Sassafras Gets Four Stars (Business Lunch Review)

Sassafras, one of Fayetteville’s fine-dining restaurants, recently began serving lunch, so we decided to give the place a try.

When we got there at 11:45 a.m. on a Tuesday, we were the only people in the restaurant. But that quickly changed as the lunch crowd filed in.

The first thing we noticed was the eclectic artwork on the walls and the fancy white tablecloths on all the tables. The silverware was nice, too, but there appeared to be a prong missing from our forks.

The waitress brought us a basket of tasty homemade breads and crackers to keep us occupied until our meals arrived.

One diner at our table ordered the tuna sandwich ($7), which consisted of grilled, blackened tuna and chipotle aioli on homemade bread. He said the sandwich was excellent. The homemade bread added flavor and texture. The tuna steak was seasoned perfectly to enhance without overwhelming the fish.

The other diner at our table had the cup of soup and quiche combination ($7). The soup was an asparagus, mushroom combination that was tasty and served very warm. The quiche was very good, but our diner noted that the steamed broccoli and squash accompanying it, stole the show. It melted in the mouth, the diner said.

There was a lot of duck on the menu. We noticed the “duck crepe stuffed with mushrooms, peppers, goat cheese, spinach and diced tomatoes and topped with tomato-basil sauce” ($7) as well as an appetizer called duck quesadillas ($6), which was made with smoked duck breast, homemade jalapeno jelly and cashew butter in a tortilla and served with a mango chutney sauce. We didn’t try either of these, but we will on our next trip.

For dessert, we split the “molten chocolate” ($6), which consisted of a chocolate cake filled with warm Frangelico ganache and topped with homemade ice mint, chocolate-chip cream.

It took several minutes for it to arrive, but it was obvious that such attention to detail couldn’t be rushed. Just trying to balance the scoop of ice cream atop the cake would be time consuming. The delicate arrangement was crowned with a spoon of whipped cream and an edible flower. A sweet vanilla sauce filled the bottom of the dessert plate and included swirls of a darker sauce.

We may go back again soon just for dessert.