Restaurant Review: Kero Sushi

Graham and I love sushi. It's always been one of my top choices for a date night. When we moved to Virginia last summer, we had a few mediocre dinners out, so I was scared to try any of the sushi places I had bookmarked.

We got good news last week, so to celebrate we decided to go out for dinner, and Graham suggested sushi. I picked Kero Sushi. It had excellent reviews on Urbanspoon & it was close by. When we arrived, there was a short wait. The restaurant is on the small side, and the only open spots were at the bar.

Once seated, we ordered drinks and were brought complimentary soup or salad. Graham had the soup, which was delicious. The salad was okay. We ordered the Gyoza for an appetizer, and they were awful. They weren't fresh, and when they were steamed, there wasn't enough liquid. The tops were hard, while the bottoms were soft. They had no flavor, and to be honest we were a little worried about the quality of the sushi.

We ordered four rolls, the Lovers Roll, the Independent Roll, the Rainbow Roll & the Dynamite Roll. All four were absolutely fabulous. 

The Independent was Graham's favorite. It had a decent sized piece of fresh jalapeno inside and definitely had a kick to it. My favorite was the Rainbow, of course =) Instead of having a slice of avocado on top, there was a huge chunk inside, and a significant amount of cucumber. It tasted fresh & so delicious. The Lover's Roll was delicious, and the fact that is was heart shaped was just absolutely adorable. I thought it was *almost* too pretty to eat!

The Dynamite Roll was not what either of us were expecting, but I guess neither of us read the menu description close enough. It was delicious though. The baked fish on top was excellent, and the roll itself was pretty standard. They went together perfectly. 

Kero is definitely our go-to sushi spot at the moment. Just do yourself a favor & skip the warm appetizers. Order an extra roll or some edamame if you're extra hungry.  

I love weekends.

I saw this image on Pinterest the other day, and it made me happy. 

As much as I love social media, I can understand how it can cause depression in some people. I follow people with amazing social lives & the coolest careers known to mankind. I don't have either of those things. For the most part I'm good with that, but I'm human and every so often I wish I had tons of friends and a job that sparked envy in strangers. 

This little image made me realize it's okay not to have an exciting life, as long as I'm happy with the one I have. And I am. I love my life, and even though Graham & I aren't the most exciting couple in the world, I wouldn't change it for anything. 

You guys know what's crazy? As much as I love sushi, we had our first sushi dinner in Virginia on Friday night. We moved here the last week of July... It's going to take time to discover restaurants we love as much as we loved our spots in Little Rock, and I think I'm so scared of being disappointed by a restaurant, I'd rather not give them a chance. We chose Kero Sushi in Yorktown, and the sushi was excellent.  More on that later. 

Graham is testing for a promotion on Wednesday, so he's been studying non-stop lately. While he studied, I spent my Friday night drinking wine and working on a puzzle of Boston. 

Saturday, we headed to the Home & Garden show in Richmond so I could FINALLY meet John & Sherry from Young House Love! They didn't come to Little Rock during their book tour last year. The closest they got was Dallas, which was six hours away! So, I was definitely going to make the hour drive to Richmond to meet my fantasy BFF's & get my copy of their book signed =)

We arrived in Richmond early and stopped by Homegoods, Hobby Lobby & Whole Foods before going to the convention center. Stopping in Whole Foods of course means getting some macaroni & cheese from their hot bar. Speaking of Whole Foods, I found out the other day that one is opening 1.8 miles from my apartment in Spring 2015. We will have this stuff for dinner every night... And vegan chocolate chip cookies for dessert. I'm not vegan, but those cookies are amazing!

We got to the home show, and while the show itself was disappointing, John & Sherry were every bit as adorable and charming as I was expecting. Graham kept noticing similarities between us and them. It totally sealed my belief that we should be friends with them. And Hermione should be friends with Burger.

So excited to meet them! I went completely star struck and forgot how to talk. Graham was very cool though. He complemented them on the built-in's in their new nursery while I stammered and blushed. 

All throughout Virginia, they have these cute LOVE signs at rest stops. We've passed this one a few times, and finally stopped for a picture. Luckily there was a nice lady there taking photos of it, and she took a few for us. 

