Minx (2nd Visit) & one day only beef

After our wine tasting at Colorado Wine Company, we decided to go to Minx for dinner.

2nd Visit & Ahi Poke is Disappointing
This being our second visit - and I had to have the delicious Ahi Poki with smelt egg fritter starter that I had so enjoyed on our first visit. But this time it wasn't the same! Instead of a smelt egg fitter at the bottom, there was rice. What a disappointment! The dish that I loved the most was different -and not as good.

Starters
Uwe had his oysters again for an appetizer. And I lifted our beef ban (which has been going strong for a number of years now) so Uwe could try the Kobe beef with lobster roll. It was just a thin slice (think sashimi style) of beef on top of the roll. Nothing spectacular, and not worth the one day repeal of my years of giving up beef (since mad cow was detected in the US).

Entrees
Uwe had the tomato & mozzarella salad. (Pretty good.)

I had the vegetable risotto. There were a couple things wrong with this dish. First off the cabbage on top drenched in an overpowering balsamic vinaigrette did not complement the dish, and was too salty. I had to push it to the side and try to keep it from contaminating my risotto. Second - they had cooked artichokes in it. Artichokes I like, but not the entire part, when it's not cooked properly. After chewing it, you were left with a mouth full of chewed up leaves, like straw - which I had to spit out. I kept trying, thinking it was just one - but every artichoke in it wasn't cooked properly. Who do they have cooking this stuff back there? Don't they taste what they're cooking?

Dessert
We opted not to have dessert this time. But I did see that they still had the same gawd awful peaches with blueberry ice cream cobbler on there. Ick. Made me think of how Chef Ramsey would critique it - What on Gawd's earth were you thinking?!

Overall Review
I was so disappointed that my favorite dish was changed. The one dish that was "inspiring" isn't there anymore. How is that possible? But the worst dessert I've ever had is still on the menu. Doesn't make much sense. With the $$$ prices, I don't know if I'll be back for a 3rd time. They do have exceptional service, and you can't find another restaurant like it locally, but the food just seems to miss more often than it hits. After dinner, Uwe and I watched in slow motion as we saw our car being driven by the valet at 10:30 at night (when it's pretty dark) without turning the headlights on. Luckily there was no accident.

Wine Tasting @ Red Carpet

Red Carpet Wine (the sign out in front of the store says "Red Carpet Liquor), is a wine store in Glendale where in addition to wine, you can also buy champagne, beer, and cigars (they have a walk-in humidor). The staff are very knowledgeable and helpful. You tell them what you're cooking for dinner and they'll pick out a wine that goes with it, or make a suggestion. They'll also point out some great deals on lesser known new labels with great wine. Although we don't go there as often as we used to, we still go there to buy wine, champagne, and occasionally my favorite Belgian, raspberry Lambic beer (mmmm).

Red Carpet Wine
400 East Glenoaks Boulevard
Glendale, California 91207

Wine Tasting
Tonight Uwe and I decided to go to Red Carpet Wine for their Friday night wine tasting. We love Colorado Wine Company, but Red Carpet showcases higher end wines in their tasting and we wanted to see what they had to offer. (The price is also double what we pay at cowineco - and they have 7 wines in their tasting, vs. 5 at cowineco).

I had been to a Red Carpet for their "Silver Oak" wine tasting. (I organized an after work excursion to go there to check it out.) Sampling $100+ bottles of wine was lovely - and it attracted quite a different crowd.

Uwe described tonight's crowd as "the Whole Foods crowd" as the people looked like they walked into the wine tasting right after a workout and shopping for groceries. Quite different from the crowd at Colorado Wine Company.

I was hesitant to do the full wine tasting because of the 7 glasses of wine, but after seeing the small tasting pours - I was in - and had no problem completing the course.

There was a 2002 Syrah that we very much enjoyed, but they didn't have it for sale. That's one thing that irks me about their wine tasting. Why have it on the tasting menu if you can't buy it afterwards? The bartender said that the owner will have a few bottles in his personal cellar that he will bring in just for the tasting, so there aren't additional bottles for sale. Last time I was there, the same thing happened. I had an exquisite 1999 Silver Oak and wanted to buy a bottle to bring home to Uwe so we could enjoy it together - but again they didn't have that year for sale - so I had to settle for a 2002 (which was good, but not the same).

Overall Review

The wine tasting is pricey for the lack of ambiance (again - think of Whole Foods) and they need to bring in some hors d'oeuvres in addition to the chinsy but pricey cheese plate. However they do feature high end wine tastings, and they have seating around the bar. (Which can fill up if they're featuring a high end label.) For our Friday night - date night - we will stick to Colorado Wine Company which has a nicer crowd and better ambiance. But there's a good chance we will go back if they feature Silver Oak again, or another high end wine that we'd enjoy.

Minx Restaurant & Lounge

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