Resurrecting The Dead

I was going to let this blog lie peacefully beneath the cold ground in eternal slumber.

But I find myself in need of a place to keep notes on new restaurants that we are trying, and being a rather thrifty sort, would rather reuse something that already exists than create something new.

Creating something new is also more work.

I need to write this stuff down because I can't remember everything anymore. I'm not doing formal restaurant reviews. I'll probably post pictures from time to time, but not all the time.

If anyone is reading this, and I can't imagine why you would, it's probably best to subscribe through one of the gazillion services out there. Because I'm not likely to be updating on any kind of regular schedule.

Las Vegas Food, Part 2

Each time we go to Las Vegas, we like to go out for one big meal, where we dress up and have a fine dining experience. I'd like to do it more, but there are budgetary considerations to, well, consider.

Since the last time we were there we were not able to get a reservation at Circo in the Bellagio, we made reservations somewhat earlier this time. Not only was it one of the best meals I've ever had, the service was stellar, and it was the kind of place that while they do have a dress code, I didn't feel at all out of place taking pictures of my food.
My husband started with the starter portion of the spinach and chicken cannelloni with tomato and parmesan on top and basil oil underneath. It was good and quite rich.


My starter - cream of cauliflower soup with scallop ragu. I don't know that it was a ragu, but there were lots of sweet pieces of scallop in the soup. That's white truffle oil on top for proper gilding of the lily. This was a special of the evening.


My dinner, another off the daily specials menu: bone in rib eye with roasted cipollini onions and a truffle risotto cake stuffed with fontina cheese (in the back, can't see it so well). It was all fantastic. In the foreground you can see a bit of the bread basket. Those who know me know I love Il Fornaio's ciabatta. Circo's ciabatta blows that out of the water. Yes, it's that good, and the grissini are even better.


My husband's entree: venison chops on butternut squash puree and...um...we can't remember what the white slices were. Hey, it WAS two weeks ago.



My dessert: chocolate with gelato and a banana "beignet" in the background (banana battered and deep fried). I'll edit when I go look up the proper name.

My husband had the cheese plate that came with walnut cranberry bread and two housemade "jams" which we can't remember what they were. There's a nice chunk of gorgonzola there, but again, can't remember the cheeses.

Las Vegas Food Pictures, Part 1

So, we're back from Las Vegas and I'm finally getting around to uploading some pictures. It's only been two weeks since we got back. That's pretty good for me.


Lunch at Dragon Noodle Co. in the Monte Carlo. Kung Pao chicken on the right, Mongolian Beef on the left. I just really like the food at this place. It's California style Chinese rather than whatever it is we have here, and I miss it sometimes.


Pastrami at the Stage Door Deli in the MGM Grand. You can see that it's got a proper amount of fat. If you want lean, get the turkey.

Then it was on to dinner at the Wynn Buffet. It's definitely up there, but I think I still like the Bellagio's better for both depth and overall quality. Not that this sucked. No, far from it. Here are the three plates I had, and please note that I did not clear them. I still adhere to the laws of the buffet. And a lot of these dishes were shared with my husband - not shown are his plates.


Clockwise, from top: pepperoni pizza (average), smoked trout (yum), lamb tbone (awful, rubber), mushroom in butter, some kind of chicken I can't remember, smoked trout salad (eh), cooked white fish (a little overdone, but tasty), and in the center, broccoli rabe.



Crab legs (oversalted, but very nice when dipped in drawn butter), smoked salmon, some kind of hand roll (salmon?), currant tomato caprese salad in the little glass, cucumber and seaweed salad (one of the huge hits of the night, it was fantastic), another salad next to it, a glass of cocktail sauce, and entirely too many shrimps for shrimp cocktail. That's the problem with shrimp cocktail on a buffet - how much shrimp cocktail can I eat? How much you got?


Housemade soft pretzel, an herb/cheese bread/muffin, more crab legs, more California rolls, another handroll, Gorgonzola cheese (very, very good) and some...um...havarti cheese? More of the cucumber/seaweed salad underneath. I did mention it was good.

Of course, I completely forgot to take pictures of dessert. Suffice it to say they were great. One of the highlights was a no sugar added pecan pie that was just fantastic.

Rioja, Denver

If you believe the out of state food press, fine dining in Colorado pretty much begins and ends with Frasca in Boulder.

But once they get tired of waxing rhapsodic about Frasca, there's another group of restaurants they grudgingly admit might be pretty good: the Kevin Taylor restaurants, Mizuna, and Rioja.

Rioja, located in Larimer Square just a block off the 16th street mall, has a modest storefront, the kind you might overlook when just passing by. Inside, the space is small but cozy, done up in modern industrial with exposed bricks and ducts, with some funky lit glass artwork providing a focal point on one wall. Tables are close but reasonably spaced; you can walk between them without having to make people pull in their chairs. The sound level is a bit elevated; this isn't a place for a hushed dining experience.

