Last night my guys took me out for my Mother's Day dinner. We were using one of the restaurant.com certificates which lorin had posted about, and since the restaurant we chose does not accept it on "special occasions," such as Mother's Day, we postponed until yesterday.
The restaurant we went to was
Manuel's Vintage Room. The site has a menu page which describes each item we had, when it was not a special that night. I'll list which menu page each item's description can be found on.
When we walked in, we were greeted by a small, intimate space...
...totally filled with a loud party of about 30 celebrating a birthday.
Ah well, we forged ahead and enjoyed ourselves anyway.
I honestly believed Beorn would be easy about his meal for once, he loves pizza (menu page 3) and pasta and the menu offers what struck me as a really nice create your own pasta (menu page 4) selection. But the pizzas were not a typical tomato and mozzarella choice, and I think he may have been overwhelmed by choices of pasta to decide on one. *sigh*
Anyway, Hyperception and I decided to try various things before our entree, and to share one of each.
Even though it is called "Vintage Room," we passed on any alcoholic beverages. They were just not in our budget at this time. Hyperception's eye was drawn towards an Israeli gewurztraminer he hopes to try at a later date though.
Appetizer: "Snails" (menu page 3)
These were not served in what I have come to expect as a traditional escargot service. The escargot that I have had are usually served in a specific style dish with each snail in it's own little crevice and covered in the butter sauce. Occasionally I have had escargot served in cleaned shells as well.
These were simply presented in a bowl, and our waitress spooned them on to separate appetizer plates for us. The herbed garlic butter sauce and the tenderness of the snails were superb. The table was brought a crusty artisan white loaf which we used to devour the snails.
Salad: "Caprese" (menu page 1)
Standard presentation, though the balsamic reduction was very tasty. Even though we ordered one to share, our waitress plated it on two plates, so we received two stacks of caprese each. Each plate had a criss cross pattern of extra virgin olive oil in one direction and the balsamic reduction in the other, on which the caprese was placed. Very nice.
Soup: Red Clam Soup (menu page 2)
Neither Hyperception nor Beorn expressed interest in this, so I ordered a cup instead of a bowl to try. Big mistake. As soon as both saw the abundance of clams in the tomato based broth, it was "the family's." Again, very good.
So, for entrees, Hyperception is the only one who ordered off the menu. The specials last night were:
Salmon in a mustard glaze.
Scallops in an apricot glaze.
12 oz. New York Strip Steak
and
Lamb Stew
All came a la carte, but the Grilled Vegetable Plate (menu page 3) didn't appeal to any of us as a side, so we left it untried. I guess I could have asked if they would do only the grilled asparagus, but again, I would have been the only one eating it and truthfully, it only just now occurred to me that I could have asked.
At the mention of the steak, Beorn's eyes finally lit up. So...
Entrees:
Hyperception: Macademia Chicken (menu page 7)
Since Hyperception is mostly low carbing, we had selected this as his choice before we went to the restaurant. And man, was it awesome! Unfortunately, the description did not say it also was coated with panko, so Hyperception put that aside for the night. A winner all the way around though. The vanilla cream sauce it was served with was divine.
Beorn: 12 oz. New York Strip steak
Nightly special cooked medium rare. He did not see the steak knife our waitress left and was using his butter knife to eat. It sliced that steak as if it was butter. He offered each of us a piece in exchange for a taste of our dishes, and it was delightful.
Me:
I was originally going to get one of the Veal dishes (menu page 6) listed, until I heard the specials. Then I was torn between the scallops and the lamb stew. Our waitress told us she was the room mate of the chef, and that she had tried the lamb stew in its experimental stages. She highly recommended it. I also happen to adore lamb, but get it infrequently. So lamb it was.
This was extremely tender cubed lamb in a hearty tomato base served over some very good risotto. I would have called it a lamb ragout myself, though I guess the tomato based sauce does differ from a typical ragout. Wonderful flavor, and yet...
Nearly too hearty, for what the meal had consisted of up to that point. I gave Hyperception the last quarter of my dish, though Beorn did enjoy the taste he had and I secretly wished I had gone with the scallops instead.
Still, overall it was very enjoyable.
Their dessert offering last night was tiramisu or chocolate cake. None of us were in the mood for either, so we departed and went to Dairy Queen, where the guys each had Oreo Blizzrds and I had a small cone of chocolate soft served dipped in chocolate hard shell and covered in chocolate sprinkles.
Yeah, baby...
Then we went home and pretty much all fell in to l-tryptophane stupors...
), again various chilli pasted seeweeds and salads and cabbages (the cabbagey one is kim-chi). Every meal so far seems to follow this routine. If a dish isn't completely finished, it will be brought out again at next meal, with new things to replace those dishes that were finished.
