The Beauty & The Geek

The Cuisine Club recently had it’s 5th meeting; the letter “E” was assigned to me, and I chose to go for an English (clearly inspired by Goodness Gracious Me below). Actually, I agonizingly pored over an atlas for exotic regions starting with “E”, didn’t want to eat Ethiopian food, and English was the only other thing I could think of (off the record, let me just say, I hope I’m not the poor sod to be assigned the letter “Z”)

Tea & Sympathy is located just down the road from Cafe De Bruxelles, and is a small restaurant - nay, an annex - to a larger British goods shop next door. The restaurant seats only 26 people or so, and thus the management has a strict policy of not allowing guests into the restaurant until the entire party has arrived. I don’t fault them their policy - it is their restaurant, and it is a practical (if unpopular way of managing limited seating space), but the evening The Beauty & I arrived was quite hot and muggy, with only FOUR people inside. We had to stand outside, and in the shop next door awaiting everyone else. Let me say this - if you have 20 UNOCCUPIED seats, and a prospective diner requests that he be allowed inside to escape inclement weather, it wouldn’t hurt to humor his request. I do not want to be boiled in my own perspiration before dinner.

Anyway ...

Once everyone arrived, we were promptly seated, joining the TWO REMAINING DINERS DAMMIT WHY DIDN’T YOU LET US IN BEFORE YOU !@#$%^&()*^^%#%@#%#$T!

(Ahem). Sorry.

Ambiance wasn’t anything to write home about - truth be told, the restaurant did look a bit faded. Happily, the waitress was quick & efficient in bringing us the menu, and but couldn't quite figure out how to explain the intricacies and delicacies of interestingly named dishes. It was perplexing to not see any alcohol on the menu. Either the waitress thought we were Muslim/ Teetotalers/ Not Thirsty, or she just didn’t bother to bring out the drinks menu. Either option is inexcusable. Or they didn’t serve drinks ... which is even more inexcusable for an English restaurant.

The variety on the menu was impressive, covering all manner of beast, fowl, and vegetable. I think the general category I would place it in would be “Rustic English”. No Balti food, chicken tikka masala or lamb kebabs here! I went for a Sussex Chicken, which I would not recommend except to folks brought up on such food. It was unfortunately quite bland (“totally tasteless”!), which is why I didn’t have to be asked twice to help The Beauty finish off her plate of Welsh Rarebit (note: it's "Rarebit", not "Rabbit") with Beans. Others in the party were quite happy with their selections, so I guess I just had bad luck with my pick. I will say that we did end up ordering more than we could eat, and I think this is a black mark against the restaurant - I feel it is part of the server’s job to advise the dining party on the quantity of food ordered ... A good server will warn if too much food is requested, and that definitely did not happen here.

I’ve had a lot of time to think about the ratings I’ve chosen to award Tea & Sympathy, so here they are:

Ambiance: 7/10 (Nothing special, if anything it was a little faded)
Menu Selection: 8/10 (Good selection, lots of vegetarian options; surprisingly no alcohol options)
Quality of Food: 8/10 (My chicken was rather bland, but others enjoyed their food)
Service: 5/10 (Our waitress was quite nice, but I ding her for not advising on the type or quantity of food, on not explaining the lack of alcohol on the menu; also her assistant in the kitchen who came out to help us select some desserts was a bit on the rude side; Also, making us wait outside when the restaurant was nearly empty is inexcusable)
Price: $$$ (Without alcohol, it was just over $30 per person. Given that we did end up wasting a fair amount of food, I think it would actually come in under $30, but I calls ‘em like I sees ‘em!)

Overall: 7/10 (Recommended if you’re interested in tasting “Rustic English” as opposed to the Balti or chicken-tikka-masala crap; however be warned about the seating policy)

And now, for your delight & entertainment ...

Ok, it wasn't quite that bad, but I was actually referring to UK celebrity chef, Gordon Ramsay's reality show - Hell's Kitchen. Now, for those of you in the US, Hell's Kitchen comes on every Tuesday night at 9PM ET on Fox and the Geek and I are simply addicted to it. Why? It's got all the ingredients of a great reality show - competition, weird personalities, Gordon Ramsay's constant yelling and very tough challenges and yes, plenty, oh plenty of drama! But it's not just Hell's Kitchen that has our attention - its the man who has our attention - Gordon Ramsay's other show is also one of our favorites - Kitchen Nightmares, where he tries to turnaround restaurants that are about to go under, with a healthy dose of four letter curse words, plenty of drama and smashing of expensive (Villeroy and Boch!) plates.

