Dinner - Blue Apron Restaurant & Red Rooster Bar

So I celebrated my three-year anniversary with my boyfriend, Chris, last Wednesday and we both saw it as the perfect opportunity to try out The Blue Apron Restaurant and Red rooster Bar. Unfortunately, it was raining the night we went so we were unable to get a picture of the outside of the restaurant (but it wasn't that exciting on the outside anyway). The restaurant was situated in downtown Salem which is a small town. The seating area in the restaurant was tiny but very nicely decorated.

Roses Chris gave me

We decided to have the pan-seared scallops small plate as an appetizer to share and I got the Mahi Mahi, while Chris got the Swordfish as our main courses. We paired our meals with the D'arenburg The Hermit Crab Viognier. Having tasted the wine prior to our dinner and talking with our waitress, we decided that the viognier would pair perfectly with our fish.

We both thought the wine was chilled perfectly (not too cold or too warm) and came in a holding container that was also from the D'arenburg vineyard, which was pretty neat. It has a lovely golden yellow color, similar to that of chardonnay, as you can see from the picture. It is medium to full bodied but is very crisp in my opinion. It almost has a buttery finish. Very nice and strong fruit smells like maybe melon? It is definitely becoming one of my favorite white wines. Although this wine is probably a little heavier than whites usually paired with fish, we wanted to see how it would pair since we are so fond of the wine.

Mmmm, scallops

The scallop dish was fantasticly rich. This is, by far, the most rich in flavor scallop dish I have ever had. The scallops were pan-seared and sliced into thirds (they were HUGE) and split among the two of us. They lay on top of a potato puree with caramelized onions and a smoky sauce. Watercress lay on top of the ensemble, but I passed on them since I am not fond of their flavor. The entire combination was awesome! The scallops were perfectly tender and buttery and the onions provided a great sweetness. The smoky sauce was a bit over-the-top for my palate because I think smoke can overpower the flavors of food. However, what I thought was interesting was that the wine really tamed down that smoky flavor. Man! This was a great pair! I could have eaten the scallops large plate with the wine for dinner and been set! So delicious!

My Mahi-Mahi was, of course, fantastic as well. It was pan-seared and served on top of some sort of potato something-or-other. The fish was perfectly flaky with a lovely butter sauce. I actually think the wine was a little too heavy for this dish. Mahi-mahi is such a light flavor fish that the viognier was actually too bold for it. A white bordeaux or sauvignon blanc may have paired a little better with it.

Chris's Swordfish

Chris and I after dinner

We finished our meal with a couple french press coffees and we split a homemade cheesecake, which was seriously the best cheesecake I've had in awhile. The coffee was also rockin'! A very nice older gentleman noticed we were taking pictures and celebrating an event so he offered to take a picture of the two of us together. He was very sweet!

The restaurant got two BIG thumbs up in our books!! A little pricey but definitely well-worth the price and most certainly worth the 45 minute drive, especially for a special occasion! We are definitely thinking of going back here before the end of the semester. Great place!