Cocosala

So we found this new restaurant, Cocosala. They call it a chocolate lounge and boutique. It has a bunch of appetizer bites and then a selection of 5 course desserts! We obviously needed to go there. So I made plans to go down for the weekend even though I'd been there not that long ago.

We made a reservation for 8:30 on Saturday. We showed up at 8:20 and were promptly seated. The place was very modern/trendy. Most of the tables were full, at least on the side where we were but there were 2 sides divided by the bar and I couldn't really see the other side.

Since I realized I forgot to check out the bathroom at Kinkead's, this was my first mission when we got to Cocosala. The bathroom was a single bathroom, with a toilet and sink, not stalls. I don't know if there was another one or if it was just one for the restaurant. They maintained the modern feel of the restaurant. They had a glass top on the sink that was a smooth surface down to the drain. I like that. They had standard aluminum toilet seat covers and paper towel dispenser took away from the modern feel. And the door was weird. Fortunately I was just washing my hands because I wasn't really sure if I had locked the door. Also, the door was open when I got back there. I'm not sure I would have identified it as the bathroom if it had not been. I left the door open when I left because that's how it was when I got there and I wasn't really sure what was appropriate etiquette.

So our waitress came to our table. She recommended 2-3 of the Cocobites (the appetizer type things) each and share a 5 course dessert so that's what we decided to do. This is what we got:

Shrimp mac 'n cheese - mini penne, jack and cheddar, garlic, shrimp, jalapenos - It came in a little square bowl with a shrimp wrapped in fried noodles on a skewer. The skewer was crisp and a nice alternative to standard breading. The mac 'n cheese had a real rich creamy sauce, no shortage of cheese there, that had a pretty good kick from the jalapenos

Crispy louisiana crabcake - mango salsa, chipotle chocolate tomato glaze, avocado cilantro emulsion - This thing was delicious. One of the best crab cakes I have ever had. Lots of crab but a nice fine bread crumb on the outside that was perfectly fried. The sauce was sweet and tangy and went perfectly with the crab cake.

Spicy moroccan swordfish slider - fennel salad, aged pecorino, hazelnut coffee dressing. The slider was OK, though a bit too much bun, relative to the filling. The swordfish had a pretty strong flavor, like swordfish usually does, but it was a bit overwhelming.

Maine lobster salad - lemon aioli, cucumber, crushed avocado, greens, corn bread, passion chocolate vinaigrette. Flavorwise this was good. The way it was put together was a bit difficult. They had the real thin cucumber slices like pressed on the outside so the only way to eat it was to knock down the cucumber, hope it didn't fall off the plate and load it up.

Overall, the appetizers were very good, though rather sweet.


And for the dessert: xocolayl, Aztec experience

Amuse - churros with cinnamon cream & dulce de leche dip - The churros were really good though I didn't really get dulce de leche in the dip, it kinda just tasted like a cream.

Main dessert - hot chocolate souffle with fiery chocolate center and kahlua soother - The hot chocolate souffle had a real kick to it. It was real pretty and so you broke into the souffle and got a real rich chocolateyness and then this peppery back of the throat afterkick that made you go wow. The kahlua soother was ok, though the souffle was the real focus on this dish.

Intermezzo - papaya & lime margarita sorbet with papaya stick - The sorbet was quite good. Real flavorful and well churned and smooth. I didn't get to try the papaya stick but when I asked how it was the answer I was given was 'no good' by the person who ate it before he realized he finished it.

Cheese course - pepper cheese enchilada with guava sauce - The enchilada was really good. In the enchilada the cheese was real melty and gooey which the guava sauce complimented nicely. There were a couple pieces of the cold cheese on the plate and that didn't work as well with the sauce.

Petit fours - chocolate infused horchata & mexican wedding cookie. The cookie was really delicate and buttery. It had a pecan on top. Apparently horchata is a beverage made of ground sesame seeds, almonds, rice or something else like that. Well I'm guessing ours was sesame because there was a stick in it of white chocolate with sesame seeds on it and there was something sweet I couldn't quite identify. The sesame stick was really good. The drink I wasn't uber memorable so I don't remember.


Service was prompt, though they still have some kinks to work out. The girls all had these red wrap shirts that, by themselves, were very low cut. They each had a Cocosala pin that went in the middle and depending on where they put the pin, lessened or enhanced the cleavage bearing. A few wore a black shirt underneath and they all had short black skirts on. The guys, on the otherhand, were not so snazzy looking. They also had red shirts but they were just basic t-shirts that weren't particularly well cut, at least not on the 1 guy that was there.

