For those of you who are familiar with the Bravo Network’s reality show, Top Chef, you may recognize Perilla. It is owned and run by Season One’s winner, Harold. We actually saw Harold walking out of Perilla just after we were seated, so it was unfortunate that Harold wasn’t the one cooking our meal for us, but his employees did a fine job of taking over in his absence.
Sadly, this was another of the restaurants that I was uncomfortable whipping out the camera for, but the food was amazing, none the less. We splurged on this meal and ordered 3 appetizers between us. I ordered the crispy calamari and watercress salad with mint, peanuts and chili-lime vinaigrette (which was probably the best salad I’ve had in my life). Josh ordered the seared diver sea scallops with hearts of palm, xo sauce, daikon & spicy arugula puree (which he said was also amazing – best scallops ever) and we shared the spicy duck meatballs with mint cavatelli, water spinach and a quail egg (I thought they were good, but not amazing).
For an entree, I ordered the special of the night, Colorado rack of lamb and Josh ordered the grilled prime hanger steak with creamed spinach, red shallot puree and natural jus. Both were excellent, but Josh’s hanger steak was not as good as mine from JoJo.
We both ordered dessert and I was especially pleased with my choice. I ordered the warm chocolate tart with dulce de leche sauce and vanilla ice cream and Josh ordered a trio of ice creams (banana, vanilla and coffee, I believe). The chocolate tart was seriously the best chocolate tart I have ever tasted in my life. It melted in your mouth and left you craving more. I really wish I had the guts to pull out the camera, because it was definitely worth it. It was a very simple presentation, but it really stood on its own and didn’t need a lot of fuss on the plate. Perilla was wonderful!