Hosted by Meadow Muse Pavilion and Great Events Catering, this was an entertaining evening filled with more food than we could all eat and bonus live entertainment. The Meadow Muse Pavilion is in behind Annie’s Bakery in Fish Creek Park, near Bow Valley Ranche off Bow Bottom Trail (way south). You have to park in the lot and walk down a paved path a little ways to get to the venue, but on a nice day it was an enjoyable little walk.
The dinner was $73 plus GST, for all-you-can-eat seafood served family style. With live entertainment – two gents singing and playing east coast influenced music on a guitar and keyboard – it was definitely good value for the money. There was a cash bar that served various beer, wine and liquor. When I arrived there was a very large line up to purchase drink tickets, but I had nothing better to do while I awaited the arrival of my friend. Service was good throughout the night – servers filled water glasses and took away our buckets of empty seafood shells. The only thing that would have been an added bonus would have been individual finger bowls because a seafood bake can get a bit messy!
Here’s all the food that we got to eat:
Appetizer: Baked seafood dip with grilled baguette – one of these was served to two people. It was warm cheesey goodness, filled with large chunks of seafood – super delicious!
Mains:
Jalapeño cornbread – I actually didn’t get any hint of jalapeño. The bread was definitely more sweet than spicy, but it was super delicious. I’m typically not a cornbread kind of gal, but I ate two pieces, it was that good!
Caprese salad with grilled asparagus – it was really just a big bowl of spinach with a handful of baby bocconcini cheese, tomatoes and grilled asparagus on top.
Arugula salad with peaches and bacon served with a bourbon vinaigrette – Similar to the spinach salad, this was really just a bowl of arugula with a few peach slices and bits of bacon sprinkled on top. There was a lot of salad left over. However, I have to say that the bourbon vinaigrette (served on the side) was one of the best vinaigrette dressing’s I have ever had. It wasn’t too sweet and it wasn’t too zingy. If I could bottle it up and take it home I truly would – hat’s off to the Chef for that dressing for sure!
A mixture of clams, mussels, crab, sweet sausage, prawns, red potatoes and corn on the cob in a spiced seafood stock – Each table was brought out 3 huge pans of seafood to start. The pan in front of us didn’t actually include sausage or prawns… until the second round. We weren’t even done the 3 huge pans and they replaced them with new pans filled with more seafood! It was definitely all you can eat, and more.
Pan seared Atlantic salmon with charred lemons and chopped parsley – the salmon was served in the pans with the seafood. It was quite tasty but a bit overcooked. I overheard others say the same thing – it was a bit dry.
Black bean and chipotle rice pilaf – the rice was actually really good! I don’t think many people ate much of it though – they had to save room for all that seafood!
Dessert:
Southern pecan pie – one of the best pecan pie’s I’ve ever had. So delicious! Smooth and sweet, but not too sweet. With a hint of booze perhaps? I was disappointed I could only have a couple bites because I was too full.
Apple Fritters with a Jack Daniel’s caramel glaze – the fritter was kind of hard to cut with a fork (there were no knives available at the dessert table) and I sure wasn’t about to pick it up, but these fritters were super tasty too.
Mixed berry meringues with minted Chantilly cream – wow. I was expecting a dry and crumbly meringue that didn’t have much going for it. But these little guys melted in your mouth like nothing I’ve ever had before. I think this is how meringue is really supposed to be! Another win!
All in all, I can’t wait to do this again with a larger group of people next year. It was entertaining and great value for all the food we got to eat. It was unfortunate it shut down at 9pm, because at 8:30 all the rowdies got up and started dancing. I couldn’t move because I was so full, but it would have been fun to dance away the evening.
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