Dinner at Marliave

It's Restaurant Week in Boston (technically two weeks). From March 15 - March 20 and March 22 - 27 (with some doing Saturday, March 21 as well), many upscale restaurants in Boston and the surrounding suburbs are offering special menus where you pay:

• $15.09 for 2-course light lunches (which means no dessert or no appetizer!)
• $20.09 3-course lunches
• $33.09 3-course dinners

I love Restaurant Week because it actually motivates me to go out in the cold weather and try a new restaurant that I've read about or heard about, but could never afford on a regular night. And I've got to give a special shout out to Underoo Elf for reminding me about this season's restaurant week last month, giving me plenty of time to make reservations at FOUR different restaurants.

Tonight was the start of Restaurant Week, and Andrew and I joined Amy, Phu and Pete at Marliave for a delicious dinner. We chose Marliave because it had one of the best menus for Restaurant Week - most places will only give you two or three choices for the appetizer, the entree and dessert. Not Marliave - they pretty much offered up their main menu, with tons to chose from.

Amy shows her happiness at seeing Marliave's huge Restaurant Week menu:

I show off my fancy drink - I couldn't remember the official name since it's not listed on their website but it was named after Marie Curie and had gin, St. Germaine (some sort of citrus liquor), grapefruit, I believe lime and prosecco, oddly garnished with a cucumber:

Andrew copied me and ordered the same drink:


Phu went off the Restaurant Week menu and ordered oysters in addition to his escargot appetizer:

Amy bravely tries her first oyster:

Gulp! She's just slid the oyster in her mouth - and like it enough to have another oyster:


My appetizer choice was a beet salad with mandarin oranges, pistachios, and goat cheese sandwiched between pieces of beet:


Amy chose the best appetizer - "rare bits" - which consisted of a gooey, fondue-like cheese concoction with bacon and garlic bread to dip it in:


The twins, so named for their outfits, appropriately ordered the same appetizer, the meatball sliders:


A shot of Phu's escargot:

My first taste of escargot - it was pretty tasty even though I was grossed out by how much it still retained the shape of a snail:

For the entrees:

• Pete ordered the hanger steak with gorgonzola butter and frites.
• Phu and Andrew ordered beef wellington.
• Amy ordered lobster fettucine.
• I ordered the yankee pot roast - it was tender and delicious:

For dessert, without being planned, we each ended up choosing one of the five desserts that was offered:

• Pete got the tiramisu
• Andrew got the flourless chocolate cake
• Phu got the formaggio (cheese plate) and got teased for the rest of the night for having ordered the lamest dessert
• I ordered the bread pudding with whiskey sauce and ice cream:

And Amy got the panna cotta with a balsamic reduction:

We rolled out of Marliave happy and stuffed, and glad that we didn't pay full price for our meals!