Way Better Than McDonald's

As part of my "41 Before 41" list I wanted to do bi-weekly (every two weeks -- is that the right word? I never know. End tangent.) dates with Dave. And for the last couple he has taken over the planning -- can I get a "Yay!"? Thank you :) So tonight we went to an amazing restaurant called King St Trio Uptown which we had a coupon for. Eat great food, save money -- I can't say no to that!

The restaurant is in an older building and boasted "a modern ceiling" which neither Dave or I noticed until we read about it. Then we looked up and wondered how we could have missed it! Ha ha ha! It also boasted an open concept kitchen. And even though I'm still so full my stomach wants me to be horizontal, I am going to go into detail about what we ate because It. Was. Amazing. On the right you see olive oil and balsamic vinegar with a sundried tomato pesto and we had slices of sundried tomato baguette to dip into it. And our two drinks. Dave got plain white wine and I got one called "Sparkling Sunshine" or something like that -- it featured raspberry vodka and champagne. Yum yum yum!

Happy Natasha with a froofy drink and with mussels in a grainy Dijon sauce. Dave wasn't sure about the mussels but I convinced him and he was pretty happy about them.

I had salmon wrapped with asparagus in a puff pastry and roasted potatoes with veggies. Dave had chicken stuffed with mushrooms and Camembert on risotto. Amazingly, I actually ate almost everything on my plate except for about two bites. The potatoes were crispy on the outside and the insides melted in your mouth. The veggies weren't overcooked (I like my veggies crisp) and the asparagus made me yearn for spring. Dave liked his meal too.

(Enter Dave to be rapturous about his meal because he thought my one sentence description was a little terse.) The chicken was really flavourful, and the stuffing added an extra element of richness. Speaking of which, the risotto was creamy and a decadent improvement over plain rice. Oh, and the veggies were good, too, and made me long for whatever season they come from. (Clearly I'm not the gardener in our relationship... now back to Natasha)

And the title of this post came from when I was eating my entree and I said to Dave, "This place is way better than McDonald's." And he laughed because it's like comparing apples to rocks. (I know it's really supposed to be oranges but this place wasn't even as close to McDonalds as apples are to oranges.)

After those delicious entrees we were stuffed but we each had our eye on dessert. And of course they had to be different so we couldn't share. Too bad, so sad :) I had vanilla bean creme brulee (with also came with Chantilly cream and a tulle cookie (which bore a remarkable resemblance to a cigar but I decided to try and be classy and not get a picture of me with the cigar-like cookie!)) and Dave had Bananas Foster. And then sadly, our dining experience was over.

My friend was looking for a nice place to take her husband for his birthday and when we got home I called her and said, "You HAVE TO go to King St Trio Uptown." She told me she'd made a reservation for it this afternoon. I almost want to crash their birthday date so I can eat here again. And I'd be sorely tempted except we're watching their kids :)