Oh. Em. Gee. What a night! I don’t use that phase a lot, but I just don’t know what else to say. I know it seems like all I’ve done is eat lately, but I’ve just lucked out that I got to attend so many amazing events in such a short period of time!
Tony Roma‘s treated us to an AMAZING food filled evening. We were very lucky in that we got to try out BRAND NEW menu items that no one else (other than a handful of execs) has ever tried. Tony Roma’s is redoing their restaurants to give them a new look and will also be rolling out a brand new updated menu. But don’t worry, their famous ribs will still be on the menu.
Tony Roma’s Executive Chef and Vice President Bob Gallagher was on hand to explain all of the new menu items. It was great hearing about the food from the guy who came up with all of it. As each item was brought out he would explain what it was and how it was cooked. It is amazing what a difference it makes to know so much about what you were eating. Over the course of almost 3 hours we were treated to 3 appetizers, 3 salads/sides (all vegetarian), 3 entrees, 2 desserts, and 2 signature cocktails. Holy wow!
Everything we had was great and I’ve been trying to figure out how to break it down for you. Finally I realized that I would just do a little bit about each thing we tried.
Pulled Pork Tacos with Apple cider slaw and Siracha barbecue sauce – these things were amazing! I don’t even like spicy stuff and I loved the chick of the BBQ sauce. The “taco shells” were actually made from wonton wrappers which I thought was a tasty touch.
House Chips & Charred Onion Dip – a grown up take on french onion dip. I think everyone at our table could have finished off one of these on their own. The dip was killer to begin with, but you throw in the house made chips and its a definite win.
Pigs In a Bacon Blanket with Maker’s Mark bourbon barbecue glaze – another grown up take on a family favorite. It was actually sausage wrapped in bacon. Pig wrapped in more pig!? Sign me up!
The sides offered up were Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Bacon & Pine Nuts, baked mac & cheese, and a veggie pot pie. The veggie pot pie was my favorite (yes, I just picked veggies over mac & cheese)! The veggie pot pie was Smoked asparagus, red grape tomatoes, orange bell peppers, & Portobello mushrooms in a wine sauce. Super yummy! Almost made you forget there was no meat in there.
For the entrees they had prime rib (which I didn’t eat but heard was awesome), salmon, and over roasted chicken. The chicken was to die for! It had a lemon spice rub and was served with rosemary fingerling potatoes. Yum yum yum. The chicken just fell off the bone. The portion size is 1/2 a chicken and I’m fairly certain I could eat it on my own. It was THAT good.
For dessert they brought out two things – a mini cheesecake with a jar of mixed berries (yum) and this huge plate of chocolatey goodness. I don’t know the proper name, but who cares, it was a plate of chocolate. There was chocolate ice cream, chocolate hazelnut mousse, mocha ice cream, and chocolate cake covered in caramel. By this point in the night our table of 8 didn’t care about what was proper anymore and just dove in. I can’t remember the last time I saw dessert disappear that quickly.
I was very impressed with all the new offerings that will be on the new and improved menu at Tony Roma’s. They ended the evening by giving us a $10 gift card to use on our next visit! I will definitely be going back to check things out when the next menu is out. Thanks to Yelp and Tony Roma’s for a great evening.
One comment