Adventures in Restaurants: Valentine’s Date.

It’s been a while since hubby and I went out somewhere special for dinner, and Valentine’s Day was the perfect time to do so.

There are a lot of fancy restaurants in our city. Mostly downtown, and we’ve been to this one several times. A big negotiator for where we eat is how many vegan dishes they have on their menu. Hubby doesn’t eat meat, but he does eat fish and seafood (he’s considered a pascaterian), so if there isn’t an option, and you’d be surprised how many places don’t offer a vegetarian option, we won’t go.

For this dinner, our meal consisted of a duck amuse bouche (both samples I ate), appetizers were French onion soup, and escargot in white wine cream, tomato concassé, parmesan puff pastry (description from the menu). You can see by the picture HERE that there were A LOT of escargot. It was not the usual 12 in those little cups topped with melted cheese. Our entrees being (for me) braised beef, cheese tortellini, tomato & pepper broth, pecorino, walnuts, cured egg yolk, and husband had sea bass with potato fingerlings. I don’t’ know what fingerlings are, but he said the meal was very tasty. For desert, it was crème brulee for me. I always have that. You can view the other pictures of our meal HERE.

It was a nice, relaxing meal and a great date night.

Adventures in Restaurants! Anniversary Dinner.

It’s been a long time since Hubby and I had a date night. Covid lockdowns stopped our weekly outings, and the fear of covid and trying to get our house finished kept us away, but there’s always one night out of the year that we make sure to dine out. Our aniversary.

This year we played it low key. There’s a cute pub-style place out in the township called The Rose and Crown that we visit every now and then. It’s one of the few places Hubby will get a half pint of beer. All drafts, no bottles. At least not that I’ve seen, and they have good deals for their fish and chip meals. They did have a cheese plate on their menu and we ordered it, thinking it would be nice cheese from the U.K. Nope. Crackerbarrel and saltines. Not impressed. I reminded him of that when we were there and wasn’t surprised to see it wasn’t on the menu anymore.

The best anniversary dinner we ever has was when we went to The Wharf in Ottawa. The meal was expensive, but it was a special occasion. I forgot to get a picture of our ‘amuse bouche’ they started us off with, but the rest of the meal was superb, and when the chef learned we were celebrating our anniversary, they made us a special desert! You can view the pictures HERE.

What was a special once-in-a-lifetime place you went for dinner? Would you go back?

Adventures in Restaurants: Father’s Day Sushi Lunch.

It’s rare when Hubby and I go out to dine anymore, moreso if it’s a special occasion, but while this year has been somewhat stressful, we did manage an outing for Father’s Day. Unfortunately, as my debit card was acting up, he had to pay. I’ll take him someplace nice for his birthday to make up for it.

Sithboy dislikes sushi so we didn’t invite him. Plus, he was working. There are a few good sushi places in our city, but I love one restaurant in particular, a place called Sakura Japanese Restaurant. Their menu is all on a tablet and you order right from it. It’s great because there isn’t a lot for each dish, so you can sample several items over the course of your meal. They’ve changed how they plate their food since the last time I was there as well. My order of the 6 piece Philadelphia Roll came with Hubby’s Crab Stick and Salmon Rolls. We didn’t realize that at first, and when we did, he’d already eaten all my whole order. *cries* That’s okay, because I think I ate one of his Shrimp Tempura rolls. I can see why they served everything together. No point in having three separate plates when it’s all going to the same table. We’ll have to remember that for the next time.

This was the place that made me a fan of sushi. I’d tried it once before and didn’t care for it, but something about this place changed my mind. Maybe because everything is prepared fresh when you order and not pre-made?

What do you think of sushi? I know people can’t get past the raw fish part, but you can do it up with vegetables too, and not everything on the menu is raw. We had some cooked dishes too, and they have deserts! I took lots of pictures and you can see them HERE.