Colorado Eating

Las Vegas Food, Part 2

2008-04-21T19:55:00.009-06:00

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

2008-04-21T19:31:00.012-06:00

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

2007-03-11T15:42:00.000-06:00

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

2007-03-11T15:19:00.000-06:00

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

2007-02-04T00:38:00.000-07:00

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

2007-01-06T21:57:00.000-07:00

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

2007 Culinary Resolutions

2007-01-06T12:54:00.000-07:00

After years of grandiose New Years Resolutions that prove to be unworkable by about January 15, I finally settled on two that I thought I could keep because they were doable and pleasurable. People don't tend to keep to resolutions that make them unhappy - heck, they don't tend to keep doing anything that doesn't give them some kind of reward.

My two resolutions are culinary in nature: first, one new recipe a month. It's a way to get me to step out of my comfort zone and at least try to do something with all those cookbooks and magazines I've amassed over the years. Lots of the recipes are worth trying once, but aren't good enough/fast enough/cheap enough/easy enough to make it into the daily rotation. And occasionally I'll find a keeper.

Second: one new restaurant a month. We eat out so rarely these days that it's really hard to take a chance and try a new place, because I can't just erase the disappointment of a bad meal out with an excellent one the next day.But if we don't eat at new places, we'll never find new excellent places. It also keeps my ear to the ground to find the new places to try - as I've mentioned before, this isn't a restaurant town, but there are gems around.

Last year, I hit 12 out of 12 months on the recipes, and 11 out of 12 on the restaurants (the exception being December, which is a difficult month to begin with made more difficult with all this expletive deleted snow). I consider that to be a rousing success as far as resolutions go, and look forward to continuing them in the new year.

I have one more resolution, particular to this blog: I'm resolving to posting my restaurant reviews in a bit more timely manner. I've found the longer I wait to write the review, the less likelihood there is of it ever being written.

Review: Thai Basil

2006-11-04T22:43:00.000-07:00

We'd driven my Thai Basil in the restaurant cluster next to Park Meadows Mall in Lone Tree several times, always saying we had to try it out in our fruitless search to find decent Thai food in Colorado. (Sadly, the only decent place I've found to date went under. It's sort of the story of good food around here.) During our convention in Denver we had a free night for dinner, and decided to go give it a try.

It was Saturday night, so we had a short wait. On the way in, you can't miss the two intricately carved wooden benches on either side of the lobby. Not only are the comfortable to sit on, they are smooth and interesting to touch. I've certainly waited in less comfortable spaces. Our table was right up against another one of the many carvings around the room, a large Buddha. We rubbed his belly for good luck. It couldn't hurt.

To be fair, Thai Basil doesn't pretend to be a Thai restaurant; it bills itself as Asian fusion. There are plenty of Thai dishes, but there are also Japanese sushi and traditional Chinese dishes.

As I've mentioned before, my acid test of a Thai restaurant is their Tom Kha Gai, coconut chicken soup. Thai Basil doesn't call theirs Tom Kha Gai, but it's similar enough that we both ordered bowls. The broth was flavorful and smooth, the chicken almost impossibly tender. However the mushrooms were almost raw and there were not the bunches of inedibles that give the soup its depth of flavor.

I ordered the chicken with Thai basil, my husband ordered the Panang beef. (I don't remember exactly what my dish was called as the restaurant does not seem to have a website.) As usual in the Chinese and Thai restaurants we've gone to before, we expected to share. I hope it's not a new trend, but each of our dishes was served individually, with rice on the plate, as one might expect with a lunch special. The plate itself was one of the more visually beautiful I've ever seen at a restaurant, a square of glass with metallics sandwiched underneath.

The Panang beef was in a separate clay pot with a sterno burner underneath - which had not been lit. A bit of carelessness, but if you're going to use a burner, you might as well light it.

Portions were generous and flavors were typically Thai, but they simply weren't spicy enough. I should have known this was the case when not only did our server not ask us how spicy we wanted our food, but there was also a bottle of Sriracha on the table.

While the meal was reasonably good and reasonably priced, it was ultimately another disappointment. I'm still looking for a good Thai restaurant that reliably produces the flavors and heat that I'm grew so addicted to in California. I would eat at Thai Basil again, but I won't make a special trip there.

(Date of visit: October 28, 2006)

Review: McCormick & Schmicks

2006-11-04T22:10:00.000-07:00

McCormick and Schmicks was my backup restaurant during my trip to California in September. I was staying right by one, so if I couldn't find anywhere else I really wanted to eat, I was pretty certain I could find a halfway decent meal there. It wasn't a first tier choice because the chain has an outpost in Denver, and I figured I would eventually have a chance to try them out there.

The chance came sooner rather than later, as the Denver location turned out to be about a block from the hotel we were staying at for a convention. I figured it was fate, so we dropped by a bit on the later side Friday night.

