First Visit to "GIO" in Halifax, Nova Scotia

Gio is an upscale "chic" restaurant located in the Prince George Hotel in Halifax.It opened about a year ago to rave reviews and has been a busy spot ever since for those meeting for lunch or going out to a special meal. We visited the restaurant February 24th, 2007 for the first time after a delicious afternoon at the Opera...the televised version from the Met..Eugene Onegin by Tchaikovsky.We had made reservations for 6PM as we like to eat earlier than later and because that was what was available when we booked. Our plans went along perfectly as the opera finished with just enough time to easily walk to Gio. What I noticed upon entering was the friendly staff, the beautiful decor accented by the wonderful glass from Kilnart of Chester, Nova Scotia and the wide variety of folks eating there...families, young couples with jeans and turtlenecks and chic older women with lovely coloured and labelled garments. We settled in and browsed the menu. Bad on us... we had eaten a larger lunch then we should have and decided to have only an entre with a glass or two of wine. I orderd the duck breast with duck confit and my mate the Osso Bucco dish

The Duck: Let me start by saying that duck is what I order where ever I go when I can. When I travel in France my two favorite meals are duck and rabbit. The wait staff started us off with an amuse bouche in a fairly large bowl. It was a very small slice of lamb..length....thumb tip to knuckle..a dash of pea puree and tiny dobs of yogurt with a dry looking blueberry placed strategically.We did ask what that shrivelled looking item was. We tried it and both of us looked at each other and said why bother? with the amuse bouche. No special flavours ,it was so tiny that you probably could not have tasted it anyway and it only served to make us laugh.
So on with the entre.When ever a meal arrives I like to examine my plate and see what is there and how it measures up to the description on the menu. So my first thought was..where is the duck confit...a duck leg preserved in duck fat usually served with a crispy skin... no leg was visible to me. What I saw was a duck breast at 9-12 on my plate..sliced...then another grouping of meat at about 2-4 on the plate...sliced duck breast. Smeared through the middle of the plate was a puree...with a sauce. There was something at 1200 but it looked like strands of meat.. two in total. So I asked the waitstaff where the duck confit was and when she came back she explained that those strands were the duck confit and they were on brussel sprouts which when examined were maybe two-2 leaves of a brussel sprout....so actually a peeled brussell sprout. WoW... There was a good portion of duck breast but it was sorely overdone...not even a pink hue here. The sauce for the duck tasted fine along with the puree but the shreds of duck confit brought a chuckle. My sense was that duck confit was in very short supply in the kitchen and this was a good way to make sure they had some for the later crowd. A leaf or two of brussel sprout plus the puree was my vegetable. Why does no one want to serve a good amount of veggies on the plate anymore? What a disappointment! And somehow I thought by being there early we would we would catch the Chef before tiring for the evening. Even the bread was unexciting. Surprisingly we knew a number of folks in the Dining Room that night and everyone was disappointed in some aspect of their meal sending it back for more cooking or discovering a veal bone without the marrow..see the next review. Will I return? probably not. I often stay at the Prince George and this restaurant could be a place to gather for an appetizer or nightcap...but it just did not make the grade with me. I want flavour not this phoney plastic presentation that Chefs are all clambering for these days. I want a chef to be passionate about the product and then the cooking ...not just something that is built up on the plate... The cost of this entre was 28$ and just not worthy of a second visit.