We got home that night, and Graham went back to his studying, and I returned to my puzzle. A 1,000 piece puzzle, and when we finished we were missing three pieces. I wanted to curl up into a ball & cry. 

And for dinner we had epic homemade tomato soup & pesto grilled cheese sandwiches.

We had leftovers for dinner tonight. I took my sandwich to the next level by adding slices of tomato. I used to love adding tomato to my grilled cheeses when I was a kid, and this was so, SO good! The sandwich had a Caprese salad feel to it, with the mozzarella, tomato and basil pesto.

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! 

Hermione's Snow Day (Part 2)

We got more snow this past week. A lot of snow. Well, maybe not a lot compared to my northern friends, but to a southern girl, 6-8 inches is a lot. Graham had to work late all week, and didn't get to enjoy it with Hermione. Luckily, he got off early on Friday, and we took advantage of the warm day and took the dog to Yorktown. Our normal spot was closed, so we took her to the battlefield, which turned out perfect. 

Our brilliant dog was scared of the snowman....

Graham amused himself by throwing snowballs at her. 

Once we finished walking around the battlefield, we walked around the town. I'm still in love with it, and some of my favorite houses are even more beautiful when covered in snow. 

We always see a massive amount of deer whenever we're in Yorktown and that day was no exception. We saw a group of them crossing the street and then hanging out in the cemetery. Such beautiful animals.

We ended the day with a walk along the beach. It was odd & beautiful seeing snow covering the sand. I'm so glad Graham was able to leave work early so we could have this wonderful day. 

Restaurant Review: The Barking Dog

One of the first restaurants Graham & I went to when we moved to Virginia was the Barking Dog. I am a suck for a good hot dog and the Barking Dog more than exceeded my expectations. We've been several times and have yet to be disappointed with anything that we've ordered.

Visit #1

We've actually started each visit with the corn dog nuggets. They are delicious, and the portion is huge for $4.95. There is also the perfect ratio of breading to hot dog.  

My first dog there was a chili cheese dog. You have the option of a "classic cased snap dog" or a 1/4 lb. all beef kosher dog. If you're going to cover it with toppings, get the snap dog. It's cheaper, and all of the toppings mask the flavor of the dog. 

Graham had the crab cake sandwich & it was delicious. There was very little breading, and loads of crab meat. The Old Bay potato chips pressed into the crust were a nice, crunchy addition.

Visit #2

On our second visit I ordered the 1/4 lb. dog plain & Graham had the "Barking Dog" with chili, slaw, onions & mustard. I can't stand slaw or raw onions, but my hot dog was delicious. The dog itself was so good, it didn't need to be smothered in toppings. 

Visit #3

On our most recent visit Graham ordered one of their sausages with spicy mustard and caramelized onions.

I had the fish tacos. These were epic. The fish is fresh and changes based on that days catch. This day the fish was blackened tuna and they were amazing. The chunks of tuna were HUGE, spicy & had tons of flavor. These tacos were enormous, and I was so full after eating them I barely touched the potato salad. 

This place has definitely become my favorite lunch spot in Hampton. They only have outside seating, and the space isn't very big, but it's worth the wait. They also serve a great selection of craft beers, wine & Coke products. 

Restaurant Review: La Parrilla Mexican Grill

When I first moved to Arkansas in January 2011, I never imagined it would become the home to some of my favorite restaurants. But the food scene in Little Rock is surprisingly excellent. Even more surprisingly, one of my favorite Little Rock restaurants was a Mexican chain called El Porton. Graham and I ate here at least once a month. The food was excellent. Especially the California burrito. And during happy hour, a small pitcher of margaritas is dirt cheap.

Anyways. Back to La Parrilla. It's challenging finding restaurants we love in a new area. Places that have great reviews on urbanspoon have poor reviews on Yelp. And vice versa. It's even more challenging considering we don't have any friends here yet that can recommend places. My search for excellent Mexican food led me to La Parrilla, which had mostly positive reviews on both.

