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baronessekatWith Boogie off to Dragoncon this weekend, usual Friday Family dinner left me and ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dicea wondering where we should go and what we should eat. Usually sans Boogie means we go someplace that we know Boogie would never agree to. Usually something like IHOP or Perkins.
But this time I wanted to try something different and having a vague recollection of a place not too far from Dicea's house mentioned on the morning news program I watch, I mentioned it to her. Of course I couldn't remember the location or the name, but since when has that ever stopped us?
After only a few minutes of searching on the interwebs we found it. A place called Sample and it was only about 4 blocks from the house so off we went.
Small cozy location, but bigger than us usually find for that part of Buffalo, Sample gives you the feel of pretension without making you feel out of place if you just completely walked off the street, like we did.
The concept of Sample is in their name... everything except the drinks are sample sized.
Dicea wrote her review here: http://dicea.livejournal.com/597787.html so I will tell you about what I had.
I started with the best Mojito I have had in a very very very long time. And as someone who loves mojitos that's high praise. The she and I shared a cheese plate. It was enough that 2-4 people could share the plate and each get a taste or two of everything there. There was a grilled Pannini with cheese, pear and carmelized onions, a homemade ricotta cheese with grilled onion chutney and then a "fondue" of some richly flavored cheese drizzled with a pesto oil and a cherry tomato. This plate alone was worth going for.
Then came our meals. At Sample you can buy ala carte or you can do one of three samplers. The samplers are a tour of the menu in which you get everything on the menu in even smaller portions for around $36, or you can do a "cocktail party" of 6 or 9 items from the menu plus a glass of wine. We each did ala carte, though next time I may do the cocktail party. My meal consisted of:
Chicken "Noodle" Soup. About 2-3 ounces of chicken soup with finely diced veggies and the "noodles" were jullianed chicken breast. Very good. Perfect starting thing.
I then moved on to the Poutine. This is a very Canadian thing. But this was also in the serving size of the soup and was small french fries covered in cheese and sirloin gravy. The gravy even had bits of sirloin in is. While I normally do not totally care for Poutine, this was worthy, and the perfect amount.
Next was a very traditional Buffalo thing... Beef on Weck. Only this sandwich was the size of a half dollar. Three bites. The beef, a red wine braised sirloin was wonderful and the roll was firm but not hard. Perfect way to introduce someone to this unique Buffalo food.
After the Beef on Weck I had Steak Frite. While not one for Balsamic sauces, I thought I would give this one a try and I'm glad I did. It was only two bites worth but damn was it yummy two bites.
After our entrees we had another round of Drinks and then dessert. I got a Strawberry Mojito for my drink (OMG - I want the recipe for that one) and then the "Sample Some More" which was a three part dessert of a shot glass of hot chocolate with a home made marshmallow, a bite of peanut brittle and then a s'more on home made graham cracker with a chocolate peanut butter spread and then a square of home made marshmallow which was then all torched to make it soft and yummy. The only thing I did not care for was the peanut brittle as it tasted over cooked and was too hard to actually eat.
We are soooooo going back to this place and bringing Boogie with us. It was a little more money that I had wanted to spend but it was worth every penny and we could have done better had we done the cocktail party option.
From what I see, their menu changes all the time to keep people interested. Here is an example of their menu from a while ago: http://www.allmenus.com/menus/245650/Sample
And a review of the place: http://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/stories/2007/10/01/newscolumn3.html
This is a place that I will happily take out of town friends, family and myself to.
After all there are very few places you can go to and have a 7 course meal, clean your plates completely and leave not feeling stuffed.
dicea wondering where we should go and what we should eat. Usually sans Boogie means we go someplace that we know Boogie would never agree to. Usually something like IHOP or Perkins. But this time I wanted to try something different and having a vague recollection of a place not too far from Dicea's house mentioned on the morning news program I watch, I mentioned it to her. Of course I couldn't remember the location or the name, but since when has that ever stopped us?
After only a few minutes of searching on the interwebs we found it. A place called Sample and it was only about 4 blocks from the house so off we went.
Small cozy location, but bigger than us usually find for that part of Buffalo, Sample gives you the feel of pretension without making you feel out of place if you just completely walked off the street, like we did.
The concept of Sample is in their name... everything except the drinks are sample sized.
Dicea wrote her review here: http://dicea.livejournal.com/597787.html so I will tell you about what I had.
I started with the best Mojito I have had in a very very very long time. And as someone who loves mojitos that's high praise. The she and I shared a cheese plate. It was enough that 2-4 people could share the plate and each get a taste or two of everything there. There was a grilled Pannini with cheese, pear and carmelized onions, a homemade ricotta cheese with grilled onion chutney and then a "fondue" of some richly flavored cheese drizzled with a pesto oil and a cherry tomato. This plate alone was worth going for.
Then came our meals. At Sample you can buy ala carte or you can do one of three samplers. The samplers are a tour of the menu in which you get everything on the menu in even smaller portions for around $36, or you can do a "cocktail party" of 6 or 9 items from the menu plus a glass of wine. We each did ala carte, though next time I may do the cocktail party. My meal consisted of:
Chicken "Noodle" Soup. About 2-3 ounces of chicken soup with finely diced veggies and the "noodles" were jullianed chicken breast. Very good. Perfect starting thing.
I then moved on to the Poutine. This is a very Canadian thing. But this was also in the serving size of the soup and was small french fries covered in cheese and sirloin gravy. The gravy even had bits of sirloin in is. While I normally do not totally care for Poutine, this was worthy, and the perfect amount.
Next was a very traditional Buffalo thing... Beef on Weck. Only this sandwich was the size of a half dollar. Three bites. The beef, a red wine braised sirloin was wonderful and the roll was firm but not hard. Perfect way to introduce someone to this unique Buffalo food.
After the Beef on Weck I had Steak Frite. While not one for Balsamic sauces, I thought I would give this one a try and I'm glad I did. It was only two bites worth but damn was it yummy two bites.
After our entrees we had another round of Drinks and then dessert. I got a Strawberry Mojito for my drink (OMG - I want the recipe for that one) and then the "Sample Some More" which was a three part dessert of a shot glass of hot chocolate with a home made marshmallow, a bite of peanut brittle and then a s'more on home made graham cracker with a chocolate peanut butter spread and then a square of home made marshmallow which was then all torched to make it soft and yummy. The only thing I did not care for was the peanut brittle as it tasted over cooked and was too hard to actually eat.
We are soooooo going back to this place and bringing Boogie with us. It was a little more money that I had wanted to spend but it was worth every penny and we could have done better had we done the cocktail party option.
From what I see, their menu changes all the time to keep people interested. Here is an example of their menu from a while ago: http://www.allmenus.com/menus/245650/Sample
And a review of the place: http://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/stories/2007/10/01/newscolumn3.html
This is a place that I will happily take out of town friends, family and myself to.
After all there are very few places you can go to and have a 7 course meal, clean your plates completely and leave not feeling stuffed.
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(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-30 03:32 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-31 02:04 am (UTC)thinking about trip stateside as a sub for scotland, & postponing that trip to oct/nov...
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Date: 2008-09-06 05:33 pm (UTC)