We got the 6-ouncer, probably not a wise decision on our part. It was a skinny little steak. The chef tried his best to cook it to our request of medium, I'm sure, but there wasn't a trace of pink when we cut into it. It was drizzled with a brothy sauce that helped moisten it a bit.

One of the reasons we ordered the steak was that it came with Kazuko's roast cheese potatoes. As it turned out, these were simply cubed potatoes covered with a little melted cheddar.

There are four Japanese specialty dishes on the menu: Katsu-don (deep-fried pork cutlet with onion and egg), shrimp and vegetable tempura, bento box (a selection of dim sum, served in a four-compartment box) and our choice, Teppan Yaki ($17.95).

Teppan Yaki is a Japanese dish of meat and vegetables cooked on an iron griddle. At Kazuko, you have the choice of beef or lamb. We went with lamb.

It was meticulously arranged and served in an oval dish, perfectly cooked colorful veggies interspersed with thinly sliced lamb. Overall, very tasty.

The vegetables rescued this one. The lamb was sliced so thinly that you could hardly tell from the look or the taste that it was lamb. We're lamb lovers, and I guess we were expecting meat that would be a little more substantial and flavorful than what we got.

There were only two desserts available the night we were there. Usually there are four. Caramel apple cheesecake appeared to be and tasted like restaurant-supplier variety, dense and cake-like. But the ginger-green tea-red bean ice cream was bursting with flavors. Not sure if it was homemade or not, but it was excellent.

Dinner for four cost $135 in Canadian funds before leaving a tip. Conversion to U.S. funds made the total just a few dollar less since the exchange rate is about even right now.

There was a bit of a language barrier with our server at times, but she didn't mind repeating things until we got it. She was the sweetest thing, always taking a few steps back with a slight bow every time she cleared plates from the table. And even as the restaurant got busier throughout the evening, she managed to keep the pace at our table on track. She was the only waitress the night we were there.

A word about wine. There is no selection of wine at Kazuko other than their no-name house wine by the glass. Some folks at the table next to use were quite disappointed to find that out. However, the restaurant allows you to bring your own wine to enjoy with dinner. There's a $9 corkage fee for this privilege. On several weekday nights they waive the fee.

You can contact restaurant reviewer Walter Siebel via e-mail: wsiebel@wdt.net.

Kazuko Restaurant

at the Robertson House Inn

10 Broad St.

Brockville, Ontario

1 (613) 345-5164

http://robertsonhouseinn.ca/default.aspx

An eclectic little restaurant serving dim sum, Japanese entrées and dinners in the French style

HOURS: Dinner: 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday

Lunch: 11:45 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday

Get the dim sum-chicken tempura dumplings, pork shao-mai, Thai shrimp, vegetarian rice paper wrap — they're all good.

For entrées, consider the salmon with a delicate cream sauce and the chicken breast with a lemon pepper cream sauce.

Ginger-green tea-red bean ice cream is a great way to end your meal.

RATING: 3 1/2 FORKS