The Chocolate Room

After a rather disappointing dinner at Al di La, I refused to leave Brooklyn with a bitter taste in mouth. So to make things sweeter, we decided to head to The Chocolate Room for dessert.

Apparently it's usually packed so we were thrilled when we got a seat within a couple of minutes. As much as I love dessert, I'm usually disappointed because it is only one course of the meal. So imagined how excited I was when this arrived!

To think, they figured out how to expand dessert by offering an amuse bouche. Brilliant! The Chocolate chip Almond cake was delicious! The chocolate was rich and the cake was light so it was a match made in heaven. Eventually we had to order our desserts. So many chocolatey options I had a hard time deciding. MM ordered the homemade Belgian Chocolate ice cream with chocolate nibs.

BTW nibs are apparently something like coffee covered in chocolate. Like MM really needs more coffee! I ordered one of my favorite desserts ever.

Brownie sundae warmed to order with vanilla bean ice cream, hot fudge and whipped cream. You can barely see the brownie but it's down there, I promise. There was a time when I would order this as my entree and get a side of mashed potatoes. I kid you not. This particular brownie was chocolate at its best. The cold ice cream cut through the warmth of the brownie with the whipped cream adding a touch more sweetness. Delightful!!  Ms. Y and Mr. A also ordered the brownie sundae but they went with fresh mint chip. They definitely enjoyed their dessert but it was clear the vanilla bean was a better mate for the brownie. 

The cherry is kinda sour so be careful! So much goodness at The Chocolate Room. I’ll definitely be back. I highly recommend it for anyone who even thinks they might like chocolate a little bit. Although if you're not interested in chocolate that's fine, it doesn't want you either.

Hungry yet?

Sole Restaurant & Raw Bar

After a less than stellar night, thanks to Majestic Grille, I was looking forward to an easy comforting breakfast.  We went down to the hotel restaurant Sole.  The breakfast menu was pretty expansive.  My breakfast companion settled on granola and yogurt and fresh fruit.

It took quite some time before it arrived, but I decided on the Traditional Breakfast. Two eggs any style, I chose hard boiled.

A little bit of an explosion in the pot I guess. The traditional breakfast is served with bacon, but surprisingly they had turkey sausage!

The sausage was delicious and exactly what I needed. The breakfast also came with seasoned home-fries & toast.

The home fries were delicious and I scarfed them down pretty quickly.

After an uneventful subway sandwich lunch, we returned to the hotel pretty late. It was also snowing…yes in Memphis – snow follows me everywhere! We decided to dine at Sole again.  I really wish I had better pictures, but I’ll be heading back to Memphis soon and will definitely take better pictures next time.  I started off with the Lump Crab Cakes.

They were served with creole remoulade, field greens & tomato relish. Woweee! I was thrilled with the deliciousness. The crab was definitely the main ingredient in there.  I’ve had many a crab cakes that just don’t have enough crab so I was happy that this one was perfectly filled.  For my entrée, I ordered the Blackened Sea Bass.

It was served with potato gnocchi, wild mushrooms and vegetables.  The Sea Bass was amaaaaazing!! The gnocchi was a little tough so I didn’t love it, but the vegetables were well seasoned and tasted great.  I was really impressed with my entrée.  I still decided to order dessert. After all, the snow storm in NY meant my flight was cancelled and I would be leaving Memphis much earlier than I planned. The Molten Chocolate Cake was exactly what I needed!

I ate every single bite! The caramel goodness was also perfect.  Sole was an awesome dining experience.  All their seafood is fresh and even if it came from the gulf, it didn’t make me sick J The dessert was delightful and the service was spectacular.  Thank you Sole for redeeming Memphis in my eyes.  Now I have to figure out where to eat when I go back!

Hungry yet?

