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| Posted: Sat Aug 29th, 2009 02:10 am |
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1st Post |
shadowcat-x
Administrator
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Oh, man, I love this place--and not just because my sister works there. They have some of the finest food I've ever eaten, and tonight I found a new favorite. Until recently, my favorite dish at Portofino's was a seared Ahi Tuna with roasted bok choy, but tonight I had. . . Bison
Yep, there's a bison farm here in Lexington, and Portofino's now serves Bison Flank Steak. It's marinated for a day in a rosemary/garlic/red wine marinade, then grilled and covered in a carmelized pearl onion sauce. The carmelized onions were so tender and tasty it was almost like they were fruit! I had the dish rare (as in, moos-when-you-stick-a-fork-in-it) and it was tender enough to cut with a butter knife. And if you're familiar with Bison, you'll know that's VERY unusual. Bison, as a rule, is a much leaner, and tougher meat than beef, and flank is one of the tougher cuts. The main difference I noticed between bison meat and beef is that bison is a more robust flavor. I won't say gamy, because I've eaten deer, and THAT is gamy, but it's definitely a stronger flavor than beef.
The bison steak was served with roasted corn and red pepper spoon bread, which, for those of you NOT from the south, is kind of a cross between corn pudding and cornbread--softer than cornbread, but not as squishy as corn pudding. I'm generally not a fan of cornbread type products, but this was not so sickly sweet as cornbread and I enjoyed it quite a bit. It was very filling, though, and I wanted to focus on the bison, so I didn't eat all of the spoon bread.
Which, by the way, reminds me to mention that the portions at Portofino's are VERY reasonable. Usually in a restaurant like this that caters to an upscale crowd, the portions are small because it's "haute cuisine" but Portofino's still remembers that for all their customers are rich, they're still rednecks at heart, and expect to see a full plate for this kind of money.
Anyway, back to the food love. . . The vegetable was sauteed Chinese broccoli, and it was very tasty. It had a good crunch to it, just the way I like it, and whatever they sauteed it in was more than JUST butter.
For desert I had the apple cinnamon bread pudding in a bourbon cream sauce. Man, they even made bourbon taste good. *sigh* Even though I regretted it afterwards, I finished every bite of desert, and damn near licked the plate clean. Afterwards I could barely walk, I was so full, but man it was worth it.
As for the service, I can't really judge it fairly. My sister was my server, and of course I got great service. All I can say is if you come to Lexington and eat at Portofino's, ask to sit in Tonya's section. You WILL get great service. Any other server, you take your chances :-)
____________________
"If you could find some way to be
a little bit less afraid of me,
you'd see the voices that control me
from inside my head say I shouldn't kill you yet" Skullcrusher Mountain--John Coulton
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| Posted: Sat Aug 29th, 2009 04:36 am |
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2nd Post |
boojum
boojum
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*whimper* You would mention all this while I'm sitting at home eating broccoli, celery, and carrots.. all raw. It sounds delicious!
Boojum the brown bunny
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| Posted: Thu Dec 20th, 2012 01:26 pm |
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3rd Post |
Current time is 12:55 am | |
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