(last) Dined: March 17, 2008
Azalea (Located at 400 Walnut in Downtown Des Moines, in the former Kirkwood Hotel) is quickly becoming my go-to restaurant for special occasions. The food is classified as American, but there are obvious Asian & Mediterranean influences in the menu. The restaurant itself has a trendy feel, very high ceilings with exposed ducts, light woods, dark leathers.
This was my third visit to Azalea and I have never really been disappointed.
On my first visit we tried a variety of small plates. There were artichoke hearts wrapped in Prosciutto with fresh mozzarella which were tasty but a rather small portion ($10). The bacon wrapped quail with stuffing was ok, I've never been a fan of quail, and again, small portion ($12). The Zen roll is tasty (ok it isn't the healthy kind of sushi, it is the tempura kind) and on par with sushi roll prices around town ($10). I felt like the best small plate was the calamari ($8). It is a smaller portion than you're probably used to getting at other restaurants, but very tasty and not miniscule. We also had the Northern Prairie chevre wood oven pizza. It has a very generous helping of the goat cheese (so much I actually picked some off, and I LOVE goat cheese). I would try something different next time, but it was tasty.
On my second visit I just could not decide what to order. I was between the salmon & the lamb ($36). I know, not everyone enjoys lamb, but I do. The waitress said that she gets rave reviews of the salmon so I decided to order that ($26). When it arrived I was rather under whelmed and it seemed that the salmon was maybe a bit overcooked. The waitress noticed that I was picking around the fish & asked how it was. I played it off like it was ok, but she could tell it wasn't my thing. She insisted upon bringing me the lamb. The lamb was delicious, cooked to a perfect medium rare. I also tasted on that visit the house made noodles with chicken, parmesan & a white cream sauce ($15) which was so delicious, but not at all diet friendly.
On my third visit, we had the misfortune of coming in later in the evening after the Smart Talk Lecture crowd and they had run out of the chicken. While I wanted to order the lamb again, I decided I should try something new. I ended up ordering Soy Sake marinated black cod with shrimp dumplings in a Japanese broth ($30 ?). The fish was amazing, seared, crispy on the outside & not overcooked on the inside. The broth was under whelming though, carrots, celery, ginger, chicken broth, little flavor. The dumplings were good but small & there were only 3 of them. I was a little remorseful that I hadn't ordered the lamb. Three others I was with ordered the Iowa chop with shrimp grits ($28 ?) and they were all extremely pleased with that. I am not a fan of pork chops but I did try the grits and they were some of the most amazing things I have ever tasted.
I'm intrigued by their lounge menu that has sandwiches, fish & chips and other lighter fare. I may have to stop in sometime just to sample that.
It is a bit on the pricey side, but usually well worth it. The service is always to the highest of standards.
See Azalea's menu at (although a bit out of date): http://www.azaleadsm.com/
Prices range from $15 - $30 except on the steaks which are upwards of $30.
Friday, March 21, 2008
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Alba - First impression (East Village, Des Moines, IA)
One of my contributors shared a first impression with me of this new Des Moines spot.
Alba, located in an old car dealership in the East Village is very cool to look at, and a great place to meet for drinks.
Food wise the portions were ridiculously small, expensive, and not spectacular.
I have not visited Alba myself, but will do a full review if I do.
Alba, located in an old car dealership in the East Village is very cool to look at, and a great place to meet for drinks.
Food wise the portions were ridiculously small, expensive, and not spectacular.
I have not visited Alba myself, but will do a full review if I do.
Black Cat Cafe (Des Moines, IA)
Dined: 2/29/08
The Black Cat Cafe located at 3701 Ingersoll Avenue in Des Moines is the sort of place that you probably have to set out to visit. It looks very non-descript from the outside, and with some sort of tinting on the windows, it is difficult to tell if it is open or what waits for you inside. I was fortunate to find an empty space in the small lot in back. The interior was a pleasant surprise, but then I hadn't expected a lot. The walls and ceiling were dark with charming paper lanterns dangling from above. The furniture was more like a living room than a kitchen or a bar (which is a plus in my book). There is smoking at the ventilated bar, which was fine as long as there was only one person smoking, but at one point there were several people smoking there & the ventilation didn't make a difference for the near by tables (there is a room close to the front door that would have been great, but was already taken). A jazz trio started playing around 8 which only added to the ambiance (although it made conversations difficult).
