Blog Awards & Restaurant Review: The Dorrance

Hello Jalapeno Margarita!

Happy Weekend Everyone!!Toby and I are going to Cape Cod, Massachusetts this weekend thanks to my in laws and I could not be more excited. We are so close to Cape Cod, being in Rhode Island, but we never go there. So we are taking a relaxing weekend away. Hooray for mini vacations!

Anyway before my review I wanted to give a quick shout out to a few people that nommed me for blog awards this week!

Versatile Blogger Award
 Big thanks to Abby at Seaweed & Sassafras and Andrea at Quest for Delish
You need to check out these blogs. These ladies are so witty and their recipes are awesome. They are in my RSS feed.... Are they in yours??????

( Nominations to come)

Big thanks to Diane from Simple Living for nominating me for the Liebster Blog award.Please take a look at Diane's recipe for Italian Easter pie. It looked amazing!! ( Nominations to come!)


Atmosphere:
On to my review of The Dorrance in Providence,RI. For those of you who do not know, it was the Old Federal Reserve( complete with a bank vault and everything.) I cannot say enough about the atmosphere here. The building is historical and the ceiling, floor, walls I mean literally everything is beautiful. What an amazing setting for girl's night dinner!

Many times I end up loving restaurants because of their amazing staff. Our waiter was absolutely amazing and was one of the most knowledgeable servers I have ever met.The menu is set up a bit differently( split into small plates and large plates.)We weren't sure how big either were so we asked for his thoughts on what three hungry girls( who can eat) would order.

Food:
The food on this menu is amazing. It is so different and well thought out. It helps when the chef was nominated for a James Beard award of course. For small plates we chose The Maine Jonah Crab with shaved vegetables, grilled leeks and a Uni mayo. All I have to say is wow. The crab was super sweet and tender and the uni mayo may be my new favorite thing. Everything is put on the plate so carefully and it is really more like a work of art than dinner.

Jonah Crab Small Plate

Next, we had the Abalone Mushroom small plate, which was served with potatoes, onions, cheese and a herb onion jus. Another amazing meal. I don't think I have ever had a Abalone mushroom, but it was really tasty. The onion jus alone made the dish. We actually dipped our bread ( which they make fresh daily along with butter)and soaked up the rest of this goodness.

Abalone Mushroom Small Plate

For large plates we chose roast chicken with crispy sunchokes, radishes, sorrell and soubise( an amazing sauce.) This chicken was so tender and flavorful and the stuffing was delish. A must have!

Chicken Ballotine

The other large plate we had was the milk fed pork shoulder with endive, apple, pickled onion and watercress puree. The pork literally melted in your mouth. I actually have never had watercress puree before and it is really flavorful!

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Dessert
We decided on the meyer lemon cake which was a highlight. The lemon was both tart and sweet at the same time. We ate this in record time. And with the check we got pistachio macaroons! Score!