Anniversary Dinner #2, LeFever's River Grille

For the third delicious year in a row, Nick and I went out for our anniversary dinner at the wonderful LeFever's River Grille. It's become our tradition I guess. I wrote about it last year and this year was just as delicious.

Our reservations were for 7:30 pm and we arrived exactly at that time. We were seated in almost the same spot as last year, a raised booth with just the right amount of light, near the windows. LeFever's is on the river, obviously by the name, but we cannot see it because it's too dark by this time. But the ambiance is there.

Our waitress Samantha brought us their delicious bread with whipped butter (that I detect a slight, very slight garlic flavor in). Nick isn't much for butter so since they have a bottle of olive oil on the table, I put some in one of the small plates and added some fresh ground black pepper and we dipped our bread instead. It was delicious. The olive oil was so rich and fruity.




We both, once again, had our salad with the restaurants delicious homemade Romano peppercorn salad dressing. The salad doesn't have much in it, just some fresh mixed greens, carrot strips and red onion. But when I say fresh, I mean fresh. The greens were so crisp and flavorful. The dressing is stick to your fork thick with just the right amount of pepper.




And then it was time. Time for our other tradition.... the calamari appetizer. Just look how excited Nick is as it arrived at our table!




This is by far, the best calamari I've ever had. Not only are the calamari themselves tender and succulent, but after its quick fry, it is then sauteed with kalamata olives, sun dried tomatoes and scallions, then sprinkled with Parmesan cheese. A squeeze of lemon over the top completes it. Incredible!




As usual, we both had trouble deciding on an entree. The menu was mostly different from last year (save for the calamari, and some other standards). I ended up choosing pork rib chop stuffed with cornbread dressing, served with sweet potato mash and sauteed spinach. The large pork chop was done to juicy perfection with delicious grill flavor with the dressing added just the right touch. The sweet potato mash was generous and delicious. Sweet, but not overwhelmingly so like you so often get in restaurants. And the spinach melted in my mouth.




My Nick is a pork guy. More often than not, he chooses the pork on the menu. But this time his eye kept going back to the seafood. He was not disappointed. He chose Seared Scallops with Prosciutto Risotto and Zucchini Frites. For me, I'm not a seafood fan but I tried it and it was tasty. Not my thing, but the risotto and zucchini frites were to die for!




And now, our dessert. The choice was clear from the moment we saw the dessert menu. Molten Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream. Need I say more?