September 2023.

This little spot might be the best restaurant we found this year in this lovely town where we enjoyed six matinee plays in a seven-day stay in an incomparable B and B with friends.

We were told the Elizabeth menu changes daily and were given a printed list by a cute high-energy server (“arch” was my characterization, “perky… needs to be turned down a bit” – one of my female companions). There is also a cocktail specialty apparent here and our cocktail expert had (I think – I’m writing this about a week later) a gin martini which turned out to be very good. Mine if I recall was a boulevardier, also quite nice. In the wine department things weren’t as filled out. There were four reds and we asked the expert which one he recommended. The taste he kindly supplied was overacidic so we went for another one which was no hell either.

I took a picture of the menu but as I said I suspect it wouldn’t be super relevant as things change daily. Bread cost nine dollars. we had six of the dozen-plus choices including: crispy deviled eggs, wagyu meatballs which were tasty but a bit dry, seared scallops on a corn succotash, smoked salmon and horseradish pate which I liked but thought could have done with a little less cream cheese, delicious gorgonzola and walnut gnocci, panseared Atlantic cod, grilled octopus and tea smoked duck breast. I’m sorry I can’t remember exactly which ones we had but the grilled octopus stood out for me with its chorizo, mild curry sauce, and potato. All the dishes were shared and none of them disappointed.

I’m sorry to be out of it enough having flown on to Sicily where the food is also pretty dazzling but the Italian cultural daily living inconveniences have taken their toll. Ergo I can’t remember the cost at Elizabeth but wasn’t surprised either way. Generally the experience was positive and we’d certainly go back.

Food 9.3, service (pretty good depending on how you respond to arch perkiness). I don’t score drinks specifically but the cocktails were close to fantastic and the wine was forgettable. Ambience a bright busy up-and-coming feel: 8.7, peace and quiet 7.2, value I can only say at-expectation.

September 2024.

This year we thought this place seems to have slipped a notch or two. There were a couple of other small restaurants that while nowhere near the Michelin category just had consistently better-tasting food and a more with-it service show (check out Bluebird and Bijou for example). We were seated, six of us, at a nice table near a window and quite unlike last year our server was a slow-moving young girl with pretty limited knowledge and skills.

The menu over which last year a fuss had been made about how it’s changing all the time was again a shared-plates proposition but at least five of the choices were ones that were here a year ago. Some were quite good (crispy deviled eggs, gorgonzola gnocci, and scallops on corn succotash for example), whereas others like wagyu meatballs and roasted chicken were disappointingly ordinary and/or dry.

There were only four red wines on the menu and when I saw more choices on a blackboard and got up to look at it, an older lady presented a plastic binder containing an extensive list. I looked it over and decided to go for a Langhe nebbiolo (that appellation uses the same grape variety as Barolo but can be nearly as good for about 1/3 the price). Unfortunately this bottle was the worst wine we had in our six nights here in Stratford, and looking back on my comments from last year it was no better than what was recommended then.

Not much has changed here at Elizabeth as far as we can tell except that the high-energy service has been replaced by much less enthusiastic performance and the food has remained a bit spotty considering the upscale pretension of the place and the staff’s obvious full-on focus on food as opposed to anything to drink.

Food 8.2 (on average), service 6.5, ambience 7.8, value 7.8, peace and quiet 8.0. And wine about 4.