Maybe someone should change their name....

Listen up, authors of the Top 100 article, let's hope that the rest of these dishes live up to their title! After my disappointing sweet potato fries, I encountered another dud at Cabo Fish Taco in NoDa. I LOVE seafood. I LOVE tacos. I LOVE fish tacos! What I had last night was quite a letdown. I read the description in the Top 100 article and was sooo excited about my cabo fish tacos. Cute little place in NoDa, tasty little tacos? It was not to be. Thankfully my company, Anna and Shelly, made it better! We all the got the same thing - the fried fish tacos. The tortillas were very good and the fish would have been great in a fish and chips dish, but somehow everything together was....blah...

The promise was a fried fish taco with "brimming" with slaw and a white cilantro sauce. What I ended up eating was boring cabbage, un-melted cheese, with a white sauce that tasted like nothing. All right, I've been mean enough, but let me tell you - if you want a GOOD fish taco, head over to Wild Wing Cafe because the Baja fish tacos are GREAT!  

Top 100 dish? Not so much

Today I got an extra long lunch away from work, so I decided to use my time wisely - why not eat another top 100 dish? I settled on the sweet potato fries from Big Daddy's Burger Bar in Ballantyne. Big Daddy's has pretty much any burger you could ever dream of, which I guess makes sense if you have the words "burger bar" in the name of your restaurant. I got a regular burger with swiss cheese, lettuce, and mustard. It was DELICIOUS! I got it well done because the idea of eating pink hamburger meat makes me a bit sick. Some burgers you get well done are not so great - they tend to not be as moist - but this one was fantastic. It was a nice sized burger and had great flavor. I got the sweet potato fries as my side.

They come with an orange-flavored honey mustard sauce for dipping. Now, don't get me wrong - they were good, but really? Out of ALL the food in ALL the restaurants in Charlotte, these fries are considered to be in the top 100 dishes? My lunch here was great. I will more than likely be going back, but in no way am I going to be dreaming of these fries like I've been dreaming about those pesto and brie fries from NoDa! Slight disappointment, Charlotte Magazine. Let's hope the next dish lives up to the title.

NoDa? More like YesDa!

Today I made the spur of the moment decision to eat another dish off my list. I had to travel to the new Banfield in Cotswold, so I wanted to see what was in that area. I ended up going to Crepe Cellar Kitchen and Pub in NoDa. This pub is on North Davidson (hence the NoDa...maybe trying to be a bit NYC here guys?). I had heard a lot about this area but hadn't been there. I was a little apprehensive driving in and parking as it doesn't seem like the safest part of town for a single girl to go visiting - very glad I went during the day. Maybe that's too quick an assessment, so sorry for offending anyone in that area!

After looking at the menu, I didn't want to JUST eat the pesto and brie fries (my goal dish) so I opted for the clam chowder as well, which the waitress (who was very good, other than assuming I wasn't just eating by myself at first - yes ma'am, I know it's hard to believe I'm single) assured me was delicious. Here are the pictures of my meal:


Pesto and brie goodness




Clam-a-licious

 Oh my goodness, this was WONDERFUL. I think it's in my top dishes of the Top 100 dishes. Part of it was the ambience - this is a little place with dark wood, small tables, and you can see right out onto the street - but the food would have been wonderful anywhere. In addition, it was pouring outside and  the perfect place to be was in this pub eating warm comfort food.

The menu at this restaurant is pretty intriguing. They serve crepes, which I would definitely like to try at some point. The Charlotte magazine extolling the virtues of the fries said they were enough to share (or enough to polish off by yourself if you haven't had anything to eat since breakfast) and warned diners against using the ketchup as it would "tarnish" the fries. I don't agree. I think the pesto and brie and potato needed something to cut that and (my Top Chef training) ketchup added a nice acidity to it. The clam chowder was indeed delicious. My aunt makes wonderful clam chowder but this stuff.....I'm ashamed to admit may have even been better. It was so thick and creamy, I could have eaten a bigger bowl in no time. What was EVEN BETTER about this restaurant is that it's right next to the other location of Tasty-Yo (remember my previous blog?), so I headed over there and got some more peach mango. I've been craving that stuff since my last visit. I will eventually get the blueberry acai that I was supposed to, but the peach mango with their homemade granola made this day 110% perfect.

All in all, NoDa has won me over and I'm a little afraid my dreams will be filled with the pesto and brie fries, which I'm sure are NOT good for you. Oh but they ARE delicious!

Dinner AND a show

Anna and I went to Rooster's for pan-fried corn on Saturday and it was delicious! We had a great dinner and got fantastic seats. Rooster's serves "family style" so everything is a la carte and they have big tables for multiple parties to sit. We ended up sitting right at the kitchen and that made the meal even better. Both Anna and I are fans of food (of course) and shows like Top Chef, so seeing chefs in action was great!

where the magic happens

Anna asked the waitress about the dishes and we found that it's best to share. I guess what we learned in grade school was right.












Both of us started with salads. She got the arugula (with goat cheese and almonds) and I got the caesar. Sometimes I would get bites that tasted "gritty" and I couldn't figure out if it was pepper or something else...but all in all, a good start to the meal.

Et tu, Brute?

Arugula

We proceeded onto the main course. We split the pan-friend corn, quarter natural chicken, and macaroni and cheese. The chicken is roasted over a spit, and we got to see both our sides being made in the kitchen.

I agreed with Anna that the chicken was not super special, but it was VERY tender. They did have a BBQ chicken option and that might have had more flavor. The pan-fried corn was DELICIOUS. It was salty but not too salty. Some of the kernels would be a little crunchy, and they were all nice and buttery....mmmmm. The mac and cheese was some of the most interesting mac and cheese I've ever had. I don't know what sort of cheese they used, but it was like BAM, here's some cheese! Most mac and cheese is really creamy and tends to be made with some sort of cheddar. This had a very cheesy cheese flavor. I am by no means a cheese expert, so I can't even guess. Sometimes I don't like strong cheeses, but somehow it worked with this dish. Here's another look at the top 100 dish (pan-friend corn, although the voters maybe should have tried the mac and cheese!):

 Now onto dessert:


Eat your heart out, coconut lovers

 I had the coconut cake with chantilly cream and creme anglaise. This was not for the wishy washy coconut fan.  Coconut lovers, rejoice and eat here often! There was coconut in every bite...I mean, EVERY bite.

Anna had the brownie with a banana chocolate chip gelato inside. It was definitely good, but the brownie was pretty thin and a little too chewy.

Yummy!

All in all, a fabulous dining experience that I would definitely recommend. I think sitting right at the kitchen would be the only way to go.


What's up next? Well, you'll just have to wait and see.