the night began with complimentary valet parking (woo, because self parking at the grand floridian involves a hike across a road, and in high heels that just was not going to happen). after some confusion over the operational status of an elevator, we headed upstairs to the 2nd floor, and walked around to the restaurant. they opened the doors for us as we arrived; we are still not sure how they knew we were coming (hidden camera? spy with a walkie talkie? alert from the valet? who knows...). we were escorted to our lovely table for two (ok, pretty much all the tables were set for two), where they pulled out the chairs for us, and assisted us into our seats. they even gave me a purse hook for the table to hang my little palm tree purse (yeah, i used my fancy purse, if not now, when??) from, so that it wouldn't have to sit on the floor - if you had a clutch without a strap, they brought out a little footstool for it...we had big cushy chairs, and a nice big table, set with fancy china & wine glasses & silverware. the setting included the ever popular show plate, which they take away before any food comes. i wonder if they still have to put those through the dishwasher...the room was very nicely appointed - there were maybe 12-15 tables (there is another room, as well, with four tables, that gets even fancier service, if you can imagine that), a harpist, muted lighting & lots of drapes, and a lovely, GIANT flower centerpiece in the middle of the room. that centerpiece was quite the distraction for me - it was a hair off center under the chandelier in the middle of the room, which drove me nuts.
we had two gentlemen, whose names i have forgotten, waiting on us. one was from boston, but not - his name tag said boston, but he was really from seekonk, which is practically rhode island, so i don't know why he used boston, but oh well. they were both quite professional & whatnot. kept our water filled, our silverware fresh, and our crumbs cleaned up, as well as delivering our food. we made a game out of the whole crumb-scraping thing - i think steve had the most crumb swipes by the end of the meal, but i am not sure. i am sure they also would have refolded our napkins, had we gotten up, but neither of us did. amusingly, the waitstaff would also escort you to the bathroom, and the manager would escort you back, just to pull out your chair for you. it was funny seeing him trying to race through the restaurant to beat people back to their seats. anyway, one of the waiters brought us water (they had little glass bottles that they left in a bottle holder thing at the table), and the other soon brought our fancy personalized menus. When we had made the reservations, they asked for our full names, and if we were celebrating anything, and now we knew why.
(sorry about the pictures, they were all taken with my cell phone. the menu pix were at home, and the others were in the restaurant, which is why they are so dark.)
the menus were personalized on the outside, and were in lovely black folders, made of some kind of thick plasticky paper. inside, they had our names, and the date, and wished us a happy 7th anniversary.
the waiter left us to review the menu for a bit, then came back to walk us through the options. after a few more minutes (we had lots of leisure time during dinner; it was a very slow, relaxed meal), he returned to see if we had any questions, and take our food & beverage orders. we had to order for all 6 courses (including dessert) then, and we also each ordered a glass of the iron horse fairy tale cuvee, which we had at our wedding.
to start, they brought us an amuse bouche course (the same for each of us). It consisted of four (more or less) bite sized items. Clockwise, from the upper left: some kind of seriously delicious custard thing in a demitasse cup that had small pieces of salmon in it; a very creamy scrambled egg in an egg shell, scented with smoked salmon; the world's smallest, cutest blini with caviar, itty bitty bits of egg yolk and chive (i think, the picture is really dark), and some kind of savory panna cotta with bits of onion and something in it, and a bit of roe on the top. they were all delicious, but that first thing was *so* good.
the next course was the cold appetizer - i had the gulf shrimp with watermelon radish, kohlrabi & vanilla aioli. mine had two shrimp on a bed of watermelon radish & some other vegetables, with some radishes, hearts of palm, and kohlrabi around the edges, and a (very lightly flavored) vanilla sauce around the edges & under the shrimp. it was yummy.
steve had minnesota elk carpaccio with olives, artichokes and chorizo viniagrette. his had very (very, very) thin slices of elk in the middle, something leafy & artichoke hearts around the edge, and chorizo viniagrette dabbed around it. on the spoon was olive oil powder and in a little pile on the edge, there was some smoked paprika. per steve, the olive oil powder was "weird", and when it was on his tongue, it "melted into the flavor of olive oil without being oily." so there you go.i think we got our first of three bread courses at this point - mini baguettes with unsalted butter. yummy. not particularly remarkable, but still yummy.
