Bloomsbury Bistro Review

Sorry, long time no post. But lucky readers get a two-fer! First up, Bloomsbury Bistro. My husband and I went to Bloomsbury Bistro a few weeks back. This will mark the 3rd time we've eaten there. Since they have a seasonal menu, everytime we go back, there's something new to try.


For the appetizer course, I had the butternut squash bisque with granny smith apples and blue cheese crumbles. The bisque was excellent. The cheese was an excellent compliment to the tartness of the apples. And one of my favorite foods this time of year is butternut, so it's a win-win for me!

My husband had the winter ragout with venison, cremini mushrooms, roasted tomatoes, pumpkin gnocchi, and glazed chestnuts. Aside from the fact that he doesn't like mushrooms, he said the dish was very good. (He did pick around the mushrooms.)

For the main course, Josh had the beef short ribs over sauteed spinach and red cabbage with apples. The dish looked delish and it was cooked perfectly. Josh throughly enjoyed it. In fact he enjoyed it so much that he practically licked the bowl.

For my main course, I chose the chef's special: Pistachio-crusted red snapper. Sadly, I was not a fan. It reminded me too much of those frozen fish sticks. The salad underneath was tasty, but I didn't eat the fish.



However, the dessert course was wonderful. We decided to share the sampler. There was a toffee pudding, vanilla ice cream over a pistachio cookie, and a death-by-chocolate brownie with chocolate syrup. I wasn't a fan of the toffee pudding, but the rest of the dessert course was great.



Overall, I was disappointed with the entree, but the dessert and appetizer courses were good. I will have to give this meal a C+. However, I will say that all the other meals I've had here were wonderful. So I will definately give Bloomsbury another chance.

Tomorrow I will post my review of Flemings.

Sono Review

My husband and I went to Sono for dinner last night. I will have to apologize for not having pictures to accompany my review. My camera batteries died in the restaurant, so I swiped the sushi menu from the Sono website to give you some idea of what the food looks like. This will mark the 3rd time we have been to this restaurant, so you can probably gather we are fans! It is not the best sushi in town (for that you'd have to go to Waraji), but it is definately good.

Some of their specality rolls are fantanstic, some...not so special. My husband likes the sono roll, which is a lot of fish rolled into a roll. Personally, I enjoyed the surf & turf roll, however, due to my husband's lactose intolerance, we got it without the cream cheese. It was still wonderful!

For my appetizer, I had the cream of asparagus soup. The soup was rather bland and didn't have a lot of taste to it. Of course, this could also be because I'm fighting off a cold and my taste buds aren't what they should be. However, I don't think I will be ordering the soup again.

I wanted to try the bulgogi quesadillas but apparently they are not offered (nor were they ever offered, which was disappointing). We were informed that the menu was going to be changed shortly due to the fact that the chef tried and immediately regretting adding this dish to his menu. BTW, this will be the 3rd time the menu has changed since the restaurant opened. I think the chef should probably try his dishes BEFORE he prints up the menus.

For our entrees, my husband had the filet minon and I ordered from the sushi menu. (Don't be fooled by the menus that they give you when you sit down...it is not an extensive list of the sushi they offer. You have to specifically ask for the sushi menu to see the full extent of sushi & sashimi that they offer). I ordered the Red & White tuna sashimi dish and the Piano and Tiger Eye rolls (sans cream cheese).

The filet minon came out first (even though we asked that everything be brought out together) and my husband dug in. He said it was cooked correctly and it was a very good steak. (He has only rated 1 steak as "fantastic" and that was in a restaurant in Tampa, so "very good" is high praise.) He was pretty much 3/4 of the way through his meal by the time my sushi got there. I cannot praise the timing of the meal at all, but the sushi was very good. I personally love tuna (specifically white tuna) and my entree was perfect. It showcased two different cuts of white tuna and two types of red tuna. I enjoyed the Piano roll, but it won't be on my list of favorites from this restaurant. I did not enjoy the Tiger Eye. The combination of smoked salmon and jalapeno sounded interesting in theory. But the reality of it was not appetizing. Maybe the cream cheese would have added another dimension of flavor, but as it was...not very good.

I had a very nice glass of Pinot Noir with my dinner. Cono Sur is a wonderful pinot that isn't too earthy to overpower the delicate taste of sushi. I highly recommend buying a bottle if you find it somewhere. It retails around $15/bottle (of course, it was $8/glass at the restaurant). And if you happen to find a bottle somewhere...let me know, cause I've been looking for one!

Overall, I give this experience a B+. The food was tasty, the timing left something to be desired. The decor was asian-inspired. Just don't get distracted by the very large woman painted on the wall.

PS. Don't use the valet service. We made this mistake and were late to the theater because of it. Since techincally it is not run by the restaurant, I cannot fault them for this. But the valet gets a BIG F (and no tip!)