I enjoyed another lunch at Riviera this afternoon. My company had a quarterly meeting there. The service was great and everyone enojoyed the food. I got to try the lunch serving of the lamb. Three brochettes are served over risotto. Both items were excellent, I’ve described the lamb before, grilled and tender on the inside. The rice enhanced the dish, i believe it was some sort of curry mixed with other spices. I’ll have this again.
-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
518 West recently updated their menu, adding quite a few new options. Some of the new salads and pastas look amazin. I thoroughly enjoyed the steak sandwich. It was fairly large, came on a fluffy sub roll with provolone cheese and grilled onions. I added some horseradish for a little spice. This sandwich coupled with one of their fresh side salads makes an enjoyable meal I’m sure to enjoy over and over.
-Matt
Dos Taquitos Centro opened recently downtown. I’ve been to their Creedmoor location and expected excellent food. You can of course assume I the food was excellent (since i’m writing this post). I decided to try out lunch. I wanted to try a few things so I had the Dos Taco’s Tacos with steak and the Chips with Queso. Wow, this was heads and shoulders above other offerings in the area. The tacos dish came with 2 soft tacos and my choice of rice beans or salad (I chose the beans) The steak in the tacos was tender and juicy, the pico de gallo, avocado and cheese were all top quality and added a lot of flavor to the tacos. I believe the beans are actually refried black beans. They’re served in a small edible tostada bowl sprinked with cheese, and excellent choice I think. The chips and queso did not disappoint either. The order comes with plenty of queso and the chips are tasty unto themselves.
It excites me to see new options come to downtown. I especially like that they are serving lunch which provides me with another venue to try out during the day. I’m definitely going to stop by for dinner soon.
-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