Aura

So this is my first non-breakfast blog and I really need to keep this thing more up to date. I have about a month of lag between when we eat somewhere and when I write about it.  I also want to preface this entry by saying that I want to keep this website as positive as possible.  I don't like writing negative things and I keep this blog as a hobby and because it is something that I enjoy. Anyway...

Aura.  We went to Aura for our anniversary last month. Nine years already!  We usually try to find a nicer restaurant to go to and spend too much money on for a dinner for two.  After looking at their menu and pictures on their website (www.dineaura.com)  I thought this place would be a good fit and a bit fancier than usual.  To Abby it looked a little too "foo-foo" but I told her that if we didn't enjoy it at least it would give us something to complain about. 

We had my brother come over to babysit, got dressed, and headed out.  Upon arriving we were seated immediately.  For appetizers we ordered tuna tartare and some bruschetta with shrimp and steak.  The tuna was everything I hoped it would be.  Ahi tuna in soy sauce, sesame oil, wasabi and scallions. I LOVE sushi and this was right up my alley.  Delicious. The other appetizer wasn't really anything special.  A piece of bruschetta with a slice of skirt steak or a piece of shrimp.  It was difficult to eat and I thought that it didn't have much flavor at all.

For our main courses Abby ordered the shrimp and I ordered the duck.  This is where things went bad. Worse than bad.  The shrimp was served with risotto and was advertised as having some sort of garlic butter sauce or something.  Quite honestly nothing on Abby's plate had any flavor.  The shrimp were not anything special.  They looked like the pre-cooked frozen shrimp that you get at Walmart in a bag and there was no garlic buttery anything.  The risotto was just as disappointing as it had NO flavor.  If you didn't tell me it was risotto I would have thought they were grits.  I'm not knocking grits, but come on, they are bland.  

Abby's food being as bland as it was I would have traded my plate for hers in a heartbeat.  My duck was served with some sort of cherry sauce and wild rice.  To say it was bad would be one of the biggest understatements I could make.  It was flat out terrible.  Who ever made the cherry sauce must have had their tongue removed somewhere previous to working in a restaurant.  It was so incredibly bitter that it was inedible.  I tried as hard as I could to eat it but three bites was all I could force down.  I have never sent something back to my kitchen in my entire life but in this case I had to.  Hopefully they will reconsider serving food of this quality in the future.  When we were getting ready to leave I overheard a waiter at another table say that they had a special sushi menu that evening, something our waiter neglected to tell us.   I wish I would have known because this blog may have went in the opposite direction.  Oh well.

After leaving completely unsatisfied and still hungry Abby and I went to Big Red Keno for nachos and a few beers.  I played my normal numbers and won back all of the money that I spent at Aura. Thanks, universe!  While this was probably the worst restaurant that either of us has been to I do have to say I was left eating my own words.  It has given us something to complain about and turned out to be one of our more memorable anniversaries.