Posts Tagged ‘restaurant review’

Daily Delish- The B-Spot

The Mister and I are kind of obsessed with going out to eat (who isn’t?). We’re always on the lookout for new spots of deliciousness and we’re constantly re-editing and evaluating out “favorites” list.

You may not think “amazing food” when you think of Cleveland, but you should. After all, we are home to Michael Symon — hello? IRON CHEF! And luckily Michael realizes how AWESOME Cleveland is and chooses it as the home to many of his restaurants — one of them being the new B-spot.

The B-spot is a casual “spot,” specializing in burgers, brats and beer — hence, the B-spot.

Don’t worry vegetarians — they also have veggie burgers and BIG SALADS!

bspot salads

Take note of what they call the veggie burger – HA!

bspot veggie burger

B-spot

B-spot interior

The B-spot is casual cool at it’s finest. I wish I could show you nicer photos of the interior, but my camera wasn’t a fan of the low lighting. Check out the B-spot’s website for more detail.

Following my pre-surgery instructions like a good little patient, I ordered a smaller dinner — and looked longingly at all the burgers ;(

But my frown turned upside-down as soon as I was presented with my BIG SALAD.

I went with the arugula, which was topped with portabella mushrooms and CHUNKS of goat cheese — even I couldn’t finish it!

B spot arugala salad

For all you burger lovers out there, I snapped a photo of the Mister’s meal, as well. His burger was topped with fried egg and bacon! The couple we dined with also really enjoyed their meal – nothing is better than good food and good company! ;)

Bspot burger

What are your favorite burger toppings? Do you go for interesting ingredients or keep it pretty “plain jane?”

Daily Delish – La Boca

Remember when I pleaded for your help on Friday? It worked! The Mister and I ended up arriving at La Boca, which is Spanish for “the mouth” by the way, a bit early so we enjoyed some fresh bread while we scanned the menu (for probably the 100th time!).

La Boca - Bread

La Boca - Spreads

The bread was served with a “spread platter,” which included sun dried tomato spread, chickpea spread and lime butter. All were amazing, but naturally the buttah was my fave ;)   Although I would have loved to have seen an infused olive oil – La Boca suggestion box? where are you?

Anyway, the Mister and I ended up taking your advice and ordering the salmon and scallops.

La Boca - Salmon

La Boca - Scallops

The salmon was plated with roasted root vegetables and was drizzled with a delectable sweet sauce. I would have liked it a little more rare, but the flavor was spot-on. The scallops were served with mango and sweet cornbread pancakes (appear like little doughballs in the photo) – they were AMAZING! I was jealous that the Mister had this dish all to himself — luckily he graciously allowed me  I was able to steal a few bites.

After our dinner, the Mister and I headed to our Christmas adventure – stay tuned to see where we ended up!

I have my second kickball game today! Cross your fingers for me!

Daily Delish – Vegiterranean takes the cake! (Literally and figuratively ;) )

Ever since the Mister and I last went to VegiTerranean, we’ve been looking for an excuse to go back. We knew that taking a detour from one of our Christmas adventures (don’t worry, I’m sharing tomorrow!) would be the perfect opportunity. After reading about VeggieGirl’s latest experience, I knew better than to try and plan my meal from the restaurant’s online menu. The Mister and I figured we’d just go with what sounded delicious. We started with “Whole Grilled Artichokes served with Lemon Caper and Roasted Red Pepper dipping sauces & grated Rawmesan.” Don’t worry, it tasted as good as it sounded.

Grilled artichokes with dipping sauce

Grilled artichokes with dipping sauce

Grilled artichokes with dipping sauce

The sauces were incredible! I still can’t decide which one I preferred – so delicious — I may attempt making one at home. The Roasted Red Pepper sauce tasted a bit like my Harissa sauce!  We also shared some bread and rosemary infused olive oil. Of course when I say ’share’ I mean that I hogged the entire plate. Come on! There were only three tiny morsels! Good thing the Mister isn’t a bread head.

