Palace Diner

we're getting artsy up in here.

(Chris)

I honestly didn't have the highest hopes for this place when I saw the name of the restaurant. Something about naming a diner "Palace" seems pretentious, but I made sure to drop any prejudices before I walked through their front door. I was surprised when I saw the inside, it had that legitimate "diner" feel to it.

The booths were worn in and comfortable, the bar had a few seniors finishing their home fries and reading the days paper, and there were plenty of families enjoying their pre-Thanksgiving breakfast. Now that I think of it, maybe it was the morning of Thanksgiving that brought these people out. The lure of having one meal that didn't require cooking or cleaning dishes might have made this diner seem more popular than it really is.

The coffee came out quickly and it was delicious. I ordered their "Southern Sausage," which (as you might have guessed) is biscuits and gravy. The dish came with your standard two biscuits covered in a sausage gravy, home fries on the side, and two sausage links (Palace does the duty of cutting your sausage for you in this dish). I'm used to having eggs with my southern sausage, so I put in the side order for two over medium. I could have left off the order of eggs. To Palace Diner, eggs "over medium" really means, "barely cook them and make sure that the white are still runny." When over medium comes out like over easy, it makes me wonder if "well done" eggs are still runny or if they come out like white and yellow hockey pucks. The home fries were acceptable. All the potato was cooked through and there were definitely some good crispy bits to nibble through. The sausage gravy and biscuits were pretty good, especially the biscuits. The biscuits were nice and delicate even under the pile of gravy, they were buttery, and they did a great job mopping up any extra gravy left behind. On our way out of the diner we saw a couple picking up no fewer than five pies and cakes for Thanksgiving dinner later that night. All the deserts looked amazing. They must be doing something right at Palace that I didn't pick up on; I'll be sure to go back and get an omelette next time before I completely label them as mediocre.

(Chi)

As with every place this time of year, pumpkin was in the air at the Palace Diner. I decidedly to indulge by having some pumpkin coffee. It was the most fragrant and full-bodied pumpkin coffee I've had and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The only thing was that the waitress brought me another full cup when I was just a few sips into my first one, so my entire second cup just sat on the table getting cold the entire meal. Wasted.

I ordered two eggs medium that came with hashbrowns, a juice (orange), and a short stack of French toast to round it off. As you can probably tell from the pictures, this portions were not as overwhelming as I had expected them to do from my experience with diners. In the overall sense of things, this is probably a good thing for mankind. 

My eggs had the opposite problem that most places do; my eggs were runny. When they were warm, it tasted okay. Once they cooled, it got kind of gross even when I just dipped my toast into them. My French toast was pretty sub-par... dry, with non-spectacular butter or syrup. My home fries were the highlight of the meal, but not enough for me to come back just for them.

Disappointing. 

They must have some great baked goods though, because (literally) everybody and their mother was coming in to buy their Thanksgiving cakes and pies. I think the people in front of us were only eating dessert for dinner that night. 

Westmont Family Diner

Even though I technically live in Haddon Township, NJ now, I still consider the entire area of "Haddon" to be home. I still live very close to Westmont, and therefore, I consider the Westmont Family Diner to be my true local diner. I say this not necessarily based on proximity alone, but also on general quality. It is the diner that is our default- in a good way. I've been here at least half a dozen times throughout the year and a half and oftentimes on Sundays when I need a quick breakfast.

On this trip, Chris and I decided to finally review it, believing that its consistency of food should be something to be shared with others. We were greeted with a quick hello and a "sit where you'd like" around 8:30am on a Thursday morning. Our coffee came with water without us asking for it.

The menu is pretty standard, but the diner really shines through its specials menu that changes one or two items every few months. We both ordered off of it- I got the Greek scramble with feta cheese and oregano that came with toast, and hashbrowns with grilled onions and peppers (as a standard). Together with the coffee, it was $6.99. My toast was wheat as usual, but toasted really well, with a higher sugar content than others I've had (even at this location). My meal was yummy, and warm, with a clear attempt at more sophisticated flavors than other diner breakfasts. For example, my my onions and peppers inside my potatoes were delicious and well seasoned with salt, pepper, and rosemary. My eggs were also delicious, although I thought there was too much feta which kind of overwhelmed my mouth on certain bites. It was a very simple scramble with exactly what it said would be inside of it which is something to appreciate in and of itself.

