Friday, June 25, 2010

Wink

I have been wanting to try Wink in Austin for years now. It literally is down the street, and I've never made it surprisingly. Well hello to restaurant.com again, and an official good-bye dinner for my dear friend Casey. She was off East for her career promotion and the thing we do best together is eat. We headed to Wink and got ready for all the rumors of greatness to be true. The restaurant is split in two separate sections. The right entrance is for reservations, the left for the bar and other come and go seating. We sat at the bar, which may be the best seat in the house. We had the bartender at our beckon call to answer all questions drink related. We fortunately ended up sitting next to the Wine selector for the restaurant. He gave us suggestions and tastings from his perfect personal choices. Seriously good start and ultimate finish to the night. Back to the middle of the culinary story. The menu changes daily, so we jumped right into the night's offerings. We ordered the cheese plate of the bar menu. I swear I've never had a full on bad cheese plate. It was excellent of course with one of its favorite partners, wine. We chose a Malbec, well the only Malbec on the wine list. Affordable yet satisfying. Then we got down to business. Casey chose the Dayboat Scallops (arugula, pattypan squash, sorrel emulsion, lemon grass vinaigrette). Cooked to PERFECTION. Light, sweet, the bounce back but softness you should get with good execution. I chose the Braised Rabbit leg (herbed gnudi, baby squash, lemony peashoots, and squash blossoms). Stick a fork in me and call me DONE. This was one of the best food marriages I've had. The vows exchanged by each flavor made my tastebuds tear up with love and adoration. Excellent. The rabbit tender, the lemony peashoots such a surprise, and gnudi a new fav. We chose desserts as if it could get any better. Well soldier, it DID. Caps are needed for this one. We selected the El Rey Chocolate cake (warm flourless chocolate cake, el ray chocolate, zinfandel infused cherries), and the Lemon Meringue pot (tart lemon curd, crisp meringue cup, candied lemon zest and berries). The chocolate cake was fantastic, but let me say the meringue pot stole the show. One of the best desserts ever. So light, so tart, so creamy. The candied lemon zest was out of sight. I could snack on it all day long. Wink is definitely one of my top picks in Austin after the visit. Go in for a drink at the bar, but don't forget the dishes that you can experience. It's worth every bite.

Wink Restaurant
Twitter: @winkrestaurant









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