House of Blues

Food:
4/5
Vibe:
4/5
Service:
5/5
Value:
3/5
Overall:
4/5

Ok, so let's preface this. I'm talking about a random Friday night where she says, do you want to go to the House of Blues tonight and I say sure. We're not paying, so here we go.

We drop the car with the valet (who killed the battery on the car) $12. Seriously.

Yes, we say high to Maurice en route up to the Foundation Room. A short elevator ride later and here we are, lounge to the right, dining to the left. Briefly later, we're at our table. It's almost looking over the dining room, but still somewhat quiet.

The walls are a mix of silks and embroidery. The whole place follows an Indian theme. The patrons are moderately overweight, but surprisingly, no one is yelling nor spilling things.

We order. To start, tartar: steak since no tuna on this night, oysters, salads. The chef sends out a small cup of asparagus soup with a single bite of catfish. It's a dlightful blend of salty and cool. The tartar is a little on the salty side, but it makes up for it in substance (hello - Nobu). Oysters Rockefeller are well played, right heat great sauce.

Entrees? Filet mignon and salmon. Both - well, great. No, really. The last time I lowered myself to restuarant steak was at Bob's. I was rewarded with a huge tendinous vein of cartilage bisecting my filet. This, not so much. Exactly as ordered, pink, no blood, served on tofu fries with beans and asparagus. The salmon flakes without force, melts quickly and leaves the palate wanting more.

Desserts include another course of in house made ice creme and cookies along with an order of bread pudding. The cookie is a little hard for the dish, but not so big that it is unreasonable.

Again, it's not like we're here as "anonymous", so a higher level of service might be expected. However, this isn't the first time we've been out together, and I'll have to say that the staff were exceptionally friendly without being disingenuous snots.

Yes, afterwards we went to check out the performing space, and it's great. The floor space offers a good party space and all the seating upstairs has an excellent view. Oh yeah, no one is smoking in your face, either.

Ok, here it is.

Yeah, this whole House of Blues thing is all right. As much as I try to continue to push through every busted sidewalk, smoky, urine filled establishment in downtown, I am pretty much ready to say that going here is like driving a faster car, using a newer computer or having sex with well, whatever your favorite fantasy is. It's different and it's better and it's time to accept it.