I am still on a biscuits and gravy kick. And, let me tell you, Westmont Family Diner does this southern classic right. The first thing you notice is some delicious looking sausage gravy covering two flaky (but you don't know they're flaky yet) biscuits. A little bit a sausage goes a long way, too. The gravy is thick and creamy, but not to the point where it becomes like toothpaste, and the nibbles of sausage along the way add a great pork flavor. The two eggs over medium were cooked perfectly. I decided to switch up my usual side of sausage to a side of bacon. Westmont delivers when it comes to pork. They serve the thick cut bacon that falls into the spectrum of chewy and crispy. Did I mention that you can lap all of this up in the gravy that is still overflowing on your plate? Just in case you do have some gravy left on your plate and you haven't started the biscuits, they happen to be the perfect morsels to mop up the remaining gravy. Like Chi said above, the Westmont has become our default and for good reason. By the way, my half of the meal cost less than $7.00.

Unfortunately, all pictures of Chris's part of the meal were accidentally deleted. Sad.

Thai Basil

Chris and I feel very fortunate to live so close to good food in Collingswood and Haddonfield, NJ.  People have been mentioning Thai Basil to us for years, but we’ve never gone. I’m always a bit skeptical when it comes to Asian-American or Asian fusion restaurants, just because I feel as if I have a high standard due to my upbringing. I imagine it’s the way Italians feel about Italian-American food. It’s indicative of the correct region, but yet, not true in spirit.

Something about the word "Thai" and this kind of sign display just seems...incorrect.

Regardless, we visited Thai Basil for a Saturday late lunch. We arrived around 2:15 to an almost empty and very low-lit restaurant. (Throughout the course of our meal, only one other couple showed up to eat). The vibe is very chill, very relaxed, with large comfy booths sectioned off to create privacy. The music is lounge-y, with every other song in French.

Right off the bat, from looking at the menu, you can tell that the focus of this food is “flavor”. They have two of their specials engraved into the mirrors in the room to showcase the range of ingredients they use for staples such as tom yum and drunken noodles. They also proudly boast four types of curry- red, green, panang, and massaman.

I ordered the drunken noodles with mock duck after reading a favorable review of it on Yelp. It was priced at around $12 which seemed perfectly reasonable. On the menu, it has two stars indicating its spiciness. I ask for it to be reduced in spice, to which the server said “We can’t make it completely spice less, but we can make it mild”. “Great,” I said, “let’s make it mild”.

Our appetizers came out before our meals. We ordered the veggie curry puff- a whimsical dish reminiscent of an Asian-style Jamacian spicy beef patty or an empanada. Flaky and doughy at the same time with rich aromas, it was filled with potatoes, curry, and onion. It came with a sweet chili sauce that tasted like Vietnamese nuoc mam ngoc with a bit of duck sauce to thicken it up. Delicious, and left us craving more.

The best way I can express my main meal is: a labor of love. Presented well in an avant-garde tilted bowl, it smelled delicious with aromas of fish sauce, chili, garlic, and all other things that make life great. My ‘duck’ was pretty good imitation, although some pieces of the ‘skin’ fell short. I don’t really see how you could imitate the high level of fat (and eventual crispiness) that you would get from an animal. Noodles were delish, just the right amount of stickiness and starchiness.  This being said, I could not eat more than two bites in a row without taking a huge sip of water. The spice level was ridiculous almost to the point of being intolerable. This was better once the dish had some time to cool. I know that one shouldn’t go into a Thai restaurant and tell the kitchen that the food is too spicy, but when you’re told that something is coming to you “mild”, you expect a certain threshold to not be breached. The only other customers there actually were comped because their food ended up being too spicy to eat.

As for me, I was mostly happy with the entire meal. I ordered the Laad Na off of their "Meal in a Hot Pot" page of their menu. The Laad Na's description was simple enough. I had the choice of beef, chicken, or shrimp in a pot of sauteed vegetables and seared rice noodles with gravy poured on top. I went with the beef because I was curious to see if the beef would be prepared similarly to Pho that I've had in the past. When the meal came out I was immediately pleased with what I saw. The beef was front in center, the bowl was big and deep, and the vegetables had their color. It was beautiful. Sadly the beef was a tad over cooked and not as tender as I was hoping. However, it did bring in a lot of the flavor of the sauce. My favorite part of the dish was the broad, flat, rice noodles that were soaking up the gravy at the bottom of the pot. They were extremely tender and rich. The gravy reminded me of a Vietnamese oyster sauce. It was very savory, but it definitely had some sweet element to deepen its flavor profile. The worst part of the experience was that we were seated at a table that was next to an area of the carpet that looks as though it hasn't been washed in a few years. Hopefully by the time I go back they will have already shampoo'd their carpet.

