Troquet

We went out to eat on Valentine's Day, which often, is a crap shoot. But this year it turned out well. We decided to try Troquet - the location is a little too close to the Alley for me. So I was worried it might me college-y, but luckily it wasn't at all.

First impression was that it had a nice, simple decor with lots of cherry colored wood. They took our coats and led us upstairs - where we were seated 3 tables from the window. We still had a pretty decent view from the windows of the Common. The size of the restaurant reminded me of a row house - it was multiple floors (2) and narrow and long. There were mirrors hung along the walls - which I assume was to make the space seem less narrow - and I think it worked well.

Our waitress came right over and brought us water and explained the specials. We decided to go with the tasting menu with wine pairings. She asked if we were allergic to anything, or disliked anything - to which I said that I hated cucumbers.

As the first course is coming out and being placed on our table by a runner she comes running over to say they put cucumbers on the oysters and was I allergic do I need another one. I said it was ok and I could just scrape them off. I was slightly annoyed about the cucumbers, but it seemed it wasn't her fault and she offered to take it back. I'm used to cucumbers in sushi that I have to pick out so this wasn't much different. One oyster had yuzu, green apple, and wasabi sorbet on it - which was quite tasty. Each course had a wine pairing and she brought us two different glasses of wine - so we could also sample each other's. Which I thought was great - so instead of tasting 5 wines I got to taste 10.

All of the wines we tasted were fantastic - which is good as they are a wine bar. The food was also quite good. My favorite dish was a pasta with mushrooms and truffle oil - it was fantastic. And the Lagostine wrapped in a phyllo pastry shell over a sauce (made of things I forget) was also great. And we had Tuna tartar as one of our courses that I loved as well. The main course was a lamb dish - which was decent, but by this time I was really full, and it wasn't quite as great as the other dishes. Had I just had it on it's own I think I would have enjoyed it, but after tasting so many other things I really, really liked this one wasn't quite as good.

The main entree took a little while to come out. Right before each course our waitress would bring over the two glasses of wine, explain a little about them and point to them on our the wine list. Up until the main course the wines and courses had come out quickly. But at the main course the wine came out quickly, but not the main dish. We ended up finishing the wine before the main dish came out. I think the restaurant just got slammed at this point as the entire restaurant was full and everyone was eating. I was already getting a little full so I didn't mind the delay anyway. However, our waitress was once again fantastic and brought over two more glasses of wine since the food had been delayed and we finished our wine. Dessert was nice and light - which was perfect after a really filing meal.

Overall, they had great service, wine, and food - I would definitely eat here again. Our car was already waiting for us when we got downstairs - even better.

When we were leaving - around 10pm I was shocked to see how packed the streets were, I guess I forgot that Thursday night was the big night out when I was in college. We were really close to the alley so it was just insane with cars and people trying to go into the clubs etc. All I could think about was going to bed - I couldn't believe these people were heading out at 10pm. But 10 years ago that would have been me doing the same exact thing.