Restaurant Week Bingo Board
There’s no way I’m missing out on any of the action in Stamford’s Restaurant Weeks between now and Sept. 5. No. Way. So earlier today I decided to make myself a randomized Bingo Board as an incentive to hit as many eateries possible in the next T-13 days.
As you can see, I’ve made it to napa and Mitchell’s so far. Here’s a mini review of my experiences at each:
napa is definitely one of the pricier restaurants in town, so hitting them up for a $20.11 lunch was sort of a no-brainer. I went there yesterday, and believe I sat down about five minutes after Restaurant Week officially kicked off — not that I was excited or anything.
napa's hanger steak
napa is only participating in the event during their lunch hours, and the restaurant is offering up two choices of starters —a gazpacho and a fennel and pear salad — and two entrees — a hanger steak and bronzino. I chose the salad, which was pretty good, and the hanger steak, which I thought was delicious. It comes with a glass of wine too. I had the red.
All five of the people at my table ordered the steak, and we all mentioned how impressed we were with the size and quality of the portion; even when offering up such a deal, napa didn’t skimp on the meal. But there was one other thing we all agreed on: our server was a little snooty.
Granted, when you have five people ordering nothing but Restaurant Week specials, the size of the bill will be a lot smaller than a typical table, therefore the size of the tip will be smaller as well, but I was a little surprised with how little care, attention and patience we were granted by our waitress.
It was a totally different story at Mitchell’s Fish Market today, where I grabbed lunch with a group of friends. Our service was awesome (they even agreed to let my friend order the key lime pie for dessert, even though it was only listed on the dinner menu) and really attentive.
Mitchell's Maine lobster roll
There were four options for starters. I chose the New Orleans seafood gumbo, which was absolutely excellent, although I snagged a slurp of soup from my friend, who ordered the New England Clam Chowder, and I’m sort of kicking myself for not ordering that instead. It was kind of perfect.
Five of the six of us ordered the cold lobster roll for our entree, which is served on big, buttery New England roll, and contains a very good portion of lobster, and — what’s that delicious flavor coming from the bottom of the roll?— bacon. It was fantastic and I ate the whole thing, which probably was not a good idea, considering how much bread I’d gobbled when I first sat down at the table.
I finished up with the creme brulee, which essentially rocked my world (although that may have been the earthquake rumbling beneath us), making Mitchell’s an all-over solid experience.
The science behind the Bingo Board:
I created this little gem a few minutes ago. Unfortunately, there are only 24 boxes up for grabs, so three restaurants had to be left out. That’s why I was certain to randomly assign restaurants to the boxes the scientific way (you know, when you close your eyes and move your pointer finger around in a circle before planting it on the paper). I filled in the boxes one by one, starting at the top left and ending at the bottom right. If you like mine, you can download it here, or you can always make your own!
Maggie please stop writing reviews and let Chris Preovolos take over full time he is leaps and bounds better!