McCormick and Schmicks specializes in seafood, and their one page novel of a menu reflects that. The fresh selections are listed at the top; all can be prepared fairly simply. But many of them also feature in the long list of dishes listed below. This is why the website only provides sample menus; what's available depends on what they have fresh.

It took me a long time to read over the menu, even when I was only going into the details of the dishes that sounded interesting. Fortunately they serve bread in the meantime, a half loaf of sourdough each time. I miss sourdough bread; it's othe standard restaurant bread in the San Francisco Bay Area, but out here it's hard to find.

We ordered an appetizer listed as "Kobe Beef Potstickers" right away. I somehow doubt it was Kobe beef, unless it was made up from trimmings from other pieces served elsewhere on the menu (if I read the non-seafood part of the menu, I don't remember it). But the potstickers were good, nice and crisp, even if they were a bit pricey at about $11.00 for five.

I ended up ordering the Cashew Crusted Tilapia from San Jose, Costa Rica, with hot rum butter. The menu didn't mention it, but it was also served with asparagus and rice. My first impression was "this portion is HUGE", and it was - at least twice the size I expected. It was cooked to well done - not overcooked, but cooked slightly further than is the fashion with fish these days. I appreciated that, even if others would consider it a negative, because I like my fish cooked all the way through.

The cashew crust was plentiful and crisp, the hot rum butter just slightly sweet, working well with the nuts. It wasn't an extraordinary dish, but it was good.

My husband ordered the etouffee, another generous portion tasting throughout of the andouille sausage. The shrimp were small but plentiful, as was the chicken. It came served with rice.

The dessert tray was no exception when it came to portion size - we'd each thought about ordering our own dessert until we saw them and realized neither of us had any chance against them. We decided on the chocolate bag filled with white chocolate mousse and berries.

The chocolate in the bag was surprisingly good, not the flavorless, waxy stuff many chocolate sculptures are made of. I'm not a huge fan of white chocolate mousse because most renditions don't taste like much; this was an exception, absolutely delicious. Even the blackberries and raspberries were tender and sweet instead of the hard sourballs most are.

Service was slow and not particularly on the ball. While our server kept our water glasses full, we had the distinct impression she wasn't all that interested in our table. This was borne out when the desserts were described to the next table; we heard about several specials that our server never mentioned.

Overall, McCormick and Schmicks made a reasonably positive impression on me. I enjoyed my meal and would not be averse to dining there again, but I don't think I'd make a special trip to Denver just to eat there.

(Date of visit: October 27, 2006)

Review: MoZaic

2006-10-21T21:54:00.000-06:00

MoZaic, at the Inn at Palmer Divide, is an interesting mix of style and food. Part bistro and part fine dining, it takes some risks and generally succeeds at serving food that's considerably more interesting than most local restaurants.

The restaurant is large and warm, decorated in southwestern tones of terra cotta, peach, and tan. Lighting is unobtrusive but more than sufficient for reading your dinner and making sure you were indeed served the correct entree. Tables are spaced a nice distance apart so you don't HAVE to listen to your neighbors' conversation.

One wall of the restaurant is mostly windows, which the website says "features one of the best vistas looking down along the Front Range and over the lights of the city". Maybe the view out from the bar shows the city lights, because the windows were black holes, since the sun sets earlier these days. We'll have to go back sometime during summer months when we can verify the view ourselves.

The menu can be classified as modern dishes with some boring standards, probably to cater to the many folks locally whose tastes run the range from A to B (with apologies to Dorothy Parker). Catering to them are dishes like fried calamari and french onion soup.

Far more interesting were the appetizers we had: duck confit wrapped in a chive crepe, topped with foie gras and a slice of black truffle, and the special, brie en croute with garlic toasts and apple slices. The duck confit was meltingly tender and deeply flavored, but sadly, a little too peppery to meld well with the foie gras and truffle. The chive crepe was lovely, soft and flecked with green.

They used a very high quality brie in puff pastry, flavorful and with a high fat content.

The entrees were equally interesting, if a little less successful. The bison short ribs, served on golden mashed potatoes with truffle butter, smoked chile demiglace, and vegetables, were tender enough, but really needed another hour or three's worth of braising to be as meltingly tender as short ribs should be. There was still connective tissue and fat throughout the meat that had not had the time to disintegrate. They also needed salt, which is something I rarely encounter. The potatoes were wonderful, even if I couldn't taste any truffles, and did an admirable job of sopping up the demiglace, where I also didn't taste too much in the way of smokiness or chiles.

My husband had the wild boar ravioli, a rather deconstructed dish with two sheets of pasta, one folded over the three cheese souffle, the other over the shredded boar, then stacked one atop the other. I thought it was quite flavorful, especially the cheese, but my husband said it never really surprised him, it kept tasting the same the whole way through. It was accompanied by an Asian slaw with plenty of jicama and black sesame seeds and a soy/sesame oil/ginger based dressing.

