Room Four and Black Market (Redemption!)

I know I review these places often, but since the menus change daily I am going to continue to give you reviews on them when we go there. For one thing, I want to promote them (especially Room Four) since we get excellent meal after excellent meal there. 

A week or two ago, Tim and I were out and about on a Tuesday night and wanted to grab dinner.  After debating several other locations, we turned to our favorite:  Room Four.

I got a tomato salad ($10) that was outstanding.  It doesn't look like much, but it was packed with flavor!  There were three thick slices of tomato which were ripe and tasted like actual tomatoes.  Then they were topped with some grated pecorino cheese, sweet vidalia onions, and red wine vinaigrette, and then sitting on top of all of that was an arugula/basil combo.  The vinaigrette was incredibly bright, and when it combined with the pecorino, which was salty, it just made the tomatoes taste unreal (clearly I never get any good, ripe tomatoes around here).  Basil is a no-brainer when it comes to pairing things with tomatoes, and the arugula added some peppery-ness.  $10 is a bit steep for some tomatoes and greens, but I can't regret something that tasty.

For my main, I got another one of the starters--roasted sockeye salmon with asparagus, roasted garlic, and pistachios in a red pepper sauce ($13).  There were also some microgreens sitting on top. It was a pretty small portion since it was a starter, but it was plenty for me when combined with that salad.  The salmon was well-seasoned and really good in the red pepper sauce.  I liked the pistachios because they added a nice crunch.  The asparagus was just asparagus, but it was well-cooked.  I mixed some of the roasted garlic cloves into some bites, and it added a nice sweetness.  Not the tip top fish I've had there (because salmon isn't my favorite), but still, a super solid performance.  As I've said, they do fish very well.

The second part of this post is just a few lines about our last trip to Black Market.  I forgot to take pics until late into the game, plus it was super dark where we were sitting, so I have no pictures.  But I have to comment on it, because they completely redeemed themselves in Tim's and my eyes after the last visit we had there (with the Beef Barbacoa that wasn't actually beef barbacoa).

We went with the specials for our entire meal.  They had a starter of morel mushrooms and ramps that had been 'melted' down to form an incredible tasting topping for bread--buttery and meaty and delicious.  It felt a little wrong to eat morels this way--I grew up eating them dipped in milk and flour and then fried--but the flavor was delicious.  For my main, I got the special Pad Thai of the day, which had salt-and-pepper fish fillets in it (can't remember the type--sorry!).  I am still dreaming of that fish.  It was well-seasoned and crispy but tender inside, and with the Pad Thai just tasted amazing.  Loved it.  Tim got yet another special, a type of fried rice that had pork belly in it.  He also loved that.  Additionally, one of our friends got the caprese salad (I think it was also a special) with the most amazing tomatoes (where are these restaurants getting their tomatoes?  I need a hook-up, please) and in-house made mozzarella.  It was also super good.  We kept saying, "THIS is what a tomato is supposed to taste like!"  I think our starter and the tomato salad were in the $10 range, and Tim's and my mains were each $23-24.  Not cheap, but certainly tasty.

Websites:  Room Four and Black Market