Regina Restaurant Week
#RRW2016
I have not been this excited about anything in a while, and it's not just the "Calories Don't Count Downtown" tagline! Regina Restaurant Week is here! This is an amazing collaboration put together by thirteen of Regina downtown's best dining establishments and the Regina Downtown Business Improvement District. Restaurant Week runs nightly (5:00 to 9:00 pm) until February 10 and is an incredible opportunity for diners to experience some of our best downtown dining, at an amazing price! All menus are a fixed price dinner and include an appetizer, entree, and dessert for $35. When you look at the restaurant offerings, you will see that this is really a fantastic value! I had the opportunity last night to attend a "social media preview" of the event and we stopped at three establishments to sample their offerings. We had a terrific evening that I will describe in stomach-rumbling detail, but in the meantime, you can find all the participating restaurants, and their menus here:The Copper Kettle
This was our first stop and we enjoyed our appetizer course here. Normally, you will get all three courses at one restaurant, but this was a special preview so we split the courses over three establishments. Our group was blown away by what's happening at The Copper Kettle! I had not been there in years, and quite honestly with the explosion of amazing restaurants Regina has seen over the last few years, it wasn't even on my radar to go back. However, I am so glad we landed there as there are some amazing things going on! The Copper Kettle has been a Regina staple for 50 years, but has just undergone a major renovation and menu update overseen by their new General Manager, and Junior Chef, Destiny Slobodian. We were really impressed with Destiny's excitement about the renovations, menu, and being a part of Restaurant Week. We were brought out a variety of appetizers, three of which appear as choices on the Restaurant Week menu: Crusted Feta, Spanakopita, and Braised Back Ribs. We were also served Calamari and Mussels as an extra something special. Destiny explained to us that their new menu is a modern twist on a traditional Greek menu, and they have worked to play off of typically salty Greek food, by adding sweetness, such as honey or fresh fruit to a dish. She also is heavily focused on Saskatchewan products and reported that approximately 85% of what we were eating was from our Province. Of the five items we sampled, my favourite was the "Crusted Feta" (bottom right in photo). It was wrapped in phyllo dough, pan seared, topped with seeds and nuts, and drizzled with salted honey. Heaven. It is one of those dishes that I am going to often dream about, and will be returning to enjoy. All of the offerings we sampled were really good, but it's hard to beat a cheese dish in my books. All in all, the restaurant looks beautiful, the location remains unparalleled, the food was tasty and well-presented, the staff were lovely, and Destiny brings a very bright future to the Copper Kettle. I am excited to get back and sample a couple of their entrees, and well..."baklava". Need I say more?
Famoso
Our entree stop was at Famoso, one of our newest additions to downtown. Even though I think about food approximately 23 hours a day, I get out to eat very rarely, so this is another spot I have been wanting to try, but hadn't until last night! Anyone who has been out to dine with me knows that I am the very last person at the table to order, because I am indecisive and need the pressure of everyone else waiting on me to pull the trigger on a selection. Not last night though! The first pizza I spotted was the "Cavoletti" and it was a done deal! I didn't even look at the other offerings. Pictured above is my Cavoletti Pizzetta which is topped with oven-roasted brussel sprouts, proscuitto crisps, gorgonzola cheese, dates, walnuts, and honey. There were also three side options and I chose the Caprese Salad. I loved the flavours on this pizza. I make a lot of homemade pizza but mine are very North American...thick crust, with lots of meat and cheese but the Famoso pizzas are what I would consider more authentic Italian. They are a very thin, airy crust, lighter toppings, and interesting flavour combinations, and then fired roasted. I thought my pizza could have done with a few less seconds on the fire. There was a bit of charring and the proscuitto was beyond crispy, but I enjoyed it very much. And since I tend to underbake things as I like a more soft, doughy texture, I may not be the best judge of "degree of charring". Famoso is a bit different from the other Regina Restaurant Week options as here, it is 2 CAN DINE for $35. How incredible is that?? I am anxious to get back and I know the kids are going to love it, especially when they see the gelato counter! But in the meantime, I still have half a pizzetta in the fridge that I am going to enjoy for dinner tonight!
20Ten City Eatery
Dessert. There are many times I will skip a meal entirely just so I can have a dessert. It explains a lot, doesn't it? Another beautiful, new location to downtown Regina is 20Ten City Eatery and it is literally, a stone's throw east of Famoso. We had our dessert course there and it is a lovely spot and we had excellent service. I think aside from one creme brûlée, our whole group ordered either the brownie, or the dessert above which appears on the Restaurant Week Menu. It is a spiced ginger toffee cake with banana anglaise, and vanilla bean ice cream. It was very good, although I didn't get a whole lot of ginger flavour from it. I could have eaten just a bowl of the anglaise, mind you. It may be worth noting that 20Ten City Eatery only has one offering for each course on the Restaurant Week Menu (whereas most of the other restaurants provide at least two choices) so I would have a look at their menu, and make sure it's something you will enjoy, before you commit to making it your choice of dining location. If you do go, I think you will be happy with the ginger toffee cake, although I generally prefer chocolate to toffee or caramel. Except in the case of...well, baklava.
Thank you so much to Regina Downtown BID for inviting me to be a part of their preview. It was a terrific night and I cannot wait to get back downtown to try some more of the offerings. Keep an eye on social media when you are planning your dinners. There is already a lot of buzz around the hashtag #RRW2016 so I would bet you are going to see a lot of photos and reviews of the menus. And please feel free to tweet, snap, and post yourselves using #RRW2016. I truly hope that all of Regina gets out at least once in the next couple of weeks to eat downtown!
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