Dinner at e2 Emeril's Eatery in Charlotte

Crawfish at the Crawfish Boil! Each Friday in May e2 offered a traditional crawfish boil for $5 per person. They served 400 pounds of crawfish the night we were there - let's hope they bring this back soon!

I was recently invited back to e2, this time for dinner with my husband and with fellow blogger Malika Bowling from Atlanta Restaurant Blog. Malika and her husband, Glen, came up from Atlanta to check out some restaurants while they stayed with us for the weekend in Charlotte. Friday night started off with a "Bam" - truly - as we dined in style at e2 with fabulous food and service. 

My favorites included the oyster shooter (not pictured but I blogged about the oyster shooter here previously when I had lunch at e2), the gumbo, the gulf coast drum stew, the special fish dish with stuffed kale and the blue corn brioche bread pudding. We also really enjoyed the cocktails, particularly the famous Grasshopper and the wonderful wine selection. e2 is a really good choice for lunch or dinner. Brunch is also offered with specials for Father's Day, coming up this Sunday.

 

Special of crispy Duck Wings - different and tasty.

Housemade Boudin + Andouille Sausage.

 

Special gumbo of the day - delicious!

  

Emeril's signature BBQ shrimp with rosemary biscuit.

  

We enjoyed some delicious cocktails and wine!

 

The famous Grasshopper - everyone really liked this special cocktail.

 

Special seafood dish with fish and mussel-stuffed kale and fried oysters. The stuffed kale was awesome!

 

Gulf Coast Drum Portuguese stew - this was really tasty, love the broth and all the seafood.

 

Trout "Meuniere" - trout is sometimes used in place of the usual founder.

 

Giant and delicious double cut pork chop - it was after this pork chop that I officially made up the Pork Chop Song / Dance for my son, who at age 7 months, ate some of the leftover pork chop! If you ask me I might sing it for you sometime :D

 

Desserts: from top left, clockwise, blue corn brioche bread pudding with coconut-pineapple ice cream, banana cream pie, apple crepes with bacon and ice cream, sweet potato cheesecake. The bread pudding was different from any other bread pudding I have ever tried - and SO good! 

 
 Disclosure: The meal described in this review was complimentary.

China Wing - Korean in Charlotte

Haemul pajeon - Seafood and scallion pancake.

One of the biggest food disappointments in Charlotte as compared to Atlanta is the Korean cuisine - or rather the lack of it! In Atlanta there are literally hundreds of options including full Korean BBQ restaurants, simpler Korean restaurants which specialize in particular dishes, Korean bakeries and even Korean shaved ice shops. In Charlotte there are only a small handful of places that serve Korean cuisine and many of them are quite far from my in-town neighborhood. This puzzles me because Charlotte has a decent number of Vietnamese and Thai restaurants. There are certainly fewer people of Korean descent living in Charlotte than in the Atlanta area but not so few that there should not be more options for Korean cuisine. In any event, I was extremely excited to finally visit China Wing, which to my knowledge is the closest place to me where Korean food is served.

China Wing looks like it used to be a Long John Silver or similar fast food joint. In order to make it the Korean owners serve a variety of American fast food in addition to the full Korean menu. You want the Korean menu, which has detailed descriptions of the dishes and photographs of most of the options, making it less intimidating for first-timers.

I was pleased with everything we ordered including the delicious Korean seafood and scallion pancake, the noodle dish japchae, the BBQ pork and the bi bimbap, a personal favorite. One disappointment was that the selection of banchan or panchan - tiny dishes, often pickled served with the meal - was limited to just 2: tasty kimchi and pickled radish. At other places (of course I'm comparing to Atlanta) you get at least 4-5 different options or possibly more. Still, I can't complain since the main dishes and the banchan we were given were delicious and definitely hit the spot and satisfied my craving for Korean food. I look forward to returning to China Wing and to visiting the other Korean restaurants in the area. I also look forward to visiting my favorite Korean spots back in Atlanta when we visit! Where have you had Korean cuisine in Charlotte? Super G Mart and Cho Wan Garden are on my list.

Make sure you get the Korean menu!

Japchae - delicious noodles.

BBQ pork.

Bi Bimbap - so hot the egg cooks in the dish!

Sauceman's

One of my recent discoveries in Charlotte is Sauceman's BBQ. When I was growing up in Charlotte the small building at the corner of S. Tryon and West Boulevard was a scary looking Chinese takeout spot - not anyplace I ever thought to stop, although I did frequent the Bojangles across the street! Now with the light rail just a long block away and the burgeoning businesses on Camden Ave. nearby, the owners of Sauceman's have turned this once bleak spot into a highlight of the neighborhood and they serve some tasty BBQ to boot.

