Belgo Centraal, London

This is a short review, but I wanted to get it in nonetheless because I am such a fan of Belgian beer and as of late, Belgian food.

Friday, May 26th
Belgo Centraal
50 Earlham Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2 9HP

Went out for a late dinner at Belgo with a few friends on a Friday evening. Situated right in the heart of Covent Garden this is a great place to start a late night out in central London. The restaurant is quite busy all evening and only shows a letup in seated guests around 9:30 PM. We waited a full 40 minutes for a table, although drinking Alken-Maes and Chimay Triple made the time fly right by.

The dining room is downstairs and is full of mostly young people on the weekends. This particular night, a rowdy bunch of fellas we seated in the section behind us, presumably on some kind of a bachelors party. The waiters are dressed as trappist monks and therefore walk around in amply cut brown hooded robes.

For dinner I had the Jarret D’Agneau, which is basically the braised lamb shank. This dish was served piping hot and was excellent. It would have been nice if they had thrown some bread in with this dish because the sauce was fit to have some bread dipped in it. I also ordered a Rockets and Parmesan salad tossed in Olive Oil which was delicious and some frites (Belgian fries) which were absolutely horrid (I can find better fries at McDonald's).

Nice dining experience overall but would have been even better had we shown up earlier in the evening. The average check was £25 per person.

Antica Trattoria, San Francisco

Friday, April 7th
Antica Trattoria
2400 Polk St San Francisco, CA 94109

Went out for dinner on a rainy Friday evening in San Francisco with my sister, brother in law and one of their couple friends. The friends selected this restaurant that is owned by Chef Gadaldi who is something of a local food celebrity. Hailing from the Lombardy region of Northern Italy, he has tried to bring the dishes of this particular region to San Francisco.

The restaurant itself is a pleasant space. In the evenings it is dimly lit and large windows on 2 sides of the smallish dining room offer a nice view of the surrounding neighborhood. The dining room is a little noisy and at the peak of the evening, patrons waiting for a table at the front of the restaurant are quite likely to spill into the dining room and get a little close to the tables nearest to the door. There is an open kitchen in the back and the service is friendly. I imagine that a lot of the locals in this neighborhood come here often. The restaurant as a whole certainly caters more to the locals that the out-of-towners.

The wine list adequately covers the landscape of Northern Italian winemaking. We ordered a Rosso Piceno Superiore, St.Giovanni (Marche’00) to start. Priced at $36 this is an excellent wine made from a Sangiovese and Montepulciano grape blend. It is dry without being too tannic, has notes of berry and cloves and finishes smooth. We also ordered a Pinot Noir from J Vineyards in Healdsburg, CA. This bottle was a disappointment and I found out later that the vintner is well known locally. I can guess that the owners put this bottle on the list because it is the most easily recognized by the crowd. Wish we had ordered a Nebbiolo instead.

I skipped over appetizers, choosing instead to eat the warm crusty bread they had brought out. My sister ordered a side of sautéed spinach as an appetizer, which made no sense and was a chore to eat with nothing else at the table. As a main course I ordered the Tagliata di Manzo (thin slices of sirloin steak with arugula and roasted potatoes). The steak was perfectly cooked although I felt that it was lacking in taste, possible because of the cut of meat they selected. The accompaniments were fresh and simply prepared. Overall, the dish won more merits for its health conscious qualities than for its taste. I enjoyed it nonetheless. The others ordered the more traditional dishes, which made generous use of capers, butter and lemon juice.

For my sweet tooth I had an Affogato, which was a vanilla ice cream dessert, topped with a shot of hot espresso, amaretto and some hazelnut syrup. Tasted great but it melted rather quickly, to nobody's surprise.

Overall a good meal. In terms of value this was average with a check of approximately $45 per person for what I described above.

Amada, Philadelphia - what a dud!

I originally posted the below entry on a restaurant review website. I think it is my duty to warn people that much better tapas can be had than what Amada is serving up. I went there after reading what was essentially propaganda about the restaurant in the May issue of Amtrak's Arrive magazine. After my dinner there on May 13th, 2006 I left very dissatisfied.

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Amada
217-219 Chestnut St, Philadelphia, PA 19106


Save your money, this place has a few kinks to work out. I went there with a friend on May 13th, 2006. We had a 10 PM reservation, which by Philly standards isn't that late anymore for a dinner reservation.

We ordered 7 dishes, which despite the waiter's recommendation of 4 dishes per person is too much food for 2 people. We had the Patatas Bravas, Garlic Shrimp, Jamon Croquettes, Grilled Foie Gras, Cheese Platter, Spinach Manchego Empanadas and Duck and Cheese Flatbread.

From the above list, 3 items arrived almost as soon as we ordered them, the rest of the food took another half hour to come out. The Foie Gras and the Patatas Bravas were horrendous, too salty, poor temperature, dismal texture. The foie gras was a particular dissappointment at $17. The drinks were pretty good - especially the Sangria. The beer was just OK, there's some really good Latin American beers that they could use instead of what they have on their list.

Some other problems - they have an open kitchen, and when we were there somebody had burned some oil in a pan making the back half of the restaurant very smoky. Add to this the fact that they use small spotlights all over the place, and you get a not to appealing effect, and smell in an otherwise excellently decorated dining room.

I'd say that this was an average dining experience, especially considering the price we paid for the meal ($50 per person). There's better to be had in Philly.

