Perilla

I really meant to write this sooner, but my mother was in town for my birthday, and I was wonderfully distracted by actual human interaction and entertainment. Who needs to blog when you have family in town?

And on occasion of my birthday, we had dinner at Perilla Restaurant, a wonderful place that I will from now on recommend to everyone I know.

I'd been curious about the restaurant for a long time because of it's Top Chef connection. For those of you who follow TC, Perilla is first season winner Harold Dieterle's restaurant. He was great in his season, seemed like an inventive and accomplished cook, and I am glad to see that he was a deserving winner and used his moment in the spotlight to further his actual career as a Chef.

The restaurant is really small, only 18 tables, and the layout gives it a very homey and comfortable feeling. Good lighting too, which is incredibly important in a festive setting. I tend to base whether I will return to a restaurant based on the atmosphere (this must be why I am an architect and not a foodie), and purely based on the building, I will definitely go back. Of course it helps that the food was delicious.

We started with a Hamachi Crudo appetizer. Then for the main course, I ordered Sauteed Rosefish with quinoa, cauliflower, snap peas and a sweet & sour eggplant-basil sauce. The sauce lived up to it's sweet/sour name, and provided a tasty balance to the fish. I liked the snap peas as well, which I usually would have left on my plate. I guess this is the thing about restaurants with accomplished chefs, all the elements in the dish complement each other. My mom ordered the roasted duck breast, with basmati rice, garam masala & gooseberries; while Nate got grilled prime hanger stead with sunchoke creamed spinach, red shallot puree and natural jus. I tasted all three dishes, and am forced to admit that Nate's was indeed very tasty, and I might try it next time.

But mostly I will go back because of the great service, which I will address in four different examples. 1) They took our coats when we arrived. Small detail, but it was so nice (and free). 2) Though we had made a reservation, they took over a half hour to seat us. Which was annoying though understandable in busy restaurants. Yet as a token of appreciation for our patience, they gave us free hamachi appetizers. Great. 3) Waiter was friendly and always around when we needed him. That's nothing that earth shattering, but is nice nonetheless. 4) I ordered a glass of limoncello for dessert. Upon finding out that the restaurant was out of L, the waiter gave me half a glass "on the house". Which considering how strong limoncello is, was actually the amount I truly wanted.

Uh.... if I had a rating system this is the part where I would give it three forks, or 5 stars, or 10 points, or whatever it is that people do when they really like a restaurant.