Cafeteria

It’s been ages since I’ve seen LG. I miss her so much! So when she told me that she and her husband would be in NYC for a couple of days, I had to take advantage of it.  The last time we saw each other was in JFK while she was waiting for a connecting flight! I gave her a few options in terms of restaurants and she selected Cafeteria.  I have only been to their former location in Miami so I wasn’t sure what to expect.  It was live in there but the music was a little too loud for my liking.  The place is open 24/7 which is a plus.  The menu had a lot of options but for whatever reason there was nothing that really called out to me.   The complimentary biscuits were incredible.  Pillowy and airy with just the right amount of salt to really bring out the flavors.  Those kept me occupied for some time.

LG ordered the meatloaf.  It was def a heaping loaf of meat topped with an oven roasted tomato relish.  According to LG, the garlic mashed potatoes were amazing.  

Her hubs ordered the Crispy Braised Pork Tacos.

They certainly looked interesting and based on how well he cleaned the plate, it’s safe to say they tasted great.  The Tacos were Sweet Potato Puree, Spicy Jicama Salsa and Shoestring Sweet Potatoes. If not for the pork, I would have definitely ordered them.  I had a nightmare trying to place an order.  I couldn’t decide what to get and unfortunately I think I ordered the worst item on the menu, the Fish and Chips.  To make matters worse, I thought I was improving my meal by ordering the truffle oil parmesan fries, but in the end nothing good came of it.

That’s the best picture I have of my meal.  The fish was three unmanageable pieces deep fried and frankly quite disgusting.  I was definitely disappointed in this meal.  Yet once again, dessert came to the rescue.  LG and her hubs ordered the Deep Fried Oreos which were served with Espresso Chip Ice Cream and a Coffee Shake Shot.

I couldn’t bring myself to try an oreo but I did have a bit of the Coffee Shake Shot. WHOA. Definitely will wake you up right away.  I ordered the Warm Fallen Chocolate Cake with Passion Fruit Drizzle and Vanilla Bean Ice Cream.  The cake was amazingly rich and the ice cream was the perfect way to complement the chocolate.  The passion fruit drizzle was lost on me. I thought it was an unnecessary distraction.

Overall, Cafeteria was uneven.  The biscuits were a high point and my entree was definitely a low point.  Perhaps if I was a little more decisive I could have selected a better entree. The desserts were well executed but also had an air of excess, but I guess that’s what dessert is all about.  I suppose I would go back but only if I was in the mood for a particular item on the menu.

Hungry yet?

craftbar

Apologies for my limited posting this past week. The hard part about having a day job like mine is that sometimes they want it to be a night job too :(  Thankfully, my guest blogger is willing to step up and help me out so expect some entries from her.

While GMTT was here, Mr. M planned several dining experiences.  Although he made my day by telling me we were going to Red Rooster, he changed it up and instead we ended up at Craftbar (yes, I know, my life is so hard one celebrity chef restaurant for another).  While I enjoyed eating at Colicchio & Sons last year, since I started watching Top Chef, I’ve decided I’m not a fan of Mr. Colicchio’s attitude.  Regardless, his food was good last year so I suppose this would be tasty too.  Meh.  I was late to dinner because I had camera issues.  The photos in this post were thanks to GMTT’s camera which has a slightly more active flash than mine. Apologies.

We were joined at dinner with Z&Z. It was so great to see them after so long.  I wanted to order dessert as my appetizer but the most appealing item on the menu, the Apple Crisp with Brown Butter Ice Cream was no longer available.  I pouted while the rest of the group ordered appetizer.  

Z (female) ordered the Baby beet goat cheese salad with pistachio and candied citrus.  She found it to be “beety” I had a taste and it was fine but truthfully didn’t compare to the salad from Motorino.  Z (male) ordered the Wagyū Beef Tongue served with Horseradish Aïoli.

He found it to be really good and the horseradish aioli was not really spicy but the flavor enhanced the beefy taste.  GMTT and Mr. M ordered the Spanish Octopus small plate.

It was served with chorizo, cranberry bean and lemon greek yogurt.  Within an instant, all I saw were empty plates so this must have been delicious.  Soon after, our entrees began to arrive.  Mr. M ordered the Berkshire Pork Belly with Fried Egg, collard greens and anson mills polenta.

It looked interesting and he definitely enjoyed it.  Z (male) ordered the Duck Confit which was served with a white bean cassoulet and a duck egg.