Desserts are more of an afterthought at MoZaic; mousse, cheesecake, creme brulee. We split their turtle cheeesecake. It was towards the creamy end of cheesecake rather than the fluffy, tasted delightfully strongly of the cream cheese, and had plenty of caramel and chocolate sauce.

I forgot to ask whose coffee they were serving, but the decaf was very tasty with an interesting burnt caramel note in the aftertaste (as opposed to burned coffee bean taste, like Peet's).

Service was friendly if a little pokey at times, but they did a nice job of keeping our water glasses full and refilling the bread basket. MoZaic serves twisted breadsticks with herb butter (definitely tasting of chives and parsley) whose flavors opened up nicely on the warm bread.

We'll definitely be going back because the flaws simply aren't enough to overwhelm the wonderful calm and adult atmosphere, and I want to encourage restaurants that take chances and serve something more interesting than burgers and burritos.

(Date of visit: 10/20/2006)

(Sort Of) Review: Il Fornaio

2006-10-15T00:00:00.000-06:00

I've tried to review Il Fornaio for other sites in the past, and I've come to the reluctant conclusion that I simply can't be objective about my favorite restaurant.

Yes, I know they're a chain, and yes, I know they used to be trendier, hipper, happeninger, and better than they are today. But I still adore the food and the atmosphere, which somehome manages to stay consistent even though each individual restaurant is slightly different.

Il Fornaio came to Colorado shortly after we did, starting with the Denver LoDo location, then expanding to Flatirons out by Boulder and then to Greenwood Village, closer to us. Closer is a relative term because it's still a good 45 minute drive even without traffic, rain, and the idiots who think you have to tailgate someone for awhile first before it's ok to pass them. (Ranting about Denver drivers is for another day and the other blog.)

The first two weeks of each month, give or take a few days, Il Fornaio runs their "Festa Regionale", where they highlight dishes, wines, and ingredients of one of Italy's regions. The Festa menus are rarely adventurous, but they always tend to have some interesting offerings. More importantly, Passporto holders receive some kind of bonus if they order at least one item off the regional menu. (Passporti are free either at the restaurant or by signing up on their website. If you attend all six regions on the Passporto, you are entered in a drawing for a free trip to Italy. Needless to say, we haven't won.)

Since this is the last weekend of the October Festa, we made a point of having dinner at Il Fornaio in Greenwood Village this weekend. This month's region was Lombardia.

The regional bread was cornmeal based and was absolutely fantastic. Some of the regional breads are a little iffy, but this was like American cornbread if it were a real bread and not a quick bread. It was only slightly crumbly, with a good dense texture and chewyness, and a light corn flavor. We liked it so much we got a loaf to take home - it's going to make extraordinary toast.

Two of the entrees on the regional menu leapt out at me - the osso buco and the filetto with gorgonzola sauce. I ordered the former and my husband ordered the latter.

I've had Il Fornaio's osso buco before (probably the last time they did Lombardia), and I remembered it accurately: falling apart tender, deep flavor, and a tomato sauce that I tried to analyze with every bite. I want to learn to make tomato sauce like that. It was everything osso buco should be.

Sadly, the saffron risotto served alongside was everything risotto shouldn't be: flavorless, dry, and undercooked. Yes, I know risotto should be served al dente, but this was not yet to the al dente stage - it was hard and stuck in my teeth as I chewed it. That's undercooked. Five more minutes in the saute pan and another ladle or two of chicken stock would have gone a long way.

The filetto was wonderful - flavorful and tender. A lot of filet gets the tender right, but doesn't come through with the beef flavor. This stood up well to the gorgonzola sauce. A polenta cake and spinach was served alongside, but we both thought the spinach was really Swiss chard (probably due to the latest spinach issues and ensuing panic).

I ordered the Rosina for dessert: thin circle of sponge cake, raspberries, chocolate mousse, chocolate coating. I have had it before and it's the item to order when you're in the mood for chocolate. I didn't quite finish, but I did eat all the chocolate.

Due to the louder than usual noise in the restaurant, my husband's dessert order was misheard and he was served the campari and grapefruit sorbet instead of the pear and amaretto cake (both regional desserts). To the server's credit he corrected the dessert as soon as we could catch him, and left the sorbet as well. We also left it - it was extremely sour and neither of us liked it at all. The pear and amaretto cake was really more of a rustic tart - a crust closer to shortbread than pie crust, lots of pears, and lots of almonds, drizzled with chocolate and served with creme anglaise. It was far better than the sorbet, but way too almondy for my taste.

The coffee at Il Fornaio is terrific - very strong but very smooth. That goes for the decaf, too. You know a place takes its coffee seriously when decaf isn't just an afterthought.

The bonus this month was a ceramic olive oil pitcher - it's very cute, yellow with painted olives. It sort of matches the ceramic olive oil dishes from the past two years, which is why we made of point of getting them. (We use the olive oil dishes for small salads and dipping sauces all the time - they've been among the most useful gifts we've received from any establishment).

