Restaurant Review: Cova Wine & Tapas Bar for their S&S Special

I'm a big fan of steak - but it usually has to be my dad's steak. When he buys them, he soaks them in sauce in a ziplock bag and freezes it so when its time to eat, it thaws and compltely infused with the flavor. Delicious!

Tuesday night at Cova on Washington is Steak and Shrimp night - all for only $15! Go early because they serve what they have, once out, you're out of luck. Cova is known more for their wine and tapas. Beware, it's a small, cozy little place with roughly 15-20 sets of large tables. They were kind enough to pull together a group of tables for our big group. Its small so when its packed with people, its incredibly loud and hard to hear folks talking down the table if you have a dinner group of 5 or more.

The best part of the night, when driving up to the restaurant, we saw a grill outside across the street and a pile of white plates sitting next to it. Pretty hilarious that they cook the steaks outside and then run them across the street to the restaurant. So, let's get on to the food:

Lobster Risotto w/saffron and crab - Being from Texas, we're always curious about portion. So while it's labeled as a tapa, it's definitely large enough for dinner. It was fairly tasty but definitely no comparison to Tony's lobster risotto. The lobster flavor was not incredibly prominent and unfortunately, it had way too many peanuts/nuts, which overpowered the seafood hints and took away from the creaminess that risottos should be. It was good, not great.

Steak and Shrimp - This looked delicious served on the plate and was a fairly large portion. The shrimps were grilled and seasoned well but its hard to mess up shrimp! The steak was cooked just right at medium rare with it seared on the outside and a good light pink on the inside. The texture was a little chewy, making it less than great and the seasoning should have been kicked up a notch.

Overall, I give this place a three out of five stars. Service was pretty good and accomodating to help arrange our tables, parking was a tad slow (but the poor valet guy was on his own), and the special Tuesday deal gave it a boost in rating. The risotto wasn't bad, just wasn't as good as others I have had and steak was blah, not memorable. Maybe this rating will be higher when I go for the wine and their special tapas rather than their steak and shrimp specials.