Triangle Good Eats

I’ve been raring to eat at Duck and Dumpling for a while and finally got my chance during Restaurant Week. It’s small and chic, but not off-puttingly so.

I’d already decided to get the Asian Pear Martini when I found out that their special drink was an Asian Pear Mimosa. I mostly tasted the champagne, the pear flavor was very subtle, but I enjoyed it. My only complaint is the price ($10, the same price as their martinis).

We were brought an amuse-bouche, a ginger and carrot soup in those little soup spoons (sorry, no picture). It was delicious, insanely creamy, and a nice way to start the meal. Because I am woefully unhip, I love the rare occasions when I dine somewhere that serves an amuse-bouche (this doesn’t really happen say at Cookout!).

My friend Beth and I both started with the pork half-fried dumplings (which can be found on the regular menu) and my husband got the black bean rib tips (which aren’t on the regular menu). Both were good. The rib tips were very tender and the black bean sauce was delicious. The dumplings were absolutely stuffed with well-seasoned pork. Very tasty, but almost too meaty for me.

My husband and I both ordered the Poached Diver Scallops in a Honey-Ginger Glaze (the similar dish on the regular menu is $26, so this was a good deal although I’d be interested to see what the other scallop dish is accompanied with). They came in a fried wonton bowl on top of some greens. The scallops were fantastic. Perfectly cooked and the sauce was delicious, sweet but not overly so. Best scallops I’ve had in a long time (although not too surprisingly, scallops don’t keep so well. We had a few left over that we ate the next day and they were not so great.) Beth got the chicken pad thai (also on regular menu) and though I only had one bite, it was tasty and certainly a cut above the usual pad thai.

For dessert I chose the green tea ice cream, Beth got the ginger ice cream, and my husband got the key lime pie. I would say the key lime pie was the winner. Both flavors of ice cream were very subtle, I would have liked a little more green tea flavor.

Service was good, with one exception. We had leftovers boxed for us and had to flag our server down to make sure he boxed the rice, which he originally was going to just take away. And the next day when we opened up the leftovers, the server (or someone in the kitchen) had decided to only pack up the scallops and not the greens that remained on the plates. I really dislike it when someone decides what is worth packing up for me, as far as I’m concerned, everything on the plate should go in the box. A minor irritation.

Chef David Mao stopped by our table to ask how the meal had been. I love little gestures like that, it sets a restaurant apart.

I really enjoyed my meal here and am eager to come back and try offerings from the regular menu.

The Duck and Dumpling
222 S. Blount St.
Raleigh, NC 27601
(919) 838-0085

Tags: Pan-Asian, Raleigh // 4 Comments »

Make sure and check out Restaurant Week, which starts today and runs until Sunday. Participating restaurants around the Triangle are offering fixed three-course menus for $15 at lunch and $25 at dinner. Could be a perfect way to check out someplace new at a good price. Menus and restaurants are listed on the website.

Tags: food news // Add Comment »

I looked at the First Friday website for May and saw that Moonlight Pizza was advertising half-price appetizers, so we went to check it out. Once we were there it turned out they were no longer offering that special. Not really the restaurant’s fault the website was out of date, but slightly annoying.

Moonlight has a really great patio but it was wet with rain so we sat inside. Cute interior but with no carpet and few curtains to help muffle sound, it can get pretty loud.

We ordered the artichoke dip to start with. It was fine, more chunky than creamy. I appreciate big chunks of artichoke hearts but other than that it was unremarkable.

We tried the Harvest Moon pizza, topped with corn, zucchini, eggplant, squash, tomatoes, shiitake mushrooms, and bell peppers. The crust was very thin and crackery, which is not my favorite style of crust. The cornicione (end crust) looked and tasted like a soft pretzel. Not bad, but Mellow Mushroom is still the place to beat in terms of end crusts I actually eat! Unfortunately the pizza suffered from the same ailment that afflicts many veggie-heavy pizzas – it was watery. Because most of the veggies weren’t roasted, they retained a lot of liquid and it made the pizza soggy. On top of that, the veggies were sorely under-seasoned. This may have been the first time I’ve ever put salt and pepper on a pizza. Beyond the problems with the toppings, the larger issue was that the ingredients didn’t come together as a cohesive whole. You had a crust, barely-there tomato sauce, some cheese, and some toppings but not a satisfying pizza.

Moonlight Pizza
615 W. Morgan St.
Raleigh, NC 27603
(919) 755-9133

Tags: pizza, Raleigh // 3 Comments »

I always feel strange when I go somewhere that people rave about and find it lacking. Makes me wonder what I’m missing. People rave about The Pit. It was recently named one of the Top 50 Best New Restaurants by Travel and Leisure Magazine. I really wanted to like it. But I was disappointed with my meal there. Nothing was bad, exactly, but nothing was great, either. And that was a letdown because I really love BBQ.

Before I went, I took a look at the menu online and a few things caused an eyebrow raise. Girly drinks? Tofu? Salads? What the what? I guess I’m just a purist. But I calmed myself down. For one, I like girly drinks. And for another, although I wouldn’t ever order salads or tofu there, it’s not such a bad thing for a BBQ place to ensure that if you drag a vegetarian friend along for the ride, they won’t go hungry.

The Pit certainly has ambience to spare. It’s housed in a really nice space, which is a first for me when it comes to eating BBQ. I’m used to my BBQ being served in little shacks, but hey, maybe this would be a nice change of pace.