I had chosen Rioja for my birthday dinner based not only on their reputation, but on a rave review of someone's Denver Restaurant Week experience. The reviewer mentioned the pork belly appetizer was one of the best things she'd ever eaten, and since pork belly was on my Top Ten list of things I had never tried and wanted to, it sounded very promising.

We arrived a bit early for our 7:15 reservation due to the vagaries of public transportation (I love taking Light Rail to the 16th street mall - no parking hassles and we can both have a drink or two), but the greeter wasn't fazed in the least - she said our table was almost ready and checked our coats (oh, how I love a coat check so I don't have to keep wondering if it's on the floor) immediately. By that time our table was ready, and we were led to a booth near the bar.

Rioja's bar is dark but stylish, and not the raucous kind of place overgrown frat boys would spend the night yelling at the ball game. I'm not sure there was a TV there at all. Someday I'm going to arrive way early for our reservation just to sit there and have a cocktail.

Our server arrived promptly with water, and kept a friendly but not intrusive eye on our progress throughout the night, with explanations of the menu where necessary.

Naturally, I started the meal with the fresh bacon appetizer: pork belly seasoned with cardamom over a bed of pureed curried green garbanzo beans. The pork belly was fantastic: meltingly tender meat under the characteristic layer of fat, cooked in such a way that the fat was silky but not greasy. (While I love my dietary fat, I don't like greasy food.) The rich flavors worked in an amazing way with the textures - my first reaction to my first bite was simply "oh. my. god." This dish is the best thing I've eaten so far in 2007, and it a strong contender for my top ten list of things I've eaten ever.

My husband had the duck confit pizza: duck confit, marinated mushrooms, watercress with sesame oil, onion, on a base of hoisin sauce and cheese. It was lovely - not quite as ethereal as the pork belly, but delicious in an earthier way. The pizza is also far larger than expected and could easily be shared by two.

For an entree, I had the Colorado lamb. I made the mistake of ordering it medium rare, as that's how I order my steak; I'd kind of forgotten in the midst of foodie euphoria that I prefer my lamb medium or better. I take full blame for that, and still, the lamb was quite good. But better was the bed of goat cheese polenta it was served over, and better yet was the bacon wrapped grilled treviso that came on the side. Treviso is a red leafy vegetable in the radicchio family, and here they'd cut a wedge, marinated it in olive oil and balsamic vinegar, wrapped it in a divine applewood bacon, and grilled it until tender. As good as the rest of the food was, the treviso was the stand out. I could eat a whole meal of that. There were also a couple of grilled roma tomatoes that couldn't shake off the fact they were mealy winter tomatoes, and which really didn't add much.

My husband had the grilled beef shoulder tender steak, done medium rare, and done perfectly. It was served with a brie bacon potato croquette: mashed potatoes, brie, and bacon formed into a cylinder, coated in breadcrumbs, and deep fried. What's not to like? It was fantastic. It also came with a side of spinach, very good but not spectacular. Then again, it was sauteed spinach, and was more of a counterpoint than a focal point.

Bread is not placed on the table but is brought around periodically. The night's selections were goat cheese biscuits, lavender sourdough, orange fennel rolls, and one other I can't remember because it was the most pedestrian of the lot. Of the three varieties we tried, the goat cheese biscuits and orange fennel rolls were the clear winners. The bread does come around regularly so if you want more, the wait is not long.

My husband had the sangria with dinner, and it was very good - not too sweet with lots of citrus. I had a glass of a Rioja Riserva red wine - way too tannic on its own, but cut through the lamb beautifully. Still, I think next time I'd forego the wine and try one of the house cocktails instead. (If I have more than one drink with dinner I'm liable to be face down in the polenta. Getting old is a bitch.)

Ok, I admit that part of the reason I chose Rioja over the other restaurant I was considering was dessert: it was my birthday, and that calls for chocolate for dessert. Rioja's website advertised a chocolate peanut butter torte: a layer of peanut butter sponge cake, a layer of peanut butter, then chocolate cheesecake, topped with caramelized bananas and a banana caramel sauce. It was, indeed, sufficiently chocolate enough to satisfy my perennial chocolate tooth.

My husband had the fig-goat cheese beignets, about half a dozen little puffs in a port wine reduction. Again, it wasn't cloyingly sweet, but fruity and flavorful.

Portion sizes are reasonable, and reflect the dedication to quality, not quantity.

Rioja is simply one of those restaurants which not only lives up to its excellent reputation, but exceeds it. The meal as as good as any I've ever had, and I'm looking forward to eating there again, preferably while dragging some friends along. This is the kind of restaurant I want to see more of in Colorado.

