I cannot explain how utterly picky dh & I are when it comes to steak. I have eaten at some of the best steak restaurants in the tri state area when I had an expense acct to entertain clients and dh & I have explored our new area restaurants and have a few favorites(Charlie's and Bern's) so I won't say that