I felt very conflicted about the food because it was delicious, but for the majority of it my tongue was maxed out and the spice detracted from the layers of salty, sweet, and sour.   

Such an awful experience, but over so soon! We’re gonna have to do this one over again. Perhaps it was a fluke?

Dark, moody, and minimalistic

Extra notes:

Free soursop hard candies when you leave and it looks like they  might own a new place called Fusion Bay next door that offers similar taste profiles but in a casual dining atmosphere.

The Crab Shack

Located on the tiny (but touristy) island of Brigantine, NJ is the Crab Shack. The crab shack has a store front where it sells its fresh seafood proudly on display and a back room converted into a small dining area with about 8 tables. Ask if they’re serving and someone will take you behind the normally closed door what looks to be like your seriously beach-obsessed grandmother’s dining room.

We’ve actually been here once before about a year ago, and the waitress who took care of us then took care of us this time. The menu is noticeably extensive for the restaurant seeming to be a side-business the store front. Clean and quiet, it’s a great place to get away if you’ve been surrounded by shoobies and their crazy children all day on a crowded beach. The biggest downside? Flies.

We started off with the hush puppies ($5.99). They came out blazing hot (Chris burned himself) but with no plates for us to eat on. We precariously picked from the basket. The little balls of deliciousness were well-seasoned with onion, salt, etc. with a crunchy outside (cornmeal?) and a soft, almost gooey inside. These are not your Red Lobster hush puppies. I loved that they were flavorful but not overly salty. 

For my entre I ordered the fresh caught tuna-steak (medium rare) with wasabi ($16.99) with a side of baked potato and corn on the cob (from an option of about5/6 sides). Chris ordered their 1lb lobster roll which they’re famous for.

I got a big ol’ hunk of tuna steak with what looked to be some sort of house seasoning sprinkled on it. The seasoning tasted like it was based off an Old Bay-esque seasoning with notes of oregano/thyme. The steak itself was delicious even though it was much closer to well-done than medium rare, but I wish it wasn’t so timidly seasoned just on the top. I will say that the wasabi dipping sauce was a nice addition, very strong, but helped cleansed the palate for pure tuna tastes. My potato came still wrapped in foil which I didn’t like, but I DID like how moist it was. Sometimes you get potatoes that have been neglected in the oven or on a heating plate that are dried up and not flaky. I gave my corn to Chris.

I actually had the lobster roll a year ago when this blog first got under way. I'm glad we finally came back. I've known about the Crab Shack for a few years since one of my best friends used to man the front of the store every summer, but it was only my third time eating their food. The lobster roll at the Crab Shack is pretty impressive. It is served on a large doughy kaiser roll with crisp iceberg lettuce. The bread itself is nice and stretchy and the bread hinge that is created by cutting the roll does not rip. I believe this makes their lobster roll that much better. Because the roll stays together, the fresh giant lumps of lobster don't fall out the back when you bite into the sandwich. The lobster is tossed in a light mayonnaise sauce and then it is hit with some Old Bay seasoning. The simplicity lets the fresh seafood shine through.

The lobster roll was served with fries and coleslaw.  The fries were pretty good, freshly made, crispy and already salted (once again, not over salted).  The slaw was more interesting. I think the Crab Shack throws some sweet pickle into their slaw. Their slaw had a certain bite that only comes with a fresh pickle and their slaw ended up having a relish element to it. Delicious. The corn was corn, unfortunately their was nothing special to it. It did taste fresh though. 

It’s worth the trip off the glitzy restaurant bubble that is Atlantic City, and is not much more expensive than a casino buffet. It’s quiet and quirky with charming pieces of hardware and knickknacks that you’d expect from a place just two blocks from the beach. Perhaps not the most romantic place for a date, but if you’re already settled and just want a (tasty) change of paste, head on over to the Crab Shack. 

Somerville Diner

Getting to the Somerville Diner was much more complicated than it should have been. We started our journey from Pennsauken with every intent to head north into Hillsborough for our practice and lessons. We decided to use our trusty GPS once we got on the road to find a diner (hoping there would be another gem off of 295). I plugged our destination into the GPS in hopes that it would take me to 295, but instead Mr. TomTom decided our best bet to get to north Jersey would be to cross over the Walt Whitman and jump on 95 (without asking me if I would like to avoid toll roads), and make me throw away five dollars on the toll. The adventure continues when about halfway between Philadelphia and Trenton we decide to start looking for a diner.

