Corridor Buzz - The Premier Source of Arts & Entertainment News and Information for the Cedar Rapids/Iowa City Corridor

REVIEW: The Motley Cow Cafe adventurous on food, social fronts

By LaDawn Edwards

The food at Motley Cow is delicious, nutritious and relatively adventurous, but it’s possible that I’m getting too old to enjoy eating out on Friday night. I recently gathered a collection of friends following a literary reading and suggested we head to the relocated Motley Cow Café on Linn Street in Iowa City. This was one of the first restaurants people recommended when I started doing reviews, because the ingredients are nearly all local or organic, but I waited to try it to let the initial excitement of the new digs fade a bit so I could report on a “normal” dining experience.

When five people walk in at 8 p.m. Friday, waiting for a table is understandable, even with a reservation. However, the large high-ceilinged room was so loud that we had difficult hearing the well-informed waiter’s description of the day’s soups. When you’ve got a vegetarian sitting on the far end, communication is the key link between finishing the evening with a smile or grumbling as you pay the bill.

Did I mention that it was busy? The waiter forgot my appetizer, so I can’t remember what I was hoping to get. Most of us started with soup or salad. The day’s offering included a curry vegetable soup—thin broth with mild seasoning. It had me wondering at the cook, “What else ya got?” and wishing I’d had the salad. When they whizzed by to other tables, it looked like local greens with a few special touches... maybe next time.

But when the day's fish appeared before me—halibut with pearl barley and roasted radishes—all other concerns melted away like a pat of butter on an ear of steaming corn. This dish was delightful to the last bite—moist white fillet seasoned just so with no need for a coating. I believe it was pan fried, although it may have been baked, but no unwelcome trace of oil remained. The accompanying dishes included sweet delicate radishes that could convert radish-averse people (like I used to be) to try them cooked. And the pearl barley was more interesting than the typical rice or potato sides—slightly chewy with a few herbs to liven things up.

My buddy TG ordered what may have been the healthiest thing on the menu—stir fry barley with ginger. I expected her to be slightly disappointed when she saw everybody else’s beautiful entrées, but she genuinely liked the exotic variety of vegetables (maybe bok-choy and kale for the greens?) stirred with a generous handful of low-gluten barley and a generous grating of ginger root. While I liked it and would certainly settle for it, if I were on a restricted diet—when finding any restaurant I can eat at feels like hitting the jackpot—it lacks the jazziness of every other entrée I had a chance to stick a fork in.

Her husband also ordered fish and his trout arrived filleted, but still bearing its head, tail, skin and fins. While the presentation was memorable, he found himself trying to scrape a bit of the sauce off the outside to flavor the fish. All in all, it was a little more work than he expected, but the flavor was excellent.

My buddy KR wanted pasta, so he got the rigatoni with Bolognese sauce. He had no complaints about the slightly spicy meat sauce over ziti-like pasta tubes. To me it seemed a little prosaic for a restaurant that offered our stellar fish dishes, but since he’s the one person in our party who’d eaten here before, I decided he knew what he was doing. Plus, the crusty white baguette in our bread basket was warm and plentiful to help keep him happy.

My final companion, the vegetarian, ordered the open faced hummus sandwich, which came decorated with sunflower sprouts on half and radish sprouts on the other. (Alfalfa is so 1970s!) He liked the heartiness of the bread and creaminess of the spread, saving a little appetite for dessert. Would you believe they offer a funnel cake? About half the size of the ones I remember from the State Fair and fried in a vastly superior (dare I say “cleaner”?) oil, this cardamom-scented memory dusted in sugar smelled so much like an homemade donut that you’d surely hurt the feelings of somebody’s grandma if you refused. Tastes like it, too.

My dessert was a daily special of pineapple soup with a little ball of ice cream and a tiny cookie. The soup itself wasn’t as sweet as I’d expected, probably to balance the more traditional flavors in the accompaniments. I’d mark this one as “interesting” and keep ordering whatever concoction the chef came up with the next time I’m in. Somebody wanting a can’t-go-wrong dessert should order the chocolate torte with cream raspberry sauce.

Finally, as we were headed out the door around 10 p.m. we realized that a band was setting up; in Iowa City the party was just getting started. I thought about trying to lure my far flung friends who I see so rarely into staying for a round of coffee and conversation, but realized that they were all thinking "time to hit the hay." While Motley Cow has some wonderful dishes for people who seriously pursue delicious food, I’ll leave the late night socializing to the under-40 crowd.