Amber

Papardelle

We went to dinner at Amber in Westmont.  It was just something we had heard about in the area.

What we ate:
Tomato Bisque Soup - creamy good soup for a colder day. It wasn't too thick and it was the perfect amount of acidity.

Tomato Bisque

Pork chop with squash puree and grilled grapes - massive 14 oz pork chop, the grapes were rather interesting - don't think we've ever had grilled grapes prepared like that before. What was great about this chop was even though it was very thick the flavor penetrated to the middle.

Papardelle with smoked short ribs, shredded Brussel sprouts, truffle and parmesan.  This dish had some interesting flavors.  The Brussel sprouts were truly shredded, but almost too thin of slices because we didn't get too much flavor from them

Pork Chop

Dessert - brownie with peanuts, caramel sauce, vanilla ice cream and bacon bits - so we succumbed to the whole bacon dessert fad thing and were conflicted about it.  Nick thought it brought a nice salty crunchy component to the dish but Natalie just thought it was a little weird.  Honestly without the bacon it really wasn't that unique of a dessert.

Final thoughts on Amber:
Food - every thing was tasty, we probably could have done without the dessert

Brownie a la mode

Service - The wait staff was great.  The only issue we had was that the entrees were kind of slow coming out; it must have been that massive pork chop they were trying to cook
Atmosphere - fancier than we thought it would be. There were a few larger groups and there looked to be a lot of regulars.  But for being a fancier place what was a little bizarre was having the owner's child (maybe she was around 10 or 11) as the hostess.  Some of the diners seemed to think she was cute, we just thought it was a little strange.

Pappadeaux

We went out to dinner at Pappadeaux in Westmont. Natalie had eaten at a Pappadeux many years ago but not this particular location.  It is a chain restaurant with locations in 7 states and this location opened in 1999.  We drive past this location all of the time and we finally decided to go inside. Pappadeaux is mainly a seafood restaurant with a Cajun flair - its headquarters are in Houston.

Coconut Shrimp

As an appetizer we ordered coconut Shrimp with a cajun slaw and a spicy sweet dipping sauce.  The shrimp were good but weren't anything unique or special.  In fact the dipping sauce sure looked just like a Thai chili sauce that you buy at the grocery store.

Crawfish Etoufee

For entrees we both decided to go with items from the New Orleans specialties section of the menu since for us that is the unique appeal of this restauarant.  We had Crawfish Etoufee with white rice. The sauce is thicker than a gumbo and has a base of an onion roux.  Etouffee means smothered - and in this dish the crawfish was smothered in a sauce that had a little heat to it.  Because the sauce is smothered over rice it is not a very beautiful presentation but it is tasty.  Live crawfish resemble small lobsters, but the cracked crawfish in this dish looked & tasted like small shrimps because only the tail portion is served in an etouffee.

Shrimp & Grits

The other entree we ordered was Shrimp Creole with creamy Andouille cheese grits and tomato sauce. The sauce had a little more spice/kick to it than the etoufee. There were lots of shrimp - enough dinner and lunch the next day.  The cheese grits were a bit bland, but did their job to offset the spiciness of the sauce.



Another favorite local Cajun restaurant is called Heaven on Seven.  So we will have to go there for a comparison.

Final thoughts on Pappadeaux:
Food - food seemed a little pricey but we did have enough leftovers for both of us to have a full lunch the next day.
Service - nothing special; we knew there was a crawfish special going on and although we wouldn't have ordered it anyway the server she did not even mention it to us. They took care of us but it wasn't a real personal experience.

Giant Lobster (and regular size lobsters)

Atmosphere - really busy for a weeknight (probably because of the crawfish special going on).  Good thing we had a reservation otherwise there was a 20 minute wait to be seated.  The parking lot is always filled when we drive by so this wasn't too much of a surprise.  It is a casual seafood restaurant with a Cajun flare.  Probably the most interesting thing we saw was a giant 9 pound lobster in lobster tank - its claws were the same size as a normal sized lobster.