Downtown Raleigh Restaurant Week: Irregardless

Blauer Zweigelt

(and Jeff)

Crispy Crab Rangoons

Portobello Mushroom Stack

Beet and Goat Cheese Crostini 

Chile Relleno

Chocolate Truffle

Vegetarian Menu

Hello all, this is the final post in the Downtown Raleigh Restaurant Week series. I chose to end my food journey at Irregardless. This was my first time going to this restaurant and I was not sure what to expect. I had heard great things about this place but for one reason or another had not yet had the opportunity to dine with them. I was really happy to see that they offered two different menus for their restaurant week specials one was vegetarian and the other featured various meat dishes. They also featured gluten free options. ( I love having plenty of options.) While I am not a vegetarian myself I did find that the vegetarian menu appealed to me more that the meat one so all of the dishes I chose came from that menu. I started with the Crispy Crab Rangoons which were pretty good, then for the entree I opted for the Portobello Mushroom Stack and I finished with the vegan Chocolate Truffle. We also decided to get a bottle of wine for the table and chose an Austrian wine that none of us had tried before. The mushroom stack was surprisingly filling and the flavors paired nicely with the wine and the dessert was to die for!  Overall I loved dining at Irregardless. Not only were the food and wine great but they also had live music! The waitstaff was very knowledgeable and the service was great. It was a great place to go and catch up with old friends. I will definitely be revisiting this local restaurant!

Downtown Raleigh Restaurant Week: bu•ku

Tahitian Coconut-Lime Gazpacho

Ethiopian Steak Tartare

Kinoko Somen

Pan Seared Monkfish

Ichigo Daifuku Trifle

Hello Stash of Sass! As promised we will continue our magical food adventure for Downtown Raleigh Restaurant week. Our next stop is bu•ku. bu•ku is known for their global street food and is home of the crème brûleé trilogy. (Which we will have to talk about another time because it was not part of the restaurant week special and therefore is not a part of this particular food post.) I will insert the link to the restaurant week menu bu•ku featured here for you all to reference in case you are interested. 

http://www.godowntownraleigh.com/restaurant-week/menu/54

To start off I ordered the sangria with the Tahitian Coconut-Lime Gazpacho. Both were amazing! The gazpacho had crab with cucumber, tomatoes and onions in it and the coconut flavor was not too overpowering which is something that I find often happens with coconut dishes. I loved the sangria and featured a dark but cute image of it being poured in boomerang on my Instagram page. (https://www.instagram.com/p/BYHyTEJj9Gs/?taken-by=adrimonima)

For the main course I chose the Kinoko Somen which featured Buckwheat soba noodles with an array of mushrooms, corn and scallions. This portion was huge! ( and no, that's not a complaint!) I had enough for dinner and lunch the next day. The soup had a kick too it but it was not too strong. (This is coming from someone who hates spicy things!) Then for dessert I got the Ichigo Daifuku Trifle. This dessert consisted of strawberries, dark chocolate, sponge cake and azuki bean custard. Honestly, this dessert was not my favorite. I didn't care for the way the flavors mixed and the texture bothered me. I think it may have been the bean custard mixed with the chocolate that I didn't care for. I think I also expected it to be sweeter which is my fault because I should have read the menu more carefully ( I just saw dark chocolate and got excited!) seen the azuki bean custard which is typically not very sweet by American standards. As a whole I really enjoyed dining at bu•ku! This was my second time eating there and each time the service and food have been outstanding! I will definitely be returning and when I do you all can expect a post featuring the crème brûleé trilogy!