Restaurant Week Part 2: Vincent - A Restaurant (dinner)

DISCLAIMER: Since I am writing this a few weeks after, my memory of each meal's ingredients may not be perfect.

Part 1

Wednesday brought us back to Vincent - A Restaurant for dinner. Seating was seamless, as it was for past visits. For those of you who have not been and plan on going, be aware that Vincent is one of those rare restaurants in existence that will offer a black napkin in place of a white one if it will blends better with your clothing and doesn't leave other-colored lint. It's a slightly pretentious, slightly amusing touch that often confuses people. At any rate, our server was professional and chatty, which was nice since we had to wait a few moments for the rest of our party to arrive.

We had a 2006 Monmousseau Vouvray, one of our house favorites. For some reason it tasted better than any bottle I've ever had in a store. Perhaps it was just affected by our mood. Our server took care to keep it in an ice bucket while we waited for our party to arrive.

After the rest of our group arrived, bread arrived swiftly, along with our first course. The choices were between the Ezilda soup, or Le Grande Salad. Most in our party had the wonderful signature soup, one of our party chose the salad, and while he commented that it was one of the better salads he had ever had, he also remembered that one doesn't make friends with salad.

The second course was a choice between seared sea scallops with leeks and fingerling potatoes with an orange sauce or beef tenderloin medallions with sun-dried tomatoes, chickpea fries, and a tarragon sauce. The scallops set a standard for many of us, that is, one of our party stated that the meal had "ruined scallops" for him since any scallop thereafter would be inferior. I was also impressed with the dish as a whole, the leeks and orange sauce contrasted nicely, and the thinly sliced fingerling potatoes were a delicate balance of tenderness.

Those who had the beef course enjoyed their meals as well, however one of our party was unfortunately plagued by a tough section. They seemed very impressed by the chickpea fries also.

The third course was a choice between a cheese plate or Vincent's signature dessert, again the vanilla-bean ice cream, chocolate sauce, and Madeleine cookies. We all opted for the dessert. The man helping serve the dessert course described the dessert in the exact phrase that I would use: "simple, but wonderful."

Service throughout most of the meal was perfect, but unfortunately faltered at the end. One of our party requested coffee with dessert, and it was brought after dessert. Our server seemed a bit preoccupied with another table that had came in after us and it was difficult to get her attention for the check. Other than that hiccup, everything from the valet and coat-check at the beginning to the coat-check and valet at the end worked quite nicely. Vincent - A Restaurant is a place I wish I could go to more often.

Websites:

http://vincentarestaurant.com/index.php

http://www.mspmag.com//