Restaurant-in-Review: Graze

For those of you who don't travel outside of Cedar Rapids much, I'm not sure what to say to you sheltered, deprived people except put your Applebee's and Olive Garden down, and drive the 25 miles south to Iowa City to get some culture and amazing food!

Last night I went with a friend to Graze, a martini bar/restaurant located in the Ped Mall in Iowa City.  I'd been to Graze once before with some friends, loved the place, and was wanting to go back and try some other things on the menu.

The first thing you should do at Graze is order a martini.  It's their thing.  You don't want to mess with perfection.  They have quite the list of martini's to choose from, and had even added a 'Spicy Martini' section featuring a bloody mary-type martini with.....SRIRACHA!  Yes, for the record I will be requesting Sriracha in my bloody's from here on out.  Even better, on Thursday's drinks are 1/2 off if you order $15 worth of food or more.  Challenge accepted.

I started with the Ruby Slipper Martini - Smirnoff Orange, orange, pineapple, grapefruit and mango puree.  "Bubbling!" is what the menu says, and I assumed this meant they added something "sparkling" but no, my martini was literally bubbling.  The entire time.

My friend got the spicy Mockingbird martini that consisted of Tito's handmade vodka (I don't know who this Tito guy is, but I feel like I should be friends with him), pineapple, lime, chile syrup, cilantro and a jalapeno for a garnish. I didn't get a pic of it, but I did try it and it was fantastic!

Next up, the food.

We decided to do small plates so we could try more things and share them, but I gotta tell ya that there isn't anything on this menu that I don't want to try.

We started with Edamame.  Those of you not familiar with edamame, it's a soybean in the pod that is boiled and served with simple seasonings like salt.  Good for you and HIGHLY addictive.  Edamame is like chips and salsa at a Mexican restaurant.  No matter how full you are, you just keep eating the stuff.  Here's my friend Andrew, requesting to get his picture taken for the blog, while eating edamame.  See how good it is!

Next up, the small plates.  We ordered Pork Belly Sliders, Ahi Tuna Steak, and Chicken Lips.  

The Pork Belly Sliders consisted of four sliders with peach balsamic BBQ and picked onions.  Holy. Shit.  For starters, I'm fairly certain I see an obsession coming on with things that are pickled, so beware those of you that read my blog.  These were incredible!  The bun was light and flaky, the pork wasn't dry and was cooked well, they put just the right amount of peach balsamic BBQ on it so it wasn't overpowering, and the pickled onions give it a could contrast and kick.  Awesome.

Next, the Ahi Tuna Steak.  I know I say I love a lot of things, and I really do, but ahi tuna is definitely on the top of that list.  The ahi tuna was marinated tuna, avocado salad and crispy wontons on top.  I'm not sure what the sauce was, but it had a good kick to it.

This dish was so fresh and amazing, there was talk of comparing it to some really good sex (I think this is where the term "food porn" comes from).  God knows I'm not eloquent enough to convey this in words, so the best way I can describe it is to show you this famous scene from the movie When Harry Met Sally.  If you have been living under a rock all of your life and don't know what I'm talking about, then I suppose it's my obligation to tell you not to watch this at work or at the very least have headphones in.  

And finally, the last dish we had was their Chicken Lips.  I don't know exactly what chicken "lips" are, unless that's the term for the worlds biggest hand breaded chicken strips, but none the less, I was in.  This is actually a signature dish for Graze and since my friend had never really ate at Graze before, I thought it was important for him to try them.  The chicken lips have a light buffalo sauce on them - again, the perfect amount so that the food isn't overpowered with it and you still get the light crunchiness from the breading.  And they're served with Budweiser blue cheese dressing.  I will say that I used to HATE blue cheese dressing.  With a passion.  Thanks to trying this Budweiser blue cheese dressing a year ago I now really enjoy blue cheese, so I definitely give them some credit.

When it was all said and done we almost made it through the meal, but we were full and happy with (almost) clean plates.

Graze definitely gets two thumbs up, 5 stars - whatever rating scale you're so inclined to use.  I definitely want to go back and try more things, and would highly recommend taking a trip down to Iowa City to check them out!  Here's a link to their website where you can check out their menu, prices, directions - all that good stuff that websites have:  http://www.grazerestaurant.com/