Brick and Mortar

Brick and Mortar is a relatively new restaurant located on 312 N. 12th Street . It was our meet up destination for a group dinner. According to the server, the establishment opened in June 2015. Brick and Mortar had a nice casual and modern feel to it. Below is what I ordered. Before you judge me on what I ordered, one I would like to say that there was a limited selection for vegetarians, two it's the company that counts, and three the two items were unique to the restaurant. 

I got the Spring Salad. It came with watercress, dandelion chervil, green radish, hazelnut, ricotta salata, and lemon horseradish vinaigrette. The salad was very fresh. The dressing was on the sweeter side which I didn't mind, but I could not taste the horseradish. Overall, the salad was healthy, pleasant, light, and appetizing. I liked it. 

Spring Salad

In addition, I ordered the Fries Bravas which were fries with house seasoning and house sauce. In this case, the seasoning was berbere spice and ginger ketchup. In my opinion, the fries were over seasoned. I found it to salty and spicy for my palate; however, they were cooked to perfection. They were somewhat crispy on the outside and tender in the inside. The sauce was supposedly ginger ketchup, but I didn't detect any ginger. It just taste like plain marinara sauce to me. 

Fries Bravas

That night, we scored complimentary desserts! The server said that he noticed that it took longer for our food to come out and they had a new grill chef. I honestly didn't think the food took long to come out at all for a party of 6. I don't think we even waited 30 minutes for the food. I have waited longer for food when there was only two of us which I thought was ridiculous. Nonetheless, I am not going to decline free desserts. Below are the three desserts he bought us. I only remember the name of one of them. The dessert in the bottom of the picture is a Sticky Toffee Muffin. It was the bomb dot com. It was warm, moist, and had a nutty favor. It was topped with whip cream, but oh how I wish it came with vanilla ice cream. That would have completed my life. The other two desserts were subpar compared to the Sticky Toffee Muffin. The upper left hand corner is some kind of pound cake that appears to be made with corn meal and topped with blueberry compote and maybe lemon sorbet. I didn't enjoy it at all. The pound cake was very grainy and that's all I focused on while tasting it. The last dessert on the upper right hand corner was some kind of chocolate mousse with berries. It was good and tasted like chocolate pudding, but it was nothing phenomenal. 

Desserts

Overall, this was a nice place to have dinner with friends. This wouldn't be my first pick to go catch up with my friends since their vegetarian options are limited, but if one of friends wanted to go there for dinner, I would go. 

Vientiane Cafe- Lao/Thai Dining

Located on 4728 Baltimore Avenue, Vientiane Cafe is a Lao/Thai family-owned restaurant named after the capital and largest city in Laos. My friends and I had a lovely early dinner there. The establishment had a nice ambience. The place was well lit with wooden chair seating, wooden tables, and pretty decor hanging on the walls. We all ordered the dinner special. For less than $20, you get a three course meal- a salad, an appetizer, and an entree.  You can customize your entree with one of these four protein tofu, chicken, beef, or shrimp options.

For my greens, I got the Tofu Yum Salad without crush peanuts. The salad was Asian herbs, lemongrass, and kaffir leaves topped with fried tofu and dressing. The dressing tasted like the sweet and sour fish sauce used in Vietnamese cuisine. It is one of my favorite sauces in the world. The tofu was crispy and absorbed the sauce. Overall, the salad was very tasty and somewhat refreshing.

Tofu Yum Salad

I ordered Steamed Vegetable Dumplings for my appetizer. Three dumplings came on a small place with a little bowl of garlic soy sauce. It was also topped with fried radish. The dumplings were soft and the skin was thin. The sauce was not too salty, but I could not taste the garlic favor.  I thought the dumplings were okay. I could not really make out what were in them. I think the stuffing might be grind imitation meat with seasoning.

Steamed Vegetable Dumplings

Lastly, I got the Sweet Basil Tofu with sticky rice. The sticky rice came in a fancy bamboo container. The rice was well cooked, soft, and had a somewhat chewy texture. The Sweet Basil Tofu was cooked with garlic, chili peppers, broccoli, carrots, and onions. The sauce had a sweet, salty, and spicy taste. When I looked closely, there were dried chili peppers in the dish which made it noticeably spicy. I thought the plate was overall flavorful and went well with my sticky rice, but it was a little too salty for my taste. The blend of sweet, salty, and spicy were not perfectly well balanced for my palate.

Sweet Bail Tofu with Sticky Rice