Bread and olive oil

For our entree. we decided to split a pizza. Our server recommended “Chrissie’s Choice,” which included wild mushrooms and the restaurant’s famous basil pesto. Hey, if it is good enough for Chrissie Hynde, it’s good enough for me ;)

"Chrissies Choice" pizza - Mushrooms with special pesto blend and soy mozzarella cheese

"Chrissie's Choice" pizza - Mushrooms with special pesto blend and soy mozzarella cheese

Pesto Pizza

This was AMAZING! The crust was phenomenal and the Mister and I agreed that the pesto was nothing short of mouthwatering. It was also the perfect size for sharing! And the perfect size for making sure I had room for dessert ;) Originally I had thought that I could pay a visit to Rita’s for a delicious pumpkin concoction, but after making a VERY SMART phone call, I quickly realized they were closed for the winter. Can you imagine how upset I would have been if I turned down VegiTerranean dessert, only to find out that Rita’s was closed? Yeah, I’ll pat myself on the back for thinking to make the phone call. Anyway, I asked the server for his recommendation (since he steered me the right way regarding the ZA!) and he told me that if I was a carrot cake fan, to without a doubt order the carrot cake. Say no more, my friend — bring on the icing! Behold.

Carrot Cake Carrot cake

Sweet Jesus.

Let me just say that I was still talking about this slice of heaven roughly one hour after the fact. At one point, I think the Mister had to remind me that he no longer cared how much I liked the cake. This cake was so incredibly moist and the spiciness was spot on! The buttercream frosting was to.die.for. Honestly — I have no words. Think of the best cake you’ve ever eaten. Now multiply it by ten. RUN, do not walk, to VegiTerranean while they are still serving this amazingness. I’m not even sure something this good should be legal. In fact, I’m convinced the baker laced my icing with crack.

I’m suing VegiTerranean. They can pay me in carrot cake.

You tell me — what was the best dessert you’ve ever had and where was it from?

Daily Delish – NAYA Bistro

I wanted to share my recent experience at a new restaurant that opened up by my parents house. After seeing the “Coming Soon” sign a few months ago, I had been looking forward to trying it out! You all know one of my favorite things to visit new restaurants — seriously, why didn’t I look further into becoming a food critic? Is it too late for that? ;)

Anyway, NAYA Bisto gave me a good vibe from the moment I stepped in the door. With modern sleek decor, it still manages to be warm and welcoming with it’s rich inviting tones. I also love the fact that the restaurant utilized green building techniques and chose local and natural materials.

But it doesn’t stop there. The restaurant also always uses organic, local produce whenever available. In addition, they serve free-range chicken, hormone-free beef and organic wines. Nothing like a restaurant that goes the extra mile in providing the best ingredients available.

NAYA Bistro and Lounge

I ordered the soup and salad and was thrilled when this delicious bread an olive oil was served.

bread and olive oil

The olive oil was infused with rosemary — so delish!

The soup was made with root vegetables and roasted tomatoes and was pureed into a thick, flavorful broth. It had a bit of a kick, too!

roasted tomato soup

The salad contained BRIE, thinly sliced apples, cucumber, carrots and walnut vinaigrette.

salad

The Brie and apples were delicious together! No surprise there! Apples + cheese = heaven ;)

While the dark, unappetizing pictures may not convey the true deliciousness of this meal, I am so thrilled that this new place is only a few minutes from my parents!  As great as Aladdin’s and Yours Truly are, it’s always nice to have new places in the rotation!

How often do you try new restaurants? Do you stick to your favorites or branch out?

Daily Delish – Whole Foods deliciousness

Remember when I took myself out to dinner in NYC?

Must not have been too bad, because I did it again!

The Mister was hard at work winning more than $2,000 at a poker tournament (yes, you read that right, one of his many talents!) all Saturday afternoon, so I set out for a ‘Shannon’ day.

This consisted of hours in the bookstore, window shopping, ACTUAL xmas shopping at TJMaxx, hanging out at a coffee shop working on a *special project* and of course, a visit to Whole Foods. I happened to be at Whole Foods during the dinner hour (actually more like 7:30-8:30 pm, but close enough ;) ), so I decided to take advantage of their amazing dine-in service, Osteria.

I ordered one of my favorites, the Vegetaranio Misto, which consists of roasted garlic, grilled vegetables & olives with sun-dried tomato pesto. Of course I ordered this dish SANS OLIVES (gag!).

vegetariano misto

Sorry for the blurry iPhone pic, but I figured it was better than nothing!

This sundried tomato pesto is out-of-this-world-AMAZING. As I type this I’m considering abandoning my cooking dinner and making a run for Osteria to get my fix.

I suppose that wouldn’t be very fair to the Mister though, huh? (especially since he’s already agreed to take me to NEW MOON this weekend! I told him that he’s going to have little tiny-boppers swooning over his resemblance of the dreamy Edward Cullen ;)

edward and bella

shannon and jason

See the resemblance? ;)

Have a glorious evening!

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