Restaurant Daniel

photos in this post are by Justin & Mary Marantz

I have a great chewy oatmeal cookie recipe to post. But it will have to wait, because in honor of our 1st wedding anniversary (!!), I simply have to share the marvelous dinner Tom and I had at Restaurant Daniel this past Friday.

For those who don't know, Tom and I were married at Daniel last April, surrounded by about 35 of our closest family and friends. It was the perfect day. And perfectly us. And one of the awesome perks of getting married at a phenomenal restaurant, is that it is an excuse to go back each year and have another to-die-for meal.


So without further ado; the food:

The amuse bouche was a trio of eggplant, featuring a smoked salmon, eggplant, snap pea combo; an eggplant mousse; and baby shrimp with eggplant.

Knowing it was our anniversary (and because the service at Daniel is beyond compare) we were also treated to champagne, a razor clam ceviche, and a spinach and ricotta raviolini - with compliments!

For our starters I got Florida frog leg and Jerusalem artichoke soup (which had insanely good tiny scallops, Honshimeji mushrooms, and what I can only describe as 3 deep-fried frog leg pops) and Tom got Maine sea scallop rosette with tandoori, Hawaiian hearts of palm, and shiso-mango gremolata.

For the main course, I got what we served at the wedding: beef duo (black Angus short ribs with beet marmalade and seared Wagyu tenderloin with braised savoy cabbage, crispy chickpea panisse) and Tom tried something new: trio of milk fed pig (roasted chop with glazed turnips, braised shoulder with cucumber, and smoked ribs with fennel-avocado coleslaw).

And then, dessert. I will admit that it is very hard (impossible) for me to order a fruit dessert, when chocolate is available. So even though I was tempted, I got the Manjari chocolate mousse, with nougat, pistachio cream, and toasted almond ice cream. And Tom got the Jivara chocolate mousse with espresso biscuit and Kenyan coffee ice cream.

But here's the amazing thing. As though reading my mind, they brought out a third dessert (with "Happy Anniversary" in beautiful blackberry syrup script), so that I didn't have to miss out on a fruit dessert after all! This was Blackberry and fromage blanc vacherin with Swiss meringue, and creme Chantilly.

Rounding out the evening (and our midsections) were freshly baked madeleines and three of the tiniest chocolate squares flavored with basil, praline, and cinnamon respectively.

After an incredible meal and a lot of fun reminiscing over how wonderful the past year truly has been, our bellies were full and our hearts content.