On April 23rd, five of my friends and I went to the Palisades restaurant to celebrate the end of the semester as well as get in our last food and wine dinner. I went before and the food was delicious and the wine paired excellently. I was excited to go back and try new dishes. We were seated relatively quickly despite the restaurant being quite full. A few people got appetizers to eat before the main dish with wine and food pairs.
The first course consisted of roasted corn and black bean tamales with poblano queso. The tamale looked a bit odd but ended up being my favorite course of the meal. It tasted especially delicious when a forkful was dipped in queso. Unfortunately I was not a very big fan of the wine pairing with the dish. A sauvignon blanc from Touraine France was supposed to be sipped with the tomale but together, the spiciness in the food was brought out a bit too much for my taste. The wine itself was fairly good, with hints of peaches and pairs with a slight hint of cat urine aromas on the nose. Wolters Pilsener from Germany was also served during this course and did pair much better with the food. It was a light and bubbly beer but still a fairly typical beer for me.
The second course was a shrimp ceviche with lime cilantro and avocado. The lime in the dish was slightly overpowering so you couldn't taste much of the avocado. Avocado is one of my favorite foods so that was disappointing. Served with this dish were a Mokoroa from Spain as well the Aleworks Brewing Company White Ale from Williamsburg, VA. The wine was quite bubbly but once again I was not a fan of the pairing. Together the food and wine were overpoweringly sour. The white ale was pretty good by itself and once again paired better with the food than the wine. There was a bit of a hoppiniess in the finish of the wine but it wasn't overwhelming.
The third course probably was the one my friends and I talked about the most. The menu said that it would be a cactus pear ice cream with chipoltle white chocolate and candied lime. We all imagined it would be a small scoop of ice cream with some white chocolate and candied lime garnishes. What we got was a bubble gum pink shot sized smoothie with some lime specks on top. It was definitely an experience to try. It tasted a bit like spicy bubble gum with a limey aftertaste. It was paired with a Historias wine from Argentina. It was a dessert wine which smelled very strongly of caramel but had a very strong alcohol taste. I was not a fan at all so I did not particularly like it with the ice cream smoothie either. The beer pairing was Pacific Pear Fox Barrel Cider from California. It was a SUPER PEAR beer. Upon tasting, it was very bubbly up front but once the bubbles settled down the strong pear flavors emerged.
Below are the descriptions for the wines and beers which was provided by the Palisades Restaurants.
Although I did not have as good an experience at the palisades this time around, I would definitely go back to try other food. They had a bit of a new menu this time which I felt like they were trying to experiment too much for my taste. I would love to go back and try some of their other entrees instead of doing the Wines Around the World with a Hop. Below you can see our very crowded table with six plates as well as 18 wines, 18 beers and 6 waters.
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