After learning all about the in’s and out’s of Mohegan’s dining services, Mal and I quickly stopped by our hotel room to freshen-up and change our clothes for dinner. We had about an hour to kill before our reservation, so we stopped at SolToro Tequila Grill for a pre-dinner cocktail.
SolToro is a contemporary Mexican restaurant/bar serving classic Mexican cuisine with a modern twist. SolToro has an impressive tequila list that features 80+ varieties as well as fresh margaritas and signature tequila cocktails.
I pursued the drink menu at SolToro for a good 10 minutes without making decision. Luckily, our bartender, Kenny, was more than willing to make a few recommendations. After listening to my taste preferences, he suggested a cocktail made with sangrita and Don Julio Blanco tequila. I had never tried sangrita (let alone heard of it), so Kenny gave me a sample to taste before I committed to the cocktail.
Sangrita is a tomato juice based drink that is often used as a cocktail mixer or drunk alongside tequila as a chaser. Not to be confused with “sangria,” a fruit and wine concoction, this beverage is a tangy mixture of tomato and orange juices, usually spiked with hot chiles and lime juice. Sangrita is considered the perfect accompaniment to good quality tequila, like an aged añejo or a good reposado. There are many recipes for sangrita, but most contain tomato juice, lime juice, pureed onion, salt, and chili sauce. (Text from Wikipedia.)
I was very, very happy with my drink decision! 😀 The sangrita had a wonderful fiery kick to it. My mouth was en fuego! I love that! I will definitely be ordering this drink in the future!
My handsome husband thought the sangrita was tasty, but it was too spicy for his liking. He stuck to Mexican beer.
The Longhouse Steaks & Seafood
In addition to hooking me up with a hotel room for the night, the nice PR people at Mohegan also treated Mal and me to a complimentary dinner at The Longhouse Steaks & Seafood restaurant. The Longhouse is a traditional steakhouse that offers a variety of beef, seafood, and poultry dishes.
The decor inside the restaurant was rustic with its natural-looking wood furniture and deer antlers lining the room. The colors and lighting were somewhat modern, but I got the impression that the restaurant hadn’t been updated in many years. The fabric on some of the booths and chairs were faded and worn, and the employees uniforms were a tad out of style.
Our dining experience started with a basket of dinner rolls. I was famished, so I immediately helped myself to one. I ate about 2/3 of the roll with a little smear of butter.
Mal selected a bottle of wine for our meal. Being the wonderful husband that he is, Mal picked one of my favorite Chardonnays: Robert Mondavi Private Selection.
I love how wine buckets make a bottle that much fancier! 😀
The wine glasses at the Longhouse were enormous! Holy moly! I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a wine glass so large!
On our tour with Chef Lynn, Mal and I were introduced to the head chef at The Longhouse, so when we arrived for dinner, he treated us to a couple of appetizers: Short Rib Dumplings and Jumbo Lump Crab Cakes.
The Short Rib Dumplings were pan-seared with cheddar cheese, fried green tomatoes, spicy bacon, and green onion cr̬me fr̢iche. The dumplings were a bit on the greasy side, but, overall, excellentРtender, flavorful, and interesting. The green onion cr̬me fr̢iche was especially nice. I ended up dipping my bread into it, too.
The Crab Cakes were made with a citrus aioli and topped with crisp taro root. They were just so-so in my book. The consistency was typical of crab cakes, but the flavor was off. It seemed like there was too much aioli mixed into the cake. Each bite seemed to have a strong mayonnaise taste to it. I just wasn’t a fan of these crab cakes.
I started with a dumpling and a crab cake, but I ended up eating less than half of the crab cake and eating a second dumpling instead.
Even though we had already shared two appetizers, Mal desperately wanted to try the Grilled Brie & Escargot. He’s a Frenchman; he loves escargot.
Typically, I like escargot quite a lot, but this particular dish looked and tasted burnt. The food was just too charred for me.
Mal enjoyed the escargot a lot. He said they were perfectly tender and flavorful, and he ate every last one. However, Mal was disappointed about the quality of the brie, which he described as “bland and plastic-y.”
After taking a sneak-peak at the dessert menu, I knew that I needed to save room for the Best Darn Carrot Cake Ever. I filled up on bread and appetizers, so I decided to forgo a traditional entree and order carrot cake for my main course.
I was shocked when a LOAF of carrot cake was served to me! This portion could have easily served 4+ people! Mal and I both made a valiant effort, but by the end of the meal, we barely made a dent in it!
The carrot cake was decent, but not the “best darn ever” I have eaten. I loved that it had big chunks of carrot, pineapple, and coconut throughout, but the cake itself was much to dense for my liking. I prefer a more “classic” carrot cake– light and soft, reasonably-sized. I enjoyed the cream cheese frosting, but it was pretty average compared to the others I have tried over the years.
After dinner, Mal and I hit the Black Jack tables for some gambling. We played for a few hours before we decided that we should quit while we were ahead. Mal had luck on his side and ended up leaving with a good amount of money. I, however, made a $20 profit. But, at least, I didn’t go home in the hole, right?
