My Review of Claires At The Depot in Warrenton, VA. clairesrestaurant/ I strongly suggest you make reservations especially during the evening. Website link above where you can do this via open table. Claires At The Depot is housed inside an 18th century train station. In warmer months you can sit outside where there is a pretty garden with a pond, with a view of an old caboose. Inside there is a bar and the old platform has been turned into the main restaurant area, that has several custom french doors allowing great light to penetrate the restaurant. There is a lunch, dinner and brunch menu. My girlfriends and I were there for lunch. What I most like here is that the menu changes with the season to make use of produce that is in season. It is a eclectic cuisine with varied dishes to choose from along with a good wine list. The chef is happy to accommodate vegetarian and gluten free requests. We were seated immediately as I had made a reservation, and our waitress was ready to take out drinks order and answer any questions we had about the menu. For at starter we all choose the soup of the day which, was a pumpkin soup. The soup had just a touch of cream so, it was not too rich. It came with a side of crackers but I would have preferred a small slice of crusty bread and topped off with some crunchy pumpkin seeds. The soup was sublime very smooth and absolutely delicious. For our mains we ordered three different dishes. A Chicken Curry, a Butternut Squash Risotto and a Monte Cristo. The curry was good, came with a side of crusty bread, peanuts and raisins were in small piles on the side of the dish with some chutney so, you good leave them out or mix them in. Fresh cumber raita was piled also on the top. The basmati rice is my favorite rice to go with a curry so it was good to see they had that. I would have like some Naan bread but the crusty piece of bread was sufficient. The curry was tasty, could have been a little hotter, with some more exotic spices for my taste, however I am used to Indian curries. As I said it was pretty mild for a curry but had great flavor and good for a cold day and would be great for someone that does not like spicy hot curry. The Butternut Squash Risotto was super creamy and melted in your mouth, it was served with soft sauteed chard, goat cheese and some fresh parmesan cheese. The Monte Cristo was served with fresh homemade french fries, a batter dipped raisin bread with smoked turkey, ham and honey mustard. The food was more than enough for lunch, very generous servings, we could not finish it all. Service was excellent as usual, the waitress knowledgeable about the food, the hostess/house manager on the front desk attentive and concerned the food and experience was a good one. Overall we give Claires full marks, for the price and quality of the fresh ingredients and seasonal changing menu it is a great elegant place to dine.
Posted on: Sat, 15 Nov 2014 01:24:27 +0000