plonq | Year In Pictures: 2010/08/10

We went out for my birthday dinner this evening.

atara booked dinner at a surprise restaurant. I thought I had a fairly good idea of where we were going (we've spoken often of going to The Melting Pot, and she dropped enough misleading hints to let me think we were probably going there). Instead we went to Bistro 7 1/4 down on the south end of Osborne.

The atmosphere of the place reminded me a lot of Fusion Grill, if maybe not quite as upscale.

My picture of the day is a Bacon Manhattan. I'm not sure how much I can say about this drink. I liked it. I was bacon. With bacon.

I also had a lobster soup of which I neglected to take a picture, though I think that

atara grabbed a picture of the appetizer.

My main course was their "spiced, dry aged hammer chop with sweet potato fries and cauliflower gratin". The menu may as well have said, "Huge fucking slab of beef."

It is not very often that I declare defeat with a meal, but I only got about halfway through this monstrosity. It was delicious, but it was huge. There were at least two pounds of meat on my plate. A couple of the other serving staff actually wandered by the table to ogle at the size of my meal, and one commented that the chops were "especially large" today.

Fortunately I had the good sense not to finish my main course (I brought half of it home), and I ordered a half-portion of their "dark chocolate espresso cake with kahlúa ganache". I think a half portion would have been sufficient, even if I hadn't just finished (or half-finished) a large meal. This was really, really rich, but also delicious.

We have added this to our list of "do again" restaurants. Their signature dish is apparently mussels, and I somehow managed to avoid ordering any of those. I have to go back.