I always look forward to going to Il Fornaio - while I know I'm not going to hit the very pinnacle of dining, I know I'm going to have a good meal in comfortable surroundings. The older I get the more I appreciate that.

(Date of visit: 10/14/06)

Trader Joe's Dark Sumatra Coffee

2006-10-11T12:39:00.000-06:00

Some people go sightseeing on vacation; I go grocery shopping.

One of the many reasons Colorado is a culinary wasteland is that we don't have Trader Joe's. I don't know why. Probably because CO has archaic liquor laws that don't allow grocery stores to stock anything but 3.2 beer and don't allow liquor sales on Sunday (like we can't stock up on Saturday night. Idjits.).

But California does. And I was in California recently. I left with a suitcase that was half empty and returned with a suitcase that was near the airline's weight limit. A great deal of that was food and drink.

Being low on coffee, I bought some of Trader Joe's Dark Sumatra. I love Sumatra coffees - I love the smoothness and the earthiness and the low acidity. I don't like that acid bite in a lot of lighter and South American coffees.

This stuff will put hair on your chest. It's an espresso roast, the beans are dark and oily. The taste is fairly smooth though, with an interesting burned/charred taste at the end of each sip that appears on the back of the tongue. I'm enjoying the flavors now, but I can see where by the end of the bag I'm probably going to be tired of it. There's also a deep earthiness, a groundedness (pardon the pun) that is soothing and comforting. I should be writing marketing copy instead of a coffee review.

It also packs a nice jolt of caffeine, something I appreciate more and more as I get older.

I'm not sure I'd buy this again as a general morning coffee, but it's certainly worth drinking and I will enjoy finishing the bag.

Ok, so I waxed rhapsodic about Trader Joe's a couple posts ago. Bear with me. I miss them. And they don't do mail order.

California Eatin': Pictures from Avenue

2006-09-29T19:22:00.000-06:00

Warm Mushroom and Brie Tart with Balsamic Reduction:

Braised Lamb Shank With Gnocchi and Snow Peas:

Hot Chocolate Cake With Toasted Marshmallow Spoon (with a bite taken out of it already, oops):

California Eatin': Quick Restaurant Reviews

2006-09-28T18:59:00.000-06:00

During my recent trip to CA, I ate out a lot. Even though I had a "suite" with a mini fridge and a minier microwave, it was far easier to partake of the bounty of restaurants in the area. I miss living in an area with lots and lots of good restaurants, where one runs out of the number of meals to be eaten far sooner than the number of restaurants one would desire to try.

Breakfasts were eaten at the hotel's free breakfast buffet because they did have eggs and sausage. I need two things in the morning: protein and coffee.

McDonald's: Ok, technically this was in the Denver airport, but I needed coffee and I needed it fast and for some reason there are no good coffee places in Terminal B/United. Ok, there's a Seattle's Best, but it's all the way down the other end of the terminal and the coffee isn't that good. McDonald's was there.

The coffee wasn't half bad. It may be their new coffee, it may be that I had one of the first cups out of a new batch, but it was quite acceptable and a step up from Village Inn or Denny's coffee. The Egg McLugnut, however, was execrable. How you can ruin something so simple is beyond me. The hash browns were worse. I spit out the one bite of them that I tried - they tasted like rancid oil - and threw out the rest.

Chicken Dijon: A chain in Southern California that specializes in roasted chicken and things to do with it. We'd found it quite by accident during our last trip and really liked the food - it reminded me of Pollo's in Northern CA, but with a Greek/Mediterranean twist rather than a Mexican.

I had the house sandwich and a side salad: the house sandwich is chicken pieces, lettuce, tomato, mayo, some dressing, and a side of a yogurty garlic sauce. The side salad is a basic tossed salad. It's good, filling, and relatively in plan. I like the well-cooked chicken they have - I'm of the school that chicken needs to be cooked until DONE and tender, not just until the juices run clear.

Coco's Bakery Restaurant: This meal was far more about the company and conversation than the food, so Coco's was a fine choice. There used to be one here in Colorado Springs, but it's long gone - apparently there are some left in Colorado somewhere, but they're really not worth searching out. Not since they discontinued the fried chicken dinner many years ago. I had a nice BBQ chicken salad which was remarkably tasty, and a nicely adequate slice of coconut cream pie. And a lot of good company and conversation.

LA Food Show: Technically part of the California Pizza Kitchen empire, this one off restaurant has its own unique menu focused on the cuisines of California. I think I'd call it Cheesecake Factory, Lite - it's trendy without being too out there, but the food is good. I had the Avocado Egg Rolls, technically an appetizer, but plenty of food for a light lunch, since they come with two sauces and a dollop of whiskey blue cheese slaw.

