Aroma Restaurant, Huntsville
We headed for this restaurant because of good reviews. But, when we got there they were playing Jazz music so loud we didn’t want to eat there. We wandered the whole downtown and ended up right back at Aroma. While there are several restaurants in Huntsville, this was the only decent one in the downtown (I found out in my morning wanderings the next day that if we had crossed the bridge we would have had some more choices). In any case, we went in and took a table by the wide open doors that opened to the street. The place was pretty filled. It’s not a big room but there is a bar in the center, a small area for a a band and maybe 10 tables. Most of th empty tables hadn’t been cleared of the dishes which should have been a heads up for us regarding staffing. But, at this point we were desparate so we settled in.
The table was huge so we had to lean in and scream at each other. But we were having a good time and we are getting better at conversing with one another. It’s something that takes a while with a 15 year old who is used to wolfing down her dinner and either listening to adults talk or heading to her room. But, we are filling our time now with conversation about the books we are listening to in the car which is such a great way to have shared conversational topics, or I tell stories about my “storied” past which Asha thinks are corny but she laughs at them, and she talks about friends and about which guys have harassed her which is a common occurrence for her (in fact, today at the gas station guys were giving her a hard time). It’s a good thing that this restaurant wasn’t at the beginning of our time together because we would have been bored out of our minds. Service was the slowest we’ve had. We arrived at 7 and did not get home until almost 10pm. And, it wasn’t because I wanted them to bring the courses slowly!
The restaurant only had two people working in addition to the cooks. They waited the tables, they made the drinks at the bar, they cleaned up the tables (or not) and they filled the water, etc. (or not). They didn’t seem in a rush though nor did they comment on the fact that we waited over an hour to get our food. I hate complaining about that because generally I don’t mind waiting but this was unbelievable. In any case, we attempted to make the best of it.
The food was good. I started with a martini with Chambord and vodka and cranberry juice which, I have to say, tasted like cranberry juice with sugar in it and that’s it. Asha had a big glass of chocolate milk, which she loved. They have a prix fix menu that includes three courses and is quite a steal at $20. Both of us ordered from that. We started with Ceasar salad which was fine but nothing special. The greens were fresh, the dressing tasty but no croutons. Instead, it had rather flavorless hard bacon bits. Next (an our later) was Asha’s pasta with olives, sun dried tomatoes and feta. It was full flavored but fairly small portioned. I had pork tenderloin with French fries (in Ontario, it seems everything is served with French fries). The pork was tender with a slight apple flavor but it lacked depth. The corn on the cob on the plate though was fantastic. I could have ordered more of that. The French fries were not so good. It seemed they had been sitting out a while (the ones the night before were much better-fried food is best at places that specialize in fried food!).
The winner though was dessert. Asha had watermelon sherbet which she really liked but it did have these weird black “seedy” things in it that we figure out what they were. I had key lime pie which was superb. The lime filling was a bit firmer than usual (probably used gelatin) but it was full flavored with just the right amount of tang and a wonderfully crumbly cracker crust. I would have that again.
The biggest disappointment was the time it took. But the restaurant was also quite cold.