New Dining Experience: The Row House

It's not often that you get to have a new dining experience in a place like Topeka.  Oh sure, there are new restaurants popping up all the time, but to have an experience, you need to visit a place like The Row House.

(photo credit)

The Row House can be found tucked away in a corner of Topeka's downtown.  I don't know how long it's been around, but I hadn't heard of it until a friend mentioned it at work.  She invited us to join her and some friends for dinner at the Row House for her birthday.  I wasn't sure what to expect.  I knew that it wasn't an ordinary sort of restaurant, where you order off a menu.  I looked online and read things like "Halibut, citrus and cilantro salsa, black rice" and thought that this really wasn't going to be my thing.  But I am not kidding when I say that everything was delicious.  We had a yummy salad with greens from the restaurant's own garden with goat cheese and a champagne vinegrette, creamy vegetable soup (which was maybe my favorite dish of the evening), and then a taste of all the entrees: the halibut mentioned above, corn cakes with black beans and verde, and beef sirloin with lima beans and whipped potatoes.  I ate everything on my plate, including the lima beans.  Dessert was champagne sorbet, coconut creme brulee, and a delicious lime macaroon with habenero pepper.  Of everything, the desserts were probably my least favorite, only because I don't like coconut and I had to eat around the habenero. (I'm not a spicy food person.)  The food was amazing. Amazing.

The ONLY downside was the price.  We are not big spenders when it comes to this sort of thing, but my friend had warned me that this was expensive, so I saved a good portion of my birthday money for this outing.  There is a set price per person for the meal (see their website), and then you are responsible for tax, tip, and any drinks.  It was a pricy night, but we relaxed, had fun, and decided for once not to worry about the money!