So, since we are such huge fans of Mr. Ramsay and his antics, we decided to test out his food ourselves by visiting one of his Manhattan restaurants called Maze. Of course, expectations were high - here's a man who regularly demeans other's food preparation and believes he's the guru of gourmet cooking. We set out to Maze one rainy Saturday evening and here's the story we live to tell.

Maze, is in every respect, an upscale restaurant with modern decor. Their ceiling is in the pattern of a maze, and apart from a few mirrors and curtains, there isn't much else in terms of decor. Their waiters and waitresses all wear suits with ties and while one holds the plate of dishes, the other serves them to you, so at any time, you are being served by two waiters. I knew the service would be good - Gordon Ramsay is a brand synonymous with a pleasant dining experience, chief of which is his belief in personally training the waiters, maitre'd and chefs of his restaurants. Our first order was drinks - I got a champagne and pear cocktail and the Geek got a martini which was unbelievebaly strong - almost too strong to even drink. My champagne and pear cocktail had no trace of pear - so much for Gordon Ramsay's belief that you should never use false advertisement, but clearly state the ingredients in your dish or drink - ha!

Before we could order, we very advised by our very professional wait staff that we should order atleast 3-4 dishes per person - whoa! I first thought that was just a ploy to get us to consume more, but alas! they were right - the portions are TINY, and when I mean tiny, I really do mean tiny - almost two mouthfuls and its done. I guess only celebrity chefs like Ramsay can get away with charging fools (like us) $200 for dishes that couldn't even feed a rat! Regardless, we ordered three appetizers - Marinated beetroot, ricotta, pine nut and Cabernet Sauvignon dressing, Hand dived sea scallops roasted with spices, golden raisin purée and cauliflower beignets, Roasted veal sweetbreads, sautéed baby shitake and toasted almonds. The appetizers were absolutely divine. The beetroot and ricotta appetizer was soft cheese with a beetroot topping that just melts on the tongue - the beetroot provides the neccessary flavor, but what really stands out is the Ricotta - soft and ever so slightly salty. Having never eaten Scallops before, we were pleasantly surprised by them - they had been lightly seasoned, but for the most part, they were tasteless, and like huge chunks of soy. I could get a fishy taste at the end of one bite, but the Geek was pretty pleased with his appetizer. The veal sweetbreads were delicious - the only thing I fail to understand is that they weren't in the form of sweetbreads - more like dumplings with a soya sauce! They did have baby shitake though, so I was pretty sure I got the dish I ordered, and it was just yummy - they were soft and warm and filled with veal and almonds and wasabi - absolutely delicious, but certainly not what was described on the menu.

For entrees, I had the Carnaroli risotto of Maine lobster, English peas and preserved Meyer lemon and the Geek had the Fillet of Brandt beef, morels with braised short rib, glazed asparagus (as always, he chooses meat). My risotto was way too lemony - it was well cooked and creamy, but for my taste, it just had a little too much of lemon. The Geek enjoyed his fillet and polished it off within five minutes flat. So, we just knew we had to get dessert (even though we were running late for a show) because we still needed something to finish off this tiny meal with. So, we ordered the Valrhona chocolate fondant with green cardamom caramel, sea salt and almond ice cream and the Milk chocolate and coffee pot du crème with Kahlúa ice cream. These two desserts really hit the spot - they were just the right end to a meal that was pretty tasty but tiny. The chocolate fondant was hot and gooey inside and was made of dark chocolate. I wasn't too hot for the salty almond ice cream (it really was salty). I guess it was there to provide a balance of flavors - sweet and salty, but I prefer chocolate with nothing on the side:) The Geek's pot du creme was also unbelievably delicious - just like having a very creamy mocha!

