To start we ordered a bottle of bubbly to toast the birthday girl, while reviewing the menu. We ordered a selection of appetizers: the shaved Brussels sprout salad, the beets, the shaved artichoke salad, the Creamy mozzarella burrata with caramelized mushroom & shallots and the “green egg and ham”. I am not a fan of Brussels sprout and I don’t eat beets, but that didn’t matter as I was in food heaven with the mozzarella with the mushrooms and even more with the “green egg and ham”: green asparagus with some sort of vinaigrette over it, topped with a poached egg and bacon bits. Oh my god, what a delicious combination. When I close my eyes, I can still taste that last bite……
Our main courses were all delicious as well. For the birthday girl, they made a special vegetable risotto and some of the other dishes were the ravioli, gnocci, Dungeness crab, and for me the spaghetti Carbonara with a soft duck egg on top. We washed our lunch away with 2 bottles of delicious Petit Syrah.
Of course some of us couldn’t resist dessert. Some ordered the Italian doughnuts and others the tiramisu profiteroles. Our waiter had called the gnocci little pieces of heaven, I’d say these tiramisu profiteroles better deserve that name and they should put them on the menu under that name. Not having paid much attention to what was happening around us during our lunch, we noticed when we were paying the bill that the restaurant was virtually empty, but for some people sitting at the bar. When we looked at our watches we realized why: it was after 5pm and the restaurant was getting ready for dinner.
We have to thank David, our waiter. It was his first day and I can imagine how he felt after his first day serving this group: one of us has a gluten allergy, one is vegetarian and our birthday girl, well let’s just say that she is not only vegetarian, in addition she is extremely picky…….but David had the patient of an angel and joked with us through our 3 plus hour lunch. The only 2 little disappointments were: having asked for a little birthday surprise with a candle for the birthday girl, this is what showed up on the table: