Before we go on trips, we always locate at least a handful of possible restaurants to try. This seems to lessen the chance that we’ll just duck in somewhere awful because we are tired of walking around. We made it to almost every restaurant we wanted to try and weren’t disappointed (with the food, at least) once!
House of Tricks – a pricey “bring your parents” type of place, so we opted for lunch instead of dinner. The food was delicious (tuna burger and BBQ chicken sandwich), but the service was spotty. Example: I asked for a glass for my beer after the waiter delivered just the bottle, several minutes and one reminder later I was given a dripping wet (slightly warm) pint glass as the guy said “Here’s a chilled glass for your beer.” Huh? I attempted to wipe off the glass with my (cloth!) napkin which then left thousands of little fuzzies all over it. I just drank the last half of my beer from the bottle.
Casey Moore’s Oyster House – an indoor respite from the heat. Eric had a grilled ham and cheese and I had a shrimp and avocado salad. At this point the heat was starting to zap my appetite, but the food was fine and the Sirius radio station they were playing was great (like listening to BBC Radio 1). We were seated right next to the server station and overheard all the waitresses complaining about their outdoor customers during our meal. Nice.
Oreganos (warning: music) – yum! After this point, the service at the remaining restaurants we tried improved considerably. This place was the farthest walk from our hotel, but the Chicago-style cheese pizza was worth it. Cut into squares, just like home. :) Oh, and the chocolate chip cookie with ice cream dessert was pretty good too. I finally got to try the Four Peaks Kilt Lifter, verdict: tasty (the actual brewery was packed on Wednesday night due to the Suns game, so we didn’t get to eat there). Plus, our waiter was from the Chicago-area.
Caffe Boa – easily the best dining experience. Eric had a flight of white wines and I had an outstanding glass of 10 year old Rioja (tempranillo). We leisurely ate fresh italian bread with dipping oil, cajun spiced chicken with penne and artichoke ravioli with tomato cream sauce.