I ordered a veggie burger and shared a side of fries with A. The veggie burger was good but I wouldn't call it a veggie burger, you know, if I was in charge of the menu. I'd call it a chickpea patty, or even a chickpea burger. Chickpea was the strongest flavor I tasted in the burger. And it tasted good, but not what I expected a veggie burger to be. It was served on a very large bun made from flaky bakery bread and a roasted tomato. The dish also came with a mixed green salad that was tossed in an elegant, light tasting vinaigrette. The french fries are Belgian style, I believe. They're served in a huge (see a theme here) paper cone and came with a choice of aiolis - we chose the truffle aioli. The fries were amazing - my favorite part of the meal. They were crispy and tasted lightly fried and not too greasy. The aioli was a real treat as well. I would go back to the Buttery just for these fries!
While we all liked our food (A also had a veggie burger and B had spaghetti) we were less than impressed with the servers. Our waitress never smiled, never asked how our food was, was slow overall, and didn't bring ketchup when she brought out our burgers, we had to ask for it. Maybe that's how they do it there, but we were surprised. She also didn't apologize when one dish came out wrong. Anyways...
For dessert, we had cupcakes! The bakery section has large cupcakes, but the dinner dessert menu serves mini cupcakes. Luckily, the serving is 3 mini cupcakes.
The display is beautiful. I had the vanilla cupcake with vanilla frosting. It was quite delicious. The cake is a nice texture and the vanilla frosting has the same great vanilla/buttery/creamy taste I remembered. B didn't love the chocolate frosting so I sampled it so I could judge it too. It had a light chocolate taste, tasted more like butter than chocolate.
The atmosphere at the Buttery is surprisingly elegant. The upstairs is typical bakery cafe style with white walls and white furniture. We ate downstairs. The downstairs is the complete opposite - dark lighting, dark wood furniture, red booths, red pillows. There were two candles on the table too, adding to the ambiance.
The South End Buttery definitely satisfied our appetites!
Pros: delicious desserts, breads, fries!
Cons: only 2 vegetarian entrees
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