Birthday Dinner at Daniel

Tonight we went to Daniel on 65th and Park - I made reservations about 2 weeks ago - I wanted to visit 11 Madison Park, but they were already booked. Daniel is in the same restaurant group as 11 Madison Park, and they had an opening at 5:45. Other options were also already booked so Daniel it was. It had good reviews on Open Table and other foodie websites, so I figured it was worth a try.

We took a cab and left the apartment around 5:15. We arrived at the restaurant early, and ordered a cocktail in the bar - I was interested in what special cocktails they offered, so the waitress brought us cocktail menus! I was going to order a watermelon martini, but at the last minute I realized it was made with gin (yuk!), so then I was deliberating between a Peach Verbena Martini and a White Cosmopolitan. When the waitress came I did the ennie mennie miny moe approach and ended up with the White Cosmo - and YAY! I won! It was gorgeous!

When we were seated in the dining room, it was served with a spherical ice cube with a pink orchid frozen inside - just beautiful!!

The Amuse Bouche was Japanese inspired - lots of flavors in three beautifully presented bites. One was particularly fishy so I suggested Rick avoid it, and he did. I didn't enjoy that last one either.

Rick ordered the Rabbit with chorizo for and appetizer, and I ordered the cheviche. His was a roulade of rabbit with a pate infused with the chorizo servered with nice baguette toasts. The ceviche was served with a cucumber puree. The fish was fresh, but not cooked in the citrus as expected for ceviche. I enjoyed bites of Rick's app since I don't really care for sashimi. The waitress offered another app to substitute, but I couldn't think of another app to ask for, so I just passed.

Rick's entree was a beef steak in combination with a beef short rib. He loved it and I enjoyed tastes too! There were a couple of home made tater tots with procuitto crisps on top - so delish!!

My entree was lamb - a chop with fresh pesto and a lamb loin with a cheese sauce - like a camembert. It was accompanied by thinly slice baby zucchini (vertiacally) and thickly sliced zucchini (horizontally)with more cheese sauce. A wonderful gravy was spooned over at our table.

I ordered a delish blueberry dessert - it was frozen with gorgeous blueberry sticks atop the creamy delight. Rick tasted it and liked it a lot!

Rick ordered a chocolate dessert with a coffee ice cream - it was like cappachino with lots of yummy cream.

Then, the waitress brought a beautiful peach verbena dessert with homemade vanilla ice cream - it was so delish! It even had "Happy Birthday" written in chocolate on the plate!

And when we were done with dessert, a plate of tiny tastes were brought - so gorgeous, so tasty!

Dinner was lovely - a wonderful birthday gift!