Counter shines again

If there's a better restaurant in Austin than Counter 3 . FIVE . VII, I want to eat there ASAP.  After multiple visits to this downtown restaurant, I have yet to taste a dish worse than very good, and almost all of them have been excellent.  Tonight's meal continued the winning streak for Counter, with seven wonderful courses that proved once again that this team has serious culinary game.

The menu was the usual intriguing set of seven courses, only one of which I've tasted before.  (They've created 102 dishes in the past year.)

Click an image to see a larger version.

That repeat, the rhubarb with Newsom's ham and brown butter,

was one of my favorites, a tantalizing combination of salty and crunchy and spicy, with the richness of the brown butter making everything a bit better.

Perhaps my favorite dish this evening was the rabbit,

which was a riff on a Provencal stew but with local rabbit and some Carolina Gold rice beneath the meat.  As the chefs meant it to do, it was a perfect transition dish, one that highlights the end of cold days and the transition to warmer ones.

The weakest course tonight was the dessert, which used many flavors of carrots supporting a scoop of cardamom ice cream--and I liked it so much I almost licked my bowl clean.  At most places, it would have been the strongest dish.

Counter 3 . FIVE . VII is a world-class restaurant that you should visit if you can.