While Solomon’s Island has a goodly number of decent restaurants, like most places, it has a dearth of innovative eateries . . . you know, the kind that serve vegetables other than coleslaw. Accordingly, Pip and I were delighted to find the CD Café, nestled incongruously in a commercial building next to the offices of lawyers and chiropractors.
We were there for a late lunch, which meant that we shared the small, 11-table dining room with only one other couple. The menu at first glance seems fairly typical: sandwiches, burgers and salads, until you drill down into the ingredients. Take, for example, their burger: wilted spinach, Boursin cheese and green goddess dressing on a Kaiser roll, served with Caesar salad. Oh, damn, that sounds good right now, and I just ate!
While the menu looks great, we recommend that you wait to make a decision until you’ve heard the specials. Pip jumped at the bacon veggie quiche and I grabbed the seafood linguini, both the kinds of things you just can’t cook on an alcohol stove or grill!
The quiche was perfect: the pastry was flaky and buttery without a hint of rubberiness or mushiness. The filling was airy and the bacon neither too crunchy or too soft. The Caesar salad on the side had a fabulous homemade dressing, but unfortunately a bit too much of it for Pip’s taste.
My generous portion of pasta (which, rather unbelievably, I finished) was impeccably al dente, with a light tomato garlic sauce set off by fresh ground pepper, chopped parsley and parmesan. Not only were there generous portions of tender baby scallops and crayfish, but also plenty of crisp-tender snow peas, red onions, zucchini, squash, carrots and grape tomatoes. I was in veggie heaven. Having written this out, it doesn’t sound like this dish would work well, but the flavor and texture combinations were delicious.
We had snagged a card for a free dessert from the local supermarket, so we splurged and ordered the raspberry pie. The same sublime crust filled with barely-sweetened, warm, fresh raspberries was surrounded by whipped cream and ice cream. While the cream portion of the dessert left much to be desired, coming as it obviously did straight from the can [there's never any good reason to use squirty cream!] and commercial ice cream box, the pie was delightful, particularly for those of us who don’t enjoy super-sweet desserts.
CD Café
14350 Solomons Island Rd
Solomons, MD 20688
(410) 326-3877
http://www.cdcafe.info/
