Houlihan's fall menu isn't a real fall menu
By OWEN MORRIS
On Monday night I got a taste (OK, more than a taste) of the fall menu now available at all six Houlihan's in the Kansas City metro.
The gentlemen who run the Web site KC Beer Blog were also in attendance, and they have a much more detailed rundown of the environment and the food. But here's my two cents on the whole idea of a fall menu.
The purpose of a seasonal menu is twofold: to emphasize ingredients at their seasonal peak and to give adventurous diners an option beyond the normal menu. How did Houlihan's do in both of those categories?
The menu (shown at right) has virtually no connection to the season. I don't fault Houlihan's for that; it's a chain, and there's no way to make sure each franchise has a farmer's market nearby. But if a menu cannot have seasonal dishes on it, then it should serve sauces and styles that incorporate the season. Houlihan's has done this successfully in the past.
Chef Dan Admire, Houlihan's culinary VP, has a blog in which he shows off former seasonal menus. The menu from spring of this year has the right feel — lots of greens and tomatoes and light sauces.
The fall menu, though, is across the board. Adding a thick white gravy to the potatoes on the mahogany chicken dish is a nice touch, but there's no brown gravy for the potatoes that come with the filet mignon. (There is a pot-roast gravy poured on top of the filet -- that smothers its flavor, which is a shame since my bite of filet was cooked just about as well as you can cook a filet.)
Worse is the "grilled chicken Asian noodle bowl," a light-to-translucent sauce with no hint of fall and barely any hint of Asia. Mostly it tasted of chicken stock and noodles. Same goes for the scallops, which could have easily been covered in a nice cream sauce to warm fall hibernation bellies; instead, it's done in an olive-oil sauce. It just doesn't say fall.
As for the adventurous element: This menu is less daring than a Jay Leno monologue. Houlihan's has a six-page menu, and every one of the fall dishes could easily fit onto the regular menu. The biggest shame is the starter, which is just peel-and-eat shrimp. It's served with two dipping sauces, but the shrimp itself could have been taken straight from a bag and put into a bowl.
Look, I'm not supposed to go around running my mouth on how certain food tastes. That's Charles Ferruzza's job, not mine. But I do know what a seasonal menu is supposed to contain, and the Houlihan's fall menu is not a true seasonal menu.
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