clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

This Cape Restaurant Has ‘Weird Food That Only Weirdos Like’

The Boston Globe’s critic dives into the menu at the Buffalo Jump

The Buffalo Jump
Poached scallops at the Buffalo Jump
The Buffalo Jump/Facebook

“A Pool of 7UP Poured Tableside”

Devra First pays a visit to the Buffalo Jump in Falmouth for her latest review in the Boston Globe. Brandon Baltzley and Eater Young Guns alum Laura Higgins-Baltzley run the cafe-by-day/tasting-menu-by-night restaurant out of Coonamessett Farm, taking full advantage of the fresh produce at their fingertips, along with local seafood and foraged ingredients. The dishes showcase unusual combinations of ingredients and often unusual descriptions, for example: “White Kim Chi: A Study in the Removal of Aggression,” what First describes as “a bite-size bundle of kimchi, cooked down until caramelized and wrapped in a tatsoi leaf. Adorned with tiny blossoms, it is served in a flowered saucer in a pool of 7UP poured tableside.”

First calls several dishes “lovely,” including crudites and foie gras terrine, but also dubs others “less standardly lovely” including a bowl with nori, cherry, tuna, and tuna blood. There’s also a dish called “Scallops Swimming in Butter,” served with grilled beach rose, and a dry-aged duck with crispy skin and liver sauce. For First, a dessert called “Do Your Ears Hang Low?” embodies the experience of dining at Buffalo Jump: The popsicle’s three flavors are caramelized goat’s milk, lemon verbena, and sheep’s yogurt, resulting in “pure, overwhelming barnyard” mixed with “icy, herbal loveliness.” Overall, First gives Buffalo Jump two stars out of four, “good,” calling it “an act of willful optimism.”

Boston’s Best and Best of Boston

Other local outlets have been quiet on the traditional restaurant review front the last couple of weeks, instead promoting their yearly “best of” issues — “Boston’s Best” in the Improper Bostonian and “Best of Boston” in Boston Magazine — with loads of mini reviews by the usual critics and other staffers. Follow the links to see which restaurants get honored this year in categories like “best bread,” “best concept,” “best large-format dish,” and “best place to go when money is no object.”

What’s on the Menu at Falmouth’s Buffalo Jump? ‘Weird Food That Only Weirdos Like’ [BG]
Boston’s Best [IB]
Best of Boston [BM]