This weekend, my mom came in town one last time before she sets off back to Scotland. There was a lot of errand running and good food.
While she was here, we ate at two schmansy restaurants, but had two very different experiences.
The first place was Uchiko. We went to Uchi about a year ago and finally decided that it was time to try out the new sister restaurant. It was an amazing experience.
We arrived and put our name on the list and went outside to sit, relax, and order a drink while we waited. After the 100ยบ weather got to be too much for my mom, we went inside to the bar and enjoyed some grilled edemame with our cocktails.
Shortly after, the hostess led us to our seats at the sushi bar.
Once we settled into our seats, we met our sushi chef, Ali. Both he and our waitress helped us through the evening to select the perfect dishes. After much contemplation we ordered the following dishes:
maguro sashimi and goat cheese: fuji apple, pumpkin seed oil, black pepper
shag sushi roll: tempura fried salmon roll, sun dried tomato, sumiso, spicy sauce
fried duck egg: smoked yellow tomato, pickled chorizo, celery
Then came the exciting part of the night when we got two additional dishes gratis. The first came from Ali to apologize for the long wait for our our duck egg. He served us a staff favorite called madai which is "Japanese bream, shiso, meyer lemon zest, olive oil." Now, I'm not big on raw fish, but man that was good... so fresh. The second dish was sent to us from Chef Tyson Cole... not quite sure why. It was roasted golden beets with "skyr yogurt, bitter greens, acacia honey." I had never had yellow beets before and I think that dish won me over. Not only were there chunks of golden beets, but also dehydrated golden beet chips... I want to try and make some!
We ended the evening with two very different desserts. A dessert called Fried Milk that is a regular on the menu and is described as, "Chocolate milk, toasted milk, iced milk sherbert." The chocolate milk took the form of a mousse, the toasted milk was a fried cornflake coated milk nougat, and the ice milk sherbert was just what it says: a light ice milk sherbert. Also on the plate were chocolate wafers and a freeze dried chocolate powder. The second dessert, which was from the specials menu (and we were given it for free!), was very different. The menu describes it as, "Chocolate honey ganache, smoked mushroom gelato, ginger, crispy shiitake."
On the bottom was a disc of thick honeyed chocolate ganache. On top of that is a scoop of smoked mushroom gelato with dried shitake mushrooms and ginger julienne strips stuck into it. Around the bottom is the same freeze dried chocolate powder from the other dessert and dollops of a ginger gel.
Overall, the dinner was spectacular. I will go back. Often. And always eat at the sushi bar.
Check out my mom's blog, Traveling Simile, for her soon to come views on our Uchiko experience.
The other dinner experience was at Hudson's on the Bend. I don't even want to spend time writing about it. Forgive the harshness.
This was the fifth time for me to go to the restaurant and each time I am more and more disappointed. The offending party this time? Everything except for my dining companions. Among other issues, the servers had poor attitudes, my entree (beef tenderloin which I ordered medium rare) was far undercooked, and the peach cobbler had nearly no flavor. The restaurant that once wowed diners no longer wows. What seems to be the case is a group of line cooks preparing a long standing set of dishes created years ago by the actual exec chefs and owners. Which is sad because the restaurant has such potential for continued greatness.
Again, forgive my harshness.
I hope you had just as many food adventures during your weekend.
Abigail
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