Cool Vibes

Blue Grotto is one of those places that is warm and inviting and has a cool vibe.  This evening, the All Stars nabbed a long table in a semi-private area on the balcony.  Could barely decide what to order because the menu is full of great sounding choices.  My memory of the fig pizza I had tasted there in the past left my mouth watering for another!  This time, however, instead of Pizza Nirvana, the taste of salt was overbearing.  Several of us ordered this pizza and had the same trouble; certainly left me wishing I would have gone for the risotto!  

Some of the other pizzas fared better, so perhaps just a bad night.  It did seem busy for a Thursday night and there was another large group in the balcony, so perhaps the faux pas committed by our waitress can be attributed to fatigue.  

I greatly enjoyed the appetizers, especially the cheese plate--thanks to our Non-bloggers last month! I may have been a little disappointed in the pizza I was anticipating would bring my tastebuds joy--but I love Blue Grotto and expect there will be a next time.  This visit 3.5 of 5 stars from Mrs. Ref.

Blue Grotto

Mr. Ref here, we went to the Blue Grotto this month and I was looking forward to pizza.  Pizza is one of my favorite meals.  I got the Salsiccia pizza, which has sausage, tomato, peperonata, oregano and mozzarella.  It was good, but it was not great, I have had better pizza at several different places.  What I liked the best was the crust and I did think it was very good.

What I also liked, besides the company, was the decor and just the overall way the inside was setup.  We had a table on the mezzanine, which allowed us to see the entire restaurant, plus we could watch our pizza's being cooked.

The service was good, but not great, we did have trouble getting one of the meals, not sure if they forgot it or it was just running late.  There was some confusion on splitting up our checks, although we did get everything straightened out.  And it did take a long time from the time we sat down until we were ready to leave, the serve was pretty slow.

Even though I would go back, if Mrs. Ref wanted to, I gave it a 3.25 out of 5.

Blue Grotto

In May, we visited the Blue Grotto for our monthly outing.  The décor was great and we had a great secluded area for our table of 9.

Apparently this restaurant is well known for its wood fired pizza.  I saw Gnocchi on the menu as one of its entrees.  I was more in the mood for that than pizza so I ordered it.  John ordered the meatball pizza.  After some time, the waitress came back and stated they were out of the Gnocchi.  What - there are only 3 entrees on the menu and you are out of it?  Quickly, I perused the pizza options and ordered the Quattro Frommagio pizza.  The pizza was nothing to really brag about.  It was simply okay. 

We did not feel the service was very good.  The really disappointing part of the evening was the bill.  We told the waitress we wanted separate checks and she said she would put all the orders together and separate them later.  It took quite some time to get our bills (we only needed 5 separate ones) and she made it much more difficult than necessary.

After driving home, we discussed our ratings for this restaurant.  We felt our initial rating was too high.  We both agreed on 3/5. 

Danny's Big Easy

Last month was Mom's pick, and she chose Danny's Big Easy at 18th and Vine.

I had never been to 18th and Vine, and it seemed pretty cool, though slow on an early Thursday evening.  The food at the restaurant was very good.  I had crawfish etouffee.  It was good.

A band was playing that night.  They were fun to listen to, and toward the end of the night, people had even started dancing, and more and more people came in.  However, the music made it very difficult to talk to the other All-Stars, and that was disappointing, and a part of Dinner Club that I missed. 

Danny's was good, the music was good, the food was good.  Nothing spectacular, but solid.  But the music was a bit much for a group dinner.  I give it a 3.

N'ARLENS

Now lets start off by saying that Cajun food is proof that God loves us and wants us to be fat. I mean honestly if he didn't why would he make Cajun food taste so DAMN GOOD?

As Erin mentioned 18th and Vine has been a place we have both wanted to go to to listen to Jazz and have drinks so this was the perfect opportunity for us. We get there and thanks to John and Linda we are finally not the first ones there. We order a few drinks and so that we are not beating a dead horse I will say it only once the Service was SLOWWWW... Now I wouldn't say it was bad service she was super friendly it just seemed like everything took forever and I was starving as I was saving my caloric intake for the day for this meal.

When we got the food I had an awful hard time trying to decide what I wanted Crawfish? Étouffée? Jambalaya? How could I go wrong? Well I didn't I picked wisely! I chose Étouffée for 2 reasons. 1. I feel its that perfect balanced between Jambalaya and Gumbo. 2. It is super fun to say go ahead say it to yourself Étouffée! See that was a lot of fun wasn't it!

Well it did not disappoint it was very good and lasted about 2.3 minutes before I had slurped it all up. The hush puppies were good as well, which is something I always want but rarely ever get (Thanks Erin) and the side of jambalaya was just heaven. In fact all of the food I ate was very good even Erins Fried Shrimp wasn't as bad as she made it out to be its really hard to mess up anything fried... Yeah it wasn't great but only because there was much better food on the table. Now I have to be honest it was not the best Cajun food I have ever had, honestly not even close as you know I have been to N'Arlens. But like the Famous words of Grandpa There is only 3 types of Margaritas Good ones Fantastic ones and Great one, well that applies to Cajun food as well.'

The band was good I really wanted to have more of a jazz feel trumpets or at least a sax but it was fine, with our group I wish we could have been in the back of room instead of front, but I knew what I was getting myself into before I signed up.

Overall I gave it a 3/5 Would go back with Erin for the music but to just eat Cajun food I would recommend Jazz or moms homemade Jambalaya and I said I wouldn't bring it up again but I lied the service was not up to par and that really puts me off to a place.

Big Easy

So, I must admit I am embarrassed how long it has been since I last blogged, but was not going to forget this time!  For April the Gas Club met up at Danny's Big Easy down on 18th and Vine.  I was really excited to head that way, Josh and I have been talking about visiting that area for quite some time.  When we arrived I really liked the feel of the place.  There was great art on the walls and really felt like a homey place.
We got the night started with ordering drinks, which I decided to keep it simple and just get a beer.  I was a little surprised how long it took for us to get our drinks.  Once everyones drinks got delivered, I realized she had forgotten mine so I had to wait for an additional 5 minutes.
When deciding what to eat I went back and forth between a few things and narrowed it down to Pasta Jambalaya and Fried Shrimp Platter.  I was leaning more towards the pasta, however when Mr. Ref asked the waitress about it and I heard her description I changed my mind and went with the fried shrimp.  I must say, I was rather disappointed with my decision.  To me, the shrimp were nothing special.   I enjoyed the hush puppies and jambalaya that it came with, however was not impressed with the shrimp.  When I tried the pasta I immediately regretted my decision.
I loved the music, although it was a little difficult to have table talk that is what I expect with a live band.  I think this would be a fun place to possibly go again to listen to music and have a few drinks, maybe order an appetizer.  My overall score was a 3.25/5.