Monday, December 30, 2013

Dine O' Round, Melting Pot, Faustina


So I'm really behind in blogging...I guess I should catch up over the break.  But of course, this may be an excuse not to grade the research papers.  Hmm.  Anyway, let me tell you about the Dine O' Round!  Every fall some Salt Lake restaurants participate in the Dine O' Round and offer deals.  This year Clint and I decided to try The Melting Pot.  It's one of those places that it seems like everyone has been to, and we never had.

The bottom line?  Their deal for the Dine O'Round wasn't really a deal at all and didn't include dessert (which seems sort of important at a fondue place) so we didn't use it.  However, I really did enjoy the food.

We had the Wisconsin Cheese Trio fondue which I thought was pretty good, but Clint didn't like.  I was sort of worried about the whole wine part--does cooking wine really "cook out" when it was dumped into a fondue pot right in front of you?  Next time we probably won't get a cheese fondue.  We did have salads--all I remember it that they were small.  For the main course we used the basic cooking style, seasoned court bouillon.  It was perfectly good--I feel the other styles are probably a waste. I liked the teri sirloin, the shrimp, and the pot stickers.  I did not like the duck, the citrus pork, or really the chicken.  They also give you veggies which were all great and here's the best part-- a zillion sauces to try!






Clint knows I love sauce.

We also had a yummy dessert, The Flaming Turtle.  How could I resist? Turtles are my favorite candy after all.  It was quite tasty, and it's fun to watch them light it on fire.

Of course, I also had to scope out the bathroom.  Well, I did have to go, but I like checking things out in general.  If I'm going to go to a fancy restaurant, I feel that I like aborsbing every last drop of ambience.  Here is a picture of the hip sinks. (Yeah, I'm a dork.  Also I have a thing about bathrooms.  I still haven't forgotten the bathroom of my soul on Isla Mujeres in Mexico. I should post photos of that--I wasn't blogging yet at that time.)




We also had a Dine O' Round lunch on a rainy day at a place called Faustina.  Sigh.  I love trying new restaurants.  I suppose this might be substantially more difficult in just a few weeks when I have a BABY.  Anyway, it appears I neglected to take photos at this place, but I will tell you that it has a modern vibe with purple tile, weird black treeish sculptures, and new age music. Everything on their lunch menu is 12 bucks including a yummy strawberry cake for dessert.  Not too shabby for a fancy hip restaurant downtown. (However, there were lots of "upgrades" for more money.) I got a sandwich that was a special--I think it was a chicken parmesan type sandwich with pesto and marinara.  It was awesome.  However, I was sadly disappointed by the salad that came with it--it was over dressed with some poppy seed dressing that I didn't like.  Who wants a mushy over dressed salad?  Anyway, I think Clint got the chipotle cheeseburger which was also quite tasty.  And like I said, both came with a delicious strawberry cake for dessert.  I think next time I'd try the lasagna.  Mmm.  I'm making myself hungry here.

Oh btw, I did go to the bathroom here as well--very weird bathrooms with a mix of ghetto and chic.

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