Yummy yummy dinner!

Last night Evan and I and my family all went out to a new restaurant called Blue 13.  I can say flat out that I don’t remember the last time I left a restaurant *that* satisfied with the whole entire experience. The staff was fantastic, knowledgeable, and enthusiastic about their food and their philosophy. The menu was creative and eclectic, and almost every entree and appetizer sounded yummy.

Evan and I shared their “Truffled Mac n Cheese, free range amish chicken, asiago and romano cheeses, white truffle oil”, I had “Butternut Squash Pasta – Shitake Mushrooms, Leeks, Brussels Sprout leaves, Butternut Squash, Sage Cream sauce for my entree, and shared a “Apple Tartatin - Apples, Puff Pastry, Honey Fried Ice cream, mint paint” for desert.

The Mac and Cheese was without doubt the best I have ever had, including my own home made. It had some sweet red bell pepper in it, and the cheeses blended very well and well – I am going to get redundant here – yum!!!

The  Butternut squash pasta was very much not what I expected, I had sort of been thinking Ravioli, what I got was one long wide ribbon of Butternut Squash Pasta (the pasta had the squash as part of the dough) that was folded back against it itself  in crenelations across a long  rectangular plate.  Over the top was a splash of the cream sauce and squash scattered liberally and decoratively over the pasta.  Then there were little stacks of the mushrooms, leeks and Brussels Sprout leaves across the top and then garnished with fried sage leaves.  The pasta was a little plain on its own, but with a little bit of the stacked leek and mushroom combo it was awesome. The squash was perfect – not squishy and not undercooked and very sweet.

I really thought I was going to be able to resist desert – but when the host Dan came by and described everything we were in a bit of a quandry  – how to choose between the various options and how were we going to possibly eat anymore. The desert was probably the least “weird combos or preparations” of food that we had, but it extremely well executed. The outside was nice and crusty and the inside was sweet and creamy.

In any case everyone at the table was very impressed and we all are sure we are going back.  Further more they have some fun food events that sound intriguing to try. “Pass the Plate” – family style sunday dinner – tradition foods with a twist.  And RockNRoll Summer dinners – with a 5 course meal inspired by their favorite rock and roll.

You can take a look at the menu yourself at :  The Menu at Blue 13

p.s. Evan has written up a great review on his LJ – he is way better at this than I am.