This year, we chose glowbal grill, (the pictures above are all our courses) which is under the same umbrella company as Sanafir (an Asian-Indian-Morocan fusion tapas restaurant I chose for hubby's birthday one year, and we have visited a few times since). I've always heard good things about glowbal, and I figured since we love Sanafir so much it would be a good choice for us.
The meal started with a complimentary amuse-bouche of braised short rib over horseradish and mashed potatoes with a fried potato chip. The beef completely melted and was full of wonderful flavors, and the potatoes were nice and smooth. The horseradish gave just enough kick, but not so much that I was trying to douse the fire.
We were then treated to our first course: hubby chose the kobe beef chili with jalapeno sour cream and aged cheddar, and I chose the spinach & mandarin salad with goat cheese croutons and warm bacon vinaigrette. Hubby was quite pleased with his chili, telling me that the cream had quite the kick to it (good thing I didn't have it then, I would've been on fire). My salad was very tasty, though I could've done with thinner and smaller slices of red onion. The vinaigrette was very mild and the goat cheese was very subtle on the croutons.
For our main courses, hubby chose the rack of lamb with stilton scalloped potatoes and cranberry-port jus. He let me try one piece of lamb and some of the potatoes: delish! The lamb was cooked perfectly to medium rare, and the potato was lovely, with a very crunchy stilton cheese crust. I had the short rib papardelle with mushrooms and a peppercorn demi-glaze. Like with the amuse-bouche, the beef was cooked to perfection, and just fell apart. The dish was garnished with peas and pinenuts, which gave that nice nutty-sweet taste to the dish overall.
Dessert was the same for both of us: a pistachio and dark chocolate ganache tarte with chantilly cream. DIVINE. I've had lots of different kinds of ganache, and this was probably the best I've had: rich dark chocolate that wasn't too sweet or bitter. Hubby and I also did the accompanying wine pairings for each of our dishes. Made the bill a bit more than expecting, but still a good deal in the end. Overall? Excellent dinning experience, but we will probably visit Sanafir again before revisiting glowbal.
Here is the meal plan for the upcoming week, and available recipes are linked as always. Is it really February next week already? Wow! Guess that means Spring Break isn't too far away now. ;) Happy cooking all!
January 30-February 4
Sunday: Schnitzel, sauteed herb potatoes, veggies
Monday: Cheese soup, buns
Tuesday: Pasta
Wednesday: Salsa beef & rice casserole
Thursday: Sesame chicken fingers, fries
Friday: Vietnamese noodle soup