Kitchen Social
We have a non-Friday Dining with Dad this week for a couple of reasons. First, this Friday is no ordinary Friday, but is Black Friday. We imagine the restaurants will be quite crowded with everyone out shopping for Christmas. Second, I bought tickets way back in March when they first went on sale to the Immersive Van Gogh Experience. Since the kids’ last day of school for Thanksgiving break was today, tonight was the night I chose to attend this. The kids really liked the Van Gogh experience as did I. For some reason I thought it was more of a walk through exhibit, but you simply sit there the entire time. Below are a few snaps of the experience.
The kids were really hungry to we headed up to Kitchen Social early. We got there at 5pm and had to wait for a table on a Tuesday! We didn’t get seated until about 5:20. Chloe did not like her school lunch today and only ate the apples that came with it. Needless to say she was very hungry. She was so hungry that she asked if we could order an appetizer so she could get something quick. As we were looking over the list of appetizers, a server was walking by with a dish and asked if we liked shrimp. Chloe and I do, and Alex does, but he’s allergic unfortunately. After telling him yes, he gave us a free shrimp appetizer that was a misorder. It was only within about a minute of sitting down. It was just perfect timing for poor Chloe.
You can find the Crispy Tai Shrimp on their menu online. I sent the menu to Alex last night to make sure there was something he liked. I knew there was things that Chloe would eat so I wasn’t worried about her at all. Alex found a couple of things he liked and was able to quickly decide today between his options. He went with the Pimento Cheese Burger. I think the selling point was the candied bacon. He said tonight at the table that the one thing he’s learned about Dining with Dad is that he has found he really loves bacon and will always search it out on a menu every time now! He said this burger is in his top 5 all time!
Chloe decided to eat off the kids menu this time. She went for the Chicken tenders. I was hoping she would go for something a bit more exotic but she said she wanted to stick with something familiar so she would ensure she liked her meal. After quickly eating just a few bites, she went on and on about how good they were. She said they were the best she’s ever had in her life. She said they were so, “tender”, no pun intended. She raved so much about them that I had to ask her to try them. She was absolutely correct. They just melted in your mouth. I second the fact that they are the best ever.
I had a bit of trouble deciding what I wanted. I kept moving all over the menu, from the Salmon, to the tacos, to the sandwiches. Ultimately I decided to go with the Honey Miso Cod. The salmon was a close second and so I went with the recommendation from our server on what to choose. The cod made it three for three on amazing dishes. I really enjoyed the cauliflower rice mixture that came with it and the cod was cooked very well. Chloe tried it but didn’t like the honey that was on the top. I did however and thought the entire dish went well together.
I tried talking them into dessert but they were so excited to get to their surprise that they passed. They didn’t know they were going to the Van Gogh experience, just that we were going to go do something fun. In talking about the meal and how good it was, they were already talking about going back. So, we’ve come up with yet another plan.
As you know, we typically do Dining with Dad every other Friday. I’m the one that finds the new locations and they are always a surprise for the kids. But we have visited so many that we really enjoy, we want to do some repeat visits without sacrificing a Friday and a new adventure to do so. To that end, I told them that I would provide them with a list of all the places we’ve visited. Then once a month on a Saturday, they could make the decision of where we re-visit based on the list. They were so excited about this new plan and that they get to choose. I can’t wait to see where we end up going!