Cottonwood Grille, Boise

Rating:

Since it's my last week in beautiful Boise, we've decided to have Tuesday's-Dinner-with-Consultants every day of the week! And Monday night's dinner was at the excellent Cottonwood Grille.

The moment we stepped in from the cold, one of my companions remarked "wow! this feels like a ski lodge!" And although I've never been in a ski-lodge myself, I knew exactly what he meant! (Cottonwood kinda looks like the lodges at the Tagaytay Highlands.) The wait-to-be-seated area felt like the lobby of an expensive hotel minus the snooty maitre'd. White tablecloths, the warm and predominantly red/brown hues plus the cackling fireplace really set the mood for some serious fine dining.

To start my meal, I had the elk in chili beans soup which I ordered because it sounded exotic. I expected it to be gamy but surprisingly it wasn't! (Maybe it was because of the hot flavor of the beans!) I wouldn't have known it was elk, it tasted like ground beef to my un-cultured palate. By the way, the complimentary baked bread was yummy yummy! They were served toasty warm but not crunchy-- just the way I like them. I had to stop myself from eating it lest I lose my appetite.

My main course was the prime rib served au jus with creamed horseradish sauce and potatoes. I won't mince words but i'll say it right now-- this is the Best Prime Rib i've ever had. I asked for it to be cooked well done and it was served exactly how I wanted it but what surprised me was how tender it was! Such ease slicing it with my knife and it's the closest thing beef will ever get to melting in your mouth. The only drawback was that it was huge! Since I didn't get to finish it, I had it wrapped and had it for lunch the next day. And here's what gives this place the five pawikan points-- I heated it in a microwave and then proceeded to eat it using a plastic fork and plastic knife!

(Where else have you had a steak so tender that you can microwave it the next day and eat it with plastic utensils?!? Plastic!!!)

For dessert, we shared a chocolate banana bread pudding served with caramel rum sauce and a huckleberry cheesecake. It was my first time to taste bread pudding and this will be the bread pudding I will measure all future bread puddings against! It was sinfully sweet and a very filling dessert. Unfortunately, the cheesecake wasn't as good-- only three points on my cheesecake scale.

And have I mentioned that Cottonwood gets my Best Restroom In A Restaurant award? It's clean, lush and I felt so expensive standing behind the urinal!

Speaking of expensive, this dinner set us back about $55 each (this was with a bottle of wine) but it was worth every penny.

Five pawikan points for Cottonwood Grille and the best steak I've ever had.