grafton street

Renee and I had dinner at Grafton Street after work last night and it was so nice to have someone to talk to about that feeling of having to go back to work after such a long break. Enough of the blah, blah, blah details ... I'll cut to the chase and tell you about the food.

I don't know why but I've been craving a lot of protein lately, like eggs and meat. Not necessarily together. Anyway, so I decided to get the steak frites and boy oh boy, was I glad I did. Yes, I am a carnivore.

It's so scary to think that I cleared almost the entire plate. Yeah, all 4'7" of me. That IS scary. Anyhoo [insert distraction from that insane thought here], Renee got the fish and chips dish. Man, those fishies were huge!

And the detail that my husband doesn't know about is that we shared their flourless Valrhona chocolate cake that came with a coffee-white chocolate chip cookie and coffee ice cream. Yum. Bad, bad yum.

I think I slept pretty well that night. ;-)

jae's cafe and grill ~ williamstown, ma

We went out for lunch on Christmas Eve with Tony's mom, brother, sister-in-law, and his sister-in-law's mother and decided to check out the new Jae's Cafe and Grill that recently opened up. There are a couple of Jae's restaurants here in Boston but we've never tried them yet (definitely will after this experience!).

Marina and I were really craving sushi so of course, that's what we ordered. I got the Spider roll with soft shelled crab, avocado, cucumber, spicy mayo and tobiko and it was really yummy. I also really liked the spicy tuna roll, and so did Tony.

Tony's brother had the duck fried rice, Marina's mom had the coconut shrimp (totally think I'll order that next time - they looked so good!), and his mom got the mango chicken which he said was excellent (after eating her leftovers the next day). So, I think it's safe to say we'll try to venture over to one of his locations in Boston sometime soon.

I know this is weird but we all noticed the ceiling inside the restaurant. Kind of cool with the doors hanging off the ceiling like that.

And we got loose tea that came in these cute (but hot!) teapots.

Of course, forgot to take the picture before putting a piece of sushi in my mouth ...

ole, ole!

We went to this great Mexican restaurant called Ole in Inman Square the other night with some friends. They have such good food there and the best sangria!! They'll make the guacamole at your table, too. So much fun and so much good food! This is what one half of our table looked like ...

... and this is what the other side looked like. Funny enough, the guys all got the same chile relleno dish! I got the fried shrimp tacos and pork tacos as usual. Man oh man, we left soooo incredibly stuffed and slightly tipsy from three pitchers of the sangria. :-)

met bar & grill in natick, ma

Last weekend, Tony and I went down to the Natick Collection (read: mall) to do some shopping. Then our tummies starting growling. And of course, it was so much easier to stay inside a warm and cozy mall than venture out into the cold New England air in search of the Melting Pot restaurant that I wanted to check out. So we ended up getting burgers at the Met Grill & Bar. Yummy burgers, I might add.

This was our second time at this restaurant. (Yes, I really do like Nordstrom.) Last time, we sat at the bar and watched the Pats game. This time, we sat at the back of the restaurant and it was quite cozy. They have a regular menu with grilled items, and then they have the burger menu. You basically pick your meat (beef, turkey, veggie, and they even have Kobe beef) and then whatever else you want on top from all sorts of shee-shee things. Hey. I like shee-shee things on my burger. Ahem.

Anyway, I went bunless again this time (stupid sesame seeds I can't eat on a bun) and this time it just came on the plate as is which was a tad disappointing because last time it was served in a little bowl on top of a yummy arugula salad. Oh well. And yes, they did forget the sauteed mushrooms. Oh and they forgot Tony's cheese. Okay, well, so we're still debating whether they forgot these things or if our waitress forgot to tell them. Anywho.

They were good. Good, juicy, tasty, burgers. I had Manchego cheese on mine this time with a garlic aioli on the side. Yum-o as Ms. Ray would say. But the best part of the whole meal?

The fricken onion rings! Man-oh-man! These are sooooo good! They are super thin pieces of onion fried in such a yummy batter. We got the 50/50 basket of rings and sweets (sweet potatoes) and I have to say the sweets are a very close second.

So overall, would we go there again? Of course. It's a nice restaurant, great burgers, and they serve a really good Carmenere wine from Chile.