the next course was the fish course. steve had citrus-poached alaskan halibut with warm verjus viniagrette, which was REALLY good. it was a piece of fish (duh), coated in herbs, then cooked in citrus, served with some kind of greens on the top, and a swimming pool of sauce around it. awesomely, it was garnished with a baby cucumber with the flower still attached. it was very citrusy, and the sauce was *so* good. they gave him a spoon to eat the extra sauce; that's how awesome it was. mr. fish hater said "i could eat it every day!" so that should indicate how delicious it was.
i had sake-soy-marinated king salmon with bok choy and soy beans. yum, and yum. the salmon had an asian glaze that was all sweet and caramelized around the edges. it was on a bed of basmati rice with soy beans and bok choy, and had some sort of sweet-salty-umami sauce around it. steve gave it the highest compliment - "i guess i don't hate all salmon." mine was delicious, but his was still better :)i believe we got another bread course here, and it was my favorite of the three - the seasonal bread, an herb brioche. it had (i think), chive, chervil, garlic chive, and some other herbs baked in, and was served with a compound butter with the same herbs. it was delicious; i am drooling just thinking about it. i think i am going to request that recipe - of everything we ate, i think it's the only thing i could actually successfully make myself ;)
the next course was the warm appetizer - i ordered the poulet rouge with mushroom-truffle ragout and trumpet royal mushrooms. this was a small piece of chicken breast wrapped around a chopped mushroom-truffle mixture, breaded in panko and fried, and served with a sauce of mushrooms and maybe something red wine-ish, i think, with espresso foam on the top. it was yummy. crisp, savory, plenty of sauce, good filling - just plain yummy. the espresso foam gave just the barest hint of flavor, and everything else was very full & rich.
steve ordered the duck breast, duck sausage & duck confit, with strawberry & rhubarb, or as i called it, "duck, duck, duck." it was good (duh); he liked the sausage best. i seem to recall it had a freeze dried strawberry slice with it which he said was intensely flavorful. it also had a shmear of some kind of rhubarb sauce.i think we were served our third and final bread course at this point; multigrain bread with butter salted with maldon salt (yes, they made a point of telling us what type of salt it was). it was fine, if unremarkable, and of the three, it produced the most crumbs. i was worried the crumb-swiping was going to be messy at this point, but fortunately, we weren't too bad.
now, it was entree time (and i think by this time we had also both ordered second glasses of champagne). i had the kurobota pork tenderloin and belly with baby beets and sherry-bacon viniagrette. holy yum. best pork i have ever had. the tenderloin was super tender & full of flavor, and the belly melted in my mouth. biggest surprise of the night were the beets, though - i have never had beets, but these were so good (there were also some turnips & carrots, which i also enjoyed). the beets sweet, and the sherry-bacon viniagrette went perfectly with them. finally, there was a small square of root vegetable gratin that was a good match for the rest of the dish - it brought in a cheesy flavor, and also some crunch from the breadcrumbs on top. all in all, this dish was absolutely divine.
steve had niman ranch lamb with spring asparagus and minted jus. it had lamb chops, and some kind of shredded lamb, as well as green & white asparagus, and some gnocchi with herbs. the white asparagus were extremely thin (like spaghetti noodle thin), and the green ones were tender, and smallish. the gnocchi was super-flavorful (that's the only part i tried). per steve, the lamb was quite good, if a bit on the standard side.
next, we had the cheese course, or really, the dairy course. i had cheese, of course. it had 4 cheeses - from the left, gouda reypenaer v.s.o.p. (with local honey), el porfiao (with dried date), thomasville tomme (with spiced almonds), and thomas hoe stevenson stilton (with poached pear & port sauce). there was also a piece of fruit bread in the center, with apricots and who knows what else. they were all delicious. the gouda was my favorite, followed by the stilton, the tomme, then the el porfiao.