There is a fair wine list. There were many beers on display, but they seemed to be out of several varieties. We settled on a bottle of Zinfandel for a bargain price of $20, which actually was pretty fair, although the wine was very warm, much warmer than I like. Of course I drank it anyway.
The menu consists mainly of crepes (sweet & savory - around $8 per plate), pastries & frozen pizzas. If you order a crepe, each order comes with 2 crepes of the same variety. I went with a friend & we ordered a savory & a sweet crepe to share which worked well. The garden & then the simple chocolate with a raspberry sauce. The garden had feta & vegetables and was satisfactory but didn't taste like expected. The quatro fromaggio & the seafood crepes both looked markedly better. The chocolate crepe was obviously made with Nutella instead of chocolate sauce which I don't remember being specified on the menu (as I am not a huge fan of Nutella). But it was very tasty & served with a scoop of ice cream.
We had wanted to order the chocolate banana crepe but they were out of bananas and I overheard her telling a few people later in the evening that they had actually ran out of crepe batter. Seems like a big faux pas if that is pretty much your whole menu. And crepe batter is pretty much flour, egg & sugar, so that would be hard to do. I mentioned before that they had run out of several kinds of beer as well.
If you order a sweet & a savory crepe, you should maybe specify that you would like your savory crepe before you get your dessert crepe as everyone in our party got their dessert crepe first. I was disappointed with the small variety of savory crepes. The glaring exemptions of ham and cheese, and ham cheese & mushroom crepes which are standard fare on European creperie menus.
The cafe was very busy, so the service was a bit slow, but the waitress made up for that by being extremely friendly.
Bottom line is that it is an interesting addition to the Des Moines restaurant/bar scene and crepes are a crowd pleaser. Hopefully they will get better organized & will not continue to have some of the issues that I encountered on my first visit. But there will definitely be return visits.
Visit their website where you can view their menu: http://www.blackcatcafebar.com/
The Black Cat Cafe located at 3701 Ingersoll Avenue in Des Moines is the sort of place that you probably have to set out to visit. It looks very non-descript from the outside, and with some sort of tinting on the windows, it is difficult to tell if it is open or what waits for you inside. I was fortunate to find an empty space in the small lot in back. The interior was a pleasant surprise, but then I hadn't expected a lot. The walls and ceiling were dark with charming paper lanterns dangling from above. The furniture was more like a living room than a kitchen or a bar (which is a plus in my book). There is smoking at the ventilated bar, which was fine as long as there was only one person smoking, but at one point there were several people smoking there & the ventilation didn't make a difference for the near by tables (there is a room close to the front door that would have been great, but was already taken). A jazz trio started playing around 8 which only added to the ambiance (although it made conversations difficult).
There is a fair wine list. There were many beers on display, but they seemed to be out of several varieties. We settled on a bottle of Zinfandel for a bargain price of $20, which actually was pretty fair, although the wine was very warm, much warmer than I like. Of course I drank it anyway.
The menu consists mainly of crepes (sweet & savory - around $8 per plate), pastries & frozen pizzas. If you order a crepe, each order comes with 2 crepes of the same variety. I went with a friend & we ordered a savory & a sweet crepe to share which worked well. The garden & then the simple chocolate with a raspberry sauce. The garden had feta & vegetables and was satisfactory but didn't taste like expected. The quatro fromaggio & the seafood crepes both looked markedly better. The chocolate crepe was obviously made with Nutella instead of chocolate sauce which I don't remember being specified on the menu (as I am not a huge fan of Nutella). But it was very tasty & served with a scoop of ice cream.
We had wanted to order the chocolate banana crepe but they were out of bananas and I overheard her telling a few people later in the evening that they had actually ran out of crepe batter. Seems like a big faux pas if that is pretty much your whole menu. And crepe batter is pretty much flour, egg & sugar, so that would be hard to do. I mentioned before that they had run out of several kinds of beer as well.
If you order a sweet & a savory crepe, you should maybe specify that you would like your savory crepe before you get your dessert crepe as everyone in our party got their dessert crepe first. I was disappointed with the small variety of savory crepes. The glaring exemptions of ham and cheese, and ham cheese & mushroom crepes which are standard fare on European creperie menus.
The cafe was very busy, so the service was a bit slow, but the waitress made up for that by being extremely friendly.
Bottom line is that it is an interesting addition to the Des Moines restaurant/bar scene and crepes are a crowd pleaser. Hopefully they will get better organized & will not continue to have some of the issues that I encountered on my first visit. But there will definitely be return visits.
Visit their website where you can view their menu: http://www.blackcatcafebar.com/
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