Grits & Grace

Grits & Grace

This is an upscale spin off of a southern country diner.  I'm not sure how else to describe it.  The waitresses wore southern home cooking looking dresses under their aprons, but the walls and decor looked like a trendy downtown atmosphere.  The menu consisted of southern dishes with an almost Asian flare.

First they come around with an appetizer tray.  The six dishes were listed on a card, but none of them were gluten free as is.  They said they would make some of them without soy sauce, but nothing looked appetizing enough to go through the trouble.

I asked the waitress what they could do gluten free.  She mentioned all of the salads and the flank steak.   I asked about the short ribs and the confit chicken wings.  Said she'd check with the chef for more options.  

When she returned she said they couldn't do the short ribs or the chicken wings confit.  She mentioned the arctic char, she said they would use a separate fryer with the fritters.  I asked if they could use a separate fryer for the confit, I'd really like to try it.  She returned with an answer.  She said they could, but it wouldn't be as crunchy.  Sold!

The confit chicken wings were amazing.  The herbed buttermilk dressing was creamy and delicious.  It had sliced chili peppers in it that surprisingly enough, chili peppers don't bother me like bell peppers, so they were no issue.   They actually didn't effect the taste unless you ate one.  The wings were moist and crispy with a rich fatty flavor.  Now I want to try to make this at home.

I also ordered the flank steak on the flat rice noodles.  It was beefy with broccolini, bean sprouts, mushrooms, garlic, and onions.  It was pretty good.  They made it without soy sauce to be gluten free, so make sure you tell them to do that if you want to order it.

This is what the short ribs look like.  They said they can't do them gluten free because the cream cheese biscuit takes up too much of the dish.

http://gritandgracepgh.com/
535 Liberty Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15222

Spoon

Spoon

Tucked in the heart of East Liberty is this little gem.  The lighting is dim and the ceilings are high.  It is a place focused on fresh, local food.  They have an extensive wine list, but the mix of fresh and local ingredients is what I came for.

Instead of bread, for the gluten free diners, they bring out chips.  I questioned the frier these chips went through, but the waiter said they do a pretty good job of keeping things separated. They came with some type of pepper cheese which I declined. 

I ordered the Prosciutto wrapped asparagus with cheese and locally grown strawberries. The peresntation was amazing.  The strawberries complemented the cheese.  The asparagus was grilled and crispy. The strawberries seemed candied, but were good. The figs were sweet. The cheese was fluffy and everything on the plate went well together.

The service was excellent.  The water glasses were constantly being refilled.  The waiter was attentive and knowledgeable about the menu.  

I ordered the bacon wrapped cod. I'm not much of a cod fan, but bacon makes everything better, so I decided to be adventurous. It arrived with a pesto smear across the plate. Then the waiter poured the tomato fennel broth over it and handed me a spoon. I didn't feel that it was soup enough for a spoon, but it made me try the broth first. 

It was unusual. It was heavy on the fennel. He tomato was prominate even though the broth has no red color to it at all. The pesto mingled with the broth in a delightful manor.

I tried the cod. It was flaky and cooked well. The bacon could have been crispier, but that is a personal preference that could jeopardize the moistness of the fish.  There was a bit of corn, tomotoes, and sprouts mixed on top of the fish that complemented the dish.  Also, there was a tangy, citric white sauce on top. I don't know what it was, but it was good.  

The braised short ribs and steak was my second choice.  It came with broccoli gratin, zucchini, and a red wine reduction. 

Because everything is cooked to order here, the kitchen doesn't seem to have any problems with dietary restrictions.  They certainly didn't compromise the integrity of this meal. I was worried about the chips, but I didn't have any reactions so they must be doing something right at Spoon. 

134 S Highland Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15206
http://www.spoonpgh.com/

Cafe Du Jour

Cafe Du Jour

I love this place.  I'm never disappointed when I come here.   It is closed on Sunday & Monday, BYOB, and cash only, but it's well worth it.  It is an outside dining restaurant hidden on East Carson St.  Once in the door, you walk through the kitchen to get to the outdoor patio dining area.  The patio is set up like a secret garden with a waterfall in the back.  It really quite cute.  There are only a handful of tables, so its best to make a reservation. 

We started with a Spinach Asiago dip appetizer.  It came with bread, but to make it gluten free, they added a plate of vegetables for me to dip.  I was uncomfortable with the bread coming directly on the same plate as the dip, but they were separated by a dish so I spooned some dip on my plate and ate it with the vegetables.

