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Someone mentioned Dine-Around reviews – so here’s a few I’ve been to this year (there’s still 6 days left!).
Aura was already reviewed – but I’ll second the thumbs up – excellent dinner, exceptional service and a stunning view – all for $30! Definitely the steal of the event. We were all full when we left (but not uncomfortably) – including two guys with healthy appetites. They did the beer-pairings and really loved that option. Every item had so much thought to it (not just the tuna, but the brandade it sat on; not just the flat-iron steak, but the pickled veggies in lettuce leaves with it…)
Olo
They are just doing dine-around menus, no regular. $30/$40 options. Open 7 days a week. Nice bustle to the full restaurant (including 5 stools at the bar, chatting to the bartenders {mixologists?}). Our server was knowledgeable & helpful.
I started with the grilled flatbread (with potato, bacon, egg yolk & alpindon cheese). I loved this – crisp, with a nice saltiness from the bacon & cheese.
My hubby had the celery-root soup (with pretzel crisps). This was delicious too – very creamy & light – almost mousse-like.
My main was the pasta with ling-cod. Pasta was very thick strands, but easily cut. Good amount of seared cod with it and tossed in a very fresh herb dressing.
The other main was the burger (with fries). Served room temp (which the server mentioned upon ordering) and medium rare. This was a great burger – due to the size (not a behemoth, which would have been too big) and the prep (they obviously grind their meat daily, as there’s beef tartar on the $40 menu). For those that complain about not getting a med-rare burg in town - hopefully this is on their regular menu.
Chocolate pudding for dessert (smooth, creamy, milk chocolate) and yogurt panna cotta (spooned into a wide dish and topped with soften, dried fruit). Both were great finishes (enough to satisfy, not too much to get bored with).
Also ordered at our table (but that I didn’t try, but looked great, off the $40 menu) octopus (pan-fried & tender, apologies on picture, it looked much better in person) and steak (served medium rare with potatoes & roasted root veg).
Flying Otter
I like this place anyway (daily specials, both food & drink) and they always put together a good dine-around. They’re taking reservations (typically done only for large tables), while dine-around is on – so call ahead.
$20 appies:
Truffled mac & cheese (a creamy bowl of mac & cheese with a nice hint of truffle oil)
$30 appies:
Beet & goat cheese salad (tender, young beets & cheese – smaller serving, but filling)
Cold-smoked tuna & avocado (a large serving of thick slices of tuna with slices of avocado – if I came again, I’d order this for sure).
$20 main:
Fried chicken with mashed potato (a huge serving of incredibly moist chicken in a crunchy coating).
$30 mains:
Braised lamb shank with saffron risotto (fall-off-the-bone tender lamb – the whole dish was really delicious – great with the roasted root vegetables & baby beets.)
Dry-aged rib-eye with béarnaise sauce & fingerling potatoes (served medium-rare, good flavour & great with the sauce).
$20 dessert:
Tempura banana (piping hot, if you order, wait 5min before biting into one – a really great dish – can’t go wrong with deep fried banana and some vanilla ice cream).
$30 desserts:
Chocolate tower (nice creamy mousse, piped into a white-chocolate lace-tube).
Cheesecake three ways (classic, brulee & deep fried….yum – all of them – but especially the deep-fried one).
Blue Crab Bar & Grill
A friend & I had a gift certificate to spend – but said afterwards, that we would have paid our own money for what we had. This place was full – hard to tell if everyone was there for dine-around or not. They start their specials in January as “The Feast” – all at $5 more ($35, $45, $55), and drop them $5 for Dine-Around. Service was very friendly, if not a bit sparse (it felt like they needed another server or a few more runners – our server seemed to be handling everything except filling water glasses).
$50 menu
At the $40 & $50 levels you get into more interesting appies – crab cakes, clams & mussels, calamari, oysters. And at the $50 level, the mains are steak/lobster, whole crab and a crab duo.
Crab cakes (these are tasty, good amount of crab meat & nicely spiced)
Clams & mussels (in a nice thai-coconut broth – clams were tiny, but all were delicious)
Snow crab & 1 king leg with risotto & veggies
King crab legs (with same risotto & veggies). You almost don’t need the risotto – but it’s nice to break up the mouthfuls of crab with something else. There’s also Dungeness available – but I have this crab the most, whereas king is so expensive, this was a good splurge – I probably got 2 cups of meat out of the four legs.
Croissant bread pudding (with a thin caramel sauce). This was very dense, but moist – not exactly a light finish – more in the decadent category.
10 Acres
I also did this place with a group from work - $30 menu.
Merguez sausage with mustard and sauerkraut (good flavour, medium spice level for a merguez, smaller serving though) and lamb chops & ravioli (2 chops, served medium and 3-4 large ravioli stuffed with ground lamb – both were great, served in a large bowl with brown butter sauce, no veg). Carrot-beet cake for dessert (a finer-crumb cake than your typical carrot, with a light cream-cheese icing in between layers – very good). The only thing that throws me off 10 Acres is the service and maybe it’s just an anomaly of when I’ve been there (which is only twice) – but to me, the food is at one level and the service doesn’t match it.