They didn't really have a cohesive message when we asked our waitress to explain the place to us. All she told us about were the cocobites and the 5 course items. There was a whole other page of the menu that she never said anything about. Those were the drinks, you could get hot chocolate trio's and some other desserts in case you didn't go for the 5 course I guess.

The chairs were a little weird. They were like modern sofa type things, except there was only 1 arm. The tables were a smooth black solid glass type thing. No table cloth. I actually think this looks better because it's cleaner and less fussy. Black napkins. Lighting was really dark, like barely read the menu dark.

One of the owner's came by our table during our 5 course dessert and initially wanted to talk but then it seems he only wanted to know how we heard of the place. After that he moved on pretty quick. The place is obviously pretty new if the owner is coming in still. And he was having dinner with what looked like his coowner and their dates at about 9:30 or so, towards the end of our meal.

Overall it was a tasty meal, though I think I would have ordered more food if I were to do it again. We left, not starving but not like full. The 5 course dessert was not overwhelming, which was a slight concern before we went though not really for me because I can never have enough dessert. It's like that Visa or whatever commercial where the lady was all excited to have dinner reservations at that fancy place and the food was ... small... so afterwards they went and got more food. We didn't get more food though there may have been a snack when we got home.

Kinkead's and a sad weekend

I know, I'm slow. But I got around to writing it at least.

The weekend before last I went down to DC. There were a couple goals:

First, go to a restaurant supply store. K-Ram said he'd seen one and was all proud of himself for finding something I like. So on Saturday we head over there. We fought our way into the parking lot and into a spot despite some very badly parked cars. We walk up to the door to be greeted by a sign that says only restaurant owners with proof were allowed. After all that we went back to the car and left. It was sad. Strike one.

Second, get a bottle of decent olive oil that isn't rediculously expensive. I was not thrilled with my choices at Walmart. I wanted a bottle I could use up in 6-12 months that was tinted and not rediculously expensive. So we went to Costco. Their olive oil is supposed to be decent. So we get there and I go in search of olive oil. They only had gallon size bottles. That's not gonna be used up in 6-12 months. And the bottles weren't tinted. Strike two.

Next was dutch process cocoa. I have a few recipes I've been wanting to try that need dutch process cocoa. The one I was looking to make was chocolate rolls. We looked at Costco though I didn't really expect it to be there. We went to Whole Foods and I expected it to be there. We went down every aisle repeatedly because I felt strongly that it should be there. Eventually I accepted that it was not. I was pretty devastated at this point so we went to Harris Teeter, to make a final try. No luck there either. Strike three.

Strike three. I think that's when something bad happens in baseball right? Isn't the game over or something? Anyway, I lost. My coworkers would be devastated to hear that thought.

I did some searching and apparently Dutch Process cocoa powder is seasonal. Not sure what season but I guess I'll keep watching until whatever season it is comes along. I also found another restaurant supply store that is open to the public. It's right next to the place we were at. Haha. Well at least it gives me something to look forward to this weekend. And I bought an appropriately sized bottle of olive oil from Aldi's. It was only $4 and I've been pretty happy with the quality of everything else I've gotten there so far so hopefully this will work out well. That was a major impulse purchase day. That will have to be another post maybe.

Anyway, there was a better part of the weekend. We had made reservations at Kinkead's. At 8:50 we showed up for our 9:00 reservation. Our table wasn't ready so we sat at the bar for like 20 minutes until it was. It's a pretty nice place, kinda sophisticated and a lot quieter than a lot of the other more trendy places. Apparently huge but the space was broken up a lot so it's hard to say. We chose most of our meal from the chef's specialties section.

We started with a crabcake that was quite good. Very Maryland, lotsa crab, not much filler. They also had a really good mustard sauce with it. Mmmm mustard sauce. It wasn't uber breaded so it came apart really quickly.

I got a cod dish that had a crab thing on it, with cornbread and whipped sweet potatoes. The sweet potatoes were a lot like the sweet potato souffle we attempted to make a while back. Theirs of course was prettier. The cornbread had little bits of ham in it that gave it a bit of smoky salty goodness. The cod and crab part had a really creamy sauce that was a bit much. Clearly I am getting old because I never used to think any sauce or dish was ever too sweet or too rich.

K-Ram had a salmon thing that had some mixed vegetable thing that when the waiter described it, it sounded like a puree but turned out not to be, which is probably a good thing. Puree'd crab meat just seems a little strange.

Last was dessert. I got the lemon trio and K-Ram got the creme brulee trio. My lemon trio had a lemon granita with a lemon cream underneath it, a tart with lemon curd in it and one other thing that I forget now. They took it off the menu so I can't check, which is rather upsetting. Well they were all quite good and satisfied my lemon craving. Though none of them had that really lemony mouth puckering bite that I kinda wanted.

