B.E.S. (Boutique Eat Shop)

Thanks to Blackboard Eats, I have several restaurants on my “to try” list.  The problem with racking up all those coupons is that they start to expire.  Luckily, I have wonderful friends who are willing to participate in my culinary adventures.  Tonight’s meal was at the relatively new B.E.S.  An early dinner reservation earned me 1,000 points on OpenTable (score!) and a few hours of dining and discussion with Ms. O.

We were both salivating over the menu for most of the day so of course when we actually got there that meant we wanted to order everything!  Small people that we are, we still pretend that our stomachs can handle it.  And so the parade of food began.  First, bread with oil and salt to keep us busy.

Our appetizers arrived at the same time, but we made sure to pay undivided attention to the mound of Steamed Mussels.

Yup, I wasn’t kidding when I said mound.  The mussels were in a rich tomato sauce with chopped onion and garlic.  They're usually served with italian sausage, but none of that on our plate.  Aside from their general deliciousness, the mussels were fabulous because they were served with toasted pieces of bread.  Of course we dipped the bread in the amazing broth and that alone was like another course.  Seriously, look at how much broth there was! 

Our very attentive server cleared the mussels and we shifted our attention to our Shrimp Ceviche and Wonton Chips.

They were a little stingy with the wonton chips, but considering how much bread I already ate, I didn’t need any more chips.  The ceviche was really good and the wonton chips were a nice accompaniment.   Thankfully they gave us a few minutes to rest between courses.  Eventually our entrées arrived.

We both ordered the Ginger Crusted Snapper with Yellow Corn & Peanut Miso Dressing.  The picture above is Ms. O’s oh so perfect plate.  The one below is mine.

Not quite sure what happened between the kitchen and the table, but it still tasted magnificent.  The ginger hit me right away but it wasn’t overwhelming.  The most pleasant surprise was that incredible corn! My goodness it was sooooo good! The amount of food we had eaten slowly started to catch up to us.  We didn’t quite finish our entrées which led our server to ask if we wanted dessert.  UMM DUH!  We had two options Chocolate Lava Cake or Apple Pie Crust infused Ice cream.  Okay, one of them sounds like a fake dessert so obviously we went with the real one.

In case you are not sure if there’s any lava in that cake, Ms. O turned it around and made sure I got a good shot.

The cake sure looked and tasted good and the strawberry sauce was a welcome change from the usual raspberry.  Sadly the ice cream was a lot more ice than cream.  Not to worry, the cake was hot enough to melt it pretty quickly.

Boutique Eat Shop was a great dining experience.  The staff was incredibly attentive and the décor was really interesting.  Every time we looked around we found a new piece of art.  The bathroom door was particularly interesting.  I stuffed myself silly and may or may not have been wheezing at the end of the meal.  Since the restaurant is essentially on the West Side Highway, by the time I waddled over to 7^th avenue I was able to breathe normally again.  Phew!  B.E.S is definitely worth the trip!

Hungry yet?