January in Review

Well, I thought I was going to get back to my blogging ways with 2011 and here it is February 1st and it's my 3rd post of the year.  What can I say...I was in a bit of a "funk" in January.  Just stumbled across this article which I thought was very fitting for me.  A couple of her changes were things I did in January too.  I tried new recipes and took up snow shoeing! 

Though I was in a bit of a funk, we did manage to start 2011 off with new restaurants.  I'm just going to provide a quick review of the new ones we tried and then will get back to more normal reviews.

We started the year with Sandy's Tavern.  The website claims "Home of the Best Burgers."  While that may be a bit of an overstatement, the burgers were very good!  We had driven by this restaurant a number of times and always thought we should try it.  It was well worth the visit and we'll be back.  We like to find the burger joints!

A few weeks ago we tried Jack's Restaurant for lunch.  I had a very good cup of butternut squash bisque and the Farmer's Pantry salad which consisted of cheese, red onions, carrots, wild rice, greens and a shallot vinaigrette.  The wild rice provided a bit of a crunch with the salad.  The hubby went with the garden nosh plate - lots of different spreads to try.  The bread there was fabulous!

We left Jack's in search of dessert somewhere and stumbled upon the newly reopened Blackbird Cafe.  The old location of this restaurant was destroyed by a fire about a year ago.  We were never huge fans of the old space.  The new space is fabulous!  The hubby was still a tad hungry after the nosh plate, so he ordered the handcut fries with rosemary aioli while I had a very nice cup of earl grey tea.  We then split dessert - the Pecan Bar.  Basically it was pecan pie with vanilla ice cream.  It was so incredibly delicious and sinful!

Cocina del Barrio one day for lunch.  The chicken/black bean tostadas are a must for any visit to the Barrio restaurants!  The corn chowder is also quite tasty.  Nice location, less noisy than the downtown Barrios - definitely plays to the suburban crowd more than the other locations.

We had a mid-week dinner with Reservations for One at Travail Kitchen and Amusement.  Not sure why they don't have their own website yet, but I think even those readers without Facebook can get to the site on Travail.  This restaurant was worth the hype.  It's a gastropub.  Pub like atmosphere with gourmet type dishes.  I can't even begin to describe all of the wonderful plates we tried.  All of it was great!  Definitely will go back there.  They don't take reservations though, so plan ahead and get there early.  We were there when they opened and they had a line waiting within 30 minutes or so.

We visited the new location of Rice Paper.  This restaurant is the reason I now can eat tofu.  The tofu puff appetizers are so tasty that I hold all tofu up to their standards.  I then tried a Delta Bowl with chicken.  Let me tell you, that was a rough dish to try and eat gracefully.  It basically is a soup dish, but with lots of noodles.  Very hard to eat without getting the broth all over.  Live and learn as they say...

Next we tried Raku.  Raku is a Japanese restaurant that has recently opened.  The decor is quite nice.  Soft and quiet.  The food was fine, but I wouldn't rush back to it.  I ordered a tempura dish and it was just too fried for me.  I know that is the what tempura is, but I didn't think about it being quite like that.

Finally, we went to The Hanger Room for brunch.  I had a chicken, arugula, feta omelet that was served with a well-seasoned serving of potatoes.  The potatoes were little cubes, not hash browns, but similar.  I also tried the maple coil sausage from Fischer Farms.  The sausage was the highlight of the meal for me.  It had a nice slightly sweet taste.  The hubby went with the BLT egg sandwich.  It was very good and I think he "won" in the ordering department.  The house cut fries that he had were also very good.  We don't think this location will be open for brunch very long - not busy enough to sustain it.  However, I hope they do well with their dinner offerings.  The food is good and I think they will do well in the restaurant scene.

That's the January recap.  Lots more restaurants to try in the next 11 months.  Stay tuned...

Happy Eating!