This was what was in the creme brulee trio: Semi Sweet Chocolate, Pistachio and Vanilla Bean with Fleur de Sel Chocolate Cookie and Cinnamon Shortbread. The chocolate was really good, really rich and chocolatey though the top didn't quite have that crunch that a creme brulee should have. Something went wrong with the vanilla bean one. The custard was just off. Not sure why. The pistachio was alright, but really the best one was the chocolate.

Service was good. I forgot to check out the bathroom!!! I'm kinda upset about that but I guess it's too late now. Maybe I'll go back sometime just so I can check out the bathroom. Well I guess I'll get a meal too, while I'm there.

So that was my weekend.

Vidalia

For our final restaurant week meal we went to Vidalia.

The place had a very modern look. They had a lot of mirrors which made it look real spacious but I found it a little weird because you look around and all you see is yourself from all different angles. It was pretty upscale, in the quiet proper rich people way. It was upscale enough that we felt weird taking our food porn shots and turned the flash off. Not weird enough to keep up from taking them, just weird enough to make it uncomfortable to take them. Service was good. One issue is that they are in the basement of a building so you have to go down the stairs to get to the restaurant. On the stairs there is a handrail. However, the supports for the hand rail go straight out the side of the hand rail rather than underneath which means if you actually use the hand rail you will smack your hand into the supports. Therefore the hand rails are just 'decorative' which i don't like.

The bathrooms kept with the simple modern look. The stalls were full rooms, floor to ceiling walls and door, which is so nice for the extra privacy when you are doing your business. The sinks were nice and stuck with the modern look. They had a mouthwash station, I guess in case you are on a first date or something and you are all worried about your breath. Can't say I care but whatever.

Now for the food. Appetizers were wild mushroom soup and big eye tuna and jumbo lump crab. The soup was pureed, with a red wine-truffle emulsion that gave it a bit of tartness and tiny little flecks of pancetta that gave you just a little salty bite, much better than the bacon in the braised cabbage at TenPenh. The big eye tuna was served raw and wrapped around the crab so it looked like a sushi roll. There was a $7 mark up for this dish. The big eye tuna was incredibly fresh and the pairing with the crab was great. It also had a sauce, the primary color came from avocado but I guess there was other stuff in it too and some sort of foam on top, can't so I know what that was either.

Entrees were the New York Strip Steak and Icelandic char. The icelandic char was good. Very light. It had the skin on and crisped nicely though I found the fat underneath it to be a bit much and took most of it off. There was bacon and shitake mushrooms on top that I thought went well with it though were pretty strong in flavor. The steak was a huge cut of good quality meat, well seared and all. Had some mushrooms and caramelized onions with it but it was really all about the steak. There was a $10 mark up on it.

Now for the best part, dessert. We had the Lemon Chess Pie ($4 mark up) and a chocolate panna cotta. The panna cotta was... firmer than expected. It had a real dark bitter chocolate, especially compared to the lemon chess tart that I had first. There were caramelized bananas, sliced real thin and they had been torched like a creme brulee. The only problem is the bananas were overripe so it tasted a bit off. They had vanilla bean whipped cream that had a perfect texture and not oversweetened. The lemon chess tart was amazing. I knew that was what I wanted from what they kept saying on Chowhound and it worked out wonderfully. It was nice and sweet and tart and smooth and ooh so good. It had the same whipped cream as they had with the panna cotta and a raspberry sauce on the side. There was also a berry compote that just seemed like finely diced strawberries. I can't say the compote did anything for me but the pie was so good it didn't matter. mmm that pie was good I could totally have more now.

Filomena

So our next restaurant week choice was Filomena. Someone clearly needs to take some photography lessons but we won't point fingers here. We are clearly amateur food porn artists here. Don't really care enough to rotate the picture either.

Filomena is a much more casual restaurant than some of our other choices. We started with the bruscetta and Aranchini. The bruscetta was alright though nothing really all that amazing. The Aranchini is fried risotto balls stuffed with cheese and a bit of ground meat and served with a marinara sauce on the side. They were quite tasty though very rich. I actually gave up one of them so I would have room for the rest of the meal. Good thing I did.

For the entree we got the Salmon with mustard sauce and Cavatelli. The cavatelli was uber tasty. It was freshly made upstairs and served with a pink sauce, spinach mushrooms and roma tomatoes. The pasta was a little bigger than I would have made them. I would make them bite size whereas I cut each pasta piece in two for a more proper bite size. The pasta pieces were real thick, which gave them a nice chewiness and the sauce was tasty. I can't say the spinach, tomatoes or mushrooms did a lot but the pasta was tasty and that was the real point of the dish. They also gave you a ton of pasta. Like literally. There was still about half of it left when I quit. The salmon was alright but I wouldn't say amazing. They cooked the salmon fully, which was a little surprising and the mustard sauce was very mild. I was told the veggies were tasty though I didn't try them. I was busy with my pasta. mmm it was good.