Fourth Time's the Charm

At this point we still trusted TomTom so we plugged in "diner" and our first result was Croydon Family Diner in Bensalem, PA. Wonderful. We drive for twenty minutes off 95 through neighborhoods and back roads until we get to a dead end road with no diner at the end. Upon further research, the Croydon Family Diner cannot be found on Google Maps, it probably no longer exists. So now we're in a nice suburb area which means there's got to be a nice greasy spoon close by and TomTom tells us to go to the Blue Fountain Diner in Langhorne, PA. it's off the old Lincoln Highway and after a bit of driving we are once again taken to another dead end road (much creepier this time) with no diners to be seen. We then discussed the chances that something out of a horror movie was going to happen and we decide to get the hell out of Pennsylvania since they apparently don't have diners anymore (further investigation makes me believe that TomTom was under the impression that Blue Fountain was on a different Lincoln Highway). After getting into Jersey we decide to try one more time, and the nearest diner from the border on our way to Hillsborough (not including Red Oak and Hillsborough Star) was the Jersey Diner about a mile past our destination. Guess what? It doesn't exist. At this point we freak out, decide that Time to Eat Diner is up the road (we've been planning to eat there a while now) and on our way there the Somerville Diner pops up like a gift from God. We pulled into the parking lot scowling at TomTom.

Meatball Sub

I unfortunately do not have much to say about this diner and it is, sadly, quite forgettable. I decided to order something familiar and got a meatball sub (on a club roll served with fries) and upon ordering the waitress called me out asking me if that was even on the menu and the telling me that they probably don't even have rolls. Really? Upon showing her that I ordered a real entree, she admitted, "oh we must have the rolls then," facepalm. The sandwich itself was good. The bread was delicious even if it didn't hold the sandwich together (I ended up finishing with a fork and knife), the sauce was zesty and fresh, and everything was covered in melted provolone cheese. The meatball was definitely a step up from the Club Diner's meatballs but Somerville had it's shortcomings. Even though they had superb texture and decent taste, they were still over sized for the sandwich and altogether too dry (especially with the thick roll they used). My fries were served to me warm and even had an "I've been sitting around too long" texture. They were passable with a copious amount of ketchup.


This was a classic case of ‘should have quit while you’re behind’. At first I was completely enamored by the Somerville Diner, which seemed to appear out of nowhere to save us from our hungry, hungry fate. The décor made me feel welcome, and the hostess/waitress made me feel adored. But apparently, it was my stomach that must have overtook my brain’s capacity for perception because little did I know I was walking into a place that was just a little too-cute.

Florentine Omelette

In an attempt to expand my horizons, I ordered a Florentine omelette- spinach, sautéed onions, and feta cheese, folded into 3 fluffy eggs for a little under 8 bucks. AND, it came with toast and home fries! (Can you tell I’m still recovering from Marlton-diner sticker-shock?) Then, she came out with GIANT coffee mugs (which ended up costing $1.79 apiece), which we soon discovered to be filled with burnt-woody, dark coffee. I liked it more than Chris who barely took a second sip.

We’ll start with the good: My omelette was delish. I was afraid of the cook going overboard and loading my omelette with feta. I had imagined in my head some worst-case-scenario of not quite done eggs with cheese just spills onto everything after you cut into it. (This is why I don’t order cheese in omelettes usually). But, the feta was very light, and served only to enhance the fresh spinach leaves (left whole and un-mushy from being handled). Toast was lazily prepared with a disproportionate amount of butter on every piece. Also note that I got two pieces of toast physically on my plate and then a side of two more, leaving me with FOUR (or eight, depending on how you look at it) pieces! Ridiculous.

Clean, Homey Interior

But here’s the kicker: Chris had said it best when he said that this place looks like it’s in desperate need of a Tabitha Takeover (shameless plug for faboosh Bravo reality show). Clearly there are deep-set issues between management and staff. A manager, dressed not much better than the waitresses, was helicopter-parenting all around the floor looking at their actions, coming up to tables to monitor and seemingly find faults and someone to blame them on. Twice he came up to us to ask if we had needed anything, after our waitress had already been by to check in. I’m a firm believer of the management should work behind the scenes and not be seen too often, so it put me off when he asked us if “we ever got [our] water” when we had in fact, not ordered water.

