Recently, my wife and I enjoyed a wonderful meal at Carmel Cafe (http://www.carmelcafe.com/), at 8433 Cooper Creek Blvd, Sarasota. We'll be back!
Cooper Creek bills itself as serving "modern Mediterranean cuisine." There were certainly lots of delicious Mediterranean influences in its dishes - from Basque to Arab spices and ingredients. For many dishes, they offer both small and large sizes. The small sizes were perfect for us.
They also have the customers select and place their orders via iPads. It's very easy to do. However, in talking to friends and family who have dined there, some have discovered that if the waiter does not pay attention to what diners have ordered, drinks and dishes can be overlooked, and not served in a timely fashion. We were fortunate because our waiter was very good.
My wife started with Seasonal Salad Flat Bread for $7.99. It contained shrimp, mango, goat cheese, and arugula on flat bread. It was delicious.
I started with Basque Jumbo Lump Crab Cake with Roasted Almonds and Avocado Salad for $7.99. I loved this dish. It was mouthwatering.
My wife's second dish was Steak Frites with Carmel Fries for $9.79. The steak was grilled and sliced Meyer Natural Angus with Bearnaise aioli. The Carmel Fries had an unusual spice - zahtar, which I have only seen used on Arab pita bread. The fries were good, but some of them were too salty.
My second dish was grilled lamb and veal sliders with mint cucumber sauce for $7.99. I loved this dish as well.
For dessert, my wife chose the Dessert Trio for $5.79. It consisted of Amarena cherry custard, and two homemade truffles - 1 cappucino and 1 Marcona almond. They were delicious.
I had grilled pound cake with kaffir-lime scented strawberries and almond-infused whipped cream for $5.79. It was very tasty.
The wine I chose was a 2010 Joe Gott Napa Zinfandel for $44. It was very nice.
Carmel Cafe is a chain of four restaurants. They were started by Outback co-founder Chris Sullivan. The other three restaurants are in the Tampa-Clearwater area.
No comments:
Post a Comment