Blog published to www.86richmond.com

After a few hiccups I got the blog published to www.86richmond.com. Everything from the old address, 86richmond.blogspot.com, should redirect to it's proper place here now. I think everything is working now, except for the feeds. Those should be working once the DNS propagates. Let me know if anything else is broken.

Richmond Restaurant Week

Make sure to check out Richmond Restaurant Week. Get three course meals in many local Richmond restaurants for $25.08 a person. Let's hope at least a few restaurants let their food cost slip a little bit for a good cause and serve up some good food.

Looking at the menus I'm leaning towards Six Burner with:

First Course: celery root soup, duck confit and root vegetable salad or roasted beets, blue cheese, truffle puree with toasted hazelnuts;
Second Course: salmon, skate, duck confit with mascarpone polenta or beef cheeks;
Third Course: hot chocolate panna cotta or foie gras and almond pound cake.

Most of the menus sounds tasty though. Let's see if they can come through. I really need to write a bad restaurant review.

The worst looking menu award goes to Caliente. I've never been impressed with the food there and this menu is not helping:

First Course: soup of the day, chili, New Orleans clam chowder, garden salad or buffalo gator bites;
Second Course: island breeze chicken, shrimp and grits, red beans and rice or pasta poblano;
Third Course: pina colada bread pudding or key lime pie.

Definitely check out the Menus on Richmond.com.

Check out the Restaurant Week site here.

Restaurant Review: The Phoenician

I've been to The Phoenician three times now, most recently on Saturday night. The only real reason I went here in the first place was because I have a waitress friend there, but I'm really glad I did because the place is an experience.

When you walk in you might think you have been transported to some sort of exotic Lebanese palace. Yes, I'm talking about thousands of fake grapes hanging from the ceiling, golden curtain rods and purple fabric for miles! It might be a little over the top, but it works by really make you feel like you're some place different.

After sitting down, you're greeted by your friendly server (who has to wear this ridiculous vest apparently imported directly from Lebanon). You are brought pita and yogurt for dipping (which is quite good). They have a very nice and not very expensive wine list although I've never tried any of their wines with many available by the glass. I've always tried to stay in the Lebanese spirit and gone for the Kilikia Dark beer (which is actually an Armenian beer, but it's in the same region so it feels authentic).

As for the food, I've never made it past the appetizers. With 20 or so starters on the menu I feel like that's where the focus is at The Phoenician. My first visit I was accompanied by 3 of my friends and we tried the "Mezza" ($49). This is the appetizer sampler to end all appetizer samplers. Normally on a sampler you get a little taste of 4 or 5 different starters, but not here. You get full size portions of Hummus, Baba Ghannouge, Falafel, Fatayer, Grape leaves, Kebbe, Tabouli, Shankleesh, Haloumi, Makanek and Loubie Bi-Zeit. This parade of plates filled up our entire table. I can't even attempt to tell you what they all are, but most of them are quite tasty. I would recommend this to a first time group of 4-6 that isn't sure what to order. You will not leave hungry. One of my favorite appetizers is the "Hummus with meat" ($8). It is the best hummus I've ever eaten topped with ground meat, pine nuts and diced tomatoes. I'm not sure why, but it's was better than just the hummus... the meat makes it awesome! I also like the "Soujok" ($6.50) (mildly hot sausages in a spicy tomato sauce) and the "Fettoosh" salad ($7) (a kick in the face lemon vinaigrette explosion with romaine lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber and toasted pita bread crumbled up). There are also nightly specials, some of which I have tried and they are also tasty.

Maybe next time I go I'll try an entree, but I've been very happy with the low prices and the generous portions of the appetizers and I think you will enjoy them as well.

The Phoenician Restaurant (map it)
4401 West Broad Street
Richmond, Virginia 23230
(804) 359-5590
http://thephoenicianrestaurant.com/

ZOMBIES ARE INVADING!

If you happened to be in Carytown this afternoon around 4, you might have seen something interesting... ZOMBIES! Yes today was the annual Zombie Walk. Apparently there's groups of people all over the world that dress up like zombies and roam around their respective cities. I had a fun time chasing them around Cary St. snapping some shots.

Restaurant Review: Mekong

Oh Mekong, how I love thee. You are the best Vietnamese restaurant in town. Ok, this review might be a little biased. I've been going to Mekong for almost 10 years and I keep going back. Why do I keep going back? Well there's three reasons.

First it's the service. Since I work in the restaurant industry this is a big deal for me. I know how easy and how hard it can be to provide good service for your customers ALL THE TIME. You have to actually care about what your doing, just a little. Or at least care about getting paid... Yes, how good your service is directly effects your tip. Not only that, but how nice and charming and accommodating you were helps the person decide whether not they will come back to your restaurant!

