Airlie Seafood Company - Dinner 4/18/08

The wife and I joined two other couples for dinner at Airlie Seafood Company on a beautiful Friday evening.  We arrived by boat and sat on the deck quickly ordering drinks and appetizers.  The wife had a margarita (on special!) which she was very happy with.  ASC serves Front Street Brewery selections on draft which was a nice touch.  The table shared orders of Bleu Chips and Seared Tuna.  The Bleu Chips were interesting, I somehow liked and disliked them at the same time.  I felt like the flavors were mismatched, sweet potato, gorgonzola cheese, bacon and scallions.  I had no problem finishing the plate but didn't fall in love with them.  I feel like the toppings would have worked better with regular potato chips.  As for the seared tuna, I felt it was a tad overcooked, but still had a nice flavor and worked well with the sauce.

We then ordered dinner, island shrimp for the wife and mango grilled tuna, ordered rare, for me.  My tuna seemed to have gotten comfortable on the grill as there wasn't even a touch of pink by the time it made it to my plate.  This was a disappointment, but I wasn't in the mood to send it back.  The mango sauce was good, as were the julienne vegetables.  The sticky rice lacked any noticeable flavor and was easily ignored.

The island shrimp were pretty good.  Possibly over breaded, but were well cooked, and we both really liked the orange marmalade that they were tossed with.  The wife opted for a house salad in place of the sauteed spinach and was pleased with it.  The house dressing was a white balsamic.  She liked the dressing a lot, I thought it was a bit overpowering.  The roasted red peppers were a nice touch.

Over all it seemed to be a pretty average meal.  The location was great, and the food was by no means bad, but wasn't very memorable either.  

Stuffed,

-W

Elijah's - Drinks and Appetizers 4/10/2008

This was my first trip to Elijah's since moving to Wilmington four years ago. I have heard mixed reviews about the restaurant from locals and was not really impressed by the online menu, so really had never been tempted to dine there. My co-workers had decided to have a girls night there for drinks and it was a beautiful day so I decided to go along. I can honestly say that the outside seating on the Cape Fear River was the most enjoyable part of my experience. We started off by just ordering drinks. I ordered a Margarita, one of my friends an apple martini and my other two friends had beer. My margarita tasted like tepid tap water with a hint of lime, not the least bit refreshing after a long work day. My friends apple martini was average at most. After the bad experience with the Margarita, I decided to order a beer. My Yuengling arrived in an unfrosted glass and was barely cool. Definitely not off to a good start here. We then placed our order. I ordered calamari; it is a favorite of mine and it said it came with a horseradish dipping sauce, which sounded interesting. My friend opted for the olive and cheese bread, as she is a vegetarian. The calamari was anything but enjoyable, instead it was rubbery, cold, soggy, and lacking in quantity compared to other restaurants portion sizes. The sauce that accompanied the calamari tasted as if the server had dumped some jarred horseradish into a ramekin and threw it on the plate. It was so strong I could barely eat it. My friends olive bread was boring and bland. It tasted like shredded store bought mozzarella with plain black olives on a sub roll. I do not believe a single herb or spice was used in preparing it. Needless to say, although we only ordered two things off the menu, I was not impressed. Although the Cape Fear River is a beautiful back drop on a sunny spring day it could not make up for the boring experience of the food. I definitely will not be returning to Elijah's anytime soon. I'm still irritated that I spent $20.00 at the joint!  

Stuffed,

-K