Atlantic City Restaurant Week - Friday

This is my first real blog here!  Yay!  So anyway, this week has been Atlantic City Restaurant Week.  Seeing as I'm from South Jersey, it is quite convenient for me to attend!  I only managed to attend 3 restaurants but that is ok because I don't need to eat that many 3 course meals in a week!

First up was East Bay Crab & Grill which is not too far outside of Atlantic City and close enough to my work that I convinced some coworkers to go to lunch on Friday.  I tried my first ever escargot!  I stole one from my friend who ordered it.  I liked it a lot!  Reminded me of clams but without the grittiness when you bite into sand.  I got the coconut shrimp (my favorite but 100 calories!  Ack!  Never again!!!)

For my main course, I had the shrimp risotto.  Pretty good but a little too creamy (but its risotto so its expected).

Finally, I had the bread pudding for dessert.  Yum!  I don't know what type of cream sauce was on top but it was delicious :)

For dinner, my sister, my mom and I made plans to go to the Red Square at the Tropicana.  Last year, we had done Cuba Libre in the same place.  Anyway, the Red Square is "continental" with a Russian theme.  My mom is Russian so we thought it would be fun.  Really, there aren't *many* Russian things on the menu but really really expensive caviar ($230 per ounce!) and over 100 vodkas.  Anyway, we were still excited to have a girl's night out.  The restaurant was very nice and had a great atmosphere.  All the lighting was red!  After a while, your eyes adjusted and it didn't seem as severe.  I felt silly using my camera to take pictures with the flash but I did!  I'm sure I annoyed someone but the restaurant wasn't busy yet when we were there.

I decided to forgo the restaurant week menu and order the salmon instead.  My mom and sister both did the RW menu and picked the Chicken Kiev.  I ordered one of their specialty drinks.  Since it was a Russian place, I decided to go with a very strong vodka drink so I could taste the quality vodka.  This had (some sort of brand I don't remember) vodka, sweet vermouth, and blue cheese stuffed olives (one of their signature sides).  It was delicious!  The vodka was extremely smooth and yummy.  I will never buy the cheap stuff again (not that I drink it that often anyway :)  )

My sister wanted a different desert that what came with her RW meal so I took her Raspberry sorbet and she ordered the creme brulee.  My mom got the Strawberries Roganoff (I think?).  Basically berries and cream.  I tried all and they were awesome!

One cool thing about the restaurant was that they had a "tasting room" that you had to pay $100 to get into and you had to dress up in fur.  They also had military style outfits for the guys.  People were going in when we were leaving.

After dinner, we decided to talk around The Quarter (name of the area in the Tropicana where all the shops and restaurants are).  Its all inside with cool "buildings" and a pretty "sky".

 Definitely a fun night out!  We went last year and now I think its become tradition!  Can't wait for next time!