Sunday, January 30, 2011

Scratch

To celebrate Paul getting a job and a US driver's license this week, we went to a slightly upscale restaurant on Friday called Scratch.

Paul and I go out to eat a lot, at least once a week, so we have experienced great restaurants and very bad restaurants. Scratch was one of the best we have ever been to! The atmosphere, staff, and food were all amazing. To start, we ordered calamari, probably the best I've ever had. Then as entrees, I got the salmon, described as: caprese style, wild salmon topped with oven roasted yellow tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, and balsamic vinegar reduction, served with a house-made seasonal vegetable. I pretty much died and went to heaven when I tasted the tomatoes and cheese with the salmon. It was fab. Paul, of course, ordered the steak. It looked really good, on a bed of sauteed mushrooms and surrounded by a mushroom aus ju. He confirmed it's greatness by saying, "This is the best steak I ever had." For dessert we were overly ambitious and ordered two to share, with me getting homemade mini donuts and Paul getting chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream. We weren't able to finish them but until we reached our breaking point they were fantastic.

One of the reasons I really like this restaurant is because everything is made from scratch, and they try their hardest to find locally grown and in-season ingredients. Too bad not all restaurants do this.

We will definitely be coming back to this place. Even though it was pricey, this was probably the #1 best restaurant experiences we have had to date.

3 comments:

  1. Fun! Sounds like a great place. Paul and I went to a small, expensive italian restaurant for our first date and it still is our favorite place to have a "classy" meal. It is super pricey so we can only go like once a year, but it always feels special.

    Maybe check out if this place has specials during the week. The place we love has half price bottles of wine on Tuesdays, for example. Or maybe they do a happy hour with great appetizers. If we can't afford a full meal at a pricey place, we just do appetizers and a drink or two and that way we can still enjoy the atmosphere.

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  2. Bismarck actually has a great place that was voted best from the field to the plate in a top culinary magazine, the place is Pirogues. I've been there twice, both times it was amazing food.

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  3. I've never been to Pirogues but I did hear the food was amazing and they use a lot of local game in their dishes. Will have to go sometime when I'm back in Bizzo!

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