Ever since Harold won Top Chef Season 1, I have been dying to go to Perilla. But it is a bit pricey, so I have kind of steered away from it, until now. I joined Blackboard Eats based on the recommendation from VA. It's the great site that gives you great discounts on really top/high end restaurants. I've seen 30% to Zenkichi, Umi Nom, and this time Perilla. I couldn't pass up on Perilla with a 30% discount!Even after all these years, it's still pretty hard to get a reservation to this place. I could only get a reservation for 2 on a Sunday at 6:45pm 2 weeks prior. At first I was doubtful that it would full on a Sunday evening so early, but lo and behold, when we got there, it was completely packed. Before sitting down, we looked at the bar menu and it looked really good. They had a really good sounding duck burger with jack cheese, avocado, and spicy fries for $15 and a duck fat popcorn dish. Unfortunately, I don't think they offer those dishes at the table, so I would definitely come back and try those dishes. We sat down and ordered 2 beers: Dan got the Six Point which we've had many times before and I got a local Maryland beer called Flying Dog and it was really really good. I had never heard of it before but this was very light and a great summer time beer.
The menu has about 8 different apps and 8 different entrees and a handful of side dishes, so it's not that hard to choose a few different things to try. Dan and I were torn between the lamb belly and duck meatballs for an app and decided to go with the duck meatballs ($13). When it came out, at first I only saw a bowl with 2 meatballs and I was a bit annoyed but then it turns out when we had mentioned to the waitress that we were splitting the app, the nicely split the actual dish into 2 separate bowls and dressed it as if they were 2 separate dishes...each bowl had a right amount of pasta and each bowl had a quail egg. The meatballs were flavored really well with the right amount of spice and very tender. The mini pastas and quail egg was a nice touch and it made me sop up the left over with a piece of bread.
For entree, I chose the Trigger Fish ($26) and Dan got the wild board tasting ($29). We were torn between our chosen dish and another, so next time we come back I would get the Hanger Steak and Dan would get the Tea-smoked duck. The trigger fish is a nice white fish that doesn't have any fishy smell or taste to it. It came with baby potatoes, beans, de-shelled clams (they were great), and they were covered in this amazing coconut flavor curry sauce. Dan's wild boar came 3 ways: the belly was wrapped in a phyllo dough (I had a bite and it was incredibly tender, fatty and yummy at the same time), the loin which was on a bed of greens and covered in a apple sauce, and another cut wrapped in cabbage. The dish was very unique and didn't make you think you were eating boar. For dessert, I was contemplating a cheese plate (3 for $10) or the banana upside down cake ($9) but in the end, we decided to try something different. We got the rhubarb sundae ($9), which had rhubarb jam/sauce, sour cream ice cream, peanut butter ganache and these mint macaroons. The sour cream ice cream went from tasting like sour cream to not tasting like sour cream. But all in all, it was pretty tasty. The service was impeccable...the waitress was super nice and friendly, the food came out at just the right time (not too long and not too slow) and the busy boys cleaned our plates without interrupting our meal. Our total bill was $91, which I usually think is a bit too much for a regular dinner for 2, but with the Blackboard eats discount, it was a more reasonable $67! Thank you blackboard eats for letting me try a restaurant that has been on my list and next time I will definitely go and sit at the bar and try the duck burger and have another flying dog beer.
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