Menus for Cleveland Independents Restaurant week are up! I have reviewed and will give you the best ones for the value here! The value is that you get a three-course meal for $33 per person from a specially selected group of items. Some restaurants want to serve you a Cesar salad, pasta and cheesecake...that will not be a top restaurant on this blog.
I have 5 that I think are interesting menus and well worth the money for the three courses. Three of them are old favorites that I think always have the best menus. Let's start with my three veteran restaurants: Pier W, Light Bistro and Grovewood Tavern.
Pier W has a fish heavy menu with quality. For the starter there is a unique selection of a roasted pear salad, scallops over a truffle and apple relish, or tuna satay with a yakitori glaze, each is interesting in its own way. The main meal has quite a few options but my favorites were the tandoori shrimp with couscous and jalapeno honey, blue cod with saffron basmati and chorizo, or Peking deck lo mein with Szechuan vegetables. For dessert they are offering a pumpkin cheesecake or a trio or sorbets. The trio of Sorbet is amazing, I have had it before. They are also offering a $15 wine pairing for the meal.
Next up...always a favorite for special dinners...Light Bistro. Light Bistro is offering many choices and each one sounds better than the other. It is a unique menu with items you would not normally find just anywhere. For the first course they have oxtail soup; braised pork belly on a ramen salad, or ricotta ravioli with butternut squash sauce. The second course is even better with a roasted salmon and a curried cauliflower puree, hanger steak with potato cake and a bacon and mushroom marmalade, roasted chicken breast or a Moroccan vegetarian option. For dessert, pumpkin brulee or pear and apple crisp.
The last of the best deals and my favorites is Grovewood Tavern on the East side. As always their menu is amazing and they are offering a wine pairing with each course for an additional $15 per person. My pick for the appetizer is the grilled smoked Gouda pan seared with mustard seed cavier on crostini. They are also offering a crab cake with a Creole remoulade. For dinner you can try the scallop yakitori with spicy noodles and seaweed salad, a fillet with compound butter, whipped potato and veggie or a maple-adobo pork chop with homemade spaetzle. This may be my favorite dessert offerings: pecan cake, creme brulee or tiramisu.
While these are my favorites, I do have a few honorable mentions in the group. The first is Bac in Tremont. Bac is offering a 3 course meal for $27 per person and it has a soup, salad, app, and dinner as part of the meal. Pretty standard Bac fare, but it sounds tasty. The second honorable mention is Taste in Cleveland Heights. They have a diverse selection of apps and dinners ranging in value.
As always...hit me up with your favorites or to meet out for dinner one night!
Showing posts with label Pier W. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pier W. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Monday, February 13, 2012
Best Valentine's Ever
The restaurant in tonight's blog is an old favorite that I have written about in the past and I promote to all who will listen....Pier W. Everything on the bar menu is half off, martinis and wine are discounted as well. I promise that this is not a repeat of the past as there was one reason for a trip to Pier W tonight...the Chocolate Bar! Not only is Pier W amazing for Restaurant Week and Happy Hour, but also for Valentine's Day. If you do not have plans for Valentine's Day then make plans right now for Tuesday night to go to Pier W for Happy Hour and...the Chocolate Bar!!!!!!!!!!
So in true frugally classy fashion let's start with the great deal. The half price happy hour is amazing as always. My dining companion, her beautiful 1.5 year old and I started our meal with fresh bread that they provided for the toddler's enjoyment. We ordered the pizza and short rib pierogies for our "meal". (we felt as though we should have some sort of real food and not just chocolate for dinner, that would be a bad example for the child with us). The total cost of these bar bites for happy hour was $4.5 and $4 respectively. The pizza was a great thin crust, fresh tomatoes, fresh basil and mozzarella cheese. Each bite was fresh and a perfect meld of flavors. The short rib pierogies were stuffed with this amazing braised short rib meat with a thick caramelized onion jus. It tasted like the beefiest, meatiest, heartiest flavor you could imagine. It was Sunday roast beef. We used some of the bread to sop up the juice. My martini was originally $9 but only $5.75 for happy hour and my companion's wine was 20% off.
