Temper Grille

If you have never eaten tapas, you should, there is just something about a meal that includes small plates that you get to share, tasting a little of this and a little of that, for someone who prefers to "graze," it really is a dream meal. What is also a dream, is the food coming out of Chef Sean's kitchen at Temper Grille! The menu has a wide array of tapas with meat, seafood, and cheese plus delicious salads, soups, and veggies to eat alongside your small plates. We opted to share several small plates and each got a side dish/veggie, we started our meal with the steak bites, which were recommended by a friend, and were delicious! We got a plate of perfectly, medium rare bite size pieces of steak covered in a tasty remoulade sauce with pita wedges on the side, the steak was a little spicy for me (which means people without a completely wimpy palette will find these perfectly spiced), but with the pita bread to take some of the heat I was still able to nosh on these yummy bites.

What you should know about tapas, is that you will not get your food all at once, it will come out as the kitchen finishes cooking it, which, again, grazers dream come true! The next dish to come out was my creamed corn, which was described to be as "life changing," and frankly it definitely was a game changer in the veggie arena. I know some of you are turning your nose up at creamed corn, but this corn starts in a hot skillet with salt, pepper, and sugar to get it caramelized and then continues to cook in heavy cream as it reduces down to make this delicious sweet sauce, and then is finished with a red pepper sauce, it truly is a scrumptious and inventive way to serve up a side dish once only eaten in nursing homes.

Next my hubby's mac and cheese came out, he opted to eat it plain, but you can order it with pork belly, lobster knuckle meat, roasted peppers, and one other option we don't remember. He really liked the cavatappi pasta used in this dish, his only qualm was that the cheese sauce was in the bottom of the dish instead of coating all of the pasta, but he said it was a good and admitted that this is a popular way to make this dish.

The next dish that came out was one that we ordered without dispute, the pork belly, tasty, tasty morsels of the best part of the pig, smoked to perfection. If you have never tried pork belly, and I'm not just talking about bacon, you should know that it tends to be a little salty, and very rich, but when cooked properly, and it was, it is truly a food experience that you should have at least once in your life.

Our final dish to come out was the ceviche tostada, I wish I had a picture for you because this dish is as beautiful as it is delicious, but when it came out we started chatting with the chef and I forgot to snap a pic. If you like seafood and salsa, this is the perfect dish for you, it is very light and refreshing and was an ideal ending to our meal, well that and my hubby getting the chance to check out the chef's smoker. Temper Grille is a unique food experience and one you should definitely have!