It became clear that this distrust was mutual, because soon everybody’s demeanor did a 180 and I no longer felt like my dining experience was a priority. Our waitress turned into a Debbie downer, complaining about her boss riding her, and making excuses for her lagging service on his involvement. It was like watching a disgruntled father trying to handle angsty teenage daughters, except that they were too old to be doing this. And so were we.

Hotdogs?

I’m a firm believer that whatever went down in the back of the house should be left once you hit the dining area. You are on the same team, and if it’s not all smiles than it certainly shouldn’t be a room full of scowls. Nobody can digest Sunday Brunch on a stomach full of dysfunction.

FYI: This place doubles as a Nathan’s Hot Dog (um…strange) but I will say that for the 40-some minutes we were there, nobody came in to eat one. They advertise “Famous Texas-Style BBQ Ribs”- a daily special for $14.99 that includes a full rack, fries, soup de jour and choice of dessert.

Perhaps we just caught them on a particularly grumpy day, but since I’m not a meat-eater, I will not be revisiting this one anytime soon. We’ll be heading to the other diner near Somerville, The Time to Eat Diner, soon to compare. Stay tuned.

Caffe Aldo Lamberti

This is our second Silver Spoon restaurant to be featured and I've driven by it almost every day since May of this year. Caffe Aldo Lamberti is in Cherry Hill, NJ and sits on the corner of Rt. 70 and Grove St.

Let me preface this by saying that this restaurant from the outside looks so modern and (literally) shiny that I first mistook it years ago for a car dealership. In fact, because there is such an odd abundance of car dealerships in Cherry Hill, NJ, for a while afterwards out of the corner of my eye, I still thought that it could possibly be one. It’s located on a major highway that leads straight to Philadelphia, in a kind of hard-to-access area unless you’ve tried to get into its lot a few times.

This place has these two marquees that change weekly, sometimes daily, and always expressing some new item they’ve just received in the formula of adjective + fish + event = a reason to come try their food. For example, “Sweet Chilean Sea Bass freshly flown in, just in time for Prom”! Well, they probably didn’t market themselves quite that way for the prom crowd, but regardless, you get my drift.

I decided on a whim the Friday of my first week of work to celebrate and go. We had made a promise that we couldn’t review anymore diners until we reviewed a silver spoon, so this was perfect. We were somewhat out of place (not just because I had incorrectly told Chris that nice shorts were probably OK) but because we were younger than the average person in there by about 10-15 years- at least! It should be noted that we dined at 6:00 PM and almost everybody was at the bar that is outside, but features one side that is covered by the ceiling for those wanting to talk to their dates with less whooshing from cars flying down Route 70. I feel like our waiters noticed too, but among the three (3!) people that serviced us for those couple of hours we were definitely well taken care of- even if each side perceived the other to be…awkward.

For my main course I ordered off their Seasonal Menu (this was only after I turned down some of their specials which included a butterfish). I went with the Pan Seared Cape May Sea Scallops. It seemed more environmentally friendly to go with a more local selection than to eat a fish that was flown in from the Southeast Pacific (probably fresher, too). Our waiter complemented me on my selection and went to place our order. Chi and I then sat and waited for a while nibbling on the two types of bread that was brought to our table. The bread was served with home made (or at least home bottled) extra virgin olive oil. The olive oil certainly was different than anything I've ever bought from Wegmans. It had a fresh, cool quality to it, and for me, it set the tone for what the rest of the meal would be like; Caffe Aldo Lamberti tries to take the standard to the next level. The other bread that was at our table had a tomato sauce on it, which essentially made it a bunch of pizza-sticks (not to detract from the complexity of the sauce). They were tangy and warm, and like the olive oil, fresh. It was the first time I have been served complementary bread before a meal that was more than bread.

Our (non-pizza) bread was pretty average, but I agree that our olive oil (or, “oo” as I’ll refer to it) was not. This was the first time I was ever given the whole bottle. It had high notes of what I can only imagine (in my limited oo palate) was citrus. It also came with a small dish of big green olives and made me wonder: Do real Italians eat their bread this way? Was this an attempt to be authentic, or was it truly so?

Did you know that good oo should be marketed like good wine? For example, on the bottle, it shouldn’t just say “Product of Italy” (because it you read more closely there’s a good chance that it was still bottled in the US), but it should clearly state from what olive farm/plantation in whatever city it came from.

