Random Eats: Aroma, Rookwood Pottery, Take the Cake

Sushi Bento Box/Aroma

One new restaurant experience (Aroma) and a return to two favorites round out my weekend dining ventures. For lunch on Friday I tried Aroma in the Kenwood Mall for the first time. Although there's an extensive menu of fresh sushi and many salads and hot entrees, we found the bento box lunches irresistible. My companion had chicken terriyaki bento and I chose the sushi bento box (pictured) -- fun, tasty, and just the right amount of food. 
I don't usually have lunch at such nice places, so I also splurged on a glass of pinot gris wine, which took the zing out of my afternoon and reminded me why I don't drink alcohol at lunch, except sometimes while on vacation.
Friday night my girlfriend Susan and I had dinner on the deck at Rookwood Pottery in Mt. Adams. They have a short but interesting list of craft cocktails; our waiter recommended their gin & tonic because he adores the house-made tonic, so I went with that. (Great recommendation!) For dinner, Susan had her favorite dish there, a grilled veggie sandwich, and my chicken breast on spring peas/ramps risotto was not exactly light, but the risotto was excellent, and the chicken was fine, too.

Grilled veggie sandwich/Rookwood Pottery

Chicken/risotto @ Rookwood

Finally, we had a quick brunch after church on Sunday at Take the Cake in Northside, which makes some of the best biscuits you have ever tried. The last photo shows the biscuit with zucchini, tomato sauce, ricotta cheese and a poached egg.

Brunch at Take the Cake

Al Fresco Dining in Mt Adams (New!)

Rookwood Pottery Restaurant in Mt. Adams has opened a beautiful, two-tiered outdoor dining area. It includes a large bar and fireplace on the lower level and a great view of the Ohio River from the upper level. The lower level also includes some sofa-and-easy-chair seating as well as table seating.
We ate there after a show at the Playhouse last Sunday and had a really good meal.
In the photos (top one is me on the deck, of course:
A vegetable panini that my friend said was delicious;
Roasted chicken on top of corn puree and other veggies (my entree) that I liked very much -- it looks like a cream sauce but it's really creamed corn, not heavy at all but still quite tasty;
Jeni's ice cream (!!!) -- a sampler of four amazing flavors including "blackberry corn" and chocolate-cayenne.

Rookwood Pottery

This was an eat-out weekend, for sure.

Our latest: dinner at Rookwood Pottery in Mt Adams. The best stuff there I didn't photograph: an appealing cocktail called Cloud 9 (Gin, Lavendar syrup and violet liqueur), and dessert, which was a sampler of Jeni's ice creams.

The entrees were fine, too. In the photos--artic char, the catch of the day, and roast chicken.

Weekend over, back to cooking at home for at least a few days!