1st course: calamari with red pepper coulis, israeli couscous, and wilted frisee. This was delicious. Perfect temp, nicely spiced, ridiculously tender. Not to mention how much I love israeli couscous. I also thought the portion size was very generous..more than I expected. Loved it.
Side dish: the obligatory, famous truffled fries with shaved parm. Hot, crunchy, cheesy, and redolent with fragrant truffle oil. Always a hit. In retrospect, we could have done without the fries. I think it pushed us over the edge a bit.
Regular menu mid-course: "Little pillows" (can't remember the legit italian name for it) filled with lobter and marscapone. utterly delicious. The lobster filling was so sweet and tender. We mopped the plate clean with bread afterwards to finish up the delectable sauce.
My entree: Roasted duck ragu fettucine w. shaved goat cheese (divine!) This just smelled amazing when it was set before me. The gamy fragrance of the roasted duck and the slight funk of melting goat cheese. Powerfully flavored. I love digging into a bowl of noodles. The quantity looked a little small to me, but I coudn't even finish it bc I was getting super full. Great little bite of breakfast the next day though : )
Jess's entree: braised veal risotto. Very nice, full flavored tender fall-off-the-bone meat. Creamy risotto. I only tasted a small amount of this, so can't really analyze.
My dessert: summer berries, prosecco zabaglione. I know this is simple, with hardly any cooking involved, but I knew I'd be super full from the rich courses preceding this and that this would be the perfect way for me to end my meal. The blackberries were huge, squishy, ripe, and sweet. This completely refreshed me after the very rich duck ragu pasta.
Jess's dessert: chocolate panna cotta with almond toffee brittle. We had a lot of fun (too much) jiggling this around on the plate to demonstrate how it "quivered like the inner thigh of a courtesan" quoth Nigella Lawson. My assessment: this was tasty but a bit too sweet for Jess and not chocolatey enough for me (it was good..reminded me a bit of eating milk chocolate pudding, flavor wise, but would have preferred it to be a bit darker with more chocolate intensity). The almond toffee brittle provided a nice caramel crunch, but I feel like the dessert was one dimensional. Lacked an acid/fruit/or herbal component that could have made the flavors dance more. Sprig of mint as garnish not great..no one's going to chew on a big mint leaf. Maybe a mint syrup or some kind of fruit coulis would have made this a bit more special.
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