Not so Open Kitchen

A few weeks ago, Shelly and I went to the Open Kitchen on Morehead Street. This restaurant claims to be the first in Charlotte to serve pizza so it's been around awhile.  It was pretty easy to get there since it was right off of 277. Shelly and I got a table and waited for Anna to arrive and we were served bread in a basket while we looked over the menu. Here was the first disappointment. The bread was basically the kind of bread you could pick up at Walmart as a loaf and serve to friends at your house. It wasn't heated or served with any fun oils or spreads, just butter. They did have a few other options like those little hard breadsticks and crackers but for a really old Italian restaurant, it just didn't quite cut it.

The second disappointment? No mixed drinks. I'm not a wine or a beer person. In fact, I barely drink alcohol at all, but I certainly like a little something when I'm having a nice dinner. There was nothing available. I guess this isn't so weird because there have been a few other restaurants like that (Mert's Heart and Soul, you know I'm talking about you)...but I still don't like it. For dinner, Shelly and I each ordered the Chicken Parmigiana (the Top 100 dish). Anna got fettucine and added chicken. Here was the third disappointment. She asked if something green could be added - broccoli, etc. They had NONE. Who doesn't have broccoli in a restaurant? She ended up getting mushrooms on it instead. I also ordered the antipasto platter while Shelly and Anna got a Greek salad. Anna ordered the dressing on the side, but it came tossed in despite her wishes. The waitress also asked both of them if they wanted beets, which they did not, but didn't think to ask me...so I ended up with beets on my antipasto platter (which wasn't listed on the menu as one of the ingredients), necessitating me scraping them off before I could even enjoy the platter...and I was HUNGRY!

Our dinners came out and smelled delicious, renewing my hope for the evening. Anna's plate had a HUGE number of mushrooms on it, but it still looked good. Shelly's and mine looked good as well.


Chicken Parmigiana

Here was the next disappointment - the dish really wasn't that great. The chicken was pretty tough, the spaghetti on the side uninspired, and the sauce was only so-so. The best part was the cheese. They could've sent out a plate of the cheese and little bit of sauce and it would have been much better than what we were served.

The next disappointment: our check was not split into individuals and the man in charge seemed very angry with the waitress for not doing that. He looked at us like idiots when we started to list what our dishes were and made the waitress come up and figure it out. THEN, to our horror, he begin saying nasty things about a woman sitting near where we were. I guess she was having trouble deciding what to order and he said (very loudly) "Well, I'll make it easy. The kitchen is closed" and started muttering about her not making up her mind and wasting time.

All in all, I doubt a perfect plate of food would have made this experience better given the attitude of the man in charge and the things missing (fresh veggies, nice bread). I don't know if it was an off night, but I can assure you I will not be returning there to find out.

Give a little bit of heart and soul

Last night, I went uptown with Shelly and Anna to Mert's Heart and Soul for the veggie plate. A lot of the dishes left on my list are in uptown, which presents a problem. I HATE going uptown! If I knew where I was going or where to park, it would be awesome, but I always get lost. Last night was no exception. Shelly told me they had parked in this parking garage, which I thought I went to, but I actually parked in one a few blocks away, causing me to have to walk around uptown at night by myself. That's difficult for a girl who lives in Rock Hill!

Anyway, I made it to the restaurant unscathed and we all settled in for a delicious dinner. The veggie plate was the goal and we were super excited about all the veggies listed on the chalkboards. Unfortunately, they only had the whole selection at lunch. Dinner was a small (but also delicious) selection. So now it's time to confess. I didn't get the veggie plate! No judgment! My dinner was served with 2 veggies, which I thought was plenty. I would really like to go back one day for lunch and eat the veggie plate because they had some pretty awesome ones listed.

I had the salmon cakes with green beans and macaroni and cheese. Anna and Shelly got the fried chicken with 2 sides. The macaroni was delicious - all nice and creamy. The green beans were FABULOUS. They were actually a little sweet - so good! The salmon cakes were made differently than I've had them - they had some peppers and onions in them - but they were still good (not the best I've had but still really flavorful).

The epitome of comfort food

Anna and Shelly were underwhelmed by the fried chicken. However, when you've been to Savannah and had Paula Deen's and Mrs. Wilkinson's Boarding House chicken, it's hard to top that.

On to dessert! I had the strawberry cake, Shelly got caramel cake, and Anna got the peach cobbler. Everyone was a fan of my strawberry cake:

Strawberries never looked so good

Anna's cobbler was really good as well. Shelly was underwhelmed by her caramel cake but it looked tasty! Best of all, there were leftovers! Even better of all, the meal came with little cornbreads that were soooo good - nice and sweet like I like them! All in all, a very good dinner, but I would really suggest going for lunch so you can have all the side options.

