The interior was a juxtaposition of basic lines and simple furniture, and rustic-feeling lighting and presentation.
To start, we were brought an amuse-bouche of roasted cauliflower in a sort of wine/balsamic reduction.
And a big basket of bread. See those long crispy breadsticks? Domination on my part.
For my dinner, I chose a salad and a side. First up was the roasted beets, with fennel-honey crusted walnuts, celery, endive and vinaigrette.
And my side was an order of roasted brussels sprouts, sans the applewood smoked bacon they're usually paired with.
I also shared an order of sauteed spinach with the table.
While it doesn't seem like a ton of food, this meal was actually super filling and absolutely delicious. I stole bites of vegetables and salad from the rest of my family, and really enjoyed my own two dishes, especially the brussel sprouts. They weren't quite as amazing as last week's award-winning ones, but then again...they weren't drenched in nearly as much oil! The vinaigrette was what stood out most about the beets- it complemented them perfectly without being too oily or overpowering.
Instead of dessert, I simply ordered a cup of African nectar tea, which came with a piece of lemon-raisin biscotti.
Of course, I sampled a few bites of my mom and sister-in-law's desserts. The warm dark chocolate cake, with pistachio and toffee crunch ice cream:
And pear tarte tatin, with ginger-clove ice cream.
The pistachio ice cream atop the chocolate cake was without a doubt my favorite part. It included full pistachios, which was a nice surprise against the creamy ice cream and warm cake.
Everyone else seemed to really enjoy their meal, as well. As I told my dad though, I'm starting to get a big sick of eating out- I love restaurants, but I feel like I've been going to so many recently! I don't have any meal plans until next Friday, so hopefully a week-long mini-detox is what I need ;)
Hope you all have a wonderful Saturday!
How often do you usually eat out?
