Part Two in the small plate showdown of Lou vs. Lazy Ox Canteen…now, the food!
-Menu: Lazy Ox (variety). Both boast seasonal menus filled with fine fish, fowl, filets and foliage and both have a fine selection of cheese and charcuterie. But because Lazy Ox has a slightly more international flair with ingredients like yuzu, tahini, yogurt and curry that make a seamless appearance into some of their dishes, there is more of a variety of small plates to choose from, which is why I preferred Lazy Ox’s menu to Lou’s.
July Lazy Ox Menu
July Lou Menu
Lou does give you the option of small plates as well as larger entrees which can also be nice (see “I just had a bite so small I forgot what I ate” syndrome). Lou also seems to offer more adventurous meats and poultry than Lazy Ox such as antelope, wild boar sausage and guinea fowl on the menu, although fans of beef tongue, rabbit livers and pig ear (not me!) will not be disappointed at Lazy Ox. Mostly the smaller plates on Lou’s menu tended to be veggie-friendly, with the exception of their Pig Candy, which appears to be cut up pieces of bacon dipped in maple syrup so that the end result is a soft and gooey piece that is very aptly named. This is the kind of thing you could make at home but you just…don’t. It is good and a definite crowd-favorite, but after a while I personally cannot open my mouth because it is glued shut from this maple-bacon gum concoction, and after all that time and effort, I am thinking, “Why ruin a good thing?” I guess I am a purist and as a former, proud Bacon of the Month member, I enjoy my bacon plain, crispy and untouched.
Lou’s Famed Pig Candy aka Bacon Gum
Other delicious delectables dined on at the Ox:
Lazy Ox's ricotta fritters with honey
Lazy Ox’s charcuterie platter of chorizo, duck proscuitto and speck (Good, but we enjoyed our charcuterie at Lou more)
Lazy Ox’s crispy surf clams with caper and pickle aioli – our second favorite dish of the night even though we get this every time
Our favorite dish of the night: Lazy Ox's poached egg with pork belly, quinoa and peas
Lazy Ox's creamy polenta with creamed mushrooms and curry
The Ox's albacore
The Ox's sunchokes
The Ox's vanilla panna cotta with meyer lemon marmalade - a good way to end the night
-Food: (Tied). The execution at both were very good. To prove our point, here are some of the heavenly highlights hailing from Lou (sans dessert which we declined (it was again, vanilla panna cotta. Wtf?):
Can't get enough of those poached eggs! Lou's frisee salad with poached egg and bacon
Lou's superior charcuterie platter of proscuitto, rillette, salumi and cheese, etc.
Lou's antelope chop with carrots, potatoes and pickled cherries
Lou's burrata on garlic toast with aged balsamic
Lou's ginormous scallops on top of fideo and hazelnuts
I appreciated that our charcuterie and cheese platter at Lou came with fig cake, cornichons (love!) and dried dates (unlike Lazy Ox, which just came with plain bread). I could have done without the fideo (tiny short noodles) in my scallop dish but the scallops themselves were seared perfectly. The Husband absolutely loved his antelope. All in all, no complaints, but Lazy Ox just made for a more interesting night of dining (not only because of our company–Thanks Ryan and Amy!) but for the ease of sharing of a greater number of tastes and textures, which I feel small plate dining really celebrates.
-Conclusion: So to answer our initial inquiry posed in Part One of this showdown (“Which resto is the besto?”), I say Lazy Ox if you are craving the true small plate experience with a slight international flair, but I wouldn’t overlook a gem like Lou.