Oh, and PS - if you want to do something fun, look up the YouTube video of the song "Heart and Soul" by T'pau - I love the 80's!!

I'm sorry...WHAT kind of pizza??

So it's been a SUPER long time since I blogged, which I'm sure you are all broken up about. Come on, be honest!

Several weeks ago, I traveled to Brixx Pizza in Dilworth to eat with two of my favorite vets, Ali and Andi. The Top 100 Dish at Brixx is the Pear and Gorgonzola Pizza. Let's start at the beginning. I ordered a nice fruity margarita drink that came to me tasting very much like salt. I asked for another one, which was just as bad. Andi had the same drink but hers tasted much better. She actually ended up switching with me, which was super nice of her. However, by that time, the salty taste had inundated my taste buds and that's all I could taste. The manager came by and I ended up drinking a very delicious Cosmopolitan. Lesson learned - ask for NO SALT on all margaritas. I feel bad for Andi because I'm pretty sure her drink wasn't so great after we switched (you know it's true! I owe you one!).

After the drink debacle, we moved onto dinner. We ordered our pizzas and they came out super fast!


When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie....



I really liked this pizza. I was pretty hesitant given the description, but all the flavors worked together really well. The pizza had a nice thin crispy crust, the cheese was deeeeeelicious, and the pears added that nice sweetness to contrast with the saltiness of the cheese. There were toasted walnuts on top and those added a contrasting texture. There were also sweet onions - I ate a few, but not a lot. The pizza was a really nice size - I ended up only eating a little bit and taking the rest home. The pizza wasn't AS good reheated, but still pretty awesome.

Now, of course, given this is an "Italian" restaurant (Italian in quotes only because it's really just pizza and stuff like that), they had tiramisu on the menu. Obviously, I had to try it. Ok, so no one twisted my arm, but I'm on a quest!



That's amore...



This tiramisu was one of my favorites. The more I thought about it, the less like Mike's I thought it was, but it was still pretty awesome. I think the key to this tiramisu is all that chocolate you see (my friend Nicole would LOVE it). I think a huge part of Mike's tiramisu is the fluffy ladyfingers layer, which this one was really close to. However, Mike's also has the huge layers of creamy goodness on top and bottom of the lady fingers. Brixx is different, but still really good, possibly one of the better ones I've had.

My friend, the chickpea

This past week, I visited the Kabob Grill in Stonecrest for some hummus (or as they say on their menu, hommos). I am a big fan of hummus and have tried many different varieties. There is a restaurant in Knoxville called King Tut's and they do a huge Mediterranean sampler...delicious! I had never heard of Kabob Grill, which of course is one of the reasons I'm doing this list!

I had to call the restaurant to find them in the ginormous shopping center. I'm pretty sure I would build a house smack dab in the middle of this shopping center and never have to leave it. There's a vet office, Target, Ulta, Dean and Deluca, Chick-fil-A, Smashburger, Firebirds, a movie theater, and Tasty-Yo is just a few seconds away. However, if you're trying to find a specific store you've never been to before, this place is like a maze. Kabob Grill is tucked away on the side. I wasn't too surprised to see only one other person in the restaurant when I went, but I did go at kind of a weird time. By the time I left, the place had filled up. I ordered the Chicken Kabob, which comes with "two delightful side items" (seriously, that's what the menu says).

Don't I look amazing?!

I chose the hummus and baba ghannouj as my side items. The meal was $15 but, as you can see, the portion size was great. I had a meeting to go to, so I only got to eat about 1/3 (can we say lunch the next day??). The chicken was seasoned so well, the vegetables were almost pickled but really good, and the dips? Oh my, the hummus was so creamy and delicious. The baba ghannouj had a wonderful flavor and texture. The only complaint I would have was that the baba ghannouj had a TON of parsley on it and that was a little weird. The description of the hummus in Charlotte magazine talks about eating it with a spoon and, believe me, you are tempted to. They serve everything with little packets of pitas (I got extra when I left), and it makes it so easy to eat. In fact, I took my leftovers to work the next day and just ate it cold - fabulous! This restaurant has several locations in the Charlotte area (http://www.kabobgrill.com/) and I would definitely recommend trying one!

Anyone want some of my mother's brisket?

Anytime I hear the word brisket, I automatically think of The Big Bang Theory and Howard always talking about his mom's. As much as I'd heard of it, I don't think I've ever actually had it unless it's in BBQ. Harper's brisket is on the Top 100 list, and I decided to go get takeout one day when I traveled to the Pineville mall.

