Valentine's at Roy's

For dinner, my fiance made reservations at Roy's, one of our favorites. We actually planned to have our Valentine's Day dinner at Abacus the following weekend to skip the crowds and prix fixe menus. But he still wanted to go somewhere nice on the actual Valentine's Day. I pretty much let him plan everything. :)

However, we weren't aware that Roy's was ONLY doing a V-Day Prix Fixe menu as well. We thought we were just gonna go for a normal dinner (but on Valentine's Day. haha) Are you still with me? :P

The place was packed but we were seated immediately. We opened the menu and realized we could only order from the special menu. Eeeeeks. That puts an extra dent on his wallet! The place was full from the time we got there to the time we left. It was a quite loud.. And there were actually quite a few families with little kids there. Not the most romantic setting, but oh well. We made the most of it.

He got the Signature Cocktail: Cucumber Ginger Mule Martini $10~ First time I'm going to say this about a drink...it wasn't strong enough. In the booze or the ginger aspect. He makes a much better one at home.

The special menu consists of a 4 course meal. You pick your choice of appetizer, a soup or salad, entree, and dessert. The price of the meal was indicated by the entree you select.

Appetizer:
He got the Chicken Fried Maine Lobster (truffled lobster gravy). Pretty small plate but yummy! The lobster pieces were big and cooked well. I liked the batter and the sauce was delicious.

Kim Chee Brussels Sprouts (house made pork belly). Brussels Sprouts...if I see them, I gotta get them. Also a pretty small plate, but it's part of a 4 course meal so that makes sense. It was quite heavy on the sauce, even though I liked the sauce. Therefore, a tad on the saltier side. I liked the crispy pork belly with it. I kept half of it to eat with my entree which turned out to be a great pairing!

Soup/Salad:
We both got the Chanterelle Mushroom Bisque (creme fraiche, toast point, truffle oil). It just sounded amazing. And it was pretty freaking delicious. It wasn't strained so you got all the pureed bits of mushroom thoughout the rich creamy bisque. I really liked the toast point on top. I wanted a few more. hehe. We both cleaned our bowls.

Entrees:
I got the Kalbi Grilled Bone-in Ribeye (wasabi mashed potatoes, green beans, Korean BBQ sauce) $78~ 

It was impressive when they put it in front of me. They thought it was his at first because his dish was so much smaller in comparison. I loved the Korean BBQ sauce. Slightly sweet and full of flavor. The wasabi mashed potatoes paired really well with the steak and sauce. And the ribeye was cooked a good med-rare. My only complaint is that my piece had a lot of gristle. It was hard to cut it with the steak knife and I felt like a lot of it went to waste because I couldn't cut it or chew it. :(

He got the Maple Leaf Farms Duck Breast (fried cauliflower, pomegranate, kabocha squash puree) $70~ 

Such teeny little pieces of duck...and even smaller when put next to my steak. haha. But cooked really well. It was very moist and tender. I liked the cauliflower with the kabocha puree the best, lots of different textures. And the pomegranates added a nice colorful touch and some sweetness.

Dessert:
I chose the Belgian Chocolate Torte (raspberry sauce, seasonal berries, red velvet whipped cream). 

It wasn't so much a "torte" to me...it seemed more like a really rich brownie. It was a pretty big piece too. The chocolate was dark and rich. The red velvet whipped cream was interesting! I've never had that before. It was a pretty bright red and actually tasted like red velvet. I took most of this dessert to go cuz I had to help him eat his. :P It was still good a few days in the fridge.

He really wanted Roy's Signature Molten Chocolate Souffle Cake +$5~ 

The waiter said that wasn't a problem. He would just subtract the value of the other dessert from our check and add in the cost of the souffle...which ended up being about $5 additional. Still one of my favorite cakes of all time. The inside was filled with molten, rich ganache. The outside was just lightly crispy but the cake is still super moist. And always need to pair it with the ice cream. Sometimes I want to ask them for more ice cream. haha. Since we couldn't take any of this to go, we finished it together.

It was a great meal (as always). More expensive that we expected... by double! O.O but oh well. You live and learn right? Next time we'll just stay in on actual V-Day. haha. We still had a good time though. The manager actually came to each table and gave us a $20 giftcard for dining with them on this special day. They just keep giving us reasons to go back!! haha.

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~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~