After dinner...we had the delectible chocolate bar. The deal is one trip for $8 and unlimited trips for $12. We tried almost one of everything and some were favorites, but all were great. The favorites were the red wine truffle and the twist on a buckeye. The red wine truffle was this thin dark chocolate shell with a sweet but dry red win inside. It just melted as you bit into the juicy piece. The buckeye cup was a beautiful light peanut butter mouse in a thin chocolate cup. The other pyramids that we enjoyed were filled with cheesecake that melted, cherry chocolate cordial with the light creme, and a white chocolate macadamia nut pyramid. We tried only one round truffle that was a soft ganache of espresso flavored chocolate dusted with chocolate. There were two types of chocolate that were 2 biters. The first was a coconut macaroon covered in chocolate with toasted chocolate on top. The second was the amazing buttery shortbread topped with the silkiest creamiest carmel and covered in chocolate. It was not milk chocolate but not a super dark chocolate either. They also had several types of cake. We tried the chocolate cake like brownie topped with homemade marshmallow. There were also several types of bark. We tried the bark with peppermint. To be honest, we could not tell exactly what was under the peppermint bark. It was a layer of chocolate and then a layer of toffee flavored graham cracker consistency crust. The round out the night....there was a chocolate fondue fountain with strawberries, pineapple, cookies, pretzel rods, and all kinds of other things that could be dipped. We stayed away from that as it was too ordinary for the other things that were on the table.
I have been on a low sugar diet, but broke all rules to be able to enjoy this amazing buffet of chocolate. To make things even better it was well worth the $8 price for a trip and an even better deal for a $12 plate with unlimited trips. Anyone looking for a Valentine's date idea at the last minute should stop by Pier W tomorrow, it is the last day for the chocolate bar.
So in true frugally classy fashion let's start with the great deal. The half price happy hour is amazing as always. My dining companion, her beautiful 1.5 year old and I started our meal with fresh bread that they provided for the toddler's enjoyment. We ordered the pizza and short rib pierogies for our "meal". (we felt as though we should have some sort of real food and not just chocolate for dinner, that would be a bad example for the child with us). The total cost of these bar bites for happy hour was $4.5 and $4 respectively. The pizza was a great thin crust, fresh tomatoes, fresh basil and mozzarella cheese. Each bite was fresh and a perfect meld of flavors. The short rib pierogies were stuffed with this amazing braised short rib meat with a thick caramelized onion jus. It tasted like the beefiest, meatiest, heartiest flavor you could imagine. It was Sunday roast beef. We used some of the bread to sop up the juice. My martini was originally $9 but only $5.75 for happy hour and my companion's wine was 20% off.
After dinner...we had the delectible chocolate bar. The deal is one trip for $8 and unlimited trips for $12. We tried almost one of everything and some were favorites, but all were great. The favorites were the red wine truffle and the twist on a buckeye. The red wine truffle was this thin dark chocolate shell with a sweet but dry red win inside. It just melted as you bit into the juicy piece. The buckeye cup was a beautiful light peanut butter mouse in a thin chocolate cup. The other pyramids that we enjoyed were filled with cheesecake that melted, cherry chocolate cordial with the light creme, and a white chocolate macadamia nut pyramid. We tried only one round truffle that was a soft ganache of espresso flavored chocolate dusted with chocolate. There were two types of chocolate that were 2 biters. The first was a coconut macaroon covered in chocolate with toasted chocolate on top. The second was the amazing buttery shortbread topped with the silkiest creamiest carmel and covered in chocolate. It was not milk chocolate but not a super dark chocolate either. They also had several types of cake. We tried the chocolate cake like brownie topped with homemade marshmallow. There were also several types of bark. We tried the bark with peppermint. To be honest, we could not tell exactly what was under the peppermint bark. It was a layer of chocolate and then a layer of toffee flavored graham cracker consistency crust. The round out the night....there was a chocolate fondue fountain with strawberries, pineapple, cookies, pretzel rods, and all kinds of other things that could be dipped. We stayed away from that as it was too ordinary for the other things that were on the table.
I have been on a low sugar diet, but broke all rules to be able to enjoy this amazing buffet of chocolate. To make things even better it was well worth the $8 price for a trip and an even better deal for a $12 plate with unlimited trips. Anyone looking for a Valentine's date idea at the last minute should stop by Pier W tomorrow, it is the last day for the chocolate bar.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)