I ordered the wild mushroom consumme soup.  It was a pleasant light beef broth with an assortment of wild mushrooms of all different sizes.  It was delicious.

My friends had the meatballs on a baguette.  It wasn't gluten free, but they said it was very tasty. It had a very nice presentation. 

For my entree, I ordered the strip steak with blue cheese, onion crisps, zucchini, spinach sprinkled with a little cheese, and potatoes.  The steak was cooked perfectly medium rare with a crispy outside.  The onion crisps made me do a double take.  I questioned the server about them going into a frier.  He assured me they were gluten free.  I don't know how they cooked them, because they were crispy and flaky, something usually associated with being not so gluten free.

The perfect end to a perfect meal was the flourless chocolate cake.  It was creamy, fudgy, packed a chocolate punch.  I can't imagine a better end to this wonderful meal.

As I was told, everything must have been gluten free, even though it was hard to imagine that it was because it was all so good.

1107 E Carson St, Pittsburgh, PA 15203

Kaleidoscope Cafe

Kaleidoscope Cafe

Upon walking up to the door, I thought this place was closed.  After walking in, I thought I was in the wrong place.  After all, it was 6 O'clock on a Wednesday.  Somebody should be in here besides me.  But there wasn't.  I immediately thought to myself, "Why isn't anyone here.  Is this a mistake?"

The decor was awful.  It needed updated.  The walls needed painted.  If they weren't doing tons of business, they should take away a few tables to make it look less cluttered.  It would look fuller if there were less tables.  Maybe they should get an interior decorator to help with the space planning in here.  I can see why people aren't coming in and staying.

I hear the only server taking an order to go.  Someone must like the food, but I see why they don't want to sit in here to eat.  I see the theme that they are trying to do, but it's not succeeding.  It needs a make over. 

I asked about gluten free items on the menu.  I was handed the lunch menu and told some of the things listed as gluten free, like the pork, weren't gluten free.  And the chicken apple sausage was listed as gluten free, but wasn't in that preparation, but could be prepared in a different preparation.  Obviously, they needed new menus printed, too.

I ordered the cornish hen. I was told it would take 20-25 minutes.  I understood, but was hungry.  It really did take that long.

The cornish hen half was moist with a crispy skin and had a yellow savory sauce.  It had sweet figs, seasoned squash, two cherry tomatoes, and smashed potatoes.  The smashed potatoes were evenly lumpy like they should be, with some skins in the mix.  The chunks were soft enough that they melted in my mouth.  As far as smashed potatoes go, these ones were pretty good.

The pork wasn't gluten free because of the soy sauce.  But I hear was delicious as well.  The presentation was good.  In case you wanted to see the pork, here it is.

Finally, at the end of meal meal, two other groups were seated.  The acoustics were awful and I was glad I was finished with my meal.  Perhaps the odd kaleidoscope triangles on the walls were there to dampen the sound. They make sound dampening ceiling tiles that would probably work well for this place if they didn't want to instal carpet.

Overall, the food was delicious, the service was friendly, but the space needed updated. 

108 43rd St, Pittsburgh, PA 15201
http://kaleidoscopepgh.com/

The Crested Duck Charcuterie

The Crested Duck is only open form 5-10 on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.  There are only 20 seats in the whole dining area and I think you will definitely need a reservation to get a table, but it is well worth it.  The food is amazing.  This is the place that is providing the cured meats to the other places around town that you're ordering, like the Omni William Penn, Spoon, and Bar Marco.  Its better to come to the source. 

This place is amazing if you like cured meats.  The small charcuterie plate is $10 and comes with four cured meats & the large plate $20 comes with eight cured meats.  Who wouldn't go with the large plate to sample everything this place has to offer?  They don't tell you what the meats are before you order them, and I'm sure it's what ever is ready when you go so it probably changes every couple weeks.  Its byob and the cork fee is $5.  I was told all of the charcuterie was gluten free, but the salad and desserts were not.

When the plate arrived, the server told me the name of everything on the plate was, but I really am not super familiar with the names of cured meats.  I know something was venison, something white was called Lardo, and there was plums, nuts & tiny pickles on the plate. Most of the meats were sliced thinner than paper.  Everything on the plate was delicious, with the exception of the the one large, red, round pate like meat closest to me. I didn't like the texture or the flavor, but if you're into that sort of thing, it probably would be delicious to you.  It just wasn't my thing.

