I’m backtracking to Friday evening.
My birthday was almost a month ago, & Tony & I take each other out for dinner for our birthdays. His was in Dec (sag) & he chose Nobu’s, which is obviously a Japanese restaurant. Tony doesn’t really like sushi, but he’ll eat spider roll & calif roll. I DO like some sushi, & we both like tempura, miso soup, & of course, Matcha!
So for my Bday dinner (almost a month late, we’ve both been really busy!), we had a gift certificate from his 2 kids for $50 off at The Sidney Street Cafe, which is considered one of the top restaurants in St Louis. http://www.sidneystreetcafe.com
It’s not the kind of place we usually eat, but they use a lot of locally raised products & the pictures are awesome! Once I explained my food allergies/sensitivies (dairy, gluten, preservatives, etc) to the waiter we settled on filet béarnaise, except I got roasted root veggies instead of mashed potatoes (which contained cream). There was butter in the sauce, but I can get away with that once in awhile. Tony had the Steak Wasabi.
What irritates me about places like this is you pay high dollar for the food, you’re picturing a surf & turf plate, & then reality strikes: a large plate, with a steak that is 2" wide in each direction & 2" tall. It was split across the center & there was a thin layer of lobster sandwiched in there. There was 1/2 cup or so of roasted brussells & a tureen with about the same amount of roasted root veggies. The sauce was drizzled artfully. It was a beautiful plate, but I think my exact words to Tony were, “I’m gonna be hungrier when we leave than I was when I got here.” We both laughed :)
Needless to say, it was awesome! Every bite was pure heaven. That steak may have been small, but it was the tenderest, most perfectly cooked, most flavorful steak ever (well…I can think of 3 exceptions to that, actually). In spite of the fact that I would have liked to have doubled the amount on my plate, the food was wonderful!
When it came to dessert, the only dairy & gluten free offerings were sorbets. I had a choice of peach, or a scoop each of passion fruit & coconut. I had all 3 (little Terri insisted). They were wonderful, not too sweet, & contrasted with one another beautifully. I don’t eat sweets often, but it was a worthy exception. Tony had “snicker bar”.
With dessert we had tea: Numi Aged Earl Grey, which went nicely with the sorbets. The tea base is an Assam & the bergamot is there, but not too potent. A perfect ending to the meal.