Then dessert was a strawberry mousse cake and a chocolate mousse cake. I liked the strawberry one better because it was nice and bright after a huge appetizer and entree it seemed lighter and therefore I could keep going. But they were both tasty. They had a bunch of really pretty desserts in the dessert case in front too. mmmmm. The strawberry one had a raspberry sauce on the side and the chocolate one had a white chocolate and raspberry sauce that they made all decorative and such.

Service was decent. Nothing to complain of.

They have put some thought into the bathroom although a few things just didn't seem to go together. Like they had decorative flower painting type things on the door into the bathroom, on the stall doors and in the stalls. They were marked Ladies and Gentlemen. They had florescent overhead lights but they were in the sink area. They had really dark wood stalls and since there was no light in them you were practically going to the bathroom in the dark. The toilet seat was very utilitarian... one that you would find in a public rest room with an auto flush thing and those Scott 1000 sheets per roll toilet paper. They had decent sinks that had pumps on the side for soap but when I hit the pump what came out looked and felt like water. No sign of soap that I could find. That is a bit upsetting. They had a paper towel dispenser like the ones at work, functional but nothing special. Their bathroom was functional, a few attempts at making it nice but nothing amazing.

Their prices on their regular menu are not that high, $10-15 for an entree so for Restaurant week it maybe wasn't the best deal but it was a good meal.

TenPenh

Went to TenPenh last night for Restaurant week.  I had the Chicken Roti, Chilean Sea Bass and the Milk Chocolate Brownie.  Karthik had the Calamari Salad, Scallops and Pumpkin bread.  

The service was pretty good.  There was a coat check in front and everyone wore those chinese jacket thingys.  They came and gave you hot towels to start to clean your hands though they had a slightly weird smell.  Within a minute of when we finished anything someone was there to take away the plate or clean up or something.  The tables were set with 2 forks, 2 knives, plate and napkin with chopsticks folded inside.  Karthik's chopsticks matched but mine were different lengths and thicknesses.  This is a problem.  Not huge because we never used the chopsticks but a problem nonetheless.

After we ordered there was a little amuse-bouche that was this really creamy butternut squash with Kefir lime soup.  It was incredibly smooth and served warm.  The only other time I'd had Kefir lime was in a chocolate from Kee's and I didn't really like it.  This was good.  

The Chicken Roti was great: crisp, tasty and had this real sweet dipping sauce, Karthik seemed to notice the cardamom more than the sweetness, the first thing I thought was wow this is sweet.  But it was quite tasty, unlike Karthik's icky choice the Calamari.  First of all, Calamari is just yuck to begin with.  If I want something chewy like that I'd chew on a rubber band.  Their preparation of it wasn't bad, relatively tender but definitely still calamari.  It had some real spicy sauce that they used as a dressing for the salad, which also had baby spinach.  I guess they didn't go together all that well but I had enough when I tried the calamari.  

My sea bass was good, really moist and tender though the sear on it was not as perfect as the one at Corduroy, which will probably forever be the standard for perfectly seared fish.  It came with what they described as braised cabbage, bacon and a red wine XO sauce.  This didn't seem to match with the fish all that well to me.  The fish was very mild and when you had some of the cabbage and bacon it overwhelmed the fish and all you really tasted was the bacon.  The scallops were quite good, very nice sear on those.  They came with some sort of mashed potatoes and a little piece of braised pork belly.  The pork belly was really sweet and had that big chunk of fat that I knew better than to eat though apparently Karthik did not (it was funny, you should have seen the pained look on his face when he realized there was a big chunk of fat there).   

My brownie was alright.  The highlight was really the Kona coffee ice cream that was uber coffee goodness and really smooth and yum.  The brownie had real distinct flavor though I don't know what it is (no I don't mean chocolate, something else).  The ice cream had this chocolate curl on top of it but with the cold of the ice cream it just tasted waxy.  The pumpkin bread was something between a quick bread and a cake.  It wasn't very sweet but had a cream cheese icing on it that was real sweet that balanced it out.  The highlight of this dish was really the coconut flan.  When I saw it on someone elses table it didn't look that appealing but it was really smooth and creamy and tasty, with a mild coconut flavor.

The atmosphere of the restaurant was nice.  It was pretty crowded even at 10:30 at night.  It was a bit loud though, I think they could do more to damp down the sound.  We could hear everyone else in the room's conversations quite clearly.

Overall, a decent restaurant but not the best.