Avenue: This is a little gem of a restaurant on Manhattan Ave in Manhattan Beach, just a hop, skip, and a jump from where I was staying. I knew I wanted to eat at least one interesting meal while I was out there, so off I went to search eGullet's California subforum for recommendations. One of the folks who knows that whole area had listed Avenue, and a quick trip to their website showed me that this was exactly the kind of menu I was looking for.

I admit I was a little nervous about finding parking, but going latish on Sunday evening proved to be an effective strategy. I found lots of parking and had no trouble walking in without a reservation.

I started with the Warm Mushroom Tart, Melted Brie, Balsamic Reduction. The mushrooms were served over a square of puff pastry, topped with the brie, the balsamic reduction scattered artistically about, and a few leaves of arugula. I love mushrooms and I love brie, which is why I chose this appetizer. The balsamic reduction added the needed punch - with it, the flavors came alive. Bites without it were rather flat.

I drank a glass of Snoqualmie Gewurztraminer with this - flavors of grapefruit and honey, complemented it perfectly and cut through the richness of the brie. This was my only drink as I was tired and driving.

For an entree I'd been torn between the pork rack and the braised lamb shank when I happened to catch a glimpse of the entrees being served to the table next to me. When I spied the large chunk of meat looking like something straight out of the Flintstones, I decided immediately to have the lamb. It was an excellent choice: lots of tender, falling apart lamb with some snow peas, carrots, and gnocchi underneath. And even more importantly, it was perfectly salted so the flavors just popped.

Dessert was the hot chocolate cake with a toasted marshmallow spoon. The cake is a liquid center cake, but amusingly baked in a coffee cup to look like it's hot chocolate. A dollop of marshmallow fluff on a spoon is served alongside, torched to brown it a little. I wasn't quite sure exactly how to eat it, so I pushed the marshmallow into the liquid cake, like I would with a mug of hot chocolate, and licked the rest off the spoon. The chocolate cake wasn't too sweet so I could really taste the chocolate and cocoa in it.

Heck, even their coffee was good. Definitely a place I'd like to eat at again.

Beaches: I found myself with some free time before my flight back, so I went back down to Manhattan Beach and spent some time walking around the downtown area and out on the pier. I ended up at Beaches restaurant for lunch, which is right on the beach and has some amazing views from their tables. I ate my Coconut Crusted Mahi Mahi with Thai Red Curry Sauce watching the palm trees and the white sand and the surf. The fish flaked apart, the sauce was nicely spicy with good Thai basil flavors, the rice alongside was tasty, but the bread had been over-reheated to the point where the crust was vulcanized. This is a place where the view is as important as the food.

California Eatin': Trader Joes

2006-09-26T23:56:00.000-06:00

A recent trip to Southern California served to remind me that while corporations are working to homogenize this country, regional differences still abound. I used to live in Northern California, now I'm living in Colorado, and I know what I'm missing.

One of the big things I'm missing is Trader Joes.

If you haven't heard of Trader Joes, go visit their website. I'll wait.

Ok, got it? It's a reasonably priced mecca for foodies. Like Whore Foods (Whole Foods, which is now ubiquitous, and known as "the whore" among those I chat with about it for obvious reasons), they have interesting foods; unlike them, you don't have to bankrupt yourself to shop there.

Since I was flying, and only had half an empty suitcase to fill, not to mention the 50 lb weight limit imposed by the airlines, I had to pick and choose what I could bring back. This was difficult - I wanted to try their "pretzel bread" rolls, but was seduced by the idea of porcini ciabatta. (And it was good.) Too much glass was right out - weight and breakability reasons - so the pomegranate vinegar and the bottle of Thai Yellow Curry sauce had to stay. Already had a bottle of their Roasted Garlic Salsa at home.

But I found things like shelf stable Thai marinated tuna steaks - instant dinner. Two different kinds of Sumatran coffees. Tea. 73% cocoa solids chocolate. Stuff easily schlepped in a suitcase. I don't know if it's all good yet, but it's cheap enough that it was worth trying.

I simply didn't have enough meals available out there to get one of their fresh prepackaged Chinese Chicken Salads. They were one of my standard lunches when I lived out there - tasty dressing, snow peas and all. I also spent some time whimpering over their wine selection - at least 3 or 4 bottles I'd've bought in an instant if I was driving instead of flying. Next time I do the road trip out there I'm bringing back an assorted case of wine.

Starbucks, Love 'em or Hate 'em

2006-09-07T19:30:00.000-06:00

Like most people, I have a love/hate relationship with Starbucks.

I hate that their coffee (as opposed to their flavored milk drinks) is so uniformly awful. (Not quite as bad as Peet's burned rubber, but that's another rant.) I hate that they are everywhere, sometimes two or three in the same shopping center. I hate that they really are making it harder for independent coffee shops to get by unless they're in the middle of a large city.

