The Wellington

A few nights ago, I met up with several foodbloggers (three of  whom I hadn't met yet). The meet up was organized by Darlene in honor of Leanne's upcoming nuptials. The location? Drinks and appetizers at The Wellington Steak and Martini Lounge in Mission Hills.

It was a small group consisting of Darlene of My Burning Kitchen, Leanne of Three Dog Kitchen, Marie of Meandering Eats (the blog formerly known as "Adventures of an Amateur Foodie"), Jenny of A Foray into Food, and Mary from Foodies: A SoCal Foodblog and lastly me.

It's very dark and masculine in here. Dark wood. Leather. Quite swanky and very Mad Men.

My camera sucks.

Darlene bought Cheese Kit Kats for everone so we put them on the place settings. I haven't eaten mine yet but the others who tried one said the smell was stronger than the actual taste. These were bought from Mitsuwa and had that cool Japanese packaging. I'll have Bert "taste test" this Kit Kat later.

The idea was to just stay for a few drinks and appetizers. The first appetizer was the Shrimp Creole: (description taken from their online menu) which was white shrimp sautéed sautéed with onion, celery, green bell pepper and garlic; finished with Cajun spices, white wine and cream served with a crispy three-cheese polenta cake. The polenta itself wasn't really "crispy" but it had a nice firm texture.

The other appetizer was the Spinach and Artichoke Dip topped with goat cheese and served with pita chips and crostinis. This was also pretty good. I liked what lurked under the goat cheese - the creamy dip itself. This was the most decadent food I'd had in about three weeks. I hadn't had bread or cheese until today.

Several of the ladies ordered drinks (some sort of chocolate Martini and the "Pretty Princess") which I'm sure will be posted later on their respective blogs at a later time. The idea was to just stay for a tiny bit, then move on to another place for actual dinner and/or dessert. It was really nice putting Mary and Marie's faces to their names, especially after having followed their blogs for awhile. It was also such a relief to see other like minded individuals whipping out their cameras to take photos and no one batted an eye!

Next...dinner!