Thank you everyone for the well wishes!
OK here is the review. We had a wonderful dinner. The restaurant was very nice. Low ceilings with old wood beams. The very modern looking sushi bar looked a little out of place, but somehow they pulled it off very well. They were pretty busy and even though we had a reservation we still needed to wait a few minutes for our table. This was not a big deal at all though. They got us to our table as quickly as they could. It turns out our table was not a prime piece of real estate. We were seated right next to the door and next to the bar. Not the most romantic spot, but we both decided that it really didn't bother us enough to ask for another table. The table and having to wait are my only two complains of the evening and I wouldn't even call them complaints. Both were completely minor things.
Now for the good stuff. Our waitress was fantastic. She was very pleasant and helpful. She was a little slow getting our bottle of wine, but she acknowledged that and explained she has to go into the wine cellar since they ran out of that bottle up top in the restaurant. That was fine by us. We were not in a rush anyway. For the wine, we ordered a bottle of 2003 Lindeman's Bin 45 (Coonawarra). Neither my wife or I know much about wines so I can't really describe it well, but we both enjoyed it very much.
For our apps we got the Coconut Crunchy Shrimp and the Sushi App. The shrimp were very large and excellent. The coconut coating was so good and cooked to perfection. There was a sweet dipping sauce. I am not sure what was in it, but honey was one of the things for sure. DW thought she tasted wasabi, but we are guessing she just caught a whiff of it from the sushi plate. My wife made the comment that food is great, but anytime something is "encrusted" it just gets so much better
The sushi app was good. I will probably be back to sit at the sushi bar some night. DW does not eat sushi although she keeps trying to try. To give her credit she has eaten small bites at least 2 or 3 times and even though she is not comfortable with eating it she still wants to try. I know she just wants to try for me and not for her. That (among many other things) makes her the sweetest person in the world. So she said she would try a piece tonight, but when it came to the table I could see she was not ready. I asked if I should give her a piece and she really did not want it. She finally decided to try a SMALL piece of salmon, but I was stupid and told her that might not be the best one to try first. The flavor is great, but the texture is a bit slimy compared to something like tuna. Well I just blew it. She decided tonight was not the night she would try it again. Oh well, I am sure someday it will happen. The sushi app was 5 pieces of nigiri sushi. There was salmon, tuna, eel, shrimp, and yellowfin. All was very tasty.
We both decided to get steaks. DW ordered the Steak Diane and I ordered the New York Sirloin au Poivre. My wife asked me how she should have it cooked. She knows that it is not cool to get a quality steak and then cook it too much, but she gets a little squeamish over raw foods or undercooked foods (see the sushi topic above). I told her to get hers med and I was getting mine med rare. The menu has a little description of their definition of rare, med rare, med, etc. For Med they would cook it so the center was still pink. That is how I cook hers at home so I knew she could handle that. For sides we got the Garlic Mashed Potatoes and the Butternut Squash Purée. We got the squash because we just started our little girl eating squash at home (her first real food) and tonight she was having the second half of her first jar (and loving it). Mommy wanted that connection with her baby so we ate squash too.
The stakes were delicious. DW even said she could have gotten hers med rare like mine. That made me very happy
the sides were very good. The potatoes were heavy on the garlic, but we are both garlic lovers in a big way so this was a good thing for us. The squash, while very tasty, seems out of place during a summer meal. DW said it felt like autumn.
We did not save any room for dessert, but they had a lot of tasty looking choices. Nothing crazy, just your typical fruit tarts and pies and cakes, but I bet they tasted great. Maybe someday we will go and just get drinks and dessert.
It was more money than we normally spend when it is just the two of us, but it was money well spent in our opinions. It was a great meal with great company and it is something we will remember for a long time to come.
Sweetie if you are reading this, I love you!
how are all of you doing now..