But I love their convenience. It's not just being located in easily accessible areas, it's also that they're open an hour or two later than any of the local independents. I used to love to go out for coffee and dessert after dinner, but by the time we're done eating, everything except Starbucks is closed. I'm sorry, but places I patronize have to be open at hours that are convenient to me. And if the locals want to roll up their sidewalks at 9pm (7pm on Sunday), well, I can't very well buy coffee there at 10pm, when I want it.

I also love their familiarity. Some years ago we were on an Alaskan cruise, stopped at the port of Skagway. As far as I could tell Skagway exists only to separate cruise passengers from their money, and it was a cold, rainy, miserable day on top of that. After sloshing about the town we were gearing ourselves up for the trek back to the ship, and there it was: Starbucks. Rarely has anything tasted so good or been so bracing as the coffee and muffin I ordered there. It was comforting and familiar and I was done with being under attack by the weather and crowds for the day.

(I highly recommend Alaskan cruises, but Skagway was kind of the low point of the trip. Juneau and Ketchikan were both lots more fun.)

I wonder when they're going to reach saturation, though. It's getting to the point where there's less than a mile between Starbucks along Academy, and it's getting that way out on Powers, too. I mean, yes, we're all running on caffeine these days, but how much coffee can people really consume?

(Side note: when the economy goes bad, like it is now, people tend to spend more heavily on the little luxuries that make their lives more pleasant. I'm wondering if this is part of what's behind the Starbucks explosion.)

The coffee I brew at home in my automatic drip pot is still better, though. And cheaper. And available 24 x 7.

Marcia.

Legacy Review: Caspian Cafe

2006-09-04T15:32:00.000-06:00

Date of Visit: 2/25/06

While it may be housed in a former Denny's building, that's about as close as the Caspian Cafe ever gets to the chain.

The interior of the building has been transformed from its Denny days into a warm cozy space, with lots of dark wood and cream walls subtly enhanced with hand-painted scrollwork. The tables range from smallish high tops to roomy standard height models - go for the standard height if you can.

We started with the Eggplant in Spicy Honey Sauce - three slices of grilled eggplant with a thick, sweet sauce of honey, ginger, chili, and other spices. Alongside were three pita triangles, three slices of lemon, and a good sized dollop of plain yogurt. I would have liked the eggplant to have been just a bit more cooked - it was still a bit firm in spots - but the honey sauce was delightful, sweet, spicy, and worked perfectly with the tangy yogurt.

The bread was Italian ciabatta, according to the server, and while it had the prerequisite dense, spongy interior, the crust was a little soft. It's served with individual saucers of olive oil for dipping.

Entrees come with soup or salad. The salad was half greens, half other vegetables (tomatoes, cucumbers, onions) with currants and ground sundried tomatoes. The pomegranate vinaigrette was lovely - sweet and sour, fruity
and complementing the vegetables nicely.

One of my dining companions ordered the soup, a fava bean with cavatelli in a tomato broth. It was not as flavorful as expected, although the beans were quite tender. The salad was the better choice.

For an entree I chose the Moroccan Roast Chicken, a chicken breast and part of a wing rubbed with spices that definitely included ginger and saffron, roasted with lemons and oranges. I wish the chicken had been slightly more tender. The rich flavor was offset nicely by the citrus - it was served with asparagus, basmati rice, and wonderful spaghetti squash cooked with ginger and other spices.

Another dining companion had the Greek Country Salad, which was loaded with Kalamata olives and feta cheese; he declared it very good. Another person had the pork chop special, stuffed with olives and feta. It came with the same sides as my roast chicken. And yet another ordered the Shish Taouk, a chicken kabob basted with saffron and butter, served on a mound of basmati rice.

Unfortunately, we weren't able to share our impressions of our dishes at the time because the sound system was playing very loud music for the Saturday night belly dancing.

While belly dancing is a common enough entertainment at Mediterranean restaurants, this is the first restaurant I've eaten at where it became a complete nuisance. Other places often clear a space in the middle of the room for the dancer so those who wish to watch can, and those who want to converse are not constantly being interrupted. The dancer did her level best to dance between the tables, but she was almost always hovering over someone trying to eat, nearly clocking someone with the sword she had balanced on her head, or blocking the servers from bringing food or refilling glasses.

Speaking of the service, it's friendly and knowledgeable, but very leisurely. Glasses were kept full, but plates hung around on the table for awhile.

Despite the distractions we hung around for dessert. The dessert menu is fairly standard - baklava, nut roll, sorbets, ice cream. I split the dessert special of the night, a chocolate mousse with grand marnier, served in a tall champagne flute. It tasted slightly closer to chocolate pudding than mousse, but there was no mistaking the grand marnier. The other couple split a "pastry combo" of one baklava and one nut roll, which were declared good
but slightly overhoneyed.

I will be returning to the Caspian Cafe, but not on Thursday or Saturday nights when the belly dancing is featured. When I go to dinner I want to concentrate on my meal and conversation with those at my table, not be deafened by music or trip over the entertainment.

