Things started out well. We arrived at the restaurant right on time. We stared longingly at the dessert case where their was a beautiful apple tart and some fabulous looking chocolate custards. The dessert that I had my eye on was a raspberry filled trifle that just looked delicious. As we took in our surroundings we discovered that their was a live jazz band playing there for the "special" night. Along with the live band was a special Valentines day menu, here is the cover of the menu:
As we stood waiting to be seated we noticed that we were a bit younger than most of the other patrons in the cafe. In fact 90% of the customers were in their 50's. They seemed to be the executive types that always wear "slacks". We laughed about how we were a bit out of our demographic here. Our server, the house manager, then seated us at our table and proceeded to tell us that as a special for valentines day their was a special menu from which to order from. On the menu were four different courses in which you had a choice on every course except for dessert. The same dessert was being served to all. That meant the fabulous raspberry trifle was out, but I thought that the dessert would still be delicious and so we took a look at our special "complimentary" menus. Here is what we saw:
Sam and I decided that we would each get different things so that we could try more of this decidedly fancy menu. Sam started off with the Lobster salad. The lobster was delicious but was actually the size of a large prawn not exactly what Sam had in mind when he ordered Lobster but hey we were just getting started right? I had the Asparagus Veloute which was a delicious little cup of cream of asparagus soup. Now for those of you who don't know Sam, let me just let you know that he has a hard time sitting in a restraunt for an extended length of time. With four courses, however we were in for a considerable length of time. In the center of our table was a small glass bowl with two cute terrified looking goldfish swimming about trying their hardest to escape. Floating above the two fish were three little flowere candles that were lit. To pass the considerable time between the Mise en Bouche course and the Starter course Sam was looking at the fish. He then decided to touch the bowl right next to where when of the candles was glowing. His index finger quickly told him that was HOT! Well, this got Sam's curiousity flowing and he started wondering about the frightened goldfish. I guess his curiousity got the best of him because he then grabbed his fork, dipped a tong in a little bit of water and then touched it to the hot glass which he had just touched with his finger. As soon as the tong touched the glass the glass cracked from just below the water line all the way to the top! It was all we could do to keep from laughing right out loud. I think the fish were the most shocked by the whole experience! The water began to slowly leak out of the jar. Sam blew out the candles and then told our server that the glass had broken on our centerpiece. She said "Oh that is so odd!" And I'm pretty sure she was thinking, I wonder how that happened... We sat quietly, waiting for the fish to be removed. Hoping that they were going to go swim in some nice big fish bowl where they could be truly happy. We were reminded of the part in "What about Bob" when Bob is in the cafe with is pet fish Gill and he starts panicking about how Gill needs to get out of his jar!!
This, and some bread kept us entertained until our next course arrived. I had the Escargot (snails) and Sam had the Oysters on the half shell. We shared our tiny starters I received three snails and Sam received four oysters and we began to eat. I ate the Oyster first and did not regret it because I was able to get the oyster taste out of my mouth by eating the snail! The Escargot was actually quite good. It was coated with tons of butter and herbs, yum! The Oysters on the other hand were in quite another category. Sam and I whiled away the time as we ate the oysters by trying to describe just what they tasted like. This is what we came up with: slime, seaweed, tepid sea water that has been sitting stagnant in a tide pool for weeks, sand, and bits of seashell with a ginger jelly sauce! No amount of water could send away that taste and believe me I tried all the water I could. We declined our "complementary" champaign for obvious reasons (I am expecting after all, haha)! We were beginning to wonder if we should have taken them up on it to get rid of the Oyster taste but then more bread came to the rescue! We wolfed down our next set of rolls and then waited for our Main Course.
For Sam's main course he chose the Braised Beef Cheeks with horseradish potatoes, and asparagus. The two sprigs of asparagus he received were perfectly seasoned and perfectly cooked and the 3 ounces of beef that he had was also delicious. I chose the Herb Roasted Quails. And was very pleased with a very flavorful dish. I felt like I was a judge on "Top Chef". This plate would have recieved a very good rating. I certainly received more food then Sam did on that go round. I think I actually got the entire quail!
By this time our Hannah had called us under the pretense of having a question but really just wondering if we were ever coming home from our "just dinner". But, we still had a dessert to look forward to so we sat back, people watched, listened to the table of four that had had plenty to drink and were by this time laughing louder then I ever would have thought possible in a place where gold fish swam in the centers of the tables!
And now it was time for dessert! This restaurant was rated in the "Best of Boise" for having the best desserts so we were really looking forward to what we would get. The Gourmet hot chocolate definitely lived up to the billing. It was absolutely delicious. It was so thick it was more like a chocolate syrup. It was hot with some frozen cream floating on the top and had a hint of hazlenut flavor. Unfortunately their was only about a 1/4 of a cups worth. But we were also given a delicious chocolate covered strawberry dressed in a chocolate tuxedo. Sam ate his strawberry in two bites. I tried to savor mine by cutting it into tiny peices, quite unsuccessfully, with a knife and fork. Then after sitting a while longer we were served our chocolate souffle. I was very excited about this, because I have always wanted to try a souffle but have never had one and have always been to intimidated to make one. This is no longer the case. After having tried it I can honestly say that it tasted like lava cake that has been cooked to long so it doesn't have the delicious oozing center. Another good comparison would be to say that it tasted like chocolate cake without any icing. Not exactly the "Best of Boise" dessert that we had been looking forward to but we did both really love the hot chocolate.
Two and half hours after we had arrived it was time to get our check and head for home. When we walked into the restaurant and noticed that they were having a special valentine menu Sam noticed a price that said $69. We talked about it after we sat down and we said "well, $34 dollars a plate was certainly more than we were planning on but hey it's valentine's day it will be okay." Well when the house manager brought out the bill she handed me a rose and said "this is for the lady." She then handed Sam the bill and said "and this is for the man." Sam opened up the bill and said "Sara, remember how we thought it was $69 dollars for the two of us, well it wasn't. It was $69 a piece!!!" The M. Night Shamalyn mystery suddenly fell into place. We suddenly realized why were the youngest couple by decades in the restaurant and why all of the other couples in their seemed like executive types! They were executives! That's how they could afford the place! We payed our bill and wandered back to our car noticing a sign at another restaurant for steak and Lobster for $28 and thinking that would have been just fine. When we got home Hannah and Elise thought that the rose might be for them but I'm afraid they were wrong. This was the most expensive rose I had ever received and I was keeping it! Oh, and also when we got home Sam had a bowl of rice crispies. He was starving!!!