Then my smoked duck with strawberry BBQ sauce came.  It was beautiful.  It was delicious.  It was tender & smokey & juicy.   The BBQ sauce was sweet and spicy.  I need more of this sauce.  It was that good.  On the side of the place was a radish ans micro greens salad. Oddly enough, it was good for radishes.

I stopped the server.  I told him whoever thought of strawberry BBQ sauce was a genius.  He said, "That was me. I made the BBQ sauce."

I made sure to tell him he was a genius.

The crispy pork was amazing, too.  I don't know what they did to it to make it that crispy & tasty.  The yellow squash was a raw with a light oil dressing and had pretty little blueish purple edible flowers on it.

I had no room for dessert.

I will be back.  This place was wonderful.  I loved the presentation and the taste of all of the food and I didn't get glutened from any of it.  I can't say it enough, Amazing!

603 Broadway Ave
Pittsburgh PA 15216

http://www.crestedduck.com/

Chez Rob

My brother invited me over for dinner.  In the spirit of restaurant reviews, I decided to review his dinner as a blog post.

The decor was cozy like a modern dining room kitchen combo that was well lit from an open sliding glass door.

The menu was a fixed price three course meal.  The evening's selections were nicely printed on a one page menu.  The allure for the night was some of the ingredients were modified with molecular gastronomy to change the texture of ordinary ingredients.  This was a BYOB place.  They didn't charge a corking fee.

The first course was a beautiful salad with cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, bacon, chives, dry spices, & feta cheese.  The bacon was crispy and the vegetables were crunchy.  It had a beautiful presentation and nothing was modified to the best of my knowledge.   It was a nice start to the meal.

The second course was a traditional Japanese soup with magic noodles.  The broth was a mix of light beef and chicken broth.  Mushrooms and green onions floated on top.  Then the magic noodles were added after the soup was presented.  Squirted out of a condiment container, the onion paste puffed up into a fried rice noodle consistency as it hit the warm broth.  They tasted like a mild onion flavor and added excellent texture to the soup.  Magic noodles are gluten free because they are only made from onions.

The main course arrive.  The lamb rib chops were a bit lemony with a light rosemary herb flavor.  They were grilled to a medium temperature, crispy on the outside and moist on the inside, set on green onions and rosemary. 

On the plate was two cucumber slices with tzatziki sauce and a tomato slice with tomato basil paste.  I poked the tzatziki sauce. It juggled a little and ran out onto the plate like a sunny side up egg. It tasted of cool cucumber and garlic.  The second one I popped into my mouth whole and let it explode its flavors onto my tongue.  I cut a sliver of the tomato basil and tasted it.  It was overwhelming me with tomato flavor.  The paste was the consistency of canned cranberries.  I didn't care much for it, didn't taste much of the basil, and thought it should have had fresh mozzarella cheese slices throughout it like a caprese salad.  I'm not much of a tomato fan anyways.

All of these courses were prepared gluten free and there was no sign of cross contamination.  Overall, I was pretty happy with the presentation, flavors, and modified textures of this meal.

The Carlton

The Carlton

The Carlton Restaurant has beautiful hard wood accents on the walls and an extensive wine selection in a full wall wine rack. They had some nice selections on the wine List.  The menu is on the more expensive side, but worth the experience if you are looking to go somewhere for an anniversary or special occasion.

All of the appetizers were $11.99, which struck me as odd because some were obviously made with more expensive ingredients than others. Some of the options were a crab cake, BBQ shrimp, or a grilled portobello mushroom.  

The grilled portobello mushroom was marinated in balsamic vinegar, and was accompanied with sun dried tomatoes, zucchini, pine nuts and lettuce.  It was pretty tasty.

There were many wonderful choices on the menu.  The server told me they could make anything I wanted gluten free because they make everything to order.  I wanted the filet Oscar style, medium rare.  It came with asparagus, mashed potatoes, a lemony Bearnaise sauce, and crab meat.

The filet was cooked perfectly medium rare.  The mashed potatoes were evenly mashed, with a buttery flavor, and creamy texture.  They were very enjoyable.  I wanted creme brulee for dessert, but I simply didn't have room.  Overall, I had an enjoyable experience.   The server was nice, the atmosphere was fancy, and most importantly, I didn't get sick.

And if you wanted to see what the braised boar looks like, it's probably not gluten free, but here it is.

http://www.thecarltonrestaurant.com/
500 Grant Street (BNY Mellon Center), Pittsburgh, PA 15219