We were a bit disappointed by our visit this time to the Lincoln Cafe in Mount Vernon, Iowa – mostly because of the high prices and skimpy portions. The food itself – two of the three special entrees for the evening – was very good, excellent ingredients, interesting flavor combinations. But the portions were really small, especially given the prices. My piece of Sichuan-prepared black bass was about 2 inches square – wonderfully seasoned but I was dying to have more than a few bites. Even the stuff accompanying it on the plate was petite-sized: A small chunk of toasted coconut rice, a tiny clump of ginger wilted lettuce, some miniscule blocks of red soy gelee, a 2-inch (at the most) piece of pork belly (looked like half a piece of bacon) and peanuts (which we couldn’t find.) All for $28.
My husband’s Berkshire pork chop was a little heartier and pricier ($32) but still not a lot of food. It came with black beans, tamale, salsa verde, cilantro and honeydew melon.
For dessert: two very small sweet potato beignets with maple pecan ice cream, cherried raisins. At least it was $8.
Beyond that we didn’t mind the usual hassles although they seem kind of eccentric and unnecessary for a restaurant of this stature: i.e. no reservations (we called at 5 p.m. to get on the waiting list and instantly were bumped to an answering machine that said we had to keep calling until we reached a live person – which we did about 10 minutes later. Even then we couldn’t get a reservation until 7:30 p.m) and no liquor license (the cafe’s wine bar down the road under renovation so we got two beers at the bar next to the cafe and brought them with us for our meal, returning the glasses afterwards.)
