Friday, May 7, 2010

Road Trip. Day 3. Dinner At Rezaz In Asheville.

After our first afternoon at the Biltmore Estate and walking throughout the gardens, we were hungry. We went for supper at Rezaz, a Mediterranean restaurant a street over from the entrance (or exit) of the Estate, depending on which way you're heading. Excuse me. Make that Rezzzahhhhzz Mediterranean Restaurant and Enoteca. I had to google "enoteca." Enoteca is an Italian word which literally means "wine repository."
Upon entering, we were scanned up and down by the host and asked if we had reservations. "No." "Well. That's not really a problem." I friggin' guess not since there were only 2 parties there. We were asked whether we wanted the Italian menu and seating on the right hand side or the Greek menu and seating on the left hand side. I asked to see the menus and we opted for the Greek on the left. We were seated and immediately served water. Our waitress recited the night's specials. I had to strain to hear her. Sorry for the quality of the pictures, but it was extremely dark in the restaurant. Also, the tables were very close together and naturally we were seated directly next to the only other party in there - a table of 4 adults with a six-month old child. Oh joy. Here's the menu:
Well, crap.
Here's the dinner menu. When we were looking at the menus the host offered us, I dumbly asked him what the "one," "two," "three," and "four" was all about. "The courses, ma'am." Again, I ask you, who the hell can eat four courses like this?
Upon being seated, we were served assorted breads with a delicious, fruity olive oil. I asked the waitress what type of oil and she came back with the name written down on a piece of paper. It was Nicaniella Extra Virgin Olive Oil. I will need to look for this. The service was excellent, but then it should be.
Mr. Hawthorne ordered the Caesar. The romaine was grilled (nice touch), the dressing pretty good, but Mr. Hawthorne said there wasn't enough of it. And it came with a slice of prosciutto and a toasted bruschetta.
I ordered the Onion Bisque. Vegetable stock, three types of onions, including fried leeks, and some type of cheese. When I asked our waitress about what type of cheese it was (I didn't particularly care for the taste of it.), I was told it was creme fraiche. But creme fraiche doesn't get stringy, melty like this was. She also told me there was thyme in it. I tasted no thyme, but did notice the menu said there was dill. No taste of dill either. And she told me there was no cream in the "bisque" and that it was thickened by potatoes. I thought a "bisque" by definition had cream, but what do I know. Didn't enjoy the soup. Too heavy-handed.
Mr. Hawthorne's entree was the wild mushroom rotollo with filled pasta, crimini, spinach, ricotta, Parmesan, and marinara. I had a bite and I wouldn't have been able to eat this. Extremely salty. Mr. Hawthorne enjoyed it but acknowledged it was super salty in places. Maybe I had a big chunk of Parmesan. Who knows?
I ordered the crusted sea scallops with a very creamy and lemony risotto. You know me and lemons, so I liked the risotto. I thought I was eating crisp strips of zucchini, but according to the menu, it was cucumber and dill. Tasted no dill, but I liked the diced tomato on top. The scallops were only crusted on one side which was good, since I didn't like the crust. Not bad. But I like my scallops better. This meal set us back about sixty bucks. Not worth it. Snooty atmosphere. Or as Mr. Hawthorne calls this type of place - "pretentious bull shit."

2 comments:

dle said...

oops...they changed the menu and when we went it didn't have Italian and Greek...and jacked up the price!!!!! I think I agree with Mr.H. Guess I am batting 50%.And we will not be going back there either!

Kathy said...

It's the newest pretentious trend to describe your dishes by simply listing the ingredients. I know of another one that does this. Sorry Carol.