I've dined at Sauceman's twice and tried the chopped BBQ, the coarse chopped BBQ, the brisket and the ribs. My favorite is the brisket and the chopped BBQ as well as the mac & cheese, the fried green tomatoes and the hush puppies. The BBQ has a nice smoky flavor and several sauces are available to finish it off. The hush puppies are BIG and tasty. For dessert I indulged in the sugar biscuits - basically fried dough with sugar on top - yum! Next time I want to try the shrimp and grits, which I observed someone else eating last visit. I also saw someone attempting Sauceman's own food challenge: the Clark Griswold - let's just say one person should not be able to eat this giant portion of 2.5 lbs. of chopped pork, hush puppies, bread, slaw and another side dish! If you can eat it in under 30 minutes, it's free - otherwise it's $25. Maybe next time I'll try this with a couple of friends!

Coarse chopped pork with slaw and fried green tomatoes.

Ribs with fried corn.

Sugar biscuits.

Harvest Moon Grille - Apparently you have to wait for the Harvest...

Catfish and eggs with grits.

My second time dining at Harvest Moon Grille was on June 24, 2012 for brunch. My mom had friends visiting from out of town and she made a reservation for 5 of us at 11 AM. The first bad sign came as the host greeted us: "The kitchen is running about 30-45 minutes behind and your table isn't ready yet." Our friends were running a bit late themselves so we thought this would be OK. They arrived about quarter after 11 and we waited quite a bit longer before being seated around 11:45. The host also promised "As soon as you sit down we'll bring you some biscuits and jam." That sounded promising. Unfortunately only after 4 requests to 4 different staff members and about an hour later did said biscuits and jam appear. They were delicious - actually the best part of the meal - hot with fresh raspberry jam. I could have eaten 3 by that point but settled for 1.5.

But the late-arriving biscuits could only do so much. For a party with a reservation, the wait time we endured is totally unacceptable anywhere. I was literally about to walk out. Two couples did. One had to be at the airport and they had waited over an hour for breakfast. I was embarrassed for the city of Charlotte as many of the waiting patrons were tourists. To think this might be their lasting impression of our fair city! Very unfortunate. I advised one couple to visit Queen City Q since it was past noon. I seriously considered getting up and going elsewhere again. I felt bad for the Dunhill, an excellent hotel, that its reputation may be scarred from its proximity to the restaurant. The front of the house staff could not have been nicer although our waiter seemed overworked and was probably avoiding us because he could not bring us anything to eat.

We finally got our food just after 1 PM - yes, two hours after our reservation time. The catfish and eggs with grits is a unique and very tasty dish. Everything else was nothing special, similar to the previous brunch I had here. So disappointing. The concept of farm to table cuisine is admirable but based on my experience, this place does not yield satisfactory results. Harvest Moon Grille seriously needs to take a look at its business operations and be sure they have backup. And about those biscuits: they should come out gratis to every table as soon as folks are seated, even if the kitchen is running on schedule.

Another negative note: parking is supposed to be free in the Dunhill deck when you eat at Harvest Moon. When we exited, it showed a balance of $2. Although this is not a big deal in theory, considering the strife we went through just to eat, this was the last straw. We went inside and someone had the audacity to tell us that it was $2 "because we were there too long". No kidding. They finally gave us the $2 in cash to use at the machine after a lot of argument. I'm not sure if this was the hotel or the restaurant but either way, the restaurant needs to figure out how to handle this issue as well. Good thing there are more and more places to eat downtown. Some advice: find another one.

Harvest Moon Eggs Benedict with pulled pork.



Pulled pork sandwich with potato salad. Pork and potato salad were bland and the sauce (I had to ask for it) was sadly not much help.

Smithfield's Chicken 'N BAR-B-Q - Rockingham, NC

On the way back from the beach we stopped at Smithfield's Bar-B-Q, a local chain with 30 North Carolina locations. We had a hard time finding this place - even our GPS was off at first. When we finally found it we ordered efficiently at the counter and our food arrived quickly. Service was top-notch - more than once someone came by to refill drinks and ask us if we needed anything. Unfortunately I found the BBQ itself lackluster. The meat did not have that smokiness that you crave when you go to a BBQ joint. On a better note, the slightly sweet and elongated hush puppies were quite good. Slaw and fries were average. On the whole this was a decent spot to stop on the way back to Charlotte but next time I'm going to do more research to find a really down home non-chain option that will hopefully have better 'cue.

Half eaten BBQ platter with slaw and fries.

Queen City Q

Onion rings with Boone's 57 sauce (front) and The Q Platter with double pork, beef brisket and St. Louis ribs.

Queen City Q is a fairly recent addition to the Charlotte BBQ scene. Located close to the 7th St. light rail stop, it's a perfect place to ride & dine. A few weeks ago Calvin and I walked uptown from our house, participated in a twilight 5K race and had a great dinner here before taking the train back home. If you don't live close enough to walk or take the train, parking is validated in the adjacent deck. In addition to a huge indoor dining room and full bar, there is a nice patio where we sat.

