Kim and I had a very nice dinner here at
Lahiere's in Princeton. I would recommend eating there. The wait staff was fun and involved. I played a guessing game with them. There were, it appeared, a couple of groups of Princeton faculty and we tried to figure out which department they were from. I won: Philosophy.
The ambiance was pleasant and enjoyable. Very collagey town goes out for a big night at the local gourmet restaurant decor. I loved it. The wait staff looked like graduate students and some of the did go, do go, perhaps had gone to Princeton though not all were students. However, top professionals all. And that's really why we go out, to be entertained. This place is entertaining.
I started off with the Oyster's Mignonette. Very nice. Next, we both had the Honey-Roasted Duck with Cranberry-Vegetable Spring Roll, Hoisin Duck Sauce. The wrapper on the "spring roll", more like an egg roll and could have been more crispy but we both liked the flavor. We loved the duck, though I found my duck over cooked. I told them medium rare and I got it medium to almost medium well. The duck was still very juicy but I want my duck breast rare to medium rare. Kim thought hers was perfectly cooked but then she likes her duck COOKED. For duck, no one beats
Perilla. Sigh.
Well, I've invented a new rating system. Let's see. 5 Licked Fingers is the top rating and 1 Licked Finger is the bottom. So, if
Bolo is 1 LF (sorry Bobby, I know you've always wanted to be a chef and I hope I'm not killing that dream), though I know Kim would give it 3 LF, and if
French Laundry and
Tru Restaurant are both 5 Licked Fingers, though I'd probably rank the desserts at Tru better than the cooking, then that would put Lahiere's at 3 LF. Very respectable. That would imply that
5th Avenue Cafe would be 3.5 LF, though I give the desserts 4.5 Licked Fingers, and the
Grammercy Park Hotel Bar would be 2 LF. BTW, 0 Licked Fingers is a lawsuit. ;-) So many restaurants, so few reviews.
Please note that many of these reviews are over on
Innsane. Check it out.
Labels: New Jersey, restaurant review
And as you can see, it's a beautiful dream in a beautiful store in Margate.
She's happy, helpful and knows everyone.
Go there and buy chocolates. Buy Life by Chocolate! The best chocolate on the planet.
What a beautiful store.
