Negroni
Lela

Lela

5601 West 78th Street, Bloomington, United States Of America

Wine • Steak • Seafood • Chocolate


"Taking advantage of Restaurant Week, we decided to try Lela for dinner on a Friday night. The dining room is wide open with hard-surfaced tile walls and a view of the kitchen so it was very lively with all tables nearly full, but not super busy. The booth seat my wife sat on was very hard and uncomfortable while my chair was comfortable so we exchanged seats and she was right, it hurt my bottom after a while. The Restaurant Week dinner menu was 3 courses so we opted to order from that. Adelle, our server, was prompt and knowledgeable offering menu suggestions that I always appreciate. He started off by saying that the dishes were mostly Italian inspired I would disagree. Being Italian, a meatball appetizer and a gnocchi dish do not define Lela as an Italian Restaurant as seen in the offerings we chose. For the appetizer course, we ordered Lela’s Simple Salad with cherry tomatoes and lemon vinaigrette, and the Peruvian Ceviche of Hamachi with coconut milk, lime juice, habanero chili, garlic, ginger, and cilantro. The salad was just okay, and the Hamachi was quite watery indicating it was not freshly prepared and all I could taste was lime juice. The other flavors were washed out so it was not a pleasant dish. My wife had the Steak Frites, a perfect medium-rare hanger steak with freshly made fries. The fries were not as crispy as they should be but tasted fresh. I had the Pan Roasted Skuna Bay Salmon with “melted leeks, mushrooms, and beure blanc lemon butter sauce that I pared with a glass of Böen Pinot Noir that was superb! The salmon was nicely roasted and moist that pared perfectly with the leeks and sauce – for sure the best dish of the night! The Chocolate Mousse was actually a small dry chocolate cake with something resembling chocolate shavings, but was actually a sugary wafer broken up over the top. Lela was a hit and miss for us on many counts and not a restaurant I will likely go back to, especially with the loud noise levels. There are better options!"

Mizuna

Mizuna

Denver, 225 E 7th Ave, 80203-3509, United States

Tea • Bars • French • Dessert


"A well-established local fixture with a lot of class. The concept for Mizuna lends itself well to being a date night, celebration, or main event of the night kind of dinner. The service was impeccable. Friendly, helpful, kind, and accommodating. Started with a cold towel service to wipe our hands with lemon zest-scented moist cloth towels. Dirty plates and utensils were replaced between courses. The additional bites of food peppered throughout the meal added a feeling of generosity and hospitality to the overall service. Each dish was described as they were being presented. And finally, there is a 22% chp fee tacked on to the bill, which I was more than happy to pay. The atmosphere is elegant, but in a more classic, old school, boutique kind of way. Even the bathrooms had unique fixtures and cloth towels instead of paper towels. The food had good things going on here and there, but overall left much to be desired for me. Your table had two options: chef tasting or 3-course meal. With 3-course meal, people can choose their own app, entree, and dessert. For chef tasting, each person can choose 1 of 2 tiers. My table went for the 3-course meal. Started with siberian caviar. Very good start to the meal, highly recommend. Wonderfully salty and clean without a fishy funk. Next was an amuse bouche that was a foie gras mousse with a smokey bacon sauce. The sauce was delicious. The foie gras mousse was nice, but I still prefer foie gras simply seared. After that, we were presented with tuna tartare with wonton chip. Delicious once again. Fresh, light, and nice textural contrast from the wonton chip. Bread and butter followed. Nice flavor on the roll, and it 's dense. The butter was of good quality with large salt crystals sprinkled on top. First course, lobster mac and cheese. Lobster cooked perfectly and strong lobster flavor comes through. Unfortunately the dish was entirely too salty. It wasn 't inedible, but it was close to that. Other than outrageous salt level, the flavors of the dish were really good. I also sampled crab cake that someone else at the table got. Crab cake was all around good, not too salty, and not too much filler. A much needed palate cleanser was next. Sparkling fruit juices in a shot. Time for the main course. We shared lamb and beef wellington. The lamb was insanely salty, except for the very center of the chop. That one bite was perfectly cooked and seasoned lamb. The rest of the lamb outside of that morsel was very difficult to eat. A chimichurri-like paste was served with it, and it was nice because it wasn 't so salty compared to the meat. The root veggies were charred, but left with a flavor that reminded me of unburned gas. The beef wellington had okay flavor, but was so full of connective tissue that did not break down. I chewed a bunch and spit out most of it out into my table napkin. I would not recommend the beef wellington nor the lamb. Before the dessert course, we were served a mini eclair snack. Very tasty dessert. I opted for espresso, which came along with a rock candy stirring stick. Everyone at the table was pleased with the mini eclair. Lastly, the dessert course. The chocolate cake was very good. Not too sweet, well-balanced for a chocolate cake, and excellent garnishes. The panna cotta was not terrible, but not that good. Way too sugary and the sauce was way too sour. The garnishes were awesome, and my favorite component of that dish. All in all, the extra small plates served throughout the meal were probably the highlight of the meal. The actual 3 courses were mostly disappointing, with the primary problem being too much salt. The meat dishes were extremely disappointing, so it 's probably best to stick with seafood at Mizuna."