Azalea Restaurant (downtown Des Moines)

Last Dined: 6/28/08

I had heard rumors that Azalea (in the old Hotel Kirkwood on 4th & Walnut downtown Des Moines) was going down hill. I decided I needed to check that out.

On this visit we decided to sit in the lounge so that we could try some of the lounge menu, which is comprised mostly of some of the small plates from the main dinner menu, pizzas, and some other items that do not appear on the dinner menu (fish & chips, black Angus burger, crispy chicken sandwich with provolone & marinara). However upon examining the dinner menu, I noticed they had revamped their preparation of lamb and I had to try it.

Here is what we ordered:

Crispy calamari with roasted tomato aioli - The outside of the calamari was so light, unlike many other heavily breaded or battered which will hold on to the oil. The aioli was nice, not over-powering. The calamari itself was maybe a smidge more done than I would have liked, but not really chewy like you will get some places. All and all a really good bet.

Olive-goat cheese crusted rack of Niman Ranch lamb with grilled eggplant Potato fritters and Romesco sauce - I ordered my lamb medium rare, more towards rare than medium, and it was cooked perfectly. There was just a bit of goat cheese and olive mixture on each portion of lamb, very tasty. And although goat cheese and olives can both be strong flavors, it complimented the lamb and did not over power. The potato fritters were like balls of mashed potatoes with some sort of light batter on the outside, that was then deep fat fried. Very tasty, although I am a fan of potatoes in any form. The eggplant was cut into strips with olive oil and maybe rosemary to compliment the rosemary with the lamb. I wish there was more of that on the plate. This lamb concoction was even better than their previous lamb preparation. In fact everyone in my party agreed that the olive, goat cheese, Romesco sauce should be combined to make a tepenade for bread for the small plates menu or as a pizza topping.

Salami, fontina, capers, roasted red peppers and basil - A good value, a great one person meal. There is nothing like wood oven pizza. If there were any complaints about this dish, it would be that the salami was too thickly sliced and that the pizza could have been cooked a smidge longer, however that would be nit-picking.

Vietnamese pork roll with cole slaw - The pork was marinated and very tender. It was served on a hoagie style roll along side a mass of fairly bland and uninspiring cole slaw. The sandwich gets high praise, the side not so much.

As far as I can tell Azalea is tasty as ever.

See my first review: http://diningindesmoines.blogspot.com/2008/03/azalea-restaurant.html

See Azalea's website: http://www.azaleadsm.com/