Restaurant Review: Zero Bar and Cafe (Charleston, SC)

The night of our tasting menu at Zero George's restaurant (Website, Yelp) was finally upon us, and after all the "drama", I was still looking forward to what Chef Vinson had in store for us. We opted for the 5 course tasting menu for $115 (including 4 alcoholic beverage pairings). I was tempted to go with the 9 course to try more things, but realized I would probably burst from overeating. Since I don't really drink alcohol, I had mine without the beverage pairings, but I think that only knocked off $15-20 (I remember thinking the pairing was good value!)

The dining room is the same area that is used by the hotel for breakfast in the morning, but they throw some white linens on the tables and light candles, so it's very romantic. The lighting is very low, though, so if you are a keen food photographer like I am, you may struggle a little (ISO 12800 for these pics O_O)!


Signage

Restaurant Review: Barley Swine (Austin, TX)

For my last dinner with Cory (which happened to be Canadian Thanksgiving!), we made reservations at Barley Swine (Yelp, Website) for their tasting menu. This restaurant is from the same guys at Odd Duck, so I was very excited! The price is also very good at $85 for 14 courses. Here we go!


Really cool interior - casual, but stylish.

Restaurant Review: Dai Due (Austin, TX)

For dinner, we met up with one of my colleagues from the Seattle office who was also in town for the conference, and we had dinner at Dai Due (Yelp, Website).


They are a butcher shop with some seating for their restaurant. I loved the decor. We got a cute booth for the three of us.

Restaurant Review: Odd Duck (Austin, TX)

Links: Yelp, Website

For our Sunday brunch, we headed over to Odd Duck. It was a really popular place - it seems like a hip place to go. I usually prefer places that are a little more low key, but the food here was pretty good, so no complaints from me!


Exterior


Cool interior with U-shaped bar seating.


Cory's coffee came in a cute mug!


We grabbed this pecan croissant from their pastry selections. Very nice and flaky.


Breakfast sausage corn dog, fried egg foam, chile maple


Cory having a bite


Et moi


Soft scramble duck egg, eggplant, squash, shishito, sunflower sprouts, apple


Smoked chicken hash, duck egg, cornbread


Cream filled doughnut, apple, mesquite, sorghum


Bottom Line: Food was good, but it's not really a quiet Sunday morning brunch spot. Better for groups of friends, I think! Food was tasty though! I would consider coming back for dinner service to see what they've got.



After brunch, we headed over to the Flagship Whole Foods on North Lamar Blvd to see where it all started... (we shop at Whole Foods for our weekly groceries, hah).


I couldn't help myself.

A fun selection of weird squash for Halloween.

This one looks like an octopus!

Restaurant Review: Le Pigeon (Portland, OR)

For our first dinner in Portland, I had made reservations for Le Pigeon (Website, Yelp). I wanted to try the tasting menu which I had read so much about.

We went with the smaller, 5 course tasting menu. Cory got the beverage pairing, and I opted for the non-alcoholic beverage pairing (the first time I've seen that!). The food was excellent, and the drinks were also really fun. The price was also very good (living in the NY-metro area for 6+ years changes a girl's perspective, I tell ya) at $80 for the 5 course tasting menu, $45 for the bev pairing, and $25 for the non-alc bev pairing.

The food was fantastic; not a single miss. The pacing was also great as well; we tend to eat quickly, and we were glad the kitchen could keep pace!


Le Pigeon from inside the restaurant

Travel: Weekend in Seattle continued

Finishing up my extremely overdue posts about our Valentine's Day 2015 trip to Seattle...


Monorail Espresso (Yelp): Cory got his daily fix here which was close to our hotel. He was very satisified with his espresso based drinks, and the older Italian barista was very nice as well.