Restaurant Experience: Willow

This past Monday was my husband's and my second wedding anniversary.  It's hard to believe it's been two years already, but at the same time, sometimes it seems we've been together forever.

As my oven is currently broken, thus limiting my cooking abilities, and because it was a Monday night after a very busy weekend, we decided to go out for a special dinner.  I made a reservation at Willow via OpenTable.com, and entered into the comments that it was our second anniversary, and we hoped for a quiet table.  Apparently the folks at Willow actually read those comments, as we learned!

Pictures and details below the cut. (Forgive the quality of the photos; they were taken with my flash-less iPhone and I was dependent on the lighting available to me.)

When I arrived (from work), my husband had a glass of Prosecco waiting for me.  We were seated immediately at a quiet table by the window in the back of the restaurant. When they gave us our menus, we realized they had printed special menus for us.

For my husband's first course, he ordered the crispy fried crab cakes (not pictured), which were good...but they were literally deep-fried crab cakes.  Who does that?  Anyway, I had the butter poached lobster tail and lobster ravioli with creamy fennel gratin and savory and sherry lobster sauce. Delish.  (Aside: having visited the DC Red Hook Lobster Roll truck for lunch that day, it was a deliciously buttery lobstery day for me. Mmmmm.)

For his main course, my husband had the sauteed flounder, with butter poached lobster agnolotti, butternut squash risotto, potato gnocchi, and lobster sherry sauce (and lima beans).  It was much lighter than my main course, but he really enjoyed it.

I had the crispy foie gras-stuffed chicken with creamy mashed potatoes, brussels sprouts with bacon, and black truffle sauce.  It was as decadent as it sounds.  YUM.  And while the mashed potatoes were plain, they were pretty much the best plain mashed potatoes can be. The the chicken might look a little weird, but it was delicious. I'm seriously curious how they make it, because it was like the foie gras was part of the chicken.

We decided to share a dessert, and went with the chocolate marquise, which was basically chocolate mousse with crispy chocolate wafer balls scattered on top.  The perfect ending.

We both were moving a bit slow when we left at the end of the meal, but we were full and happy.  In addition to the yummy food, we also enjoyed great service, and a couple of great glasses of unusual white wines.  (He had a Semillon, and I had a Pinot blanc.)  And to top it off, when our waiter returned with our bill, he brought a small Willow wine glass filled with tiny homemade cookies, tied with plastic and ribbon, and rolled up copy of our personalized menu.  Classy.  Perfect. 

All in all, the meal was a great way to celebrate two years of wedded bliss.  Solid A, Willow!