Restaurant Week!

Well, it's one of my favorite times of year -- Restaurant Week! The time where I eat a lot of food at a lot of great restaurants for charity.

First stop - Loft 610, Tre Wilcox's place in Plano. I had a huge foodie crush on Tre Wilcox when he was on Top Chef which became even greater when I met him in person when he was the Executive Chef at Abacus. Total charisma. Plus, I knew that he was largely responsible for Abacus' great menus during RW when he was there, so I was totally psyched to try his place.

I've decided that Loft 610 equals a dark Abacus in far, far, far north Plano. I think they called it Loft 610 because that's how many miles it is from Dallas. It's like ikea far. We started out with a very nice glass of Moet so that made the drive to Oklahoma a whole lot easier to take. I was thinking I was going to let the waiter surprise me, but I decided instead to ask the waiter what his favorites were. He listed them and both M and I rejected them. We felt bad because we were pretty much ignoring his advice but we had Moet and didn't really care at that point.

The food was quite nice. We started with our CM fourth course -- a tomato and mozzarella salad with a balsamic reduction. It needed a little salt and pepper but was otherwise nice and fresh. My first course was the lobster bisque. It was just okay but it was my fault. I love lobster bisque -- if it is cream based. I'm really not a roux fan so I always ask if a bisque is cream or roux based. The Moet must have affected my brain, because I forgot to ask and ended up with a roux based bisque. M had the scallops and shrimp which she said were excellent.

For the main course, I had the beef tenderloin. It was perfectly cooked. And the spicy grits that came with it were delicious. I wish the wine pairing was a bit bolder though. It needed a malbec or a zinfandel rather than a pinot. M had the sea bass which she also enjoyed.

For dessert, we both ordered the blueberry and peach crisp with vanilla ice cream. I love peach cobbler and this did not disappoint. What did disappoint was the wine pairing. But again, that was our fault. We had totally spoiled ourselves with the Moet. The Etoile that came with the dessert was undrinkable by comparison. We were having such a great time, we kept reaching for the wine and forgetting how horrible it was . . . until we took a sip. You think we would learn, but we kept forgetting. Again, I blame the Moet.

Bottom line with Loft 610. If you live in the area, it is definitely worth the trip. But if you live in my hood, you can go to Abacus and get the same thing without the drive.

HORNE & DEKKER

Sigh. I was soooo excited about trying this place. It's close to home and next to my favorite wine bar, Veritas. The food was so disappointing. I ordered the vegetable pizza. It was just okay. Thin crust but nothing exciting with the vegetables. Some feta might have helped it a bit. C ordered the cedar plank salmon. It looked nice but for $20 it wasn't much food. We also ordered the side "peas and carrots." It was supposed to serve 4. 4 what, I'm not sure, because it was quite tiny. It was also not just peas and carrots. There were so many shallots and garlic that it overwhelmed the dish. We sent it back and got, well, peas and carrotts. So ordinary. C commented that it was just like "Birds Eye."

So sad. I really wanted this place to wow but it only disappointed. the search for the perfect restaurant in the hood continues . . .