Food and Drink: The Green Room: Hotel Dupont

The Green Room: Hotel Dupont
11th & Market Streets, Wilmington Delaware 19801 800-441-9019 | T. 302-594 3100

Dine in the lap of luxury, this beast of a restaurant has won the AAA 4 Diamond Award 28 years in a row. This is OLD MONEY. Just check out the ceiling. O my *** look at that ceiling.

This is one of those places (like Nineteen, LaCroix) where I've gone into the restaurant and had my breath taken away BEFORE the courses started arriving. I felt like a king in his castle. The menus come personalized and printed with your name at the top welcoming you to the restaurant. And don't get me started on the plating.

I think this is hands down the fanciest china I have ever seen. (And I've seen lots.) Also a big first, my table setting came with 4 forks, a soup spoon, 3 knives. Just over the top ridiculousness.

The first course was a foie gras. Soft, creamy, thick and melts in your mouth.
(below) Hudson Valley Foie Gras faro, baby squash, parsnip, wine reduction.

(above) Mushrooms multiple preparations, spinach leaves, sundried tomato pesto parmesan tuille. The orange sauce is a mix of roasted red peppers and sundried tomatoes. Tuille for the unitiated is a thin, crisp, sweet or savory wafer made of dough or cheese. That is the tube looking thing on the middle right of the picture.

(above) Arugula Salad Cornichon*, carrot, toasted pine nuts, sherry-herb emulsion. Served with a tort vinaigrette not too sweet, but enough to whet the palate for more to come.
*cornichon have historically also been called horned cucumbers, crumplings, and guerkins. Basically, they are the small pickles you see on the plate.

(above) Baby Spinach Salad hydro bibb*, baby tomato, pickled onion white balsamic & fig vinaigrette. This fantastic salad features a balsamic reduction with ripe cherry tomatoes and raw purple union. Yum.
*majority of hydroponic lettuce is bibb or European buttercrunch types. Hydroponics is a subset of hydroculture and is a method of growing plants using mineral nutrient solutions, in water, without soil.

(above) Diver Scallops toasted quinoa, pea tendrils, greens, apricot wine reduction. The apricot sauce was amazing, sweet and tangy. The spinach was buttery, steamed and very sweet. Under the bed of clover is the quinoa which is high in protein and fiber and has a nice crunch.

(above) Veal Flank blueberry, sage, fingerling potato, frisée, pan jus. Cooked medium. Lovely juicy blueberry sauce.

(above) Tropical Pineapple Bread Pudding toasted coconut ice cream, mint pesto, cranberry raspberry pearls, brown sugar wafers. This was not my favorite dish of the evening. I felt the bread pudding was just a bit too soggy, but that is just personal preference. The coconut ice cream was amazing however.

(above) Amaretto White Chocolate Raspberry Napoleon “Our Signature Dessert” thin layers of dark chocolate between white chocolate amaretto mousse with fresh raspberries and berry coulis. Certainly gets an A+ for presentation. Was pretty tasty as well.

Of course any fancy restaurant would not be complete without the token silver sculpture at the entrance.

Update: This place was so good for dinner, I decided to come back for lunch. Let's just say, the "B team" takes the lunch shift. Service was spotty at best and the waiter messed up several times throughout the meal. Food was good as usual though.