Last Sunday, we went to brunch at the Sutton Place hotel to do an early celebration for my birthday and celebrate my AIL's 60th birthday. We had quite the selection of food here! I made sure to try a little of everything. I stated with the healthier stuff (roasted veggies, salad, seafood and a few slices of deli meats), then worked into the hot dishes of breakfast foods (pancakes, sausages, bacon) and lunch foods (this super yummy canneloni stuffed with a tomato & mushroom meatsauce, a few Chinese dim sum items, mozzarella and tomato salad with pesto, and roast beef). Everything was very tasty. They had a fantastic selection of desserts as well, one of which was a very tasty black forest cake. The waitress also surprised both myself and my AIL with birthday cakes, complete with a candle to blow out to make a wish. I ended up bring the cake home and hubby and I had it for dessert after dinner. What I thought was cheesecake turned out to be a vanilla mousse cake. Very yummy indeed. Overall, we had a great time at the restaurant!
For my actual birthday, hubby took me to Black + Blue, a new steakhouse courtesy of Glowbal group. Like Glowbal's other restaurants that we've been to, this one did not disappoint. The decor is very dark, with marble covered tables, large leather chairs and banquettes, and lots of shades of brown. The centerpiece is all the different cuts of meat, on display in a large fridge. They have two levels of seating; we were seated on the first level right by the meat fridge and the bar.
We started off with the blue cheese bread, which came with chive oil for dipping. The bread was incredibly soft with just a hint of blue cheese (hubby wanted it to be much stronger). The chive oil was amazing; you really didn't need to put too much on the bread to give it that extra layer of flavor. When our waiter came 'round to get our meal order, he convinced to try their drink special for the night, called a strawberry kiss. It is a blend of strawberry liquor, pineapple juice, vanilla vodka and champagne. It was extremely refreshing on the palate and served as a great start to our meal.
While we were waiting for our main dishes to arrive, the table behind hubby received table-side service for a Ceasar salad. The whole thing is made fresh to serve, including the dressing! I watched in complete fascination, as this is something that isn't terribly common in restaurants that we've been to. If he had been our waiter, I would've taken pictures!
Our main dishes arrived and we tucked in to our respective dishes: hubby ordered the steak Oscar with dungeness crab, hollondaise sauce and asparagus and I ordered the 12oz (which is easily twice the size of what I would normally get for myself) New York striploin with a side of macaroni and cheese with truffled sauce. I was surprised when we were presented with fried macaroni and cheese with truffle cheese sauce on the side. It doesn't say in the menu that they're fried! In the end, it didn't matter: they were SO decadent and rich, especially once they were dipped into the truffled cheese sauce: HEAVEN. My steak was perfectly cooked to rare (just the way I like it) and was very tender and juicy. They also brought a selection of sauces for the steaks, which were all very tasty. I quite enjoyed their peppercorn sauce; it was very smooth and flavorful. It very much ressembled a bordelaise sauce, with just a hint of wine. The chimichurri sauce was very refreshing on the palate and went quite nicely with my steak. The steak sauce tasted like a very smoky BBQ sauce and had a good combination of spices in it. Hubby ended up giving me most of his asparagus and he gave me a small bite of dungeness crab. The crab tasted incredibly fresh and was full of crabby goodness.
We were just about to order dessert when our waiter arrived with a birthday dessert on the house! They gave us the Black + Blue specialty, a butter cake with chantilly cream and caramel. The cake has a dry mealy consistency and tastes almost like shortbread in cake form. It was DELISH, especially when scooped up with some cream and caramel! Overall, a fantastic experience at Black + Blue! Definitely a place to visit for steak lovers.
Here is the meal plan for the week. We ended up ordering out last week, so the chicken paprika will now be made this week. Mostly oldies, with one recipe that has only been made once before. Enjoy the week and happy cooking all!
May 27-June 1
Sunday: Lamb souvlaki, tzatziki (we're cheating with this one), Greek salad
Monday: Chicken paprika with egg noodles
Tuesday: Turkey panini with onion cranberry marmelade
Wednesday: Chicken Jambalaya
Thursday: Best-Ever Mac & Cheese
Friday: Burritos