Saturday, November 29, 2008

On the road: Snippets from St Augustine

Anyway, then to lunch. I ate at what is perhaps the most schwanky place in town according to my mom, 95 Cordova at the Casa Monica. Really damned good crab cakes they were. And delightful decor.

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Headed towards the inter coastal area then, and had a pomegranate martini at the Tini Martini Bar and spent time relaxing and reading a book. That sadly wasn't so phenomenal as to be worth what I paid for it, but I relaxed for a while outside with a drink and that was okay.

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Parents also took me to a delightful little restaurant called Raintree. I had a northern atlantic salmon that was cooked to absolute perfection, and split a bottle of white wine with them. Definitely, if you ever make it to this cute little town this is a bistro not to miss.

Monday, November 24, 2008

In Short

Friday night was a date night with PiC. I introduced him to the thai place around the corner from me, Vinh Loi. Noticed for the first time on their menu that they have listed for the cream cheese wontons that they are "6 wontons of awesome" or something like that. I giggled so much I insisted that we have them for an appetizer. Nummy mock duck pad thai for me, and green curry for him. And some really good hot jasmine tea because I was cold cold with a side of cold.

ETA: Sadly, they haven't seemed to have been open yet since the new year. I hope they haven't completely closed. That would be sad. I liked them.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Rapid fire reviews

Masa - Upscale Mexican on Nicollet Ave downtown, in one of the Target buildings. I had lunch here with GM a while back. If you can imagine mexican food being done in a light fashion, this would be the place for it. I found it delightfully refreshing for lunch, and I highly recommend it. I'll probably try their dinner sometime in the not too terribly distant future as well as I'm on a mexican food kick lately. But as it's upscale, it's a bit on the pricey side. If you're looking for large portions (and not as light), you're better off going further down Nicollet to Pancho Villa.

Musashi - Had lunch here with EK a while back as well. Ignore the fact that Musashi was a swordsman and not a sumo wrestler. Just don't pay attention to their logo. :) The lunch here was a fabulous chicken teriyaki bento box. It's not crowded for lunch, and it's right by my work. Also came with pickled things, hot little crab cake like things, a maki roll... Probably something else I'm forgetting. Also pricey for lunch, but MMMMMM bento. :)

barrio - I'd been excited about a potential tequila bar, even if it was downtown. Unfortunately I was focused more on the concept of the tequila and not so much on the bar. This place is definitely a bar in attitude, even if they're trying to up the quality of the bar food. And they do have a lovely selection of tequila. It was just over noisy and crowded with work folks (mostly Target since it's right across the street it seems) at happy hour to be enjoyable. I was very sad about that. The hunt for a Rudy's like place continues.

Jade - Went here for PiC's birthday, located in Midtown Global Market. I think in part my opinion of this place was clouded by the fact that I was feeling like utter crap. I wasn't particularly impressed though. And my kung pao chicken tasted a distinct taste of off. He got to have lobster and sushi though, so that was a win for him. Maybe trying again in the future, but it's not going to be at the top of my list.

Alas, not all restaurants will be hits. I think next time eating out though is going to be Hell's Kitchen in the new location for dinner. :) They've moved to the old space where Rossi's used to be, and I'm hoping that means there's a ton more room, so easier to get in and YUMMY yummy food to boot with fun boozes.