The Texas beef brisket comes with two side items. The menu says macaroni and cheese and twice baked beans, but I got the cheesy corn bake instead of the beans. The macaroni and cheese is a "pimento" mac and cheese.

I have to say I'm honestly quite confused by the brisket. It was served with BBQ sauce that was kind of sweet and smoky, but the beef itself was fairly salty and had a different type of sauce on it. I wasn't sure what it was really supposed to be - it's beef, but it's not hamburger. It's thin and in strips but it's not really steak. It's BBQ, but it's not pork....what is it? I mean, it was good, but the BBQ sauce almost clashed with it. However, on its own, it didn't have enough dimensions of flavor. The mac and cheese was good as I was worried since I don't like pimento. The cheesy corn bake was a little strange. I guess I'm pretty used to sweet corn and this was not sweet. I think it had a couple of different kinds of cheese in it and then a crust of some sort. Once again, things kind of clashed together. It's not like I didn't enjoy the meal, but not enough to really ever eat it again. If only they'd had tiramisu so I could compare that....=0)

Caramelized Goodness

Anna's family was in town after their vacation so what better to do in Charlotte than eat?? We traveled uptown to Aria (complimentary valet, woo-hoo!). I had been working and then cleaning cat kennels where I volunteer, so I stopped at Target to make myself more presentable. I missed the appetizers and ordering but was there for the rest of the meal. However, my dinner buddies were kind enough to order me my top 100 dish, Caramelized Gnocchi.

For those of you who don't watch Top Chef obsessively like I do, gnocchi are thick little dumplings made from a variety of ingredients. I think most of the ones I see on TV are potato. At Aria, the appetizer gnocchi is served with prosciutto di parma, pear, gorgonzola, and truffle oil. The portion is pretty small but honestly OK for an appetizer...although maybe not for the price. The gnocchi were honestly like nothing I've ever had before. The first bite was really kind of sweet with the pear and the caramelized crunch, but then if you get the cheese underneath, it made it savory, almost like macaroni and cheese. I really enjoyed them, although I would have enjoyed them more if they were less expensive!




Little puffy clouds of goodness

 For dinner, I chose the penne a la vodka, which was the Top 100 dish at Mama Ricotta's. It was very good, but not nearly as good as Mama Ricotta's (which I guess is why that one is on the list...). For dessert, of course I had the tiramisu.

The tiramisu was really good, possibly one of my favorites in Charlotte (better than Blu Basil for sure), but nowhere near as good as Mike's. The pictures on Aria's website looks like it could have come close, but it was not representative of the actual tiramisu.

Although it may sound like I'm not giving this place a good review, the food was really great and I had a fabulous time with my dinner companions. However, one of the downsides of the list is that some of the restaurants are really similar. This is the 3rd (maybe more?) Italian restaurant I've eaten in and now it's like they really have to make a great impression to blow me away...Sorry Aria!

Pizza, Pizza!

Today I visited Luisa's Brick Oven Pizza for Pizza a la Carte. Luisa's has been around for awhile and they have a ton of choices for toppings, so I was pretty excited. I picked kind of a weird time to eat because I was off today, so I (of course!) slept in. I say a weird time, because I seemed to be one of only 3 people in the restaurant.

For my pizza, I picked ham, black olives, and mushroom.

The pizza was really good. I love thin crust pizza - this was so thin I honestly had to eat it with a fork and knife. The cheese was soooo cheesy and the sauce was great. I LOVE olives, especially black olives, but I did feel like they detracted from the taste of everything because they were essentially all I tasted. I don't really even remember tasting mushrooms. Next time, maybe some different toppings, but all in all great!

Now onto another subject. In addition to continuing to eat the Top 100 dishes, I have taken it upon myself to find tiramisu in Charlotte that is the closest to that in Boston at Mike's Pastry Shop. So far, I've tried Mama Ricotta's, Vivace, and Dolce Ristorante. All of these were good, but not THAT good. Today, I tried Blu Basil. I saw this restaurant near the Cotswold Banfield and thought it was Thai food. Sadly, it was Italian, but of course Italian means tiramisu! I stopped in today after lunch (WAY after lunch) and tried their tiramisu. Honestly, I liked it more than Dolce Ristorante, which was the tiramisu on the Top 100 list.

I know you WANT me to taste like Mike's

I liked it more, as in it was closer to Mike's. I think it has to do with the wider layers of ladyfingers. This tiramisu, however, had more creamy layers instead of coffee-like layers AND the middle layer was practically frozen. It tasted like tiramisu ice cream...which was delightful, but not like Mike's. The search continues....