A Dining Extravaganza

Aside from the obvious good company, one of the reasons I love hangin with Ms. U is her appreciation for dining experiences and trying new things.  While I had previously dined at Buddakan, this was Ms. U's first time and it was quite the experience.  Being the food lovers that we are, we had both scouted out the menu and reviews repeatedly during the week so we walked in with a plan.  I met Ms. U in the lounge area.  She was seated at the incredibly sterile looking stainless steel bar.  If you're going to hang out in the lounge, the bar is not the place to sit.  The communal tables or the private ones along the wall are a much better bet.  After getting grilled by our hostess, we were escorted to our table.  She tried to seat us upstairs but we opted for the communal table in the main dining room.  We were the first ones at the table but by the end of the meal, we had lots of company.

We started out by ordering edamame dumplings with shallot-sauternes broth to share and personal servings of chili rock shrimp with toasted ginger.

The dumplings were magnificent.  The texture was quite interesting.  The outside was smooth and slick.  The inside was creamy and a little grainy.  The broth complemented the dumplings quite nicely.

The chili rock shrimp lived up to the hype.  Although, I wish we had shared the dish because neither of us finished our portion.  The shrimp were not as spicy as I liked, however one of the servers provided us with some chili sauce that provided the appropriate level of spice.  The only issue I had with the shrimp was they were coated in batter.  While I'm not big on "healthy eating" I don't love eating fried things.  Had we split the dish, it would have been more than enough.

For my main course, I ordered Kung-pao Monkfish and we split Lobster fried rice.  I'm sad to report that the fried rice was just rice with lobster.  There was no real flavor to it, but again that chili sauce rescued it.  

The Monkfish was not as spicy as I would have liked but was otherwise satisfying.  A warning that it is also coated in batter so again not my favorite.  Although we were both filled to the brim, we decided to make enough room for dessert.

That beauty is Crying Chocolate: malted white chocolate ganache and coffee ice cream.  It was so good I'm pretty sure we did not take breaths between bites.  It didn't take us too long to finish it up.

Overall, an excellent dining experience and I'd definitely go back.  Although, I would change my order.  Not because I did not like them, but because there is so much to eat on that menu!!!