Cavier and Bananas-restaurant review

Julia and I headed downtown Charleston tonight to try out a restaurant called Cavier and Bananas. She and I had seen the place a few weeks ago and thought it sounded interesting.

It's got a very European feel to it and it's broken into sections of hot food, salads, sandwiches and bakery/coffee. We walked right up to the hot food section and saw a lot of choices there before us.

Here's the scoop: this food is already prepared and then put into bowls or onto plates and put into a cooler that you can view from where you are. Everything is priced by the pound. So you tell the little man behind the counter what you want and how much you want of it. He puts it on the plate, weighs it and then, get this, he microwaves it. He heats it up in the microwave! And...everything is served on plastic plates that you would buy from the grocery store.

Here's what we got and how it tasted:
Chicken Satay with peanut dipping sauce-not as sweet as it really is in Thailand and the chicken was tough after being put in the microwave.
Plantain encrusted chicken breast-tough after being reheated
Roasted duck breast spring roll with plum dipping sauce-this was delicious! The spring roll itself was not crispy like it's intended to be because of the reheating, but the flavors were right on and everything about it was great!

The rest of this food was served cold, therefore no turn in the microwave:
Zucchini ribbons with goat cheese, pecans and dried cranberries-subtle flavor and very good
Apple and Fennel salad-heavenly! Julia and I both could not get enough
Greek Pasta Salad-the same that any restaurant would make

She and I then headed on over to Paulo's Gelato. Julia has been to Italy and so she was set on finding a place here that she could get gelato. She found it and apparently it's right on with the real thing. This was my first time having gelato and I really enjoyed it! So smooth!

And right now I'm going to tell you a lovely secret about gelato. The difference between gelato and ice cream is that ice cream is made with full-fat milk and heavy cream, but gelato is made from skim milk, there making it not as bad for you and allowing the flavors to come through more because they're not being overpowered by the fat of the milk. :)

All-in-all: I don't know that I'll go back to Cavier and Bananas. I might go back to get the salads to take home, but definitely not something that needs to be heated.