Chris and I decided to be adventurous and essentially upgrade our usual order of calamari to their grilled octopus. We were taken back by how it was presented.

Grilled Octopus

We soon discovered that it was partially pre-disassembled for ease of consumption, which was good since it was very…fleshy. I had never tasted octopus that tasted so much like meat before. It was delicious but slightly off-putting since I don’t eat meat. It was tender, with no taste of grimy ocean, or any of the general things that can turn people off. Well, that is unless you consider the fact that the suction cups on its legs still worked. (Chris tested them). Our only critique was that we wished it was crispier at the ends. Funny enough, this was the second time we had had grilled octopus within a week. The first was at Sapori, a delicious and rustic Italian restaurant in Collingswood where I had my “yay, I’m employed”-celebration dinner. I preferred Sapori’s, but I suspect Chris enjoyed this version more.

Pan Seared Sea Scallops

When the food came to the table I was still hungry and thank goodness thing since my plate consisted of five large scallops sitting on a dense bed of squid ink linguine with oil, garlic, and zesty red and yellow tomatoes. The scallops were the slightest bit chewy even though they remained very tender. Their buttery flavor was easily the highlight of the meal. Unfortunately the searing on the scallops was not uniform on every scallop. The ones that were more seared seemed to be tenderer almost as though the less seared scallops were cooked longer at a lower temperature. I can comfortably give the scallops a very good rating, but certainly not great. This was my first time having squid ink linguine and I wasn't lying when I said it was dense. It started to fill me up right away which was a shame since the meal was going in a wonderful direction. The squid ink gave the pasta an earthy, rich flavor (I'm sure the oil contributed to that as well), but kept its raw pasta flavor while enhancing the depth of the meal. With all the sweet, wholesome notes on the plate, the garlic and tomatoes gave the dish the zip it needed. The tomatoes were bright and summery and the garlic was not cooked to sweetness and left very pure.

Sweet Potato Gnocchi

I ordered the sweet potato gnocchi after much debate over what entre to choose. I had originally wanted the catch-of-the-day risotto, but upon hearing that it was a Dover sole, and not wanting to purchase something without a price, I picked the gnocchi. I love the stuff and almost always gravitate towards it when eating Italian. (Side note: for great, fresh, hand-made gnocchi in the area, head to Spasso’s in Old City, Philadelphia). It sounded like a genius and whimsical take on a normal gnocchi, and I looked forward to the contrast between a likely truffle/garlic sauce and the sweetness. While there was a contrast, and the sauce and mushrooms ended up being delicious as expected, the gnocchi itself was disappointing…but the kind of disappointing that just creeps up on you. My first bite was fine, although I immediately noticed there was a slick, oily coating that seemed to not release the potato inside. A further bite confirmed my suspicion that this gnocchi wasn’t going to be satisfyingly smushable in my mouth and was (somehow) neither fluffy nor dense. It occurred to me that for it being what it was, that it wasn’t especially sweet-potato-y.

Tiramisu

The dessert continued the theme of the restaurant. We opted for the tiramisu. We were surprised when the dish came out. The best way to describe it is an espresso soaked (soaked!) lady finger, surrounded in a mascarpone-whipped cream, dusted with espresso powder, topped with a halved strawberry, and finished off with a lady finger sticking out askew of it all. Oh, it also came in a squat martini/dessert glass, a whimsical approach on an Italian classic. The cream was the first aspect of the dessert we encountered. It was incredibly light, but at the same time it was runny (though I have a theory of why that might be). The show stopper of the dessert was what the cream was surrounding. The soaked ladyfinger in the middle was gushing with flavor. It was sweet and rich and light all at the same time. I believe the total liquid content of the dessert accounted for a runny whipped cream. The actual burst of flavor and liquid that came from the center of the tiramisu not only made the dessert delicious but also fun to eat. The ladyfinger pointing out the top was fun for dipping but in comparison to the rest, it might have well been only garnishing.

Additional notes: Don't be in a rush. There will be a wait between the courses but just enjoy the atmosphere while you watch the forty-somethings get drunk off Shiraz and Pinot Grigio during their happy hour. I took home my dish hoping that my general craving for heavy, starchy foods would leave me reheating it and giving it another chance the next day but when Chris’s mother was cleaning out the fridge a week later, I made no attempt to save it. Also, their wineries looked impressive (boasting 800 wines!!) and so I'll definitely have to come back if to do nothing else but take a tour of their selection.