Restaurant Review: Axel's Bonfire

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Katy and I went to Axel's Bonfire last night on Grand Avenue for Deb's birthday dinner. We were also joined by Bob, Josh and Laura.

Who: Joel and Katy, Bob and Deb, Josh and Laura
What: Dinner
When: Saturday October 16 6:30pm
Where: Axel's Bonfire, Grand Avenue
Why: Deb's Birthday

I ordered Cioppino for $21.95.

I saw Throwdown with Bobby Flay on the Food Network where the challenge was who made the best cioppino, Bobby Flay or local San Francisco guy he visits out of the blue to have the challenge to make the signature dish.

Well, that's been on my mind since that episode months ago, about how I wanted to give that dish a try so I finally did since I saw it on the menu.

Cioppino is a fish stew that originates from San Francisco, California. It is derived from various regional fish soups and stews from Italian cuisine. It was usually a bunch of seafood that was the catch of the day; any sort of combination of crabs, clams, shrimp, scallops, squid, mussels and fish. That combines with fresh tomatoes and a wine sauce and paired with a baguette or bread.

Axel's version was shrimp, scallops, walleye, clams, mussels and crab claws in a spicy tomato broth. I asked the server if it was truly spicy, and if it was asking if it was feasible to back off of it some. He said that it was not too spicy so I didn't ask for them to back off any of the heat, though once I put it on my mouth I wish I had! It was plenty spicy, I wish I knew what was actually causing the heat. What were the spices and was it made more prominent because of the acid from the tomatoes?

However, the seafood in there was outstanding. There was a ton of shrimp, the walleye was delicious and the bits and pieces of chopped up crab, clams and mussels was awesome with plenty of nicely sized scallops. The heat from the dish stayed there for the whole meal so after every bite I washed it down with some Coke or water and put down the roll that they gave with it as well.

Overall, the dish was hot. Too hot for my taste so if they could have backed that down a few notches my palate would have enjoyed it a little bit more. However, the amount of seafood in there and the tomatoes made it a delicious meal. There was also a leftover effect; without being able to eat it all because of the heat I saved some of it and made it for lunch today.

Cioppino, give it a try and I'll keep you updated when I get to taste test it again!