Restaurant Week.

If you haven't heard of restaurant week, you are definitely missing out. Twice a year a bunch of restaurants from Rock Hill, South Carolina up to Hickory, North Carolina offer up an incredible meal for either $30 or $35 per person for a three course meal. It is recommended to make reservations before attending due to the popularity of restaurant week. When you go to the restaurant, they give you a menu specifically for restaurant week and you get to choose which meal you would like for each course.

For this particular restaurant week, we chose to go to Blue in Uptown Charlotte just down the street from the Epicenter. This place is pretty large but quaint at the same time as we had our little private corner. They have specials on drinks and bar menus during the week and a live jazz band on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Not to mention complimentary valet after 6pm.

To start off the meal, I began with the crab and ricotta bruschetta. The bruschetta was absolutely amazing. It had just right amount of the crab and ricotta mixture on top of an airy toasted piece of bread. The sweet and spicy pepper jam on top gave it just the right amount of heat without being overpowering. The only problem was that I wanted more!!

The main course featured a duo of pan seared scallops and pork that just absolutely melted in your mouth. The was probably one the most tender pieces of pork I have ever experienced (and I am pretty picky about my meat). These were rested on a bed of sweet potato puree and braised swiss chard. Now, I'm usually not a huge fan of sweet potatos, however, I devoured this puree as it was the perfect match to the pork and scallops. Only thing I would have done differently is adding just a little bit more of the cider jus that they top the entire meal off with.

And, the finale. Cake Di Chocolate. I'm not sure if I will have enough words to explain how much joy I had eating this warm freshly baked cake filled with molten chocolate in the center with a side of creamy vanilla bean ice cream and some fresh fruits. The cake was just the right amount of sweetness without it being overbearing and enough to satisfy my sweet tooth. I'm usually weary of trying ice cream at restaurants as I usually think they come out more icy than I usually prefer but this was not icy at all. It was the perfect pairing with the chocolate cake. (Excuse the messiness in this picture as I just had to try it and completely forgot to take a picture before I scooped into it.)

 Overall, this restaurant definitely lived up to its reviews and standards that I have read that ultimately led me to trying this out during restaurant week. Does anyone have any recommendations for the next restaurant week in July?