A restaurant review

It’s Monday, June 27, 2016 and this marks the day of my 200^th post! To be honest, I never expected to get this far and I certainly didn’t expect to have the number of views I do. When I began this blog, I was just looking for a creative outlet and a way to keep my writing somewhat consistent. I did not think I would stick with it this long and enjoy it as much as I have. It’s kind of exciting!

As I sit here amidst crumbs from Harvey’s latest treat and covered in his fur, I am day dreaming about the date Josh and I went on this past Saturday. So I will be doing my first “restaurant review.”

Since our anniversary was on a Monday, we opted to make reservations for over the weekend at a fancy restaurant. We spent a lot of time looking online for places in the area and talked to some people who have lived here for a while. Finally, we settled on a place called Al Corso in the town of Collins.

The pictures online show this cute Barn Red building that is filled with tables with white table cloths and a gorgeous bar. After scanning the menu provided on their website, we decided it would be well-worth the try so we made a reservation.

When Saturday evening rolled around, we got dressed up and headed to Collins. We are still so new to the area, we had never been to Collins and didn’t know what to expect. And, it’s a good thing this restaurant’s website had pictures because as we pulled into Collins, we didn’t think we were in the right place.

It was a very tiny town, I’m talking maybe 4 buildings and 7 houses. And the 4 buildings we saw as we drove down the street looked pretty worn and forgotten. I thought we had the wrong address because I couldn’t imagine a fine dining restaurant in this tiny town. But sure enough as we approached the corner, Al Corso stood out in its up-kept glory. (Still, I couldn’t imagine there was fine dining).

We entered the restaurant to find it exactly like the pictures. It was well decorated, and had an intimate atmosphere. The hostess greeted us and led us to sit at the bar for a drink prior to our reservation. Turns out, Al Corso has quite the whiskey and wine list, but we still opted for specialty drinks off their menu. The drinks were delicious and not skimping on the alcohol, well-worth their prices. Plus their bartender was super friendly!

Once we were seated the hostess shared with us the specials and gave us the menus. They had items on the menu like: bacon wrapped scallops, red pepper soap, salmon, steak, lamp, lobster, clams, etc. Exactly the kind of restaurant we were looking for to celebrate our first year together. So let me walk you through our meal…

The first thing we did was order an appetizer. I am a HUGE fan of scallops and when I saw they had bacon wrapped scallops on the menu, I knew we had to give them a try. A rectangular white plate was brought out to use with three large scallops wrapped in bacon sitting on an apple butter sauce. The plating was beautiful and artistic. And the food was far better than I imagined. The scallops melted in your mouth and apple butter sauce was phenomenal.

Then came our soups. We both decided to give the roasted red pepper a try and it was brought out with the bread. The soup was incredible. I am not normally one to choose the soup over a salad, but it was delicious and even had “foam art” on the top. The attention to detail was impressive. And even the bread was out of this world. It was sun dried tomato bread with a basil butter. Now, I normally enjoy the bread at restaurants, but theirs was probably the best ever.

As soon as we finished our soups, the main course was brought out. Josh ordered the surf and turf, I ordered the seafood medley pasta.

Josh’s steak was so good! One bite actually made me want to order steak, and I have never wanted steak at a restaurant before. My seafood was insane. There were two large shrimp, two large scallops, and 2 large pieces of lobster on top of the bed of pasta. Seriously, LARGE. The lobster pieces were as big as the palm of my hand! Dinner was so good, we weren’t even done eating and already talking about our next visit to Al Corso!

To say this restaurant met our expectations for a memorable and fancy anniversary dinner would be an understatement. Al Corso exceeded our expectations at every bite and left us eager to return. I highly recommend them!

Having a memorable date night with my husband to celebrate our first year of marriage was so special and I am thrilled we chose to dine with Al Corso.