Restaurant Week: Ten and Brasserie Montiel

This is a double restaurant update from Restaurant Week. The weekend choices were Ten and Brasserie Montiel.

Ten

I had heard that Ten was amazing and one of the best places in town for sushi. I had also heard that it was really expensive, which explains why I had not been yet ;) I do not think you have time to hear about all of the menu items that were tried, so I will tell you about my meal and a couple of notable bits.

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For the first course, I had the Rock Shrimp Tempura. OH MY WORD. This was really, really good. Perhaps I have just been missing shrimp, but it was excellent. The other person in my party who ordered this felt the same. So yeah, that's a definite if I go back. Thankfully, I did not get the escolar, which we found out acts as a laxative. I'vegotmybowelsjusthowIlike'emthankyouverymuch.

I got the scallop for the second course, which all of these were cucumber rolls with raw whateverislisted on top. I like scallops. But the texture of the raw scallop, which is already different than I was expecting since the waitress said the toppings made it slightly crispy--but she was wrong, and with the piece of sushi just was not something you want. Somehow it just did not go together. The taste was great, the texture was not. I tried someone's salmon, and that was really delicious.

I chose poorly for the last course. I chose the chirashi with the chef's choice. However, I must have misheard our waitress. I thought it would be pieces of sushi with all different fishes in side...chef's selections. It was a pile of rice and then big slabs of several raw fishes. Have you tried to eat a big piece of fish, that is raw and a little less easy to bite off, with chopsticks and to gather some rice with the same bite? Yeah, tricky. The taste was great, but it felt a little too complicated. Either I had to pick fish or rice, not combine, or I had to shovel one and then the other in my mouth. Eh.

I also had saké. It was just the house special so it was not flavored, which apparently you can get. It was also cold, and I hear warm is the way to have it. It was very strong and pungent. Not my favorite, but I finally tried it and drank most of the glass. Hoorah.

Some of our group was still hungry so we headed to Sweet Frog. That was the only night this week that folks left hungry. I think that says something. We definitely would have run up a huge bill on a normal night and if we had eaten until full.


Brasserie Montiel

The owner also started La Cocina Del Sol, which I remember going to several times in early 2008. It was always delicious (the Crozet one at least...only went to the Cville location once) so I was looking forward to trying this one, even though I knew it probably wouldn't be as upscale as some other choices. The restaurant was not flashy or packed, but we had great service and no trouble hearing the conversation. 

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For my starter, I selected the root vegetables, which included carrots, potatoes, beets, maybe onions?, another vegetable or two? Perhaps parsnips? It was hard to tell, and I have never had parsnips so let's just say those were in it. It was supposed to have a chipotle vinaigrette, but I did not taste much chipotle. It was still very good though.

My main course is also a regular item on the menu, and I would definitely get it again. Shrimp and grits. With cheddar. And bacon. Warm, salty deliciousness. We eat grits where I'm from, but not this way and only with breakfast. I had been craving salt apparently because I nearly licked my platter. The folks who got the quesadilla got a lot of food. It seemed that with the other courses included in the meal, that the quesadilla might be slightly less than getting it on a normal night. But no, it was a large one. Both folks who got it enjoyed and ended up carrying half home for another meal.

Dessert might have been everyone's favorite. ha. One got the ganache and enjoyed the chocolatey richness. One got the ice cream with espresso and was bouncing off of the walls for a while after. The rest of us got tres leches. Yeeeeeeeeeeeeessssss. Now, that's how you do things. It was basically a very delicious cake soaked in a bunch of milk, but not a gross, soggy type of cake in milk. It had cinnamon crisps on top, which were similar to toasted coconut. There were also a couple of raspberries, a strawberry, and a chocolate covered coffee bean to the side that I mixed in. My side of the table was so happy with our choice of dessert.

This was a good meal to end the week on. I checked out their other menus and would like to go back, especially for breakfast. It was not pretentious, and looked like it would be a nice, but casual, Saturday evening out. Check it out sometime.