What To Have

Vegetable spring rolls aren’t on the menu at Five Star, but they’ll occasionally cook them. I got turned on to these by one of the bartenders (see general guidlines) I like my food spicy, and the kitchen knows this, so my favorite part of this app is the diced chili’s the put in the roll. They make it spicy and even more enjoyable.

One of my favorites at five star is the salt and pepper calamari. I don’t eat this enough, they have so many good dishes I keep in the rotation that i often forget the calamari. Anyway, this is one of the best versions of calamari in raleigh. It’s really easy to overcook this dish but it’s never been overcooked here. It’s lightly battered which makes it slightly crunchy, but it’s not so battered that it gets oily. A simple sprinkle of salt and pepper along with a side of sauce complete this dish. Try these out.

-Matt

I hadanother enjoyable meal at Riviera tonight. I started with the Portabella con Cangrejo, i simply can’t get enough of this app. See my previous review here. I finished up with the Proscuitto Wrapped Chicken. This dish is fairly lite even though it’s wrapped in proscuitto. The chick is grilled, tender and stuffed with an assortment of pine nuts, mozzarella and fresh herbs. It sits on a tomato-basil risotto that is lite and fluffy. Try this one out.

-Matt

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

I had another one of those spectacular dishes at Fins sat night. The special was a pan seared grouper. The star of this dish was a fresh filet of grouper pan seared for a slight crispyness on the outside. It was tender, flaky and tasted as if it were in the ocean hours before. An assortment of mixed japanese mushrooms sat atop the grouper. To round this dish out, the chef quick wok’d green beans and cashews. This mixture added firm texture of the beans and richness of the cashews to the dish. All of it sat atop pureed edamame. I’m an edamame fan and I’d never seen this treatment but I’d have this in another dish in a heartbeat. Overall I liked how the freshness of the fish blended well with the richness of the cashews and the flavor of the edamame…keep it up Fins. Try this out, they continue to amaze me.

-Matt

After a long week, I was in the mood for a good burger and fries. I knew that the Lamb Burger and Frites at Riveria was exceptional. I’ve raved about their fries (frites) and knew you basically can’t go wrong at riviera. The lamb burger is mixed with angus beef and ground fresh. This lets you choose how you want it cooked. The chef suggests medium, which didnt disappoint. The burger itself is fairly large, they use quality meat so you don’t lose a lot of volume when cooking. They top the burger with buffalo mozzarella , baby arugula and a roasted garlic aioli. It’s hard to go wrong here, a fresh burger, fresh spices and quality cheese along with some of raleigh’s best fries, it makes me hungry every time I think about it…

-Matt