Not Fit For a King!

Last weekend, our good friend Emi was in town from Hawaii so we decided to meet up at Palace Kitchen, a restaurant I've been wanting to try. It's another Tom Douglas place but one of his more casual ones. I'd heard good things about their burger and their drinks.

Some of us (me included!) started with the Penn Cove oyster on the half shell. I love me some oysters... can't seem to get enough of them! This one was on the smaller side and not too briny. The verjus shaved ice that it came with really didn't seem to do much for it, but I'm okay with that since I usually just like mine with a sprinkle of lemon juice.

The meal went downhill from there though. Scott ordered the burger, which ended up being fine but not great. I thought it had too much lettuce, making the burger taste sort of watered down. The bun sogged up a bit from the juicy patty, but Scott thought it just lacked flavor so had to douse on the mustard. For me, I ordered the Whole Idaho Trout, grilled on their Applewood Grill. Honestly, I thought this tasted like something anyone (Diana especially!) could make on their grill at home. Nothing spectacular. It was accompanied by mashed potatoes (bleh) and kale. I usually like my greens, but this kale was so vinegary it was just weird. Me no likee.

Eric ordered the crab appetizer as his entree and he was licking his fingers clean so I hope that I just ordered the wrong thing? In any case, I've tried 3 of TD's places now and 2 of them fall short. Dahlia Lounge still sticks out in my mind as a very good meal though, so that's enough to make me go and try the rest of his places! I'll report back when I do!