Update: haven't been back since. We really should.

Legacy Review: Orange Oasis

2006-09-03T17:44:00.000-06:00

I have a number of old legacy restaurant reviews sitting around, and if I post them here I won't have to keep them in random files on my computer anymore. I'll post the review as written, with updated commentary at the end.

Date of Visit: 1/15/06

I've been watching the Orange Oasis restaurant (5934 Stetson Hills Blvd.,Colorado Springs) being built out on Powers for probably about a year now. As a free standing restaurant that is apparently not part of a chain, it's something of an anomaly around here -one of the many things that piqued my interest. It opened towards the end of last year, and giving them some time to work out the inevitable opening issues, we finally got around to giving them a try tonight.

We met two friends there and were immediately surprised at how full their parking lot was - especially since the restaurant itself was quite empty. The floor is larger than expected, with not only a large amount of tables, but also a full bar with a large seating area. Granted, we did arrive at 5:30 pm, but this is also a town that eats early.

We were seated at a corner booth and immediately noticed the extremely poor lighting. I don't have "older eyes", so when I don't have enough light to read the menu, there is usually an issue. Fortunately, when we mentioned this to a server, the light in our area was brightened.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I opened the Orange Oasis' menu, since they do not have a web site that we could find, and the only mention of them on the web was a job listing where they were looking for a chef for a new
"steak and seafood restaurant". After reading the menu I wouldn't exactly call it a steak and seafood restaurant - American eclectic is as close as I could come.

Yes, they do have an assortment of steaks, and some seafood dishes, but also an entire page of sandwiches running the gamut from albacore tuna to a chipotle club to curried chicken. I also seem to recall some Asian inspired pasta dishes, too.

Our friends had arrived early and ordered some potato skins for the table. They were adequate - cooked through, with cheese, bacon, tomatoes, and green onions for the topping, along with a side of a nicely thick sour cream. But there was nothing special about them - they were just potato skins.

We were also served a basket of fried dough rounds with sugar, compliments of the house. Sadly, these were greasy, and got worse as they got colder. I tend to think of fried doughnuts like these as more of a dessert item than an
appetizer.

The four of us ordered from all over the menu, so we sampled bites and had a chance to evaluate each others' dishes. Three of us started with salads, one with soup. The salad was a mix of nice baby greens and underripe tomato wedges; I had the honey citrus dressing which was fairly tasty, but had someodd herb in it (oregano?) that didn't quite meld with the honey and the citrus.

The loser of the bunch was the vegetable beef soup - the friend who chose that said it was tasteless.

The entrees ran the gamut from slightly better than adequate to slightly worse than adequate. I had the roast beef ciabatta sandwich - roast beef, onions, and cheese on ciabatta bread with jus on the side. The ciabatta was the best part of the sandwich; while not artisanal, it had a nice chewyness and a good crumb. The beef was tender and tasty, although it needed salt. But the jus was completely and utterly tasteless. I dipped the sandwich in it, then tried it on a bit of the ciabatta, and then just took a spoonful - in all cases, it tasted like nothing more than warm water. Considering that jus is almost always made from a mix, this was quite disturbing.

My husband had the chipotle club - turkey, lettuce, tomato, bacon, and a chipotle mayonnaise. He said it was a nice club sandwich, but the only way he could tell there was any chipotle on it was that his lips tingled a little. He couldn't taste it.

One friend had the grilled tuna, which was obviously badly overcooked. It also came with a sweet lemon sauce, which she described as being like lemon jelly.

The other friend had a steak with what was described as "risotto rice". I had a sample of the rice, and that was not risotto - slightly sticky rice at best. The steak also came with some of the flavorless jus, and a side of horseradish he described as potent.

Our server was friendly if somewhat scattered; we had to ask several times for small plates for our potato skin appetizers. The kitchen had a bit of a timing issue, as we had not yet finished our salads and soup before the entrees came, making for a crowded table.

The restaurant is decorated in a style I can only describe as 1970's meets minimalist. The color scheme is muted orange, brown, and black, with an anomalous crystal chandelier in the entryway.

Orange Oasis bills itself on the menu as a fine family dining restaurant, and I'm afraid I can't agree. At best, it's an average family restaurant; at worst, it's overreaching its capabilities. There's nothing terribly wrong with the place, but I can't think of much that was right with it, either.

When we left around 7 pm, the restaurant was busier than when we arrived, but there were still a significant number of empty tables. At 7 pm on Saturday night at most places in town there's a wait for a table.

Another puzzling thing about the restaurant is the number of visible staff - I saw at least 5 servers, one manager, one gentleman who might have been the owner, a bartender, and two door hostesses - and that doesn't even count the back of the house. That and the size/expense of the building makes for a lot of overhead, and I don't see how they're supporting it.

I don't think Orange Oasis is going to be around for much longer unless some significant changes are made, starting with the menu and the execution thereof. It was worth going to once - I've certainly had far worse meals - but there was nothing we saw or ate that would recommend a second visit.