steve got the white chocolate gelato with tableside shavings. it was what it sounded like - white chocolate ice cream. very white chocolatey. it was a little edible flower on top, and white chocolate shaved over it. not much more to say about that ;)
now, they asked us if we wanted coffee or tea - we had seen the awesome coffee pots around, and we wanted to see one up close, so steve got coffee, and i ordered vanilla rooibus tea (the tea list was basically the same as the tea list down in the tea room where amy & i go for afternoon tea). the coffee gizmo was delivered, and started the brewing process. my pictures suck, but basically, the water is in the bottom, and the freshly ground coffee is in the top. an alcohol burner is lit under the water, and as it boils the steam is forced up through the coffee grounds, into the top chamber. once the majority of the water has been boiled up into the top chamber, they extinguish the burner, and the now-brewed coffee falls back down into the bottom. very cool. and very flavorful (i tasted it) - it's a good thing steve didn't have more than one cup (and had had two glasses of champagne), or i think he would have been up all night. i, on the other hand, had three cups of tea. oops. i wasn't up all night, but boy did i have to pee a lot.
finally, it was time for the dessert course. steve ordered the highly recommended caramelized banana gateau. it had a bunch of banana slices that had been sugared & torched, a macadamia nut tuile wrapped around a mascarpone-banana-sponge cake concoction, and this crazy thing called a sugar waterfall which looked like sugar-packing material. though he was surprised by the presence of macadamia nuts (they weren't mentioned on the menu), steve enjoyed his dessert. the sugar waterfall thing was particularly odd - basically, a 3"x6" (or so) spun sugar piece. i had a bite; it tasted like sugar. if you chewed it, your teeth stuck together. if you didn't, it melted on your tongue. weird, but good.
i had the tanzanie chocolate pyramid with a champagne-chambord truffle. pretty much, it was a pyramid of super-rich chocolate mousse on a thin layer of chocolate cake, with a touch of edible gold leaf on top. there were dark chocolate tendrils that stuck out of it, with some strawberry compote around one side, some raspberry coulis down another side, and a gooseberry & a bunch of dots of dark chocolate ganache in the front. on the other side was a leaf shaped cookie with the truffle on it. all very rich & chocolatey. just what i wanted :)
we thought we were done now, but they brought us a tray of "friandises" - pina colada fruit gels (fancy gumdrops, pretty much), chocolate caramels with sea salt (i am sure he told us what kind of salt, but i forgot), and lemon shortbread cookies with lemon curd. all divine, all different. yum. i wish i had a box of those. they also brought us a little victoria & albert's bag with our menus, and also a small loaf of orange-date-nut bread for today. and finally, they brought me a very nice long stemmed red rose. and of course, the (very large) bill. all i can say is yay for 20% from tables in wonderland (disney's dining discount program). then they called the valet to have our car waiting for us, and we headed home to relieve dad of crazy baby duty (thank you again, dad - though i know it was more fun than work, i really appreciated it :).
all in all, the meal was delicious, and the service was impeccable. in particular, steve's halibut and my pork stood out, but there was nothing i could nitpick about - everything was perfectly cooked and seasoned. i was worried that steve would have difficulty finding things he'd like (i had visions of cheese, fish and nuts for every course), or we'd feel out of place, or be looked down on for not ordering the wine pairing, but there were no problems at all. sophie and i even enjoyed the fruit bread for breakfast this morning, and steve and i had some as a snack tonight. it's not a meal i could have every day (neither my wallet nor my waistline could afford it), but i think every 5-7 years or so, we will be up for revisiting it :)
some notes for the evening:
meats steve ate: salmon, elk, halibut, ducks, pig & lamb
meats sarah ate: salmon, shrimp, halibut (just a taste), poulet rouge (aka, chicken), & pig
new produce steve ate: artichokes, white asparagus, radishes
new produce sarah ate: kohlrabi, radishes, beets, turnips, gooseberries
number of time steve's crumbs got swiped: 4
number of time sarah's crumbs got swiped: 3
distinct pieces of silverware steve got: 17 (including an extra spoon at the fish course, and a spoon at the dairy course)
distinct pieces of silverware sarah got: 17 (including a fork and knife at the dairy course)
