Riviera
What started as a trip to Dos Taquitos turned into an amazing experience at Riviera. A note, Dos Taquitos is only open for dinner Thurs-Sat so I’ll have to venture there for dinner this weekend.
Riviera updated their menu last Wednesday for the fall. Upon a quick browse two items immediately stood out and my order was placed.
I started with the Portabella con cangerejo (sp). This was a roasted portabella mushroom sitting on a bed of arugula. Then they added a layer of warmed roasted peppers and melted buffalo mozzarella cheese. A layer of crab topped the appetizer and it was garnished with balsamic vinaigrette and chopped green onions. To say this was amazing is an understatement. The cheese covered the peppers and onions but wasn’t overpowering. All the layers were generally of equal proportion so you could cut directly down and get the combined taste of everything with each bite. This appetizer was very large, you could easily have a couple of these (or a different app) as a whole meal.
The second course was Homemade Venison sausage en Croute. This too was a large portion. The homemade sausage was baked in a puff pastry. The taste was amazing as well. None of the flavors overpowered each other. I liked the crunch taste of the pastry coupled with the meaty flavor of the sausage. It was served atop a bed of fennel/onions and chopped peppers. The fennel added a firm texture to the mixture while the onions were almost spaghetti like and the peppers added a little heat. I was surprised to see this at Riviera but they did an excellent job so I’m sure to have this again.
-Matt