B-day dinner at Bistro Don Julio!

For some time now, people have already been talking about this place. They all have one opinion in common:' great food, but pricey'. Since it was for a birthday celebration, I thought 'let's give it a shot!'. I made my reservations up front, which at the end was not even needed. We were one of the few tables occupied, which for me means 'better service'.

Great Service!!
So I don't know if service is normally this good, but everyone was very attentive. The birthday boy got all kinds of congratulations with his b-day and everyone seems to be communicated about this. The waiters were really professional in that they do share the specials of the day, the choices of game and fish of the day. Drinks came on time and the order in which the food got served was like I'd expect from a quality service restaurant. Wine got poured timely whenever our glasses were nearly empty. I was suppose to choose a dessert, so that they can do a birthday thing, but the birthday boy already felt that would happen and said he'd prefer not to, so I didn't do anything about it.

The food


Before my visit, I already asked around what's good. Some people tell me the T-bone, some say the pasta's, but since I was really in the mood for MEAT (when don't I, right?) the choice was made for a T-bone and a rib-eye. Instead of appetizers we chose to order something from the tapas menu. Since it was a birthday celebration, we got the garlic bread as a gift and we also ordered the Bang Bang and tapenade. One thing I gotta admit, they do love fresh ingredients. The bread was drenched in the garlic butter, which was flavorful and moist, but still has the crunchiness in the bread. The bang bang and the tapenade were really good. The birthday boy even said that he'd even prefer this above salmon. Since we had to wait for the wine, we did let the meat sit for a while after it got served. So my rib-eye was a bit towards medium, but I could still taste the juiciness and the awesome flavor of grilled steak. The mushroom sauce really complements it. The T-bone was the right temperature, but the texture of the meat was a bit on the rough side. I believe not enough marbling in the meat. The pepper sauce was ok, but not impressive. And when I told the owner about the T-bone texture, he assured me he's gonna research where the problem might be.




The place
The restaurant has an indoor and outdoor area. The indoor is created as a bar area, where people can sit back and relax, have a drink and a very chillax atmosphere. Outdoor, there are tables lined up in both the patio and the garden area. What I do like about the place is that it has a cozy feeling, with all the greens and paintings/pictures on the outer wall of the house. What needs some improvement are:
- ventilation. they did put fans around the place, but it was still a bit hot. And for so few tables and I was already sweating, I don't want to imagine when it's crowded.
- music. There's music indoor, but outdoor it's a bit quiet. Great for talking, but matching background music would create a better atmosphere.
- décor. I'm not that fond of the Christmas light and the ornaments. Maybe they're early for Christmas. I understand that they'd like to create an obvious line between patio and garden. I have no idea what they can use yet, but maybe a wooden carved wall or so?

Overall, I had a great experience with the attentive staff, the juicy rib-eye and an expected check. However people say it's expensive, I believe the prices are still affordable (and no, I'm not rich). However the prices of wine and pasta are a bit steep, but all other prices are really do-able. 100 srd (less than $30,-) for a big piece of rib-eye.....I'd pay it any time I'd crave for one.

For those who'd like to check the place out, they have a website:
http://bistrodonjulio.com/

Fundraising dinner: chefs on a mission

Wednesday night I went to a fundraising dinner of the newly graduated chefs from SHTTC. The whole initiative lies with the 'new' chefs. They have to organize the event, purchase the ingredients and cook the meal. The only thing they got some assistance was with the dining room: music, waiting duties and bussing the tables.

The sole purpose of these series(more to come) of fundraising dinners is so that this group can gain international experience and knowledge by doing their internship in Trinidad & Tobago. As an ex-intern, I can say that it is a great opportunity to gain great knowledge and obtain valuable life lessons.
That's why I'm totally supporting this cause. I see it as supporting better dining experiences in the future. For those, who would like to support them by donating, please call SHTTC (499741) or one of the students Kimberley Nurse (8989140).

The venue for this dinner was the dining room at the training center. At weekends it's rented out for 'de Vliegende Hollander' as a restaurant. The place is colorful and a bit too bright for such a dinner. Ok, let's go to the menu right away:

As an appetizer, we were served:

Smoked Bang Bang filet on a bed of greens, with a honey mustard dressing

 

It looks fresh and it tastes fresh. Normally, I'm not really fond of fish, but the sweetness of the dressing and the smokiness of the bang bang went really well. I could use some more bang bang though, but that's probably because I'm not such a salad-eater. (Meat, meat, meat!!!)

Our soup was:

Mushroom soup

The soup reminds me of the potato cream with truffles soup I had at Papiamento restaurant.(see culinary-tour-aruba-papillon-restaurant). The creaminess, the flavor, but I'd love it more if the texture would be a bit thicker.

For the entrée, the choice was between tenderloin and chicken breast and my choice was of course....Tenderloin!! There was a typo in the menu, but it should be:

Grilled tenderloin, parmesan cheese potato puree and a mix of veggies

My dining partners chose for medium and medium-rare temperature and so our order came as last.

For those who might get upset in such situations, just understand that chefs will always try to have everyone at one table eat at the same time, so since it's a pre-fixed menu, they will try to serve the courses to everyone in the room at the same time. What could've happened is that most of the diners chose either well-done or medium well, which takes a longer cooking time than medium or medium rare. So if you go to such dinner and you want to get your steak first, choose medium well (preferably) or if you really hate any pinkness, well-done.

My medium steak was grilled really well. I have to say this: the chefs are really skilled. When it comes to techniques, they really grabbed it. I mean, course after course, I've tasted skilled hands on the dishes. Maybe I'm expecting a bit too much, but I had hoped for new creations, something out of the ordinary or getting swept from my feet by the dishes, which I didn't. But on the other hand, I do understand that they are showing what they've learned at school, which they did exceptionally well. The dishes are done better than most of the restaurants in Suriname, so maybe some of the 'existing' chefs need a refreshing course?

For dessert, we got 'Borgoe Flan'.

I gotta apologize, since while eating this we were so in discussion that I actually forgot to focus on what I eat. What I know was that it wasn't bad, but it didn't impress me either. Otherwise, I'd sure notice anything about it.

The wine for the evening was: 35 degrees South

I gotta admit that the wine tasted better than I thought.
The mouth feel is a bit coarse, but not too sweet and not too dry.
Easy to drink.









Some areas can use some improvement:
- Welcoming & seating the guests: It was a bit awkward walking in an area and not knowing what to do.
- Dim the lights to create an ambiance
- Music was nearly non-existent since everyone was so loudly talking. It might be handy to have speakers in all the corners of the dining room. And it'd be recommended to have more suitable music than guns 'n roses. Don't get me wrong, I like guns 'n roses, just not while dining.
- better wine glasses: I understand that it probably comes with the dining room, but drinking wine out of a port-glass just doesn't give the wine the right credit.
- Coffee. I don't mind to pay for it, but it'd go really nice with the flan.

What I do like about the evening:
- the introduction of the 'chefs'. It's always nice to know who's behind the masterpieces, but they should try to get more confident standing in front of a group.
- Kimberley Nurse. She showed that she's more than just a chef. She was the MC, the socializer and the problem-solver. However everyone tries to avoid it, but things will go wrong at events. The important thing is how to deal with it.

For the price of SRD 75,- per person, we were served more than we expected ( 4 courses, non-alcoholic beverages and wine). That's the price one might need to pay for only that piece of steak, so for the next event, make sure to BE THERE.

 * All pictures are with the compliments of The Victuals Blog*