daedalus for dinner

We had dinner with our friends, Sara and Jeff, tonight at a restaurant called Daedalus in Harvard Square. They recently (not sure exactly when but like within the past couple of years?) added on a nice outdoor patio area on their rooftop. Normally, it's very difficult to get a table on the patio for dinner but we lucked out (with a parking spot too actually) and managed to get a table right away. Tony and I like to go there for drinks once in a while but it has been a while (like 3 or 4 years?) since we last ate there and we were both really impressed with how good the food was.

Tony had the Blackened Haddock Fillet which was topped with a cucumber, red onion, cilantro, and mango salsa; served with black beans, rice, and chorizo.

Sara had the Stuffed Pork Medallions which were stuffed with blue cheese, baby spinach, and portobello mushrooms; served with mashed potatoes, roasted carrots, and a shallot peppercorn sauce.

Jeff had the Flank Steak cooked medium rare (my kind of guy!) with a Madeira wine sauce; served with mashed potatoes and grill asparagus.

I had the Salmon dish which was a pan seared fillet with white wine cream sauce; served with mashed potatoes and sauteed broccolini.

I was so tickled at how the mashed potatoes were piped onto our plates and couldn't resist getting a close up shot for ya'll to see. Plus, I think this is the first restaurant that I've had broccolini as a side dish at. Too fricken cool. The whole world needs to discover broccolini!

Anyway, it was such a beautiful summer night. What a great way to spend time with friends, enjoy good food, and share some laughs.

sage + daedalus

We've decided that we're not going to do Valentine's dinner at restaurants anymore. For one, they usually have a prix fixe menu which means you can't really try their usual dishes. Plus, they tend to charge you more than usual. So this year I got to pick the place (we alternate each year) and we went to Sage in the South End. We had been to their old location in the North End so I wanted to see what this new location was like, plus we know the chef/owner's sister, Rita.

Right away when we walked in, both Tony and I thought that we recognized the restaurant. Sure enough, it used to be Caffe Umbra. It has a nice atmosphere and seems like they did something to it to make it larger and roomier. Fun photos on one of the walls.


We enjoyed a half carafe of Bordeaux wine with warm bread and butter before our Kobe carpaccio with arugula, shaved parmesan, and truffle vinaigrette came out. It was absolutely delicious.

Tony had the rice smoked duck breast with sautéed spinach and squash puree. It was really good - probably the best duck he has ever had. It was that good.

I had the striped bass with grilled arugula, mashed potatoes, and a beet puree. Yum yum yum!

Sadly, the desserts disappointed us ... again, almost all of them had nuts in them. So we decided to skip out and drove over to Daedalus in Harvard Square. We had the Chocolate Explosion dessert - warm flourless chocolate cake with creme anglaise, chocolate sauce and then we substituted the vanilla bean ice cream for coconut ice cream. Wow. It totally hit the spot.