The meal was satisfactory and we had a great time, but I got to say we were slightly dissapointed by Gordon Ramsay - the portions were way too tiny, the food had a lot of flavors and when I first read the menu I couldn't understand any of the dishes (something he advises as a strict no-no on his shows), and there was absolutely no white meat (except seafood) or vegetarian on his menu. And most of all, the restaurant was unbeliveably pretentious (again something he advises as a strict no-no on his shows). So, although I'd recommend it for a night out, I wouldn't recommend it for die-hard Gordon Ramsay fans. I am sure those who would even think of visiting this restaurant, would do so because of the brand name - Gordon Ramsay and let me just say, Maze doesn't live up to his name.

Ratings (and quick comments):

Yes, it truly sounds very heavenly and believe me, it was! This was the Goddess of Indian cooking and we witnessed it first hand. Before we delve deep into the culinary experience at Devi, let me reassure our loyal readership that we are not dead (because of over eating!), simply hibernating - with constant visitors and summer vacation planning, and oh yeah, of course there's always work - that pays for all of these meals:D So that's why this update comes very late, but we haven't abandoned our food blog.

So, let's talk food - Devi is the only Michelin star Indian restaurant in New York - can you believe that? With Indian restaurants on every block, its a wonder there is only one Michelin Star restaurant in New York city. Well, nevertheless, we decided to go to Devi to celebrate a special occassion - my in laws' 34th wedding anniversary. It is very rare that the whole family gets to spend time together in one place, so we decided to celebrate their aniversary with a nice, relaxed three course dinner.

Devi is a large restaurant with two floors - we first got seated on the first floor which was extremly noisy, so we requested to move upstairs - that helped reduce the noise level a bit, but not too much. That's the thing about Devi - it is extremely noisy, but the food and service more than makes up for it.

At Devi, you can order a three course or Chef's tasting menu - the thing is that half of the dishes are non-vegetarian and if you are a vegetarian (as are Akshay's parents), the tasting menu just doesn't make too much sense. You would rather order a-la-carte so that you get slightly bigger portions and can share and taste everyone's food. So we decided to start off with a couple appetizers and drinks. We had the Bombay Bhel Puri (rice puffs, tamarind & mint chutney, tomatoes, potatoes, onions), Ragda Chaat (potato cakes, white peas, tamarind and mint chutneys), and Gudiya’s Mushroom Toasts (fenugreek leaves, onions, tomatoes). I got to say there were all excellent - the right amount of seasoning and spice, but the portions were miniscule - sharing it was very difficult, especially 'coz they were so tasty. The Bombay Behl Puri and the Ragda Chaat both had fresh lime, that lent the dishes a wonderfully tangy taste (I wonder why I never use lime in my chaat preparation!) and Gudiya's mushroom toasts (whoever she is, should be congratulated) were crunchy and spicy. If the portions had been bigger, I would have nothing to complain about, but they were really really tiny and I only wish our waiter had recommended we get more starters, given the tiny portions and a hungry party of five.

For entrees, we decided to order Jackfruit (Kathal) Biryaani (potatoes, whole spices, yogurt sauce, okra crisps), Not-So-Dull Daal or Daal Makhani, Kararee Bhindi (crispy tangy okra, tomatoes and red onions) and Phool Makhane Kee Sabzi (popped lotus seeds, ricotta cheese, green peas). The dish that truly stood out (and not just because I am a die-hard Okra fan) was the Kararee Bhindi - the bhindi was shredded to really thin pieces with spices, tomatoes and onions and again, a touch of lime, that made the dish tangy and spicy at the same time. I must try it at home, this dish was just delicious and again, was hard to share, given that everyone liked it so much. It is the first time I have seen bhindi shredded and cooked with spices - a truly unique and very appetizing way of cosuming Bhindi. Even the Geek gobbled up the dish, although he claims he despises bhindi. The Jackfruit biryani was good biryani, with all the right level of spices, but what was a tad dissapointing was that I never got any Jackfruit taste, let alone saw any piece of Jackfruit in the briyani...hmm...you would think they would try and include Jackfruit, given that the dish is named after the fruit! The Daal Makhani and the Phool sabzi were both suitably appetizing (although the lotus seeds themselves were tasteless). I had never eaten lotus seeds before, so it was a whole new experience - the spices in the sabji were not overpowering, but at the same time delicately balanced to combat the tastelessness of the seeds.