It's in what looks like a fairly new shopping center in Suffolk. The restaurant was nice, we were seated quickly (they were slow even though it was a peak time on a Saturday night). The server was a little inattentive, but not horrible.

The complimentary salsa was delicious. It tasted fresh, was spicy and had lots of cilantro.

We both ordered meals that were pretty much identical to our favorite options back at El Porton. My favorite was a California burrito... A beautiful 10" tortilla stuffed with chicken, pico de gallo, guacamole, black beans & rice, smothered in cheese sauce. La Parilla had two that were similar. I chose the "crazy burrito". It was close, but not quite the same. For one, it had steak instead of chicken, re-fried beans instead of black beans and no rice. I don't like re-fried beans so next time I'll order it with black beans. It was absolutely delicious. Ad enormous. And I only managed to eat about half of it.

Yes, that's my wallet for a size comparison. My full sized checkbook wallet. 

Graham ordered the Chorio Pollo, which is exactly what he ordered at El Porton. He said it was every bit as good as what he was used to getting. The chicken was tender, and the crumbled chorizo was delicious. It's a huge platter of food, which he finished... and was miserable for about four hours.

We'll definitely go back to La Parrilla. There are a few more things on the menu I can't wait to try. Like their fajitas. The table next to us ordered those, and they looked amazing.

We've been in Virginia about four months, and I'm happy that we're finally getting out and exploring the culinary options the area has to offer.

Restaurant Review: Water Street Grille

This was quite possibly the most mediocre dinner I have ever had. Ever. For starters, when the waitress asked how everything was, we were actually honest and told her something was awful, because it really was. I've never, ever done that before.

I love food. I was excited to eat here, because I love tapas. It's a great way to discover new things. This place has a good variety of burgers, pizza and other entree items, as well as tapas. Maybe those items are better, but the five tapas items we tried ranged from mediocre at best to awful. 

Let's start with the awful: 
The Asian Chips and Salsa. The menu description: Spicy Tuna Tartar, Fried Wonton Chips and Sriracha Ice Cream. What we got was kettle style potato chips, about 6 small cubes of flavorless rare tuna, a large pile of watermelon cubes, seaweed salad and sriracha ice cream. I wasn't sure what to think about the ice cream, but I was intrigued. It was disappointing. You could tell there was sriracha in it, but it didn't really taste like anything. The tuna had NO flavor. The chips were regular potato chips. The seaweed salad was good though. Besides the lack of flavor in everything, the textures did not go well together at all and it was a hot mess. We spoke to the manager about it, and she just said it was new & edgy. It's not. It's a new restaurant trying too hard to be trendy and just missing the mark big time. 

Mediocre:
The jambalaya sliders. Problem #1: Lukewarm. Problem #2: There was a lot of bread, but really nothing else. A small piece of sausage, and the onions & peppers were chopped up pretty small in a little bit of sauce. Very bland.

Steamed Shrimp with Tequila Lime Butter: Nothing special. Not worth $12 for 9 small shrimp. The butter was okay, but didn't really have anything special about it. 

 The Good:
Avocado Fries: Graham didn't care for these, I liked them. I don't know if I would order them again, but they were pretty good. They weren't overly crispy, so the soft texture of the avocado was able to shine through. 

The Goat Cheese Hummus: This would have been great if the dippers had been warm or hot. The description: Served with Fresh Brick Oven Roasted Veggies, Grilled Flat Bread. The roasted vegetables (just carrots) were cold. The rest of the vegetables were tomato wedges, zucchini sticks, radishes. The flatbread would have been better if it were warm. 

There were  few good things about this visit: 
-The server was very good. When she asked about our tuna, and we told her we didn't care for it, she wanted to get a manager. We told her that was unnecessary, but she said that since they were a pretty new restaurant, all of the feedback they could get would help. They also took that item off of our check. 
-The view was beautiful. We ate on the patio, so we had a waterfront view. 
-Free parking in the deck across the street. 
-20 beers on tap. 

We'll probably go back and give their entree menu items a chance before we write this place off for good, but on this visit I was not impressed at all. The food was very blah and had little to no flavor. Even the cocktail I ordered was watered down.