jkn

My daughter and her friends went on Saturday before her high school prom. I would definitely understand why a restaurant would be hesitant to to seat a large (12 people) group of teenagers on a busy night. They had no problem making a reservation. The group had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed their dinners. They were very complimentary about their server. All-in-all they had a great experience and a memorable night. My daughter says her best friend keeps talking about her meal and how she wants to introduce her parents to Eventide. Thank you, Eventide, you made them feel very welcome and you made big fans in the process.

Johnny kindly gave us a quick rundown on the dates one night after dinner. The dates are stuffed with mascarpone and greek yogurt then refrigerated overnight. The dates are the cooked for a couple of minutes in a very hot over (I think he said 400-450). They are then covered with olive oil and salted.

Cool sighting of the week - Enjoying another great meal at Komi last night when Tim and Nina Zagat show up out of the pouring rain, wait patiently for several minutes at the front, then are taken to to back of the dining room for several minutes before meeting with chef Monis for a brief chat. Apparently they were in town for the release of the new guide and were congratulating the chefs at the top of the list. Derek might be kicking himself since he was off last night.

My wife and I went to dinner at Cityzen last week to celebrate our anniversary. Even though we have enjoyed dinners at Cityzen in the past, we were a little apprehensive because we have been going to Maestro and Komi to celebrate birthdays and anniversaries for the past few years and we were afraid that we would miss Maestro even more after this special occasion. I am glad to say that we had a wonderful meal and dining experience and we will happily move Cityzen into our regular rotation. We were presented with two amuses, the first a mushroom fritter on a mushroom sauce (I could have eaten ten of those), then a cube of porcine head cheese on an artichoke puree. Even my wife, who will eat offal but isn't crazy about it, enjoyed it and commented she could have gone for another. The first course was chilled asparagus with an oven roasted tomato (which tasted like sweet, warm and slightly juicy sundried tomato), a microgreen salad atop a tapenade-like sauce. Until I tried that dish, I had never understood the fascination with asparagus. For me, this was the most memorable dish of the evening. Each element of the dish was very good, the flavors when combined in different ways were even better. The second course was a tempura style soft shell crab with pickled onions. Very tasty and fried perfectly. The third course was sablefish. I don't recall what it was served with. It was very good, I remember liking it, but it was obviously not a memorable dish for me. On the other hand, my wife thought it was the best plate of the night. The fourth course was lamb on a pea and cream sauce. Three different cuts of the lamb were served, all very good. Of course the parker rolls came out with the course. I don't think I could possibly add any superlatives about the rolls that hasn't been granted many times, so I won't even try. The cheese course was next. My wife is way into cheese more than me, but we both loved the doddington, which we had never tasted before. And even though I was getting full, I couldn't stop eating the spiced almonds that accompanied the cheese. We were then served a Meyer lemon sorbet before the last course came out: the Cityzen seven layer bar. I'm not sure why it's called a seven layer bar because we could not identify seven layers - we identified seven different elements separated into an ice cream pile and a chocolate custard cookie sandwich pile. It was a very nice way to end the meal As I mentioned before, we have had very nice meals at Cityzen in the past but this meal seemed to be a major step up to us. The service was excellent, the atmosphere was nice (we were in the wine alcove looking into the kitchen), the food very, very good. One really nice touch that accentuated our evening was a Moscato D'Asti given to us just before dessert with an anniversary card signed by chef Ziebold and the staff. Major kudos to Cityzen.

Been enjoying the forum for quite a while now and finally decided to join in. My wife and I get out to eat (without kids) 2-3 times a month. Current favorites include Komi, Palena, Bistro Bis and Cityzen. Still in mourning over Maestro and Scott Bryan (when he was at 2941). Unless I have overlooked the topic, I'm surprised that no one has posted regarding Vincent's wine tastings at the Tyson's Ritz. We went to our first one last month and thought it was wonderful. Vincent was his usual charming self, the wines were great, and we were completely surprised by the tastes that chef Jeff Sklaney sent out in pairing. The food was as good and as memorable as any we have had in months. I look forward to continued participation in this board.