What was really special that night was the exceptional level of service at Devi - not only did we have two to three waiters at any time, waiting on us hand and foot, but they also brought out free desserts when they knew we were celebrating a anniversary. One dessert - the Mango Cheesecake (YUM-O!) had a little candle on it for our special occassion. In addition, they brought out two more desserts to share - the Chai Panna Cotta (besan cookie, spicy potato chips) and the housemade ice cream and sorbet that were just delicious. Of course, by then we were all quite well fed and had had quite a bit to drink, so the dessert was just the right finish to a very pleasant and fulfilling dinner. We ordered an expensive bottle of ice wine, which was worth every single sip - it was delightfully fruity and sweet and from the Inniskillin region of Canada (which apparently is known for its ice wines). The Geek and I have become huge fans of ice wines since then - we even went to a local wine store and picked one up to save up for a special occassion.

So, the verdict on Devi - definitely worth a visit. Kudos to chefs - Hemant Mathur and Suvir Saran for a truly memorable gastronomical experience. We literally died and went to heaven at Devi - it was a heavenly experience;-) Save it for a special occassion though - it costs $$$$$.

Ratings (and quick comments):

Ambiance: 6.5/10 (colorful decor - loud and bright, very crowded and extremely noisy, especially on the weekends)
Menu Selection: 7.5/10 (not a large, expansive menu - just enough to cover some basic non veggie and veggie curries, rice and breads)
Quality of Food: 9.5 /10 (Excellent! No wonder this place gets a Michelin Star. Every bite was well worth the price. The only dissapointment was the absence of Jackfruit in the Jackfruit briyani and the tiny, tiny portions)
Service: 9.5/10 (service was extremely prompt and the waiters and the manager always checked back to ask about our experience. When they knew we were celebrating a special occassion, they served not one, but three desserts on the house.)
Price: $$$$$ (About $100 bucks a person, including drinks)

Overall: 8.5/10 (Devi is absolutely worth it - don't miss this unique Indian culinary experience. Where other Indian restaurants dish out oily food with the same menu items repeated on a daily basis, Devi is a refreshing change - excellent service, unique preparation and mouth watering delicacies - Devi is not to be missed!)

Watch this space for reviews on Gordon Ramsay's Maze and Arriba, Arriba - Mexican on the Upper East Side

The Geek and I are now part of a Cuisine Club - a group of friends who "meet to eat". For our latest culinary adventure - Belgian food, visit us here. 

This past weekend, my cousin from Boston was visiting and we all decided to catch up over dinner. He wanted to have Turkish food and so I went to my trusted NY Times dining and wine section to get reviews on the best Turkish restaurants in the city. I chanced upon one called Maia that had very good reviews, but alas! two hours before dinner I realized that Maia had actually shut down --- there was a very small mention of it on the review page. I called the number and the maitre'd claimed that the restaurant was now called Layaly and had the same management and chef. So I decided it couldn't hurt THAT much and headed down to the lower east side...WRONG...SO WRONG..Layaly is beyond despair, especially for foodies, it is like the ninth circle of hell. 

Nope..if you are Indian and know a bit of Mumbai street talk, its not what you are thinking! Its actually a Spanish restaurant in Greenwich Village that we tried out over the weekend. I am a huge fan of Spanish food/tapas. I don't know why - maybe it is because of the small plates with tiny mouthfuls of pure pleasure or maybe it is because they use a lot of potato in their food. Either way, I go out of my way to discover the few Spanish restaurants in the city.

This past weekend, a friend from Dubai had come to visit. She was in NY for the first time and for dinner, I decided we must pick a restaurant in one of the trendy parts of town - hence, the Village. I was googling restaurants in the Village and chanced upon Sala, which had some glowing reviews. We easily got a reservation -- in fact the restaurant was half empty, but probably because it was a Sunday night.

Sala is very dimly lit, and in a brick warehouse (or atleast it felt like that). There isn't much decor with a bar at one corner of the restaurant. But I had high expectations from the food, expsecially because the reviews were so consistently good! Alas! I got to say, I was a little dissapointed. The best Spanish food I have eaten is in Boston at a restaurant called Tapeo. I just absolutely love this place, especially their cheese and broccoli croquettes and their garlic, mayonnaise and potato salad. Tapeo also has special significance for the Geek and our relationship and was the venue of many girls nights out I had in b-school. Compared to the food at Tapeo, Sala paled in comparison.