We decided to share an order of the onion rings appetizer and The Q Platter - you could choose up to 4 meats but since we love BBQ pulled pork we doubled up on that and had the brisket and the ribs as well. All of the meats were smoky, succulent and tasty, particularly the St. Louis ribs. It was also a portion big enough for a third person!

Queen City Q has a wide variety of sides including all of the usual suspects plus a few innovative additions like corn & edamame salad. Our chosen sides, mac & cheese and BBQ slaw, were good choices but I'd like to return to try the greens and sweet potato fries. Salads and tacos, two types of chili and Brunswick stew are also offered. I also like that they include Texas toast with the entrees - yum! I look forward to dining here again and trying more menu items!

Eastern NC BBQ slaw and mac & cheese.

El Taco - VA Highlands

Roasted chicken taco, fried chicken taco and side of grilled corn in chili-lime mayo.

We had not been to El Taco since it changed hands and joined 5th Group. We started with the lime-salted corn chips and house salsa. Paying for chips and salsa at a Mexican restaurant is one of my pet peeves, but how can you pass up chips and salsa?! I also found it odd that although there is a nice salsa bar in back, you can't get the "house salsa", which I liked a lot, unless you order the chips. I enjoyed trying the various salsas available at the bar but would like to see slightly larger cup size available so the salsas could be more easily dipped and shared.

I ordered two tacos (fried chicken and roasted chicken) and the side of corn. The corn dish and the fried chicken taco were my favorites. Something about the chili-lime mayo on the corn really adds a wonderful flavor. Calvin enjoyed his short stack with pork also. The short stack includes open-faced corn tortillas, red and green chili sauces, refried beans, Mexican cheeses, sunny-side-up egg plus the optional pork.

El Taco has a varied and interesting menu and it would be fun to try some of the other items like the fajitas, the Mexican pizzas or the shrimp del diablo. I very much want to try 5th Group's newest Mexican restaurant, Alma Cocina - hopefully you'll read about it soon in a new post!

El Short Stack + pork carnitas.

Rosa Mexicano's Winter Eclectic Cuts Menu

Carne Asada con Tamarindo - Tamarind Barbecued Tri-Tip Steak with roasted root vegetable mash, crispy kale and tamarind salsa. This is one tasty steak!

Earlier this week I was invited to check out Rosa Mexicano's unique Winter Eclectic Cuts menu at the Atlantic Station location in Atlanta. This special menu is available from now until March 11. The menu is termed "eclectic" because it features underutilized cuts of meat not often seen in mainstream dining establishments. For full menu, see below. We started wit a taste that's on the regular menu - scallop and pork belly tacos - these were really delicious and packed just the right amount of spice. We also had the famous guacamole, which is made table side - hard to come here without getting this!

We tried both the starters on the Eclectic Cuts menu as well - the veal tongue tacos were tasty with a sweet fruit glaze and avocado rounding out the flavors. The crispy sweetbreads had a nice salsa verde served on the side.

Scallop and Pork belly tacos.

Awesome guacamole prepared table side.

Veal Tongue tacos.

Crispy Sweetbreads.

For our entrees we tried both the tri-tip steak (top photo) and the braised pork cheeks with organic grits (below). Both entrees were really outstanding. I love the tamarind sauce served with the steak and the steak itself was really outstanding - I'm not a steak person so this is really saying something!

Braised pork cheeks and soft corn tamale grits - tender and delicious.

In addition to trying the prepared by Rosa Mexicano's chef, you can also purchase the eclectic cuts raw to prepare at home - a neat feature to this very unique menu.

For dessert we opted for the tres leches cake although the Meyer lemon frozen souffle on the special menu sounds delicious as well.

Eclectic Cuts Menu
Appetizers
Veal Tongue Tacos ($8)
Seared veal tongue hand tacos with a winter fruit glaze and molcajete salsa

Crispy Sweetbreads ($10)
Crispy fried sweetbreads with fresh Burns Farms huitlacoche and poblano sauté, cabbage escabeche and salsa verde

Entrees
Braised Pork Cheeks and Soft Corn Tamale ($19)
Ancho chile braised pork cheeks with a soft tamale of organic grits, red wine and roasted tomatoes

Tamarind Barbecued Tri-Tip Steak ($24)
Tamarind barbecued tri-tip steak with roasted root vegetable mash, crispy kale and salsa tamarindo

Braised Lamb Neck Tinga Enchilada ($17)
Two soft corn tortillas filled with spicy braised lamb topped with creamy roasted tomato chipotle salsa

Dessert
Meyer Lemon Souffle ($7)
Creamy, frozen meyer lemon souffle with warm raspberry-pomegranate compote, toasted meringue and a crispy Mexican sopapilla

Disclosure: The meal described in this review was complimentary.