Last Thursday Dawnee and I met up for dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, Txoko. I haven’t been back since June, I think, and me eating there was long overdue. There were some dishes I had before that I was looking forward to having again, but the entire small plates section of the menu was new. You know what that means, right? I have to try as much as I can. You already know the background on this place if you have read the first post on Txoko so I’m going to move on and talk about the food.
We started with the fried green tomatoes and it was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! I haven’t had fried green tomatoes since I was in Tennessee and I was looking for an opportunity to have some again. Those tomatoes were so sweet and just bursting with flavor. Even the regular tomatoes were fantastic. The tomato sauce that came with it was to die for. In between the fried green tomatoes was a dollop of ricotta cheese and some olives added a little zing to cut the sweetness of the tomatoes. Bravo! I would definitely give this dish a standing ovation.
This is the grilled sea scallops with fried okra, corn sauce, and potato coulis. If you like seafood, you will love this. The scallops were not over cooked so they were tender and not chewy. The only complaint I have about it is that there were only two scallops for the price, but you can’t mess with the quality of the food.
Next was the mesquite grilled quail. Man oh man did I love the flavors of the seasoning on the quail. The drippings from the quail was running down my mouth and hands. Top make the dish even better, it came with a garlic sauce with mushrooms and chorizo. The quail also rested on a bed of dandelion greens, which is something I’ve never had before. If I can compare it to anything, it kind of reminds me of swiss chard. Again, the sauce was killer. Luckily, our waitress noticed and brought us something that would help us out:
Yup. She brought us some toasted french baguettes to help soak up every ounce of sauce left on the plate.
Even after having the first three dishes, I still had room for another small plate. I went ahead and ordered the butter basted sole (which was just added to the menu that day). So check this out – the sole came with shoe string potatoes, a cauliflower puree, capers, and a brown butter and tumeric sauce. The sole was a little salty, but still very tasty. The star of the dish was the sauce, but how could you go wrong with butter? If anyone wanted to commit suicide by eating, they should just eat three servings of this dish and they will no doubt have a heart attack. Paula Deen would be very proud. Also, since we ran out of bread, we asked for more and soaked up the rest of the butter.
While ordering dessert, I asked our waitress what “Txoko” meant and without hesitation, she explained that Txoko is a Basque term for a small society (predominantly male) that would have a social club where they would cook, create new dishes, and of course, eat! After being enlightened, I decided I would go for the Gateau Basque which is a small pie with a homemade stawberry jam and a yogurt sorbet. This was a great way to end a meal that electrified the tastebuds. It was still tasty, but was very subtle. The sorbet did a good job at cleaning the palate and I felt completely satisfied.
I could not recommend this place enough. Once again, Chef Ian Begg, never disappoints.
My Ratings:
Food – 4.89 / 5
Service – 4.57 / 5 (Our waitress was very knowledgeable and had a fun personality)
Atmosphere – 4.45 / 5
I Woke Up Laughing 