McCormick and Schmick’s
For a very long time, and especially since the Cherry Hill location opened up, I have been wanting to go to McCormick and Schmick’s. They have a very good reputation and I love finding places that serve great seafood. I had a gift certificate, so my girlfriend and I decided to make a trip out to Cherry Hill and give it a try.
The ambiance in both the bar and the restaurant was very cool. It had an old time steak-house kind of feel to it. The waiters were dressed like they would be in a steak house and I really find that appealing. Once we got seated I had a tough time as usual choosing my meal. My girlfriend and I have definitely developed similar tastes over the time period that we have been dating, so choosing things to share is not usually a problem. We chose the steamed Manila clams for an appetizer, the arugula salad, I chose the mahi mahi for my main course, she chose the salmon pesto pasta, and we split the cheesecake for dessert.
While we waited for our food, our cocktails came out and they were fantastic. Mine was a gin gimlet with lime juice and fresh cucumber. It was one of the better cocktails that I have had, and I was shocked because it seems so very simple. The delicate flavors of each ingredient all worked together perfectly to make a complex glass of deliciousness.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that the clams were incredibly flavorful. A lot of times when I have clams they miss the mark, they really do not soak up too much of the flavor of whatever broth that they are cooked. These particular clams however tasted of rich garlic, white wine, and butter in each and every bite.
The salad was a nice pallet cleanser after the saltiness of the clam broth. The fennel, dried cranberries and basil vinaigrette were fresh and inviting flavors, and they prepared me for the next course in a fantastic way.
When my fish came out, I knew that I had made the right choice. As you can see in the photo, the piece of mahi mahi was gigantic! It was more like a steak than a piece of fish. It was seasoned perfectly, crusted perfectly, and complemented perfectly by the red wine reduction that it was served with. The sauce was incredible! It was like a mixture between a nice pinot noir and a delicious au jus. It enhanced the flavor of the mahi to completely new heights! The pearled couscous with spinach and crab was a bit lacking for me. It did not match up to the rest of the dish because it was a bit bland. It was cooked perfectly, but it lacked flavor and seasoning.
We can never finish off a meal without dessert, so we dove into our cheesecake head on. It had a maple sauce that was 100 times better than pancake syrup, and the graham cracker crust invoked heaven as it almost always does with desserts. The brown sugar around the plate was perfect for adding just a touch more sweetness to each and every bite. It was hard to keep from licking the plate clean once the cheesecake was gone!
I was very impressed with McCormick and Schmick’s and I was pleasantly surprised by how affordable it was. People had led me to believe that it was very expensive, but for my girlfriend and I to go to dinner, split an appetizer, salad, each order an entrée, split a dessert and each have a cocktail for under a $100 is pretty darn good in my mind. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a really delicious meal for an affordable price. Cheers!
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