Chris A.
Yelp
Seven weekends of Magical Dining Month. Seven restaurants chosen for amazing menu effort. Too many restaurants phone it in for MDM and offer chicken (boring) or a cedar-plank salmon (yawn). Out of literally hundreds of restaurants, you have to stand out somehow. I ranked all the restaurants, and sought out the best of the best.
I saw The Pinery's menu, and my jaw dropped. Super unique appetizers, very decadent and comforting entrees, and fun fun desserts. At least two standard deviations above the average menu. So we made reservations, showed up on time, and let the fun begin.
Apps
I started off with the Cast Iron Blistered Shishitos (toasted peanuts, smoked chili butter, chives). This was nice. The shishitos were very plump, had good bite, and were adequately blistered. The chili butter did nothing for it, so I kind of with there was a separate dipping sauce, but hey, that's why you go to MDM places with people, so you can share and try other things.
I also got to try the Zucchini Fries (Parmesan panko encrusted, roasted garlic aioli). Very well breaded! Spices and herbs very visible, muchly needed to add flavor to bland zuccs. Not very oily. Extremely dippable in that creamy aioli. Solid app.
Mains
Then my main event showed up. Sweet Tea Brined Fried Chicken (petal honey drizzle, red beans and rice, grilled watermelon). Wow. This was perfect. The chicken was So moist and juicy. It was a boneless cutlet, which was fine, considering the target audience of this restaurant. The breading was a perfect crust that had crispy edges and bits that fell off so you could thrown them into your red beans and rice.
Speaking of that red beans and rice, this was the best red beans and rice I have eaten in Orlando. The holy trinity was in there, along with massive amounts of flavor. It was more like an etouffee for heaven sake! Wonderful stuff. And then a slice of perfectly grilled watermelon, for good measure. I have a feeling maybe a lot of people reading this have never had grilled watermelon before. Try it. Trust me.
I also got some of the Bison and Gnocchi (brown butter toasted gnocchi, roasted mushrooms in a garlic truffle cream sauce, arugula salad). Oooh. Unctuous and decadent. These were perfectly dense gnocchi with an excellent chew. The bison was in big hunks, so you gotta shred it, but if you do that, get some bison in every bite, you will get lost in perfect gluttony with this Garlic Truffle Cream sauce. Yummm.
Desserts
I finished up with the perfect homage to an afternoon spent at the Cafe du Monde, lounging next to the Riverwalk down in New Orleans. Dark Chocolate Pot De Crème (Cointreau noir infused whipped cream & mini beignets). Almost perfect beignets, a pot de crème to mimic that chicory coffee, and a good time with a perfect dessert.
I also got to try the Chef's Croissant Bread Pudding (served with Kelly's homemade ice cream). The title is confusing. There was nothing croissant-y about the bread pudding being offered, but that being said, it was still very good. More dense, less soaked, but with a little ice cream in each bite, it'll do just fine.
Overall, this menu looked like a 10/10, and it delivered. A wonderful touch of The South for us down here in Florida. The only thing that I really hated was the fact that this southern place, with pineapples of welcome on the freaking front door, doesn't have sweet tea... That really disappointed me. I had to settle for unsweet tea with some simple syrup. Sad. But still, come here.