HVRW- Rinku at the River City Grill in Irvington
It was last Friday, on a beautiful sunny afternoon that I decided to try the River City Grille in Irvington. It would not be something along my way, but that is precisely what makes something like restaurant week fun. I had actually left my little camera at my friends place after this and was feeling extremely lost. Most food bloggers like me often have an unhealthy obsession with their visual toys. Anyhow, now it is back in my hands.
Back to River City Grille, this little place is in a corner, in fact I drove past it a couple of blocks without realizing that I had passed by. I then came by and parked in the little lot. It is a small but very comfortable and bright space with friendly staff.
When I went it it was still relatively empty but actually got quite full during the course of the hour and some that I had stayed in, impressively so for a weekday afternoon. They let me pick my table and once I was settled they brought it some of their wonderful house bread. The bread is definitely worth a mention since they seem to do a good job baking it on site – a lovely sundried tomato and caraway bread that is serve with butter.
This is so lovely warm that you could actually make a meal with just the bread and some of the interesting salad and soup offerings that their regular menu had.
After some consideration, they did have some interesting selections such as a squash soup and a salmon salad among others, I settled for the clam fritters for the appetizers.
These fritters arrived without much hesitation, and were a very generous serving. I however did feel that the fritters were a little less crisp and somewhat lacking in the proportion of clams. They were plain but since they were served with a nice dollop of cocktail sauce, the sauce balanced the plainer flavors of the fritters.
Next I moved onto to the jambalaya that was made with chicken and sausage. Well, whatever the fritters were lacking in flavor the jambalaya more that made up for. It was moist, light and filled with a heady tomato, pepper base.
You could smell the fresh flavors of this lovely dish a mile away. Again the portions were very generous. Being fond of spices I loved the extra pepper added over the dish.
At this point, one is actually quite full but of course there is always room for dessert.
They had some nice dessert selections, I went with the bread pudding, which they were rather excited about since it was made with their house Irish soda bread. Now, having already been impressed with their bread, I had to try this selection and I was glad that I did.
It was really very interesting. Not overly rich, but nice and moist and the carraway seeds paired with raisins added an interesting touch to a very comforting dessert.
In general this is a restaurant that is casual enough to go with the entire family, but festive enought to celebrate a good weekend meal. I actually would love to come back to probably try their Sunday brunch. If you are undecided about where to go next through the rest of this week and want to try a good flavorful meal in a relaxed atmosphere the River City Grille might be worth stopping over at.
Photo Caption: clam frit
They must have known you were there to review them, because I ate there Tuesday night and was disapointed. We were one of three tables – the menu was not what was advertised on their website, did not get that great bread or desert you raved about. The ceasar salad was tasty, and I had the shrimp which was good. My husband had fried chicken and dry macaroini and cheese – he said KFC was better. Not a place I would visit again. I guess I was hoping it would have been as good as when it was Benny’s. They should also change their mop – there was a distict smell of mildew.