The egg looked spectacular because it was breaded outside, however I came to find out it was runny inside so I’m glad I didn’t order that.  The skin was crispy and the cast iron presentation was a bonus.  The rest of us ordered the Red Snapper with Sofrito Braised Salsify and Habanero Lime Vinaigrette.

I was slightly underwhelmed by this dish.  The snapper was fine.  That’s right, I said it, just fine.  I must admit that the salsify was really tasty and possibly the most delicious part of the meal.  Expanding my range of acceptable vegetables is probably the best decision I’ve made.  I was pretty glad when the main course was over because it was time to focus on dessert.  Since my desire for Apple Crisp was so overwhelming, I strongly encouraged the group to order three desserts.  I wasn’t really in a chocolate mood so the Chocolate Custard Tart with Malted Milk Chocolate Ice Cream didn’t really appeal to me.

However, it was so delicious that I kept going back.  The Butterscotch Pot de Crème was PHENOMENAL. 

No, seriously, it was like crème brulee amplified.  However, my absolute favorite that almost led me to forget all about the Apple Crisp was the incredible Brown Sugar Cake served with a Poached Seckel Pear and Ice Cream that is invisible thanks to the flash on the camera. ugh.

I did a little dance in my chair each time I took a bite.  It was very sweet and definitely a sugar cake, but that was exactly what I needed.  The desserts were key because they made sure the dining experience ended on a high note. 

While I understand the inherent awesomeness of Colicchio, I just wasn’t that blown away by craftbar.  I’m sure part of that is based on the lack of diversity on the menu (really, Tom? Do you have to put pork in everything?!) It probably satisfies some people but I don’t recommend this restaurant for someone with dietary restrictions.  The freshness of the ingredients is highlighted by their every changing menu.  I certainly respect that.  The music was also pretty awesome – any restaurant that plays Stevie twice during the meal gets some ambiance points.  I’m not sure that I would go back to craftbar without giving the menu a once over to see if there’s something that calls out to me.  There are far too many restaurants in New York for me to compromise.

Hungry yet?

B.E.S. (Boutique Eat Shop)

Thanks to Blackboard Eats, I have several restaurants on my “to try” list.  The problem with racking up all those coupons is that they start to expire.  Luckily, I have wonderful friends who are willing to participate in my culinary adventures.  Tonight’s meal was at the relatively new B.E.S.  An early dinner reservation earned me 1,000 points on OpenTable (score!) and a few hours of dining and discussion with Ms. O.

We were both salivating over the menu for most of the day so of course when we actually got there that meant we wanted to order everything!  Small people that we are, we still pretend that our stomachs can handle it.  And so the parade of food began.  First, bread with oil and salt to keep us busy.

Our appetizers arrived at the same time, but we made sure to pay undivided attention to the mound of Steamed Mussels.

Yup, I wasn’t kidding when I said mound.  The mussels were in a rich tomato sauce with chopped onion and garlic.  They're usually served with italian sausage, but none of that on our plate.  Aside from their general deliciousness, the mussels were fabulous because they were served with toasted pieces of bread.  Of course we dipped the bread in the amazing broth and that alone was like another course.  Seriously, look at how much broth there was! 

Feast Out East

Mr. G and I took a quick trip to see his parents for dinner.  As usual, Mrs. G prepared a fantastic feast.  There were so many wonderful dishes on the table I couldn’t figure out where to get started.

The chicken was delicious, tender and accompanied by broccoli.  The broccoli was a little spicy which was perfect.  In the pot was some spectacular jollof rice.  It had a delicious smoky scent and incredible amounts of spice.  Plantain is always a welcome addition to any table so I was thrilled that it was there. The pineapple was INCREDIBLE. Fresh cut and so juicy.

Aside from the wonderful amounts of food, Dr. and Mrs. G also bought us a Carvel lil love ice cream cake.

I was THRILLED! As a child this was one of my favorite treats.  I couldn’t wait to dig in.

Chocolate ice cream with a cookie crunch layer. Yum yum yum!

Hungry yet?