Date Night

Thank you all for your sweet comments and advice! I really, really appreciate your support! Injuries (as most of you know) are difficult both physically and emotionally. An update on my leg is that it was feeling MUCH better today, so I thought I could take a low impact aerobics class. So, I took a half hour abs class followed by a step class, BAD IDEA! About halfway through the class my injury hurt, so I stopped. I guess I wasn't as pain free as I thought.

Anyways...on to some good news. Saturday night Evan and I had a nice date night to celebrate...well,  nothing. We went to Riccardos Ristorante in the North End. We had a 25$ gift from Restaurant.com and decided Saturday was a perfect time to use it.

Evan and I had dined here once before for a birthday party and really enjoyed the food. The inside decor was similar to many of the other restaurants in the North End, but a little more casual.

We started with a bottle of Chianti Classico from a favorite winery: Ruffino

This bottle was pretty good, but not incredible. Good table wine to go with Italian food, but not amazing.  We started with the spinach salad with candied pecans, pancetta and Parmesan cheese.

The salad came with a house made honey mustard and I asked the waiter for it on the side. Our waiter was not very good and had a hard time understanding our requests. And he brought us a red wine vinaigrette on the side. When I asked for the house made dressing he again did not know what we were talking about and it took him about 10 minutes to figure it out. When the dressing finally arrived the salad was great! I liked all the different flavors, especially the fresh Parmesan.

For my entree, I of course got the salmon (this has been my thing this past month), maybe I am having an Omega deficiency and my body is trying to tell me something......

The salmon was prepared with lemon, capers and a white wine on the sauce. It was AMAZING, by far my favorite salmon of the past month. I LOVED this flavor combo and the fish was VERY fresh!! I just LOVED it and it was only $19! Not bad for the North End!!!

Evan ordered the veal Parmesan

This was also very good (I had a few bites). I enjoyed the sauce and the veal was prepared well. Overall, our dining experience at Riccardo's was good; the food was reasonably priced, they had reasonably priced wine, the food was VERY good, but the service was bad. The waiter even forgot to bring us bread, until we asked twice.

Even though we couldn't move after dinner, we didn't want our night to end. So, we went up to Top of the Hub on the 52nd floor of the Prudential Center for a little music and one final drink.

Once we arrived the band was in full swing.

and I enjoyed a lemon and ginger martini.

Wow was this strong, but GOOD!!! A great night with amazing company!!!! I hope you had a good weekend!!

Happy Birthday!

Sorry guys I have been MIA, it has been a whirl wind the last few days. I will start with a running update: Thursday, I went on a nice run, after school, with the DreamFar team. The team was planning on running 8 miles, but I had to cut mine down to 6.2 miles (in 55 minutes) because I had to leave early. 

The run was one of the better ones outside in awhile. The snow has been, slowly but surely, disappearing and the ice is melting. However, it was still freezing outside! I felt pretty good and was able to get a good run in and it was nice to catch up with the team!

The reason I had to leave the practice early was because Evan and I had a meeting with my childhood priest. Surprisingly, Evan and I were a bit nervous because it has been a little while since we have been to church, but the meeting went great! 

Friday, I had a somewhat stressful day at work because I had 2 big meetings! But the meetings went well and I was very happy to see the end of the work day. Friday evening I had my bridesmaids get together at my apartment. In my wedding party I have girls from a few different groups of friends, so I wanted to have them over so everyone could meet. I decided to make a taco bar, but I was so busy entertaining and hosting that I forgot to take pictures. Go to Laura's blog to see the spread! It was a wonderful evening with some incredible girls. I am SO happy that they all can be part of my wedding!! But boy, entertaining sure is tiring!!

Saturday, I got a 7 mile run in on the treadmill. I completed the run in 61 minutes and felt great!!! I am really feeling prepared for my upcoming races. After working off some food and drinks from Friday night, I got ready to do it all again on Saturday. 

The month of February brings the birthdays of two of my best friends, so usually we pick a night to go out and celebrate. Last night was that night! The birthday girls:

We started the evening off by the three of us going to Top of the Hub for beautiful views of the city and a birthday toast. 

For non Bostonians, Top of the Hub is a restaurant on the top of the Prudential building that offers panoramic views of Boston. We all ordered Martini's: I got the ginger lemon drop. AMAZING!!

The martini tasted great, while also being nice and strong; a perfect drink in my opinion. Top of the Hub was a great way to start off the night!

Next up, we met our boyfriends (and Fiance) and my friend's brothers and sister at a local Thai food restaurant: Bangkok City. The ten of us were put in our own private room, equipped with a shrine to a famous Thai king!

The table started off with spring rolls and champagne.