My friend is not much of a foodie, so it was upto the Geek and me to pick the dishes. We started off with Rose Sangria, which was very good. Of course, there's not much to sangria, but regardless, it was the right mix of wine and fruit. We ordered five Tapas to share:

• Setas - roasted portabello mushrooms over garlic cream with sauteed shallots (extremely delicious..crispy bread and grilled mushroom --- I ate half the plate despite the fact that I don't like mushrooms)
• Queso De Cabra Con Miel - fried goat cheese with honey and candied onions (again delicious..the goat cheese was salty and the honey and candied onions sweet, which gave it the right balance of sweet and salty and every mouthful was gooey and very appetizing)
• Patatas Bravas - fried potatoes with a spicy red pepper sauce (this was very dissapointing - the red pepper sauce wasn't spicy, it tasted like Heinz Tomato Ketchup and the potatoes weren't cooked properly - this is the one dish they should have gotten right, considering its a staple)
• Croquettas Veterarinanas - Leek, spinach and carrot croquettes (I have no idea where the leek, spinach or carrot went, all I could taste was cheese! It was like cheese blintzes and disgusting ones at that! I was really looking forward to this dish, hoping it to be like the one at Tapeo, but my wish was not fulfilled:(
• Plato De Quesos - Selection of four distinct Spanish cheeses served with quince and almonds (most of the cheeses were Manchengo, not surpisingly, but it was a full plate of different types of cheese that were delicious and we were suitably impressed. the rosemary cheese and one Spanish Manchengo was very very good. However, they did not serve it with bread or crackers, which I assumed they would -- that's pretty standard, no?)

For dessert, we ordered the Flan (another favorite of mine) and the Molten Chocolate Cake. The flan was a little too creamy and not very fluffy, but both desserts although not mouth watering, were enough to satisfy a sweet tooth and a little space leftover in the tummy.

Ratings (and quick comments):

Ambiance: 7/10 (simple decor, not too much of a crowd, which has its pluses and minuses - nothing spectacularly unique about the decor)
Menu Selection: 8.5/10 (Unusually large selection of tapas, with veggie options too)
Quality of Food: 7.5 /10 (as described above, a few of the tapas certainly were tasty such as the Setas and the fried goat cheese, but the remaining dishes were not special and lacked the flavors that were described as part of the dish - quite dissapointing for such glowing reviews)
Service: 9/10 (service was extremely prompt - we got all the tapas in a matter of a few minutes and the waiter always checked back to see if we needed anything else. With such prompt service, our dinner took only an hour or so!)
Price: $$$$ (Between $50 - $70 bucks a person)

Overall: 7.5/10 (The Geek would highly recommend this place, he thought the food was fantastic, but I don't know whether that was because he genuinely liked it or his tastebuds and senses were dulled because of too much sangria:) I would recommend it for a few good dishes and a 'pleasant' meal, but would rather drive up to Boston to eat at Tapeo)

As promised, this is part 2 of our DC culinary experience. On Tuesday night, we decided to meet the Geek's colleague for dinner. He grew up in DC and was very enthusiastic about showing us around before dinner, but we were tired and hungry and ready to just gobble up some delicious food. So, we decided to skip the sightseeing and head straight to a Turkish restaurant called Divan, highly recommended by our friend. 

We have been in DC for the last week - mixing business with pleasure. We are here on work, but decided to take the weekend off and leave for DC earlier to see the Cherry Blossom Festival and generally hang out in the nation's capital. We are pleasantly surprised by how much there is to do in DC, apart from the usual monuments and museums. There are plenty of bars and great restaurants frequented by Senators and Presidents. Ironically, we are also staying at the MayFlower Hotel, which was the scene for the now infamous rendezvous between Eliot Spitzer and a prostitute that essentially ended his career as NYC's governor. Apart from being the scene of a scandal, the MayFlower Hotel is also very historic and has been frequented by Heads of State from the Shah of Iran to the Governor of Arkansas!!