Date visited: 3/5/2007

Hacienda Colorado, Littleton

It was cold, it was raining, it was late, we were tired, we were very hungry.

These are the reasons we tried Hacienda Colorado in Littleton. Not to mention the other places we tried to get into first had a 75 to 85 minute wait. Did I mention we were hungry?

With only a 40 minute wait we found seats at the bar, a more civilized way to pass the time. The bar menu was tequila heavy, as one might expect in a Mexican restaurant, but they still advertised a "top shelf" mojito that was very good indeed. My husband had a Negro Modelo - they also had a reasonable list of Mexican beers.

The server in the bar brought us chips, salsa, water, our drinks, and our check in rapid succession. She checked back often to see if we were ok, and kept the chips and salsa coming. (They're complimentary at Hacienda Colorado.) From her attentive service I figured we might have stumbled on to a decent restaurant.

Unfortunately, it was all downhill from there. We were seated on the patio (this is in March in Colorado) which was enclosed with some flimsy plastic sheets anchored with sandbags (lovely decor). Even though the patio was heated, every time the door to the main building opened a rush of cold air swirled around our legs.

Worse, the lighting out there was non-existent.There were overhead light fixtures, at least 12 feet up, and with maybe 20 watt bulbs in them. There was not enough light to read the menu. Period. Management obviously knew this was a problem because they had a flashlight for patrons to borrow.

In retrospect, this is the point where I should have called it and said we need either a better table or we'll find somewhere else to eat. Knowing that all the other tables in the place were full I'm fairly sure we would have had to take option 2, and I did mention we were hungry. Hungry to the point where I was feeling the blood sugar drop and starting to feel awful.

So I took the flashlight, read the menu, and ordered the barbacoa burrito. My husband took the waiter's suggestion and ordered the Baja camarones.

Half an hour later, we were on our fourth serving of chips and salsa, and wondering just where our entrees were. The waiter said "oh, I forgot to mention the Baja camarones take longer". Thanks, buddy. Lots.

The entrees eventually arrived, and the Baja camarones were pretty good - shrimp stuffed with cheese and jalapenos and wrapped in bacon. They came with a lemon butter sauce and pico de gallo, and a side of the worst beans either of us had tasted in a long time - flavorless but with a nasty aftertaste.

My burrito was, to put it bluntly, lousy. It was stuffed mostly with more of those awful beans, the shredded beef barbacoa was an afterthought, all rolled in a gummy tortilla. The pork green chile sauce on top didn't have any pork in it as far as I could tell, and if there was queso in or on the burrito I didn't see it - the waiter had removed the flashlight at that point so we were more or less eating in the dark.

Our server had given his spiel earlier in the evening about how everything was made from scratch in house - frankly, if this is the best they can do, I would suggest they call Sysco for some frozen entrees and raise the quality of their food.

Frankly, this place ranks as one of the worst places we've eaten in a very long time. The food is overpriced, service is slow, and we were seated in an area that simply should not have been in use at all at this time of year. No, we won't be going back.

Date of visit: 3/10/2007

Review: Red Lobster

You know that you're not near the ocean anymore when Red Lobster routinely wins some kind of award in the "Best Of" awards for Best Seafood restaurant.

We ended up at Red Lobster tonight not because we wanted good seafood - it's mostly because neither of us had any preferences, the cheddar garlic biscuits sounded pretty good, and hey, I had a coupon. Never underestimate the power of a coupon on my purchasing decisions.

It was late, so we were seated immediately. During the most popular dinner hours, especially on Friday and Saturday nights, the wait can bd 45 minutes plus. I did mention we weren't near the ocean and thus don't have a lot of choices for seafood, right?

We don't go to Red Lobster regularly, so everytime we're there the menu is different. Suffice it so say that there is always a selection of broiled and fried seafood combined in many different ways, and more ways to prepare small shrimp than you can shake a stick at. I went with the broiled combination because it had scallops, and my husband went for the fried because....well, probably because he wanted it.

The fried platter same with seafood and crab cakes (thin and mostly breading inside and out), fried fish fillets (my favorite), popcorn shrimp, and clam strips. The broiled platter had stuffed flounder (stuffed with the same stuff they make the seafood and crab cakes out of), shrimp scampi, and the previously mentioned scallops. Lest you think the broiled platter is somehow healthy, while it is lower in carbs than the fried, it makes up for it by dousing everything in lots of butter. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, since the cheddar biscuits are great for sopping up the garlic butter the scampi is swimming in.

