Kingston Restaurant Review - "Casa Domenico"

I've been very slowly chipping away at my quest to eat at every restaurant in downtown Kingston, and on Friday I managed to cross one of the last big names off my list. Casa Domenico (35 Brock St.) is about as upscale as it gets downtown, with prices to match ($10-15 appetizers, $25-35 entrees, wine starting at $32/bottle). That pretty much explains why it took me 6 years to make it there. Fortunately, it was (mostly) worth the wait.

The food at Casa Domenico is modern French/Italian, with tons of big, rich dishes and pricey ingredients (foie gras was in at least 3 of the menu items). I opted for bacon-wrapped scallops as an appetizer, which came served on top of a crispy potato pancake thing, with a sweet corn purée and crème fraîche. Everything was delicious, though the bacon tasted a little too much like it came from the A&P meat section. Not bad, but not what you'd expect on a $12 appetizer.

My entree was a tuna-three-ways type thing - tuna carpaccio with arugula, mustard seed crusted seared tuna with marinated onions, and black pepper tuna with foie gras and caramelized fennel. The carpaccio was kind of mediocre. Tuna has a fairly subtle flavour, and the olive oil basically drowned out the taste, and turned the texture from that soft, melt-in-your-mouth feeling that makes tuna sushi so darn good to kind of slimy. Fortunately, the rest of the dish made up for it. The mustard seed crusted tuna was perfectly cooked, and the marinated onions added a nice spicy kick. The black pepper tuna was also great, with the fennel giving it a bit of sweetness, and a thin slice of seared foie gras adding some ridiculously over-the-top smoky richness. I'm not the world's biggest fan of foie gras from an ethical perspective, and under most circumstances I can take it or leave it flavour-wise, but it definitely worked here.

I also had a few bites of the roast duck with mashed potatoes and duck confit, which tasted pretty delicious from my small sample.

For dessert, I had a vanilla crème brulée flambé, which was basically just regular crème brulée with some overproof rum on top, set on fire for presentation. The presentation was definitely cool, but the super-strong rum totally obliterated the vanilla flavour, and made the crunchy top (which is basically the reason you order crème brulée) kind of soggy. It was still tasty, but it took what would have been an awesome dessert and made it slightly less so. I had a bite of the tiramisu too, which tasted great (and was soaked in just the right amount of booze).

All in all, it was a great meal, and the quality was definitely in line with the prices. Highly recommended if you're looking to splurge.