Denver Restaurant Week - Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen

So Denver does Restaurant Week where a bunch of restauants offer a limited menu for $52.80 for two people. It often includes an appetizer/salad, entree and desert. Restaurants that participate vary from Outback Steakhouse to ritzier places. We opted to try Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen. Here's their menu:

First Course

• Wedge Salad - With bleu cheese dressing, bacon, tomatoes, carrots & green onions
• Dinner Salad - Mixed lettuce greens, croutons, tomatoes, red onions & choice of homemade dressings

Second Course - Your choice of:

• Scallops Lacombe - Tender, jumbo sea scallops seared with fresh garlic & capers in a brown butter sauce, served over green beans & finished with toasted almonds & crispy onion rings
• Pasta Mardi Gras - Linguine tossed with crawfish, andouille sausage & crimini mushrooms in a marinara cream sauce, topped with jumbo grilled shrimp
• Cedar Plank Salmon - Fresh Salmon fillet topped with garlic herb butter & broiled on a smokey cedar plank, served with asparagus
• Mahi Yvette - Fresh Mahi fillet topped with a Monterey Jack cheese sauce and sautéed shrimp, crawfish, mushrooms & spinach, served with dirty rice

Third Course

• Crème Brûlée with fresh fruit
• Vanilla Cheesecake with fresh strawberries
• Turtle Fudge Brownie with vanilla ice cream

Sounds delicious right? We thought so too. We even splurged on getting the oyster tio appetizer: Oysters Pappadeaux with crabmeat, spinach & hollandaise, Oysters Baton Rouge baked with a Parmesan Romano cheese sauce, Oysters St. Phillip baked with shrimp, bacon, roasted peppers & Italian bread crumbs. Amazing! All were delicious, but I think Wes and I liked the Oysters St. Phillip the best.

So what did we have? We both had the dinner salad complete with warm, crusty French bread. I think the warm, fresh bread sealed it for Wes at the beginning. Wes had the scallops and cheesecake and I had the mahi and turtle fudge brownie. Wes's scallops were seared nicely on the outside and so tender perfectly. My mahi was almost Cajun like with all sorts of spices and the sauce was so creamy. The shrimp and crawfish were just tender and not overcooked like some places. Entrees were two thumbs up.

By time dessert came around, we were both pretty full. And they served some big slices of cake too! We took a few bites and then took the rest of the dessert home. The cheesecake was rich and creamy. The crust wasn't as crumbly as I like it, but like Wes said, it had good flavor. I wasn't as impressed with my fudge turtle brownie. It was too dense and rich for me I think.

The atmosphere at Pappadeaux's was pretty cool. It had a nice view of the city and it almost seemed like there should have been a body of water just outside of the restaurant. Too bad we're in a land-locked state. The restaurant is a little pricey to go there often, but it'll definitely be a special occasion restaurant. My birthday is coming up. Maybe we'll head back to this place in the near future to explore the rest of the menu!

A great and yummy dinner date! And I'm glad we finally got to experience Restaurant Week!