Monday, February 27, 2012

Ten Ten - Review

Intro
Ten Ten - Dude Grade: B+
1010 Fleet Street
Baltimore, MD 21202
Phone: (410) 244-6867

Restaurant number two chosen by Charissa and Bruce and it was another delicious choice. More comfort food done extremely well which is always right up my alley. Ten Ten is definitely another highly recommended place by this dude.

Our Menu
Crab Cake Sandwich (special) **
We were wanting some crab cake on this trip and bummed that it wasn't on the menu, but we were quite lucky that crab cakes were on the daily specials. This thing was perfect in my opinion - tons of large lump crab that was incredibly sweet and fresh. Crispy on the outside, light and not weighed down by an abundance of bread crumbs. Duck fat fries were pretty friggin awesome also - huge potato flavor and delicious with the crisp herbs.

Local Greens Salad *
Sultans, carrots, butternut squash, spiced pistachios, honey-balsamic-tarragon vinaigrette

This was the last restaurant for us over the long weekend, so I was in need of leafy vegetables as we basically had none on this trip. This totally hit the spot - bright and crunchy and interesting enough with the different textures.

Grilled Shrimp and Grits ***
Maple braised greens, crispy pork belly, organic three cheese poblano grits

I like shrimp and grits, but this was a wtf dish for me since I was not expecting much from it. More delicious than the shrimp and grits I've had in South Carolina. Grits were incredibly flavorful and great texture (a little tighter than a risotto). The shrimp was perfectly cooked as well - nice smokey char flavor and sweet/juicy.

Date Ice Cream, Tangerine Vanilla Sorbet, Red Beet Sorbet **
Beet sorbet doesn't sound good, but it's delicious - huge beet flavor and only naturally sweet - not pumped up with sugar. The tangerine vanilla brought me back to my childhood with a creamiscle like thing going on. Even the date ice cream was a standout with an almost caramelly thing going on due to the dates.

Gingerbread Sponge Cake *
Brandied Tangerines, Butterscotch Custard, Crunchy Praline

A fun combo especially with the butter scotch custard and pralines.

Rating System
--- What the F - in a bad way | (no stars - poor to average) | * Good | ** Great | *** What the F – in a good way

Overall Restaurant Experience
  • Food (B+) – Excellent food with the only minus point being the risotto my wife had was a little too solid for my liking.
  • Service (C) – Server was relatively new, so she forgot the specials and was sometimes slow to come around in the beginning. She did much better throughout the meal and the food comes out quickly.
  • Atmosphere (B) – Walking into the back of what looks like an entrance to a condo, you walk into this wine bar looking area. There's brick wall, wood floors, and an exposed ceiling to give you that urban wine bar feel - relatively dark in there also. We were there on a Sunday night at 7pm and all tables were taken with couples both young and older.
  • Price (A) – I did the three course menu (since the items I wanted were on there any way) for $32 - an incredible steal for the quality of food they're cooking there. Prices off the regular menu are around $22-23 per entree.
Closing Comments
Definitely highly recommended by this dude. Another place I wouldn't mind going back to visit.

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