Update: Wow, did I call it right. Orange Oasis didn't make it to the summer; sometime in the May-June time frame it stopped being a steak and seafood house, and had a huge sign out front: Chinese Restaurant. It kept the Orange Oasis name, though.

The Chinese restaurant made it through about August. As of this writing, the place is shut down and the building has a huge For Sale sign on it, less than one year after the restaurant opened.

Review: Wild Ginger

2006-09-02T22:02:00.000-06:00

The Thai food explosion may be news in most parts of the country, but as far as I can tell the wave of fish sauce and lemongrass has been stopped dead at the Colorado Springs border. I've been on a quest for really good Thai food ever since we moved here some 10 years ago. The only contender for the title of Really Good Thai to date was the late, lamented Royal Thai, and the other places I've tried range from ok to inedible.

We finally got around to eating at the Thai restaurant that routinely wins the "Best Of" polls in both The Gazette and The Independent: Wild Ginger, at 3020 W. Colorado Ave., Colorado Springs (Colorado and 30th).

The decor is comfortable, both inside and out. Red vinyl booths, tables with dark wooden chairs, all in a homey setting. Clean, neat, requisite pictures of Thai royalty, but nothing polished about it.

The menu covers appear printed on an ink jet, but the large number of listings inside are legible, and the main ingredients of each dish are listed. I always appreciate that because I have an allergy/sensitivity to bell peppers, and I like to know if I need to ask for them to be omitted.

The menu is mostly Thai favorites: soups like Tom Kha Gai and Tom Yum Goong, salads like Neu Nam Tok and Yam Neu, Laarb, Sate, curries, and noodle dishes like Pad Thai and Pad See Ew. There are also a few Chinese dishes, like Hot and Sour Soup, and American favorites like Fried Calamari. It's typical for restaurants around here - trying to appeal to the widest range of palates.

We ordered the Tom Kha Gai to start, not only because it's my favorite soup, but it's also my gold standard as to whether or not a Thai restaurant is any good. Wild Ginger's version includes cabbage (another variation I've only seen at Colorado Thai restaurants) along with straw and button mushrooms, onions, chicken, coconut milk, lemongrass, bird chilies, and a decent amount of keffir lime leaves. We'd ordered the soup medium, but it was more like mild - despite the attractive amount of chili oil floating on top, it lacked a commensurate bite. Fortunately, there were large bottles of Sriracha on every table, so we adjusted the heat accordingly. The soup was quite good, but even with the addition of the Sriracha lacked the punch I've come to expect.

For dinner we selected the Neu Nam Tok (Thai beef salad), Pad Thai, and Panang Beef Curry, all ordered at medium heat. The best of these dishes was the Neu Nam Tok: the beef had that distinctive grilled flavor, the tomatoes were ripe, the cucumbers crisp, and the dressing had a nice kick to it. But the dressing seemed unbalanced, with plenty of sour and hot, but not much salty or sweet. I sensed a distinct lack of fish sauce.

The Pad Thai was boring at best. No heat, the sauce had no memorable flavors. The noodles were cooked nicely, as were the six shrimp. No peanuts on top, and a bit skimpy on the eggs, too.

The Panang Beef Curry was the clear loser - too much stock, not enough curry paste. No heat to speak of, and very little flavor at all. While Thai curries do tend to be more liquid than Indian curries, this was nearly soup. If I didn't know this was supposed to be Panang, I'd've never guessed. The best thing I can say about it was the beef was tender.

Unlike the food, the Thai iced teas did pack that wonderful burst of flavor that works so well to cut through the heat of an unexpected bite.

Service was friendly but slow. To be fair, they were unexpectedly busy on this cold, wet night, and the three servers were in continual motion, but the wait for someone to take our drink orders and for our food was significantly longer than other places. Fortunately, we were not looking for a fast meal.

I guess my bottom line on Wild Ginger is mixed. I've certainly had worse Thai food, especially at places here in Colorado Springs, but the food overall feels dumbed down from the high impact, in your face Thai dishes that I grew to adore in California. I expect we'll be back sometime, and will make sure to order the food hot, but I don't foresee making the trip down there all that often.

(Date of Visit: 9/2/2006)

Colorado Eats

2006-09-02T21:48:00.000-06:00

I've been meaning to post the restaurant reviews I write, and since my other blog is being used for so many subjects already, I've decided to start another blog just for restaurants and foodie related posts.

I write these reviews for the amusement of myself and my friends, that's all. I have no affiliation with any newspaper or restaurant, I pay for my own meals, and if I happen to know any of the restaurateurs, I'll be up front about that. (Since at this point I know precisely zero restaurateurs, it makes that simple.)

Other than that, these reviews reflect my own opinion and only my own opinion; others are encouraged with great vigor to try the places themselves and form their own opinions.