freakpirate

I need to preface this entry by pointing out how insanely wonderful my girlfriend really is. She took me out for dinner last night to a fancy restaurant. And this is my review.

Teatro

First of all, this restaurant is beautiful. It's in an old bank building. Incredibly high ceilings, wonderful columns, a huge iron gate from France.

We sat down and Jody ordered a bottle of wine. A pinot gris, the name of which neither of us can remember. It was good. I know that. One we had ordered they brought us two bite sized little things to eat before our appetizers arrived.

First bite thingy: a small piece of bread with a sundried tomato puree and a dab of goat cheese. Simple. Delicious. I would have eaten loaves of this stuff. It was so good.

Second bite thingy: fried risotto balls. Jody didn't eat hers because it had chicken in it. So I got two. They were crispy on the outside, creamy on the inside and served with a very garlicky aoli. Very, very rich. Two is about all I could have eaten.

Appetizers: Jody ordered a tuna carpaccio with fried capers. I didn't try it but she said it was delicious. She was very excited about the fried capers.

I ordered the foie gras because this is one of the few chances I will ever have to try it. With Jody silently judging me I dug in. I'm not really sure how to describe what I ate. Wonderfully seared and a little crunchy on the outside. Kind of like a well poached egg in texture. I still can't find the right words to describe the flavour. But oh my lord was it good. It was served with a berry compote which was just the right kind of vinegary flavour and a little bit of spiced bread. The bread kind of fell apart when I tried to put the foie gras on it but it was so tasty I didn't really care.

Main dishes: Mine was a lobster ravioli with an orange beurre blanc and sauteed cabbage. Now, I have had lobster ravioli before. Or things that claim to be lobster ravioli. I'm sure they had lobster in them but it seemed to be mostly cheese. You know, cheap filler. This stuff... not so much. It was all lobster. The beurre blanc was delicious. A little acidic but not overpowering. The cabbage was fantastic. This is not your grandmother's eight hour boiled cabbage. Melt in your mouth delicious.

Jody ordered the penne alla ricotta. Simple pasta with ricotta cheese, some lemon and spinach. This was probably the tastiest thing we ate all night. It was ridiculously simple and ridiculously tasty. We both figure we can make it easily at home and hopefully we will be able to do so because it's a meal I will never pass up.

We decided to pass on dessert but I had a pot of very good Earl Grey tea and they brought us some tiny desserts before we left. One was essentially a truffle but not rolled in a ball. Very tasty. The second was a tiny banana nut muffin. This one was the only disappointment of the evening because it didn't live up to the banana muffins my babysitter made when I was little. Those are the best banana muffins known to man and I have yet to find one that surpasses them. You're welcome to try but it won't be easy.

I don't get to do fine dining very often so this was one hell of a treat and made for a fantastic evening. Some day I would love to have enough money to eat like that all the time.