Let's not dwell too much on the sightseeing in DC, but more on our cuilnary adventures in this center of power. I had researched a few restaurants in DC - read reviews and such to determine which would be good places to eat and also hip, funky neighborhoods to hang out in. One such neighborhood is Georgetown - known primarily as the campus of Georgetown University, but the center of many hip bars and ethnic restaurants. We headed to Zed's the first night - an Ethiopian restaurant with a photo wall of celebrities including Clint Eastwood and Hillary Clinton. The food, as we were informed by our very knowledgeable Ethiopian cab driver, is very authentic and flavorful and that's just what we were looking for. We ordered two appetizers - the Ethiopian Potato Salad and the Beef Zizil Tibbs, which were both delicious with the Injera. The potato salad was very tasty and pretty simple, and I am convinced I can whip it up at home. The beef tibbs were made of a certain spicy red gravy with plenty of olive oil but were tasty nonetheless, reminding me more of the iftar ramadan food I used to gorge on in Dubai. For the main course, we ordered the red lentil miser watt - red lentils spiced with red pepper sauce and the chicken doro watt - tender chicken, red pepper sauce, spices served with a hard boiled egg. Both of them were suitably appetizing, and I loved both and ate 10 Injera rolls in a matter of a minute! The Geek was impressed with the food, but claimed that the chicken doro watt at an NYC Ethiopian restaurant - Queen of Sheba (that we went to last summer) is much better - I disagree, but alas! we can't always like the same things:).

We ended our meal and took a long walk through rows of boutiques and bars in Georgetown and stopped for a drink (or two) at Mie n Yu - again strongly recommended by our cab driver and city guides. The cool part about Mie n Yu is a bird cage in which you can sit and order dinner, but since we had already eaten a very fulfilling meal we went straight to the bar. The bar was packed but there were a few seats nearby with plenty of cushions for us to lounge around with our drinks. The first round of drinks we ordered - the Taj - mo - Hito for moi (Cruzan mango rum, mint and lime) and the Cherry Blossom (aptly named for that time of the year!) for the Geek (3 olives cherry vodka, orange juice, grenadine and red bull) were delicious and refreshing. The second round though din't really match up to our expectations, but regardless Mie n Yu is a cool, funky joint with plenty of Georgetown college kids and loud Arabic music.

The second part of this post will cover a Turkish meal with the Geek's storyteller colleague.

Ratings (and quick comments) for Zed's:

Ambiance: 7/10 (very simple decor - the celebrity photo wall is the main and only decoration. However they do have an outdoor patio which, because of the nice spring weather, was a great place to enjoy our dinner)
Menu Selection: 8/10 (The usual Ethiopian mix, but more beef and seafood options than other Ethiopian restaurants)
Quality of Food: 8.5 /10 (Excellent - I can't think of one negative, except that the Geek preferred the Chicken Doro Watt at Queen of Sheba!)
Service: 7/10 (friendly waitstaff but they were a little slow and distracted with a packed restaurant and plenty of other tables to attend to. They din't go out of their way to make us feel welcome or ask about our experience.)
Price: $$$ (Between $30 - $50 bucks a person. Of course, we din't have dessert and I din't have wine or any other type of alochol, which usually adds substantially to the bill!)

Overall: 8/10 (Recommended for a nice ambience on the patio and definitely above average food. Might be a bit overrated).

We recently celebrated our three month wedding anniversary - yes! yes! I know we are a very mushy couple:) Well, after all, it was a whole quarter and in the Geek's words, "the word on the street is we exceeded analyst expectations". So there - we decided to celebrate doing what we do best - eating!

For the special night, I got us a table at Budakkan. The way I found Budakkan was simply through the all powerful search engine called Google. I just read reviews for a bunch of the top rated restaurants in Manhattan, called a few and took the one where we got a reservation at a decent hour (the options were either 6pm or 10:15pm!!) on the night of our anniversary.

Budakkan turned out to be very worthy of its glowing reviews and then some. This place spells grandeur - its huge  and its two floors are occupied by a bar/lounge on floor 1 and a banquet hall and quiter "library" dining room on floor 2. I chose the quieter room so we could get some umm, romantic time..the quieter room wasn't all that much more quiet but was cosy and the walls were lined up with several stacked books (only they weren't real books) but architected to look exactly like a library in an 18th century castle.

Now let's get to the food. But wait, we always order some alcohol first -- that's just an Anand rule:) So we decided to try some of the specialty cocktails on the menu. I honestly don't remember the name of my martini, but it was so strong, I was woozy after the first few sips. Now I am not a bad drinker, but this was stronger than a tequila shot. The Geek very gallantly had all of his first cocktail and then chose the "heat" cocktail, which was supposedly a little more sweet and less potent. The heat was a delicious drink - made with tequila, Cointreau and cucumbers muddled with a chili paste, it was um um good.

