The Prado restaurant

 Have you been looking for a slice of Paradise?  How about a place to go for a nice anniversary or birthday celebration?  Well look no further than  Prado's at Montelucia resort.  Here you will find an elegant atmosphere that lends an air of sophistication to any celebration.  The resort is nestled in Paradise Valley, with a red rock vista that makes for an amazing backdrop to dinner.  As we pulled up to the front doors we are greeted with valet parking, but don't worry the restaurant does validate for it.  We arrived promptly at 5:30 for our reservation.  As we were seated at our table, I was impressed that all the wait staff were greeting us by name.  Their service was impeccable.  I was even impressed that when Patti left to use the rest room, a bus boy stopped by our table and re-folded her napkin.  Although we were obviously assigned to Scott's table, all the servers who walked by our table were aware and attentive to our needs. 

Prado's does have an extensive wine list as well as other drinks and glad to hear that they served Coke products.  We started off with two appetizers.  The first one was a Jumbo Lump Crab Cake with citrus aioli and peppadew vinaigrette.  This was topped with a slice of clementine orange and served on a bed of greens.  The crab cake was light and creamy with plenty of crab meat which went well with the tang from the citrus aioli dipping sauce.  For appetizer number two, we chose off the Vasi portion of the menu a spread made of caramelized onion, tart cherries and balsalmic vinegar.  This spread is similar to a jam and is served with toasted bread and cracker.  The blend of the flavors of the onion, cherry and vinegar is very unique.  When you first place it on your tongue, your first sensation is tart which is followed by the sharp of the vinegar and then quickly replaced by the sweet of the caramelized onion.  I was not sure I would enjoy this at first but soon found that it was quite addicting and I couldn't stop eating it.
After watching so many episodes of Hell's Kitchen, Patti just had to order the scallops and risotto.  Although she was tempted by the grilled stone fruit options, when we asked the server his recommendation he answered scallops without hesitation.  This dish consists of seared sea scallops, cold water lobster served on a bed of fava bean risotto and citrus butter.  The scallops were cooked to a beautiful golden brown and melted in your mouth.  The lobster was tender and full of flavor and complimented well with the citrus butter.  We were especially impressed with the risotto.  The chef gave it plenty of roasted garlic that was thinly sliced so when you bit into it, there was more of a rich nutty flavor more than an overbearing garlic clove.  The risotto texture was creamy with a slight crunch from the fava beans.

 I, of course, had to go for something that was completely different from what you would be served in most Italian restaurants.  My pasta entree consisted of angel hair, mussels, clams, shrimp and fish in a spicy tomato broth.  This also included squid ink.  That's right I said "squid ink".  The squid ink is known to have iodine and strong iron flavor to it.  But for my meal, it appeared to be only to color the angel hair.  Each element of seafood was very tender which is a difficult task to accomplish well when cooking clams, mussels, fish and shrimp all in one dish.  The angel hair pasta made the meal very entertaining to eat despite the extraordinary look.  Don't forget to have your full glass of water close by because the spicy tomato broth packs a punch.

For dessert we decided to go with the Prado Sundae.  When we mentioned this, our waiter asked if we were by chance celebrating an event such as an anniversary or birthday.  We explained that we were celebrating our 33rd week of "Fun Frank Fridays".  When he returned with our dessert, to our surprised they had written "Congratulations" in chocolate on our plate.  He then said "Congratulations...on finding your new favorite restaurant".  Our sundae consist
ed of a vanilla gelato surrounded by caramelized bananas, amarone cherries and then topped with apple wood bacon, warm chocolate sauce, roasted almonds, whip Cream and a biscotti crumble.  Once again we asked ourselves "how can you go wrong with bacon?"  One of the neat things about this sundae was the hard caramel coating over the bananas.  This dessert had everything from smooth to crunchy, salty to sweet, hard to soft in a total yummy goodness.  No matter how much you eat when you go to the restaurant, make sure you save room for dessert.  The entire time we were at the restaurant, we felt like we were treated like royalty.  The personal touch of calling me by name is a step above expected customer service.  Most of you have not tried anything close to squid ink, but here is your chance to try it.  So if you haven't tried squid ink, try it now.