Summer Food 2005: BYOBs

Under the radar

CATHERINE’S
1701 West Doe Run Road (routes 82 and 162), Unionville, 610-347-2227; catherinesrestaurant.com
Worth noting: Moved from West Chester to this location in November 2003.
Dinner for two: About $100.

Kevin McMunn’s passion for hot, spicy flavors occasionally goes too far — as in a chipotle pepper-spiked Caesar salad so fiery that we sent it back — but his adventuresome menu, served in a former general store with a romantic, Zen-like modern interior, is a welcome addition to horse country. Roasted veal tenderloin with a sweet balsamic reduction and Chilean sea bass topped with ginger-mint pesto are two of the gentler entrées. If you can handle hot, try blackened sea scallops with pineapple-chili pepper coulis; chili-rubbed pork wonton with napa cabbage and Thai mustard; or blackened tuna steak with raspberry-jalapeño coulis.

MIMOSA RESTAURANT
2 Waterview Road, East Goshen, 610-918-9715; mimosa-restaurant.com
Worth noting: $21 three-course prix fixe served 5 to 6:30 p.m.
Dinner for two: About $90.

Plunge a spoon into Carla Moret’s caramel pot de crème, or her peanut butter mousse cake topped with chocolate ganache, or her tangy buttermilk panna cotta speckled with vanilla beans, and you will have reason enough to visit this restaurant owned by the dessert-maker and her husband, Gilles Moret, former executive chef at the Duling-Kurtz House in Exton. The globetrotting menu aims high, with mixed results. Best bets: smoked chicken quesadillas; gazpacho with jarez vinegar; panko-crusted halibut with miso wasabi sauce. And those terrific desserts.

THE ORCHARD
503 Orchard Avenue, Kennett Square; 610-388-1100
Worth noting: Corkage fee minimum $5, maximum $10. Superior stemware. Dinner Wednesday through Sunday only.
Dinner for two: About $130.

Having read that Basque-born chef-owner James Howard once worked as a model, I was sorry he didn’t appear in the crisp white-on-white dining room the night I visited. His French-influenced New American plates can be highly photogenic: A perfect round of chopped salad — endive, parsley and walnuts — is bound with buttermilk-Roquefort dressing and presented with a fan of Granny Smith apples; lobster paella is as busy and vividly colored as a Picasso painting, though the lobster and shellfish were overcooked. There’s inner beauty in the ravioli filled with wild mushrooms and foie gras. The Orchard is the first ownership venture for Howard, who has kitchen-side experience at Le Bec-Fin and worked a front-of-house turn at Buddakan. The pampering service has a finesse that few restaurants can match. References to the mushroom-country location include a bounty of mushrooms on the menu, and portabella-colored carpeting and upholstery.