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A weekend in Shreveport

I'm in Shreveport, Louisiana this month for work. My last trip here was 6 months ago, which I made alone. This time I'm with a co-worker, and since we're spending the weekend in Shreveport, we decided to do a little research and find a couple of good spots in the town where we could have a good meal. Here's reviews of the places we ended up at for dinner:

Friday, June 9th
Columbia Cafe
3030 Creswell Ave, Shreveport, Louisiana 71104

We found out about this place from reading somebody else's blog. The restaurant website has tons of photos of dishes they have served up and they all looked appetizing and well plated, so we decided to give the place a shot on Friday night. The restaurant is located in what feels like a residential neighborhood. They have just enough parking outside and the insides give off a homey, cozy vibe. Seating along the walls is on benches that bear an uncanny resemblance to church benches. The are lots of windows and the dining room is sectioned off into multiple areas to add a little seclusion.

To start I had a fruity, slightly tart Belgian white beer known as Brasserie Des Rocs (pictured below), followed by a cold Hoegaarden. The first of the two beers is a superb Belgian Blond beer. I highly recommend it.



We decided to skip appetizers because we had such wonderful beers in front of us. It would have been nice for the waiter to bring out a little something to munch on while we waited for the main course, but it didn't matter all that much. For dinner I ordered the Lake Victoria Perch, also known as the Nile Perch. The chef has pan seared this mild mannered, flaky white freshwater fish and then baked it, using only a light amount of spices on the crust. I picked up hints of ginger and lemon, but without the whole fish tasting like an Asian-fusion creation. The fish was laid out on a bed of creamy risotto and garnished with a medley of roasted summer veggies which included big discs of yellow squash, crunchy zucchini and asparagus spears. The vegetables has been sprinkled with a few red pepper flakes. Presentation was excellent as was the taste of the dish. My only complaint was that there could have been a little more color on the plate - the brown of the fish and the risotto blended with each other a little too well. Without the vegetables, the plate would have looked a bit ordinary. My co-worked ordered a venison roast that came with a shaved carrots, ginger and lemon zest preparation. I tried a little bit and it was excellent.

For dessert we both had the chocolate tart. It had a crispy outer shell, a warm soft center. It was served with creme fraiche with a drizzling of chocolate sauce and some sugar dust and a strawberry as garnish. I ordered a cappuccino with dessert which was a little underwhelming. They added nutmeg on top without asking me if that was OK and the barrier between the espresso and the foamed milk was no longer distinguishable. This was a perfectly acceptable latte but it was no cappuccino.

The dinner tab was about $60 per person which is a little steep for Shreveport. But when you consider the quality of the food, the selection of beers from all over the world and the attentive service we received, the price seems about right.

Saturday, June 10th
Olive Street Bistro
1027 Olive Street, Shreveport, LA 71101

Another internet find, this restaurant is tucked away deep inside one of the neighborhoods south of downtown Shreveport, and off of Line Avenue. The restaurant is situated inside an old building, possibly a turn of the century house. The proprietor is a friendly, little Italian lady. She greeted us along with our server to whom she gave a few orders in flowery Italian. The decor is old-world with plenty of furnishings that could, if restored, be featured on Antique Roadshow. Especially charming were the solid beams of dark wood running across the ceiling. The place was a little dark however, and the candlelight at the table was proving insufficient to read the menu properly.

The restaurant specializes in northern Italian cooking, and between the images of Toscana on the wall and the wine list that includes the only selection of Brunello di Montalcino and Chianti Classico in all of Arklatex.

To start I ordered a cold bottle of San Pellegrino with a lemon twist. It came with a slice of lime instead, but since I forgive easily, I couldn't be less bothered. The waiter also brought out a large freshly baked bread made out of their fresh pizza dough and sprinkled with what I think was a blend of red pepper flakes, oregano, coarse salt and some pecorino cheese. Mixed with the olive oil sitting at our table this made for a nice appetizer.

I ordered the Fettucini D'Agnello - a homemade fettucini pasta with a tomato sauce mixed with hearty chunks of their famous lamb. The dish came in a kitschy bowl and was excellent. And it was a large serving too since I was not able to see the bottom of the bowl before throwing in the towel, and this too after walking into the establishment feeling quite hungry. To accompany my entree I ordered a glass of the house Chianti. I can't remember the estate from which it came, but it was a good pairing for the lamb. My co-worked ordered the lamb chops. He got a heavy plate of four thick cut lamb chops, bone-in, grilled and smothered in a rich balsamic vinegar based reduction. I didn't taste any but it looked very good.

For dessert I ordered the house tiramisu which comes in a cone shaped glass into which the ingredients have been individually layered. I ordered a cappuccino with dessert and the coffee was truly excellent. Getting the cup of coffee at the end of the dinner just right is so important because that is the last taste the restaurant leaves you with, and the people at the Olive Street Bistro got it right.

The dinner tab was $40 per person which I think is an excellent value for a deftly executed dining experience.

Let's get it started

I've been reading other people's blogs for quite a while and I have recently even started searching blogs using technorati. So I decided that the next logical step would be to start my own blog. The difficult part was figuring out what I would blog. Writing about the minute details of an average day in my life was the front runner until it hit me.. wait... I travel all the time (be it for work or pleasure) and I eat out all the time. So, why not blog all the restaurant experiences I get to enjoy. And maybe over time, my work will register on Google and my humble blog will become a useful resource to people searching the internet planning a dinner out on the town.

So here goes.. wish me luck.

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