For my entree, Evan and I split:

Pik King with Seafood

and

Green curry with chicken (sorry bad pic)

All the food was fresh and delicious. And as we were leaving the wait staff come out with umbrellas and ice cream singing happy birthday. 

After dinner, we met up with a bunch of other friends at a local Fenway bar and danced the night away. Fun, fun night! Happy Birthday Kira and Vicki!!!!!

Today, I have just been catching up on things and preparing for the week. I am getting so excited because one week from today I will be in San Francisco!!!!!

How was your weekend? Any ideas on good restaurants or fun things to do in San Fran??

To Complain or not to complain...that is the question?

Last night Evan and I met up with some of his work friends for "Happy Hour" at a bar near Evan's work called Jacob Wirths. It was PACKED but had a GREAT beer list. I started with a pumpkin stout:

It was good, but not as good as the oatmeal one I had last Friday. I think the creaminess of the oatmeal was lost and in its place was kinda a bitter pumpkin taste. I usually like pumpkin, but I was expecting the rich creaminess of the stout I experienced last week. Anyways, it was good and compared to my second beer it was FABULOUS. I am not sure what the name was because it was SOOOOOO packed at the bar we were at and the waitresses were VERY rushed and did not describe the beer to you that well. All they said was: "pumpkin ale or stout?" and when I asked the brand, she looked at me like I was crazy. So, for my second beer I ordered the ale.

GROSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Probably the worst beer of my life! It was SO bad that I could not take a second sip. It tasted like liquid candy. Which may sound good, but in a beer format was the worst taste in the world to me. It was SO sweet that I felt my teeth rotting with every sip. Needless to say I left basically the whole beer on the table. Oh well, you win some you lose some. I just wish I knew the name of the beer, so that sitch doesn't happen again!

After drinks, we headed over to Sonsie for dinner. However, before heading over, I called and confirmed that the wait time was not TOO long. The hostess said it would be 20 minutes for two and there would be no need to put our name in. Once we arrived the wait time, for the dinning room, moved to 30-40 minutes, but the hostess said there was no wait (or a shorter wait) for the Cafe section of the restaurant. The cafe has the same menu, but it is kinda in the middle of the bar and the waiting area and is VERY crowed. So, we opted to wait for the dinning room. After Evan and I got a drink:

Me: a glass of Syrah

Evan: Johnny Walker Black on the Rocks

My wine was pretty good, but not as good as the Liberty Hotel's Cabernet last weekend. However, Evan proclaimed it was one of his favorite glasses of wine. It was VERY smooth and full-bodied.

After about 20-25 minutes the hostess came up and said our table was ready. To our surprise, she took us over to a table in the Cafe! Not only was it in the cafe, but the table was on the outskirts of it. Evan's chair was basically in the main aisle. I asked the hostess why we were sat there and she responded that the dinning room was packed with people with reservations. I was a little confused at this point because I specifically called and was never told that or when I arrived was never told. But Evan said just to sit and enjoy our meal and not complain because we were both starving and it was getting late.

What would you have done at this point?

So, we did not say anything and ordered the Pumpkin Puree Pizza to start (recommended by Laura):

This pizza was VERY good. Very flavorful with a strong, but not to overpowering pumpkin taste! I LOVED it!

Kinda full from the pizza, we decided to split a burger and two veggie sides: Sauted spinach and Green beans stir fried with ginger, oyster sauce, garlic and chili.

The burger was great, but the bun it came in was incredible! However, the string beans were my favorite!!! They was SO, SO tasty!!! I also ordered a second glass of wine: Pinot Noir from the Hitching Post (the wine they drank in the movie Sideways). The wine was good, but not worth 16$.

So, overall the food was very good at Sonsie, but Evan had a terrible dining experience. He was continuously hit by traffic for his entire meal! He said he felt like he was in a packed college bar. It was AWFUL (he said)!! So when we finished our meal, we both felt it was time to complain. We asked to speak to the manager and explained the situation. The manager was apologetic and suggested we have dessert (on him) in the dinning room. Evan and I were kinda fed up and done with the restaurant at this point that we declined his offer, instead just asked if that table could be removed or moved to another location, so another customer did not have to have that same dinning experience. The manager just nodded, but when the bill arrived he comped our whole meal (minus our drinks). That was very generous of him, but we hope he took our advice and moved that table!!!

What do you guys think: Would you have spoken to the manager? If so, at what point would have you asked to speak to him? What do you think the proper etiquette is when complaining? Would you go back to the restaurant if the manager comped the meal?

After dinner, Evan and I met up with some friends at Top of the Hub (the restaurant at the top of the Prudential building) for some sights, drinks, and dancing. I decided to abstained from drinking, but enjoyed chatting, the views, and a little slow dancing with Evan!

Hope you are having a great weekend and thanks for stopping by!