Anniversaries

Thanks to a good friend being available to babysit and to family for providing a gift card to ease the financial sting, Jeff and I were able to go to a swanky restaurant downtown last night for our wedding anniversary. Since we spent our honeymoon in Hawaii it may become a habit to try and get Hawaiian food for our anniversary. We've done it the past two years, and this year was much better than the last.

We went to Roy's and being a Monday night there was no shortage of tables. There were a few other people there though, so it didn't feel desolate. The little steamed edamame dish they serve as you are seated was kind of odd, but not bad. The wait staff was pleasant. Considering the menu prices, the wine prices weren't terrible. And either they serve really cheap sake, or they have awesome sake prices. But it's not a cheap place to eat and we'll definitely not be going there multiple times a month like one of the reviewers I saw online.

I ordered from the Prix Fixe menu and I was not disappointed. The beef potstickers were actually fried dumplings not potstickers, but I suppose most people don't know the difference anyway. Despite the somewhat flawed labeling of the dish the taste was excellent, just keep that kim chee cucumber away from me. Next up was the lamb chops. The menu lists them as "Herb Grilled Lamb Chops - Port Wine Bordelaise Sauce" and that does not do them justice at all. What I got were huge delicious grilled lamb chops with tasty sauce, on top of fabulous green beans, with a side of awesome cheesy scallop potatoes. I suppose it's either not fashionable to list what the sides will be or they want to leave wiggle room to use different ingredients, but I was quite happily surprised to find all that extra yum on my plate. I ended up bringing about half my meat home because I also had a dessert coming. The molten chocolate souffle was SO GOOD. My only complaint was the ice cream that was served with it. The boring vanilla bean ice cream would have seemed fine if we hadn't also ordered the raspberry pineapple upside down cake. The cake came with mascarpone ice cream that was out of this world. I think they should serve it with the chocolate souffle instead of the vanilla bean. Mmmm, I bet it would make a killer shake.

I tried the yellowtail sushi that Jeff ordered, and I thought it was okay, but the texture still kind of creeps me out. I have decided to continue trying it when he orders some. Who knows, maybe someday I'll like it, and then I will no longer be the world's cheapest sushi date. For dinner Jeff got Roy's trio, which is salmon, ahi, and butterfish. I tried the salmon and thought it was okay, and so I also tried the butterfish but did not like that even one little bit. As I mentioned we got the raspberry pineapple upside down cake for the second dessert, and it was not very good. Jeff felt that there was too much pineapple, and didn't even notice the raspberry because you couldn't taste it. My complaint was the dryness, it was so dry stuck in my throat in an unpleasant way. If you go I'd steer clear.

After our lovely dinner we came home and helped get Max back to sleep, because he had been a little difficult, and then bid our lovely babysitter good night. We curled up on the couch, had a beer and watched House before shuffling upstairs to sleep. It was a really great night, and I'm so glad that Jeff arranged to make it happen.

Happy Anniversary to us, and here's hoping for many more!