I ordered the Scupperdine Sangria (with local wine, fruit, and club soda) and while it was tasty for the first few sips, it got watery fast. I guess that’s what I get for having a girly drink with BBQ!

We started with the fried green tomatoes, which came simply dressed with a pepper relish. They had a decent flavor, with a nice tang from the buttermilk they’d been soaked in, but these were some crunchy tomatoes. I wasn’t a big fan.

We were brought a basket of biscuits and hush puppies. My husband liked the biscuits, I found them boring, but I’ve mentioned my indifference to biscuits. Hush puppies were fine but not memorable.

I ordered the chopped pork platter, with sweet potato fries and collard greens. My husband got the pulled pork platter with creamed corn and black-eyed peas. The meats were really disappointing. The chopped pork was tender but a little dry and very bland. It tasted better when doctored with plenty of sauce, but that shouldn’t have been necessary. The pulled pork was even drier. The fries were good, but I’ve never met a sweet potato fry I didn’t like. Collard greens and creamed corn were good, the black-eyed peas nothing special.

What it comes down to is that the BBQ was a letdown. It may have just been an off night, but I was still really disappointed. I know where I’ve had the best BBQ in the Triangle so far (review in the future) and it sets the bar pretty high. But then I asked myself, if I needed to go someplace closer, would The Pit be the next best thing? And sadly, the answer is no. This will sound terrible, but the BBQ sandwich at the Cookout around the corner from me has more flavorful pork than what I had at The Pit. And it’s super cheap!

I will definitely revisit the Pit sometime and see if my experience was a fluke, but it may be a while. So many other places to go!

The Pit
328 W. Davie St.
Raleigh, NC 27601
(919) 890-4500

Tags: BBQ, Raleigh // 1 Comment »

Last weekend the husband and I took a day trip to the coast, checking out Pleasure Island. Here’s a quick review of the places where we ate in Carolina Beach, for the next time you’re in that area.

We ate lunch at Gulf Stream Restaurant and it was a gem. Not a fancy place, but a good one. It’s been family-owned since 1978 and one of the owners, Joanne, was the person who rang up our bill.  The menu is eclectic – they serve breakfast all day, have sandwiches, pastas, and even a few Greek dishes, but our focus was on the seafood.

My husband got a combo platter of fried shrimp and scallops, which came with fries, coleslaw, and hush puppies. I got the crabcakes, which came with the same sides. The fries were just average, your standard frozen crinkle-cut fries. But everything else was great. The shrimp and scallops were tender and cooked just right. I’ve had a lot of bad coleslaw in my life so it was a relief that the coleslaw here was light and tasty. The hush puppies were really light, almost airy, and the taste was reminiscent of funnel cake. That’s a thumbs up.

But the star of the meal was the crab cakes. Not breaded or fried, just two very generous patties of crab meat that were perfectly seasoned and just barely held together. No fillers, just a lot of fresh, sweet crab. They were awesome.

Service was friendly and it was clear that, as advertised, this is where the locals dine. Almost everyone eating there knew each other. Highly recommended.

I had read in passing that there was a donut shop on the boardwalk so we went and checked it out and I am so glad that we did! Britt’s Donuts has been there since 1939. It’s only open during the summer, so don’t miss out. They serve exactly one kind of donut, at 75 cents each, milk, and soda. Simple as can be, which I think is delightful. Sit down at the counter and order, watch the donuts being made, and then try to stop yourself from eating dozens of the fresh, piping hot, glazed donuts. Just writing about them makes me want one!

We popped into Shuckin’ Shack Oyster Bar for a mid-afternoon snack and got a dozen oysters on the half shell. They were good, albeit very salty, but for all I know, that’s what East Coast oysters are like and this was my first encounter with them. On the down side, every single oyster I had was marred by bits of shell. Not good eats.

We did dinner at the Deck House. The Deck House has nice ambience, with a nautical theme, and is housed in a converted church. I ordered the seafood pasta, which was bowtie pasta with asparagus, mushrooms, tomatoes, shrimp, and scallops in a lobster cream sauce. The husband got one of the specials – tuna in a bleu cheese sauce with asparagus and shrimp. My entrée came with salad, which was nothing special, just the usual boring pile of iceberg lettuce and a few other veggies. The husband got the grouper chowder, which was tasty but very scant on the fish. Our bread basket was pretty standard.

As my husband pointed out, the saving grace for both our dinners were the sauces. My husband’s tuna was bland on its own, the shrimp overcooked, and the side of “Chef’s mixed vegetables” was your standard side of mushy, frozen vegetables. I hate those. But he loved the bleu cheese sauce.

The scallops and shrimp in my pasta were overcooked, which is a little hard for me to forgive. But the lobster cream sauce was rich and lovely, so I ate everything but the seafood (which is a waste!). The accompanying garlic bread was hard and dry.

If we were back in the area, I’d probably give Deck House another shot, but mostly because there’s slim pickings for restaurants in the area.

Gulf Stream Restaurant
78 Myrtle Ave.
Carolina Beach, NC
Cash Only

Britt’s Donut Shop
#11 Boardwalk
Carolina Beach, NC

Shuckin’ Shack Oyster Bar
6A N. Lake Park Blvd.
Carolina Beach, NC

Deck House
205 Charlotte Ave.
Carolina Beach, NC

Tags: Outside the Triangle // 2 Comments »