Nana's Delectable Dishes

hef-Owner Scott Howell opened Nana's in 1992, and a decade later it still rates as one of the Triangle's finest restaurants. In fact, it's so good that often reservations are booked several weeks in advance.

A softly lighted interior accented with modern art nicely complement the traditional cuisine prepared with a modern flair. Our meal began with drinks and amazing crusty wheat bread, which the extremely attentive staff replaced at every opportunity.

As a first course, my guest and I ordered truffled chicken and country style pate and grilled quail over a French lentil and arugula salad. Both the truffled chicken and the pate were excellent on the focaccia crostini with a dollop of the pommery mustard on top. The heat and crunchiness of the mustard balanced the cold creaminess of the pate. A dried fruit puree made for an excellent end to this first course. The quail meat itself was excellent, but unfortunately, the succulent flavors of the fowl, lentils and arugula were drowned in the mushroom-sherry vinaigrette. Although the vinaigrette had an excellent taste, it overpowered both the quail and the arugula--less in the dish would be sufficient.

For a main course we had grilled beef tenderloin with an herb polenta cake and sautZed flounder over Tuscan white beans and grilled asparagus. I was a little hesitant because the beef tenderloin was served with bacon, and I am vehemently opposed to the bacon-wrapped beef school of cuisine. But Nana's served the perfectly cooked medium tenderloin with a vodka sauce and tiny flavorful bits of bacon--the perfect accompaniment. The herbed polenta, wilted spinach and grilled red onions brought out the flavor of the beef. The sautZed flounder was expertly seasoned, but the Tuscan beans took a while to grow on me. At first I felt they tempered the seasoning on the flounder too much, but in the end, I thought they made a nice, if odd, couple.

My guest and I wrapped up our dining experience with pineapple upside down cake and homemade passion fruit sorbet. This wasn't your typical pineapple upside down cake. It doesn't have the sticky, artificial-tasting pineapple and brown sugar topping so commonly mistaken for good baking. Nana's version is a light pineapple-infused sponge cake with pineapple tidbits and sauce--the perfect, light end to a meal. Nana's passion fruit sorbet was vastly superior to my previous favorite--Ben and Jerry's discontinued Purple Passion Fruit. The sorbet didn't overwhelm the fruit's natural tartness. The three scoops were accompanied by four small cookies.

Nana's is a tremendous Triangle dining experience. The staff is attentive and friendly and the robust food is worth the robust price.