Our appetizers consisted of the lobster egg rolls and the General Tso's dumplings. The lobster egg rolls had mint and cabbage and were served with sweet chilli sauce. They were crispy on the outside and hot and spicy on the inside and although I had only one, The Geek gobbled them up. The General Tso's dumplings were made with chicken, ginger and garlic and were steaming hot. They came in a small wicker basket and the server warned us to wait a few minutes while it cooled. Even after waiting (for what seemed like eternity), one bite of the dumpling burned a hole in my mouth, but was so delicious that I din't mind the pain. The chicken was well cooked and incredibly juicy and the spices only added to the burst of flavors in the mouth. However, this is one dish you shouldn't think of ordering if you are on your first date, because the minute you take a bite out of the hot, hot dumpling, the rest of the dumpling crumbles onto the plate - I was left holding a tiny piece of chicken between my chopsticks! Of course, unless you are a guy and are able (or courageous enough) to swallow a round, huge, hot dumpling in one go!

The main course came within a mere 10 minutes (or maybe less) of us cleaning the appetizer plate. For the main course, we ordered the Wild Mushroom Chow Fun and the Mongolian Lamb Chops. The Wild Mushroom Chow Fun was what it was supposed to be - thick, flattened rice noodles with garlic chives and was suitably tasty - no surprises there. The Mongolian Lamb Chops came to us precariously perched on a plate -- crossed legged (so to speak) with a ginger sauce and apparently a "crystalized ginger crust". I took one bite of the meat and could see why the Geek had a satisfied grin --- it was delicious - the crust was broiled perfectly and the meat was medium rare - just as he wanted it. With the Chow Fun, it made for an appetizing and fulfilling meal.

Of course, even though we had eaten more than our share of food, no meal (especially not a special one) is complete without a peek at the dessert menu. We had the Crying Chocolate, which is apparently their signature dessert. Now it beats me why anyone would call it that - I guess we are supposed to cry tears of happiness at being able to experience such a delicacy -- in fact, the server even told us "I hope you don't cry when you eat this" -- huh?! Anyway, apart from that weirdness, the Crying Chocolate - a molten chocolate cake with a milk chocolate ganache and coffee ice cream, was incredibly good. There was a molten  (liquid hot milk chocolate) center in the middle of a small chocolate cake, that when you bit into made the milk chocolate melt in your mouth. Although it was superbly good, I've had such desserts before, especially at my favorite place in Boston called Finale, which is where in my belief, the Molten Chocolate idea was invented.

Regardless, the dessert served as a fitting end to a beautiful, memorable evening and we clicked our dessert spoons, toasting to many more memorable years together.

Ratings (and quick comments):

Ambiance: 8/10 (Superbly grandeur especially the main banquet area, library decor was a cool idea, but of course, there were the predictble Buddha figurines everywhere!)
Menu Selection: 8.5/10 (Surprisingly good selection for vegetarians, as well as a decent selection of entrees, appetizers and dessert)
Quality of Food: 8 /10 (The drinks were a little too strong, the noodles weren't anything special, the dumplings were a little too hot and the Crying Chocolate although incredibly good, wasn't new. Apart from that, the food was pretty good!)
Service: 9.5/10 (extremely friendly waitstaff, service was very prompt and the servers as well as the restaurant manager repeatedly checked in to ask about our experience. I have never seen such prompt service in a high-end restaurant, so much so the Geek is tempted to bring all his colleagues for their next gathering to Budakkan)
Price: $$$$ (about $50 - $60 a person)

Last night, we unconsciously had a typical date night - movie and dessert...we had gone to watch "Leatherheads" - the new George clooney movie about pro-football in the 1940s. Being fans of Clooney, we had high expectations --- the movie wasn't his best performance but nevertheless was fast paced and entertaining. It was almost midnight by the time we headed out of the theatre, but I've been meaning to try this dessert place called Serendipity 3 a couple blocks from the theatre. It comes highly recommended and I was in the mood for something sinfully sweet anyway. Even at midnight though, it was a good 15 minutes before we got a seat.