Sweet Goodness! Last night we went to Applewood for their Valentine’s Day “Event”. Neither Aaron nor I had been there, but had heard good things about the restaurant. Let me tell you,we were not disappointed. I’m still full from the overload of delicious food.
We all know I’m what they might call a “picky eater”… but I’m getting better, really! While I didn’t love all the foods I tried, I was glad that they were put in front of me so that I didn’t really have a choice. It was quite obvious that someone in the kitchen knew what was going on and knew how to pair interesting and unexpected flavors. Listen to these amazing things I tried.
We started off with an “amuse”, which was grilled rabbit sweetbread (!!!) sausage with whole grain mustard and pickled garlic. Can we just take a second to think about the fact that I tried sweetbread aka a rabbit’s pancreas. Ok, now that we have that under control, let’s move on. We decided to get a little crazy and supplement our meal with a cheese course, because well, what’s not to love about cheese. I’m usually a fan of a nice sharp cheddar or a goat cheese with a little crunch, but they served 3 soft goat cheeses along with their signature bleu cheese cake. All of them were awesome. Even though bleu cheese isn’t my favorite, I thought the bleu cheesecake was spectacular.
The first and second courses were a bit fishy, which is something I’m still getting a taste for. The first course was lobster-cipollini ragout with an organic egg yolk, black pepper and shellfish nage and the second course was a very tasty pan roasted wild striped bass with main ruby red shrimp dumplings in a crawfish-pernod sauce. By this time we were full. But wait, the best was yet to come. The third course brought us the most delicious grilled vermont lamb on a carmelized onion-lamb shoulder tart served with sauteed green kale and shallot confit. I don’t think I’ve ever had lamb before, but I after tasting this dish, I can’t wait to have more. Then again, maybe I’m just setting myself up for disappointment.
Remember when I said we were full? Well now we were ridiculously stuffed. But we still had dessert so we were strong and powered through… it was so worth it. The amuse was a super tasty mascarpone cookie sandwich with basil syrup. For the real deal, we were served a tiramisu tart with black pepper caramel, polenta streusel with cilantro ice cream. Black pepper caramel, I love you. The cilantro ice cream was a little bit of a let down mainly because I was expecting a punch of fresh cilantro, but instead it didn’t really have much taste at all. Have you ever tried fresh mint ice cream? It’s so different and so much more delicious than regular old mint ice cream. That’s what I was expecting.
With every course, we got a wine to pairing, so in addition to being mind-blowingly full, we were also a bit tipsy. That’s one great feeling. I’m looking forward to going back to Applewood to try their regular dinner selection. Based on my first experience though, I’m giving them 4.5 hearts because while the restaurant does have a fair amount of hype about it, I think it’s very well deserved. There’s nothing intimidating about the place. It’s warm and cozy feeling, the staff are all really friendly without being annoying and extremely knowledgeable about the food they’re serving. Yum, until the next time we have a special occasion, I’ll be dreaming of the food we had last night.
applewood
Sweet Goodness! Last night we went to Applewood for their Valentine’s Day “Event”. Neither Aaron nor I had been there, but had heard good things about the restaurant. Let me tell you,we were not disappointed. I’m still full from the overload of delicious food.
We all know I’m what they might call a “picky eater”… but I’m getting better, really! While I didn’t love all the foods I tried, I was glad that they were put in front of me so that I didn’t really have a choice. It was quite obvious that someone in the kitchen knew what was going on and knew how to pair interesting and unexpected flavors. Listen to these amazing things I tried.
We started off with an “amuse”, which was grilled rabbit sweetbread (!!!) sausage with whole grain mustard and pickled garlic. Can we just take a second to think about the fact that I tried sweetbread aka a rabbit’s pancreas. Ok, now that we have that under control, let’s move on. We decided to get a little crazy and supplement our meal with a cheese course, because well, what’s not to love about cheese. I’m usually a fan of a nice sharp cheddar or a goat cheese with a little crunch, but they served 3 soft goat cheeses along with their signature bleu cheese cake. All of them were awesome. Even though bleu cheese isn’t my favorite, I thought the bleu cheesecake was spectacular.
The first and second courses were a bit fishy, which is something I’m still getting a taste for. The first course was lobster-cipollini ragout with an organic egg yolk, black pepper and shellfish nage and the second course was a very tasty pan roasted wild striped bass with main ruby red shrimp dumplings in a crawfish-pernod sauce. By this time we were full. But wait, the best was yet to come. The third course brought us the most delicious grilled vermont lamb on a carmelized onion-lamb shoulder tart served with sauteed green kale and shallot confit. I don’t think I’ve ever had lamb before, but I after tasting this dish, I can’t wait to have more. Then again, maybe I’m just setting myself up for disappointment.
Remember when I said we were full? Well now we were ridiculously stuffed. But we still had dessert so we were strong and powered through… it was so worth it. The amuse was a super tasty mascarpone cookie sandwich with basil syrup. For the real deal, we were served a tiramisu tart with black pepper caramel, polenta streusel with cilantro ice cream. Black pepper caramel, I love you. The cilantro ice cream was a little bit of a let down mainly because I was expecting a punch of fresh cilantro, but instead it didn’t really have much taste at all. Have you ever tried fresh mint ice cream? It’s so different and so much more delicious than regular old mint ice cream. That’s what I was expecting.
With every course, we got a wine to pairing, so in addition to being mind-blowingly full, we were also a bit tipsy. That’s one great feeling. I’m looking forward to going back to Applewood to try their regular dinner selection. Based on my first experience though, I’m giving them 4.5 hearts because while the restaurant does have a fair amount of hype about it, I think it’s very well deserved. There’s nothing intimidating about the place. It’s warm and cozy feeling, the staff are all really friendly without being annoying and extremely knowledgeable about the food they’re serving. Yum, until the next time we have a special occasion, I’ll be dreaming of the food we had last night.
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