Just do it #14: 12 new restaurants in 12 months

Dan and I resolved to try 12 new restaurants in 12 months as our New Year's resolution (AKA the most delicious one I've ever made). It's a tough job, but someone's got to do it.

After dutifully cooking at home all week and saving my tutoring money, we kicked off our resolution with Pescados, a Carribean restaurant known for their hipster atmosphere, killer mojitos, and creative food. Richmond Magazine recently voted this seeming hole-in-the-wall as one of the best restaurants of the year, and consequently, it was packed with the hot and trendy when we arrived. We, being neither hot nor trendy, wondered... were we cool enough to hang out here?

Maybe not. But with this food, who cares.

The outside:

We arrived to this dark corner that Dan almost drove by without noticing. Guess you can't judge a restaurant from the exterier.

The atmosphere:

Inside, there were cheeky decorations like huge letters that spell EAT and colorful murals, like this Rastafarian octupus:

And this rockstar King Triton. We couldn't figure out who this was supposed to be. Can you? :)

The food:

Ahhh.. so delicious. We shared a plate of conch fritters (kind of like hush puppies). Then, I downed a mango mojito and the best fish tacos I've ever tried. Dan had a scallop and pureed sweet potato dish.

The dessert:

I've told you about my love for avacado. Well, they have an avacado tart available for dessert. We ordered one to share even though it sounded a bit scary, like guacamole in a pastry crust. Luckily, it tasted like incredibly creamy key lime pie, and we were fighting over the last bits.


I could have done without the attitudey waitress (yes, I'm making that into an adj.), who barely spoke a word all night, except to occasionally snarl out a question. Honestly, we might have caught her on a bad night. I don't think the restaurant was prepared for the influx of eager Richmonders ready to try their latin-caribbean fusion food, so their servers seemed overworked. Maybe she misses the place catering only to low-key musicians and artists and is annoyed with all the hoopla... and the nerdy couple that sneaked a photo of the rastapus on the wall.

In short, the hoopla was warranted. I mean, that avacado tart?! Wow.

Verdict: 1 down, 11 to go. I'll fill you in on the more memorable ones!