| rev:text
| - I don't Love District.
It's something that I meditated on all day before sitting down to write this review. I have finally come to terms with the fact that I don't love the newest Downtown Phoenix gem, I simply Like. I had my first visit to District last night after I made a last minute decision to go celebrate my birthday a little early with Mr. Hottie. I was a little worried about getting a reservation at such short notice, but to my surprise, I was able to secure an 8:30pm reservation over the phone.
We arrived dressed to kill and feeling excited to try the new restaurant. We opted to use the valet which is free for the first 3 hours of your visit when you get your ticket validated. We were greeted very warmly by the valet attendants and directed to the restaurant. When the doors to the hotel opened, the first words out of my mouth were "Oooh Pretty!" The open floor plan of the entire place was just breathtaking. As we walked toward District, I even noticed the "New Hotel Smell" which was nice!
When we got to District we were met by the hostess who found our reservation and walked us to our table. We were seated close to a big picture window with a nice view of the street. Our waitress, Anastasia introduced herself and subsequently butchered Mr. Hottie's last name (under the assumption it was also my last name) and said "Heard it was your birthday! Happy Birthday!" Ugh...maybe I was just hungry and cranky. She asked us if we had been there before and went on to describe the style of food, and when I asked who her chefs were, she asked if I was with Starwood. Um...no. I didn't let her know that a review would soon be written about this new spot. After she finished stumbling through who the chefs were, we were given a basket of black bean & corn rolls with a jar of chow chow & a flavored butter drizzled with honey. I wished the rolls were warm. I think they would have been so much better and possibly release the full flavor of the butter. I tried the chow chow. Wow. I was immediately transported to Louisiana at my Grandpa's kitchen table. Talk about fresh, crispy and tangy good! We ordered a drink before dinner. I had a glass of Mumm Brut Sparkling Wine; Mr. Hottie ordered the Ocean martini after our waitress stumbled through the ingredients of each martini. She couldn't remember the names of the alcohols that were used in the drinks. After a bit, it was like we were playing a round of an alcohol themed guessing game. Slightly annoying, but again, I thought maybe I was being over critical. It was time to order the food.
To start, I chose the chicken tortilla soup. Mr. Hottie chose the local field greens and herbs. The soup was served in a large bowl that came with diced chicken, diced queso blanco, diced avocado, a large dollop of sour cream and thin strips of tortilla chips. The soup is then poured over the ingredients. Talk about delicious. The soup was creamy and savory. The only thing I wished it had was just a little spicy kick, but the soup was so good on it's own. Mr. Hottie said the salad was just ok. The dressing seemed to be a little light in flavor that the goat cheese over powered the salad's flavor.
Just prior to having our main entrees served we had ordered a glass of wine to go with our meal. We were well into our meal once the glasses arrived. Points off. Oh well, on to the main event.
For my entree, I had the Grilled Ribeye rare. The steak came with skillet potatoes, Toy Box tomatoes and was topped with chimchurri. The steak was perfectly cooked and the meat was extremely tender. I was delighted by the quality of the meat. The only bad thing about it was that it was a very fatty steak even for a Ribeye. It should have been a bit more trimmed up. The tomatoes were fresh and provided a nice bit of acid to the rich plate of meat and potatoes. Mr. Hottie had the Brown Ale Short Ribs. The entree came cheddar jalapeno grits and the meat was topped with roasted carrots. What can I say about the dish? The grits were an absolute tragedy. They were runny and came with a skin over the top of them. The grits were just soupy and disappointing. The short rib was very good. It wasn't fatty rather it was a rich slice of meat that was well seasoned. I didn't try the small bits of carrots that came on top of the short rib but they looked very good! For dessert I was offered a complimentary hot fudge sundae. I was full, but accepted it for the sake of trying it. The sundae came with a cold brownie. The "hot fudge" was lukewarm chocolate sauce. So yes, you guessed it, points off. Our waitress comes fumbling back to our table to deliver the check and states that she gave us the wrong (and subsequently cheaper) wine. Ah. Points off. A neat ending to the meal was the free cotton candy. I don't know if I'll return to District. Maybe to try some of their other small plates, and have a few drinks. It just isn't the great dining experience I was expecting, and I'm ok with that.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)