Everything is pretty much overcooked, from somewhat rubbery scallops to mushy flounder to soft broccoli. It's par for the course, and honestly, I don't mind, because I'm getting pretty sick and tired of undercooked fish at most restaurants. Either do it up properly black and blue, or cook the thing. Don't leave it raw in the middle - that's called not knowing how to cook fish and leaving it undercooked because you don't want to risk overcooking it.Same with vegetables - this whole "crisp tender" thing is getting old, and sometimes I just want them cooked until they're, well, cooked.

My husband also ordered a cup of gumbo, which actually tasted pretty much like I expected gumbo to taste, and had recognizable rounds of sausage in it.

The salads, which come with the entrees, have shrunk quite a bit (I've heard that many CO restaurants are shrinking salads as one way of making up the money the recent wage hike legislation has cost them).

We skipped dessert since there's a Baskin Robbins next door, and the desserts at Red Lobster are pretty much food service straight out of the freezer in huge portions to make up for the fact they're industrial desserts.

In short, it was pretty much a par for the course meal at Red Lobster. I don't ask much of the place, it delivers what it delivers, and we both end up with what we expected.

Date of Visit: 2/3/2007

Kura Japanese Restaurant, Colorado Springs

Kura Japanese Restaurant (no link to website because as far as I can tell, they don't have one) is one of those hidden gems you stumble across every so often.

Located in a strip mall in the back of beyond in northeastern Colorado Springs, their menu isn't outstanding - in fact, it reads like pretty much every other middle of the road Japanese restaurant's menu: teriyaki, tempura, donburi, sushi. The difference is that they do these things very, very well.

We found this place on a whim: we were searching out a Chinese restaurant recommended by a restaurant owner who happens to work out at the same club we do. As I suspected, it's a restaurant we'd tried before and had been unimpressed by. Rather than have another mediocre meal, we looked across the parking lot and spied Kura in the spot where Sushi Joe's used to be, a restaurant we'd always meant to try but never got around to. (In Colorado Springs, it pays to eat at places early on. Most of them won't be around long enough to try later.)

Kura's space is small but warm and inviting. The walls are a warm terra cotta color, with a slate covered accent wall in the back and black ceilings. A short sushi bar runs across the back wall. There are roughly a dozen and a half tables of varying sizes, with reasonable space between them.

As I mentioned earlier, the regular menu is pretty much the standard Japanese fare offered in this country. The sushi menu reads like several of the higher end sushi places in town: the standard fishes, and lots and lots of rolls, mostly variations on salmon, tuna, avocado, and cucumber. Since this was our first visit to the restaurant, we decided to try a couple kinds of sushi as an appetizer, and order a cooked dinner each. I added the California roll to my dinner, since it was only $1.00 extra.

Miso soup comes with the dinners, and alongside was a small plate of in the shell edamame to start. I love edamame - it's a great bar snack, healthy and tasty - so I was already won over. The miso soup came with spoons, which is pretty common in Colorado. I guess folks here have some issues drinking straight from the bowl. The miso soup was quite good, not outstanding, but warm and not watery.

The California roll, maguro (tuna), and tamago (egg) sushi arrived next. The maguro served was a beautiful, fluffy light pink. It was only a few shades darker than the albacore I had years ago that was so beautiful it convinced me that eating raw fish might not be such a bad idea. And it was GOOD. Soft in texture and complex in flavor, that's when I knew this was going to be a good dinner. If a sushi place can't serve a good maguro, which is relatively easy to obtain, just forget about the rest.

The California roll was good and flavorful. It's another of my benchmarks: it's so easy and so popular, it's easy to cut corners and make a dull version. And the tamago, even though it was missing the characteristic brown streaks, tasted of egg and soy and mirin.

I ordered a bento box with teriyaki beef, tempura, and salad. It also came with small dollop of a cold mashed potato dish which was outstanding - I could taste the butter and what was probably the mirin they flavored it with. The teriyaki beef was a bit on the sweet side for me, but the beef was markedly tender and the portion huge. It was easily three times the size of a teriyaki beef portion I expect in a bento.

Same with the tempura: two large shrimps, and one of every other vegetable. It arrived at the table almost too hot to eat. The broccoli was a little pasty due to some undercooked tempura batter within the floret, and I wish the sweet potato slice was done just a wee bit more, but these are minor quibbles.

My husband ordered the Katsudon Donburi: breaded pork cutlet, egg, and onions over rice with sauce. Again, the pork cutlet was quite large, and it was cooked just about perfectly: cooked through, but still tender and juicy.

Service was great: food arrived quickly and our server checked on us regularly, making sure everything was to our liking and keeping our water glasses full.

Best of all, the price for all this food: $32.90 (includes 7.4% tax). I've paid far more for less food that wasn't as good.

I really hope Kura is around for awhile: when the standards are done this well, I'm reminded just WHY they are the standards. We'll be back, because I think we're going to have some fun working our way through the sushi menu.

Date of visit: 1/6/2007

12/19/2006 Edit