Well, it was that time again here in the city. The time where restaurants offered a three course lunch for $20.06 and a three course dinner for $30.06. So we went out twice to splurge!
Week One:
Fleming's Prime Steakhouse and Wine Bar (I just call it Fleming's)
They are a chain, but a quality chain.
We were seated immediately, although we were 10' early for our reservation. The atmosphere was very nice, not too loud. The (slightly harried) runner brought us a cheese dip but didn't explain it; however, the waiter stopped by for drinks orders and told us we were eating a gorgonzola blended with cranberries and walnuts (not bad) and a Brie, blended with some reisling and champagne. He actually checked with the kitchen as to how they made it when I asked, because it was so good.. This was perhaps the greatest thing I have ever eaten with cheese. So good. I recommend trying to make this at home, but that's for another post. I ordered French Onion Soup, Filet Mignon (rare) and Creme brulee, while Matt got tomato and mozzarella salad, stuffed Dover sole, and NY style cheesecake. Our appetizers were great--the soup had lots of onions, great cheese, and the broth was perfect. The salad was spectacular--the cheese was uber fresh, and the tomatoes firm and ripe. Entrees were wonderful too--the steak was perfect, with a touch of salt and butter, very melt in your mouth. The sole was pretty good--wrapped around some sort of lobster stuffing, and covered with a light creamy sauce--very nice. The sides were mashed potatoes (so good) and creamed corn, which was tasty, but since neither of us are that fond of it, we didn't eat much. Dessert was pretty good. The cheesecake was very good, nice and creamy and not too heavy. The creme brulee was nothing special, but still good. It could have used more vanilla. At 30.06 each, with a drink for each of us (a beer and an almond martini), this was a great bargain at $80 for the bill, and we left a $20 tip for our superb waiter. I recommend this place very highly--a bigger splurge if you go outside of restaurant week, but worth it!
Week Two:
Aura Restaurant at the Seaport Hotel
It took us FOREVER to get here--it's near the waterfront in South Boston, but not really convenient (for us) to take public transport, as it would require three changes and walking is just as fast. But the restaurant itself immediately lost points for atmosphere, as it was literally a blocked off area within the lobby of the hotel. Not exactly the seaport view we were expecting. We ordered the wine dinner, $50.06 for a glass of wine with each course. Bread was good, two different kinds: a wheat one that was pretty ordinary, and a white roll distinguished by the little bit of salt on the crust that made it GREAT with olive oil. Which we didn't get enough of. But we didn't want more bread, and so lived with it. For appetizers, I had scallops on mashed potatoes for an appetizer, and Matt had the salad; both were matched with a chardonnay that practically had splinters coming out of it, not to mention more acid than a lemon. My scallops were good, but nothing special, and Matt's salad had seen better days--it's farmer's market season, for crying out loud, and the tomatoes were SOFT!! WTF?? But edible for the most part. For entrees, I had a tenderloin/short rib combo with a cabernet, and Matt had roast chicken with another chardonnay (thankfully, better and less oaky/acid than the last one!). The short rib was chipotle glazed, and tender, and pretty damn good. I ordered the steak rare, and it came a shade over medium rare, but it's not worth my complaining, frankly. Not bad meat. Matt's chicken was much better, brined and tender and roasted perfectly. The potatoes on the side were disappointingly roasted, but the asparagus was crunchy and bright green, so score one for that. Dessert was the redeeming factor. The wine was some UBER sweet Bonny Doon creation (yeah, I know dessert wines are sweet, but sheesh!!), the angel food cake had fresh strawberries with it (not enough, in my opinion), but my dessert is what did it. It was a ricotta creme brulee. Trust me, it's much better than ordinary, because it's not very custardy, not too rich, and very yummy.
Service was included, so our total bill was $118 with tax. We had a dinegift certificate to knock $50 off, which was nice. We weren't sorry we went to Aura, but we're not going to go there again. It was kind of a letdown.
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Restaurant Week Boston
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Restaurant Review: Mesa Grill
And here we go with what I believe is BTR's first restaurant review.
We all know Bobby Flay from the Food Network - the grilling, Tex-Mex master, the Iron Chef with an asshole demeanor that's just a little bit sexy. One of his restaurants in New York, Mesa Grill, is participating in Restaurant Week, so we took advantage of the reduced-price prix fixe and checked it out last night.
We arrived a bit early for our 7:30 PM reservation, so killed time at the bar, which is staffed by some very friendly and smiling barmaids. The area was a bit crowded, but the bartender spotted us behind the chairs and served us promptly. The Flay-equivalent of bar snacks, pails of 2-foot long spicy breadsticks sit on the bar, inviting you to indulge, and are so salty that one can't help but order a cold Dos Equis.
We were seated promptly at 7:30, but our table was upstairs in a corner with absolutely no air circulation. It was nearly 100 degrees in New York yesterday, and we were suffocating up there. Happily, the hostess kindly re-seated us on the much cooler ground floor. A+ for her.
So onto the food. The dinner prix fixe menu was a bit disappointing with the lack of interesting offerings, but we made our choices and hoped for the best.
The bread basket was pretty lame; 3 rolls of an overly-yeasty (almost tasted like they were spoiled) sourdough variety, and only one tasty jalapeño corn muffin. We both ordered the Crispy Shrimp and Asparagus Taquito appetizer, which looked gorgeous. 2 small flour tortillas, sitting open-face on a white rectangular plate with greens and asparagus, topped off by a single shrimp on a wooden skewer. So you get to assemble your little taquitos by pulling the shrimp off the skewer and folding it up. There was some sort of colorful mayonnaise sauce on the greens, but we couldn't taste it. The flour taste of the tortillas took over everything, the shrimp weren't seasoned at all, and it just fell flat.
The entreés came out a bit better...well, one of them did. I had the Fire-Roasted Chicken with Plum & Fresno Chile Glaze and Southwestern Potato Salad, and he had the Yellow Corn Crusted Chile Relleno filled with Roasted Beets and Goat Cheese with a Cilantro Salsa Verde. The Chile Relleno flat-out sucked. The crust flaked off, and the filling was a weird fuschia goat cheese-flavored mush was utterly unsatsifying. The Fire-Roasted Chicken was far better fare, but it wasn't any more special than a good piece of BBQ chicken off my dad's grill.
We crossed our fingers for dessert. Happily, the final course didn't disappoint. I had a Warm Chocolate Espresso Cake with peanut ice cream, and he had the Cinnamon Honey Tres Leches Cake with berries and some sort of berry sorbet. Both were excellent. My little cake was perfectly molten in the center, rich and chocolatey with a ring of chopped peanuts around the middle. Peanut and chocolate are always a winning combination. The Tres Leches Cake was nice and just sweet enough, the cinnamon came through subtly, and the berries were nice and saucy. We walked out with a good taste in our mouths.
What left a bad taste with us was Restaurant Week. Many NYC restaurants participate, offering the prix fixe deal, but they rarely offer typical menu items. It seems that everyone goes low-budget with the entreés. My friend witnessed this trend at another place, which down-graded one of their specialty dishes from duck to using chicken for Restaurant Week. I wasn't expecting to see Mesa Grill's rabbit, but maybe the pork tenderloin? I guess the lesson learned is not to use Restaurant Week to try places for which you have high expectations, or to be sure that the majority of the RW options also appear on the regular menu. Otherwise, you're certain to get the bargain-bin taste of the place.
