Restaurant Week Spring 2017

annestuartteter
May 6, 2017
4 min read

Last week was the best week - Restaurant Week! I had the good fortune of getting to three of them. I love going to Restaurant Week because it is a fun chance to try new places and also donate to charity. Each restaurant offers a three course for about $30 with $4 going to Feedmore. The restaurants give you multiple options in the appetizer, main and dessert courses and you pick one of each. Picking is the hardest part. Seriously, I studied the menus before I went.

Restaurant One: East Coast Provisions

I’ve been to East Coast before and knew I liked their food. Located in Carytown, this is one of those places I get my parents to take me for special occasions. I have never had a meal I was disappointed with at East Coast. My meal on Monday was no exception. I went with a group of five friends, we started at the bar to grab some drinks then were seated at our table. East Coast is split up a little bit, almost like little rooms. We sat in the “room” adjacent to the bar (pretty accurate for us since this group can get loud). There is also a room overlooking the street and some seating upstairs. For warm weather, they have an incredible patio to watch the Carytown foot traffic.

Back on track, their restaurant week menu was incredible and it was tough to choose! I decided on the calamari with sriracha honey glaze, hangar steak and chocolate cake. I was smart enough to be the only one to order the calamari and once everyone at the table saw mine they immediately started trading me so I also got to try the sushi, oysters and mussels. It was all amazing. I really love calamari and thought this was superb. Entrees were next, my hangar steak arrived and it was beautiful and delicious. I also tried the crab cakes, which were also very tasty. Last up, chocolate cake. It was so good and rich I could only eat half (but I took it to work the next day). This meal was so amazing. A true Richmond favorite!

The sriracha honey glazed calamari from East Coast

Restaurant Two: Lulu’s

On Thursday I headed down to the Bottom for night two, aka girl’s night! We decided to check out Lulu’s. They just started serving dinner and I have heard great things about their brunch. The vibe is pretty young and vibrant and seems like a fun happy hour spot too.

To start I got the crab bisque with pimento cheese and biscuit. Literally all three of those things are some of my top favorite foods, but the pimento cheese is really what stood out! It was so creamy and delicious I could have eaten a whole bowl. For an entree I decided on the shrimp and scallop couscous. It was really good. By the time dessert rolled around I was stuffed, yes, this is a common theme for me. I ordered the chocolate cake, but didn’t realize it was flourless. It was good, but I probably wouldn’t order again. I would order the hot chocolate drizzle that was all over it though.

Since it was girl’s night, of course our night didn’t stop there. We heard the sounds of salsa coming from the rooftop of Havana 59 across the street and decided to check it out. A little bit of dancing and some cigars wrapped up our night.

Blue crab bisque, pimento cheese and biscuit from Lulu's

Restaurant Three: Tarrant’s Cafe

Friday night we decided to go to Max’s on Broad. This is one of my absolute favorite places in Richmond, located in the Art’s District on Broad Street. We arrived for our reservation and we were told the kitchen was closed due to smoke issues. It honestly took us a second to comprehend what was going on. Luckily, their sister restaurant is a block away so we walked along the sidewalk to attempt to get a table at Tarrant’s. Luck was on our side and we got a table within minutes!

Tarrant’s feels like an old classic restaurant, not renovated, sometimes some weird creepy decorations. It’s a fun spot. We got seated in the back (again, this is important for us) at a round table, which again felt super lucky. It was ideal for a slow meal where we could all just enjoy ourselves.

Not to spoil anything but their table bread was the best thing I ate all night. I didn’t dislike my other food, but the bread was out of this world. I think we ordered four plates. It was soft bread with olive oil and herbs. (I’m not sure soft is a category of bread, but that’s the best description I have.) Everyone loved it! We kind of ordered family style again. To start I got the bruschetta with mozzarella, red peppers and basil. It was so yummy! Someone else got the she crab soup that was fantastic and another got the calamari which were made in a more classic way than East Coast. For entrees I got the chicken milanese, it was a tasty lightly breaded chicken with rice and veggies. We also got chicken pot pie, steak, fish and chips and salmon for the rest of the table. Shocker, I got something with chocolate for dessert, this time the brownie sundae. I mean you really can’t go wrong with that choice.

Bruschetta with mozzarella, red peppers and basil

It was a great week heading all over Richmond to check out some new and old favorites. If you missed it this time, don’t worry it comes around again in October!