Ciro's Cote Sud and Dominica

[justagirl]

Bam and I had a late dinner Saturday night. I was thinking the quarter would be fun but then remembered Dead Weather was playing HOB and knew I wouldn't be able to find a place to park, so we headed uptown to Ciro's on Maple.

We each started with the French Onion Soup which was excellent. We shared a flash fried oyster special app, also very good. Bam had the lasagna and I had the fish special of the night. It was black drum with a herb crust perfectly cooked, served with a roasted red pepper risotto and grilled zucchini. Excellent. We had a bottle of Willamette Valley Pinot Noir that was quite thin but given my state by that point in the evening, it really didn't matter much.

Sunday after the game, we walked over to Dominica from the Dome. There were some great and some not so great moments in the evening. We both agreed that the space is awesome. Bam ordered a bottle of wine from Umbria while I was transforming from game day jag to dinner jag. Unfortunately the meat and cheese appetizer that Bam ordered arrived before the wine. About 20 minutes passed before someone came over to tell us the wine we ordered wasn't available. Bam picked out another and the man came back with both bottles: the first ordered and the second ordered. We chose the first one since that's what we wanted then waited for our waitress to come back and open it.

The meat and cheese board was very good. I'll let Bam elaborate when he gets a chance.

Next we had the squash blossoms which were very good. They were stuffed with goat cheese and lightly fried. Plated on some diced tomato medley and balsamic.

Then we ordered the white truffle risotto and the spinach gnocchi. The risotto was out of this world good and the gnocchi was probably good but was overpowered being served along side the risotto.

Dessert may have been my favorite point in the meal even if we didn't get the cappuccinos we ordered. Three scoops of vanilla gelato with espresso poured over. Yum. Served with some finely ground espresso bean and a piece of biscotti.

I am very much looking forward to going back to Dominica. There is so much more on the menu that I can't wait to try. Even though the service wasn't perfect, you could tell they were being trained properly and that with a little more time the service should be spot on perfect.

[jodyrah]

We had the gnocchi and found them light but bland. Lasagna, borlotti beans and rabbit were all good. Pasta w/guanciale merely ok, same for proscuitto and margharitia pizzas. If you make your own crust and grill it, your pizzas will be better than these. Burrata mozzarella was divine, creamy and oh so silky.