Although our camping trip was fun, I wouldn’t say it felt very “anniversary” like. Luckily for us, we got the opportunity to do it up right! The night we got home from our camping excursion we made dinner and ate on our fancy plates- we now have 7 place settings, thanks to my parents anniversary gift of another set. One more at some point and I’ll be all set!
So the next weekend, Andrew and I went to the Driskill Grill, which is one of, if not the, fanciest restaurants in Austin. His parents had gotten us a gift certificate there, and so we spent the three days before planning our strategy- did we want to do the three course set meal? The five course set meal? Or order a la carte?
We ended up ordering a la carte. The set menus did not have lamb chops as an option, and lamb chops are always Andrew’s first choice (mine would be chicken fingers, but it’s not that type of place).
The whole room was very traditional- close to what I think of for an established NY steak house- dark wood, dark carpeting, lots of dividers to make sure you hear buzz, but not overhear what other people are saying. When we sat down we had a very traditional looking charger- lots of gold scrolls. However, as soon as they took it away, we all the plates were super modern. It was an interesting contrast.
We love a show on Bravo called Top Chef. It turns out it’s a good thing, or we wouldn’t have known what was going on. When we sat down we were served an amuse bouche, which is a word neither one of us knew a year ago. I got a salmon tartare and Andrew got a baby brushetta. We quickly switched as soon as the waitress left. Andrew really liked his and mine was excellent- perfect tomatoes!
As a first course, we ordered the chef’s sampler. It came with three bite sized items for each of us: smoked duck, lamb with mint, and a fish dish. It was also very good, but at this point we had only eaten small bites and so as soon as you decided if you liked it, the food was gone! Then they brought us bread. I can eat as much bread as you put in front of me so I tried to be very careful not to fill up too soon. The sourdough was amazing though! I ate the first piece quickly, and then started rationing the second so that I wouldn’t fill up.
For the second course, Andrew had a Caesar salad “rebuilt” and I ordered the mushroom baklava. Andrew approved of the salad- it actually had anchovies in it, which so many don’t now, although the presentation felt a little contrived (everything came stacked in two towers with cucumbers wrapped around it). The most interested part was this little fried ball that when you broke it open the dressing came out.
I had the mushroom baklava. I wasn’t expecting it to be sweet, I thought it would be thin layers of pastry with mushrooms in it, but it had sweetness as well. It was really good, but unexpected!
For the main course Andrew ordered scallops and I ordered the lamb chops. The scallops were good, but the lamb chops were amazing! At this point I had gotten full (as much as I had tried to hold off on the bread, it caught up with me) so Andrew got about half of my lamb chops.
I had been hoping to make it to dessert, but I was too full already so we headed back home to sleep off our full tummies!
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