Getting back on topic, Mekong gets the service right. I've never had anything, but nice, courteous, quick service. I've gotten much worse service in many fine dining establishments. I think the good service stems from the long term employees at Mekong that like their job. Almost everyone I see at Mekong is there every time I am. Maybe I just always go at the same time, but the same employees are always there smiling and enjoying what they are doing. This is especially true for the owner/bartender, An. An is my favorite bartender/owner in Richmond, but we'll touch on this more later.

The second reason I love Mekong so much is the food. Just like the service, it's consistently good. From the "Rocket Shrimp" appetizer, to the "Fried Soft Shell Crabs in a Ginger Scallion Sauce" (my personal favorite dish, when it's in season) , to the Pho, to the House Grill platter, to the "Spicy Crispy Chicken".... I could go on all day. It's all good, it's always the same and it's very reasonably priced (most entrees $10-15).

You would think those two reasons alone would keep me coming back, and they do, but there's a third reason that keeps me coming back on an almost weekly basis (when I can afford it). THE BEER! You would never expect a Vietnamese restaurant to have the best Belgian beer selection in town, but they definitely do! Screw Capital Ale House and their prices, at Mekong they have 50+ Belgians in the big 750ml bottle for under around $10-15 a piece. There are also a huge variety of other beers hand picked by our friend and host An. That's where this weird marriage of Vietnamese food and beer came from... An's love of good beer. In the beer menu there's pictures of An and his brother in Belgium tasting the brews in person. It defintely shows that every beer is hand picked by An himself. My favorite part of going to Mekong these days sitting down at the bar and asking An what new beers he's gotten in. There always one and most of the time there's 2 or 3 or 4... He even has a Facebook group, An's Beer club!

There you have it. Go to Mekong and have a wonderful meal with great service. Done. Sit at the bar and try some of the best beers in the world. Done. Have a wonderful meal with great service with some of the best beers in the world all at great prices! Done and done.

(No bribes have been taken for this post, but free beer will defintely be accepted.)

Mekong Vietnamese Restaurant (map it)
6004 W Broad St
Richmond, VA 23230
(804) 288-8929
http://www.mekong-restaurant.com/

Restaurant Update: Will Gibson's ever open?

I drive by 7th and broad almost every day and Gibson's (the new restaurant attached to the National Theater by famed Richmond restaurateur Johnny Giavos) still is not open. First it was supposed to be October 1st, then I read it was going to be the 15th. Well now its October 23, so I guess they're aiming for November 1st. I personally can't wait. Has anyone heard anything else?

UPDATE: Someone told me about this post on craiglist. It's looking good for Gibson's opening soon!

Restaurant Review: Bistro 27

I had the pleasure of dining at Bistro 27 last weekend with my girlfriend and her mother. It was delightful Friday night dining experience. Walking through the door, the place is pretty impressive. From the outside, you see a bright neon sign with the name of the restaurant and big windows filled with diners sipping their wine and talking about what I'm sure they think are important things. Inside, you see dark tones, very large interesting art on the walls and an open kitchen. It doesn't really feel like fine dining, although the food is close, but it feels like what they like to call "casual elegance." I feel like Richmond does this well. I felt perfectly comfortable in jeans and a collared shirt, but definitely saw people more dressed up for the occasion.

We started with a cocktail and the fried Calamari. It was dusted ever so lightly and fried for just a second to give you that perfect melt in your mouth texture. A super garlicky aioli was a perfect dipping sauce on the side. Next, we ordered a bottle of Malbec, I'm not sure what variety. It was a very nicely balanced wine though, not too fruity or sweet, not too dry a perfect balance I would say. This was actually my first Malbec and it will definitely not be my last. With the wine we ordered salads. The Caesar salad was delicious. It was dressed with an obviously homemade dressing, grated cheese and crispy croutons. Everything a Caesar should be. For my entree I ordered the Pan-roasted Quail stuffed with Italian sausage and Shitake mushrooms with a Sage sauce. It was better than I'd read about in the reviews. I would come back for this dish. My girlfriend's mother got a filet special that consisted of a perfectly cooked filet mignon topped with mushrooms and a brown sauce. Nothing very original, but good none the less. my girlfriend got some sort of ravioli which she said was good. To me the portion looked a little small compared to the other two entrees. There were probably 8 ravioli on the plate with some sauce compared to two stuffed halves of quail, mashed potatoes and a boring vegetable medley. Speaking of that, can't we find some better vegetable options in this town other than broccoli, squash and zucchini?

Anyway, the food is awesome, go there, you'll like it.

Bistro 27 (map it)
27 W Broad St
Richmond, VA 23220
(804) 780-0086
http://www.bistrotwentyseven.com/

New blog! What fun!

Yes, a new blog to add to the masses. Someone out there will read it... I'm sure of it.