Salt City Girl

Raves and rants about the Salty City's food, film and alcohol.

Friday, February 27, 2009

Love at First Bite

1394 S. West Temple

Lunch : Monday--Friday 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Dinner: Monday--Thursday 5 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.

Friday and Saturday 5 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.

I'm in love! Honestly, the dinner Ava and I had a Meditrina is hands-down one of the best dining experiences I've had in Salt Lake. This place is amazing.

Meditrina is in the house where Mama's Southern Plantation used to be and in every way has improved the place. It was dark, but the outside looked far less sketchy than when it had housed Mama's. Probably because they put up lots of Christmas lights so the area has some lighting.

Inside the owners have vastly improved the interior on a small budget. From the wooden floor to the geometric art to the bright purple ceiling the interior is warm and modern. They also have some cool chandeliers hanging up that add to the feeling.

My only complaint about the decor is the brown couch and that's just because it's not a very nice brown. I would love it if they reupholstered in black, but really they just moved in and they have a couch. That's impressive. It took me four months to get my first couch and it's really my roommates.

Our waiter was Tim and I have a small crush on him. For a couple of reasons, first he's adorable, second he was friendly and willing to make jokes at his own and my expense, and finally he brought me delicious food.

I knew you were wondering when I would get to that. Because we all know a restaurant is only as impressive as their menu, right? Well at Meditrina they've put together a fabulous menu of tapas.

I ordered the Patatas Bravas and Insideout Chicken Satay. Ava ordered the curry shrimp and steak. Because everything is served tapas style we got to share everything. That's right; it's all delicious food presented beautifully than you go family style and serve yourself. It's like snack time just became dinner time. Yay!

The potatoes were amazing. I'm guessing the bravas part meant the spicy tomatoe sauce the roasted potatoes were served with. As anyone who knows me can tell you: I will eat only potatoes and be happy, but these potatoes were truly amazing. The sauce was so good I would eat it without a potatoe.

The shrimp curry was my favorite of the dishes. I still can't get over the yumminess of the curry. I have decided I must learn how to make curry based on Meditrina's shrimp. It was that good.

Next was the inside out chicken satay. I'm not familiar with a chicken satay, but it was yummy. The almond crust was sweet and good. Ava didn't like this dish, but she doesn't like nuts. So all I can say is if you like chicken, almonds and sweet peanut sauce you will love this dish.

On to the steak. This was probably my least favorite of our four dishes. The steak was served with a pile of mashed potatoes and asparagus--both of which I love. The potatoes were good, not the best mashed potatoes, but obviously freshly prepared and homemade with pleanty of pepper and butter.

The asparagus was fantastic. The roasted spears were cooked perfectly and not to raw or overcooked, just a nice crisp bite. The steak was a little tough to me and not as flavorful as I expected it to be after the potatoes, shrimp and chicken. However, Ava loved this dish and ate most of the steak.

Oh. I almost forgot dessert. Ava and I split the Drunken Oreos Tim suggested based on "popular response." I don't know what that means, but drunken oreos are yummy. The oreos are dunked in red wine than topped with vanilla bean ice cream and drizzled with a port wine reduction sauce. Again, the sauce was fabulous. Plus, it was a good kind of ice cream not a crappy store brand, but actually a quality ice cream where you can see the vanilla bean and taste the cream.

See what happens when I'm in love? I talk way too much. For two beers, four plates of tapas and dessert the bill was right around $45. A little more expensive than my usual, but totally worth it. Plus, massive props to Ava who once again fed me.

What cool, new restaurant have you discovreed lately?



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3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm thinking that we should try to attempt the oreos of goodness sometime this weekend.

March 5, 2009 at 10:03 AM  
Blogger Krista Smith said...

Oh, idea made of awesome!

March 5, 2009 at 5:57 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Is this the restaurant you have been telling me about? If so i think we really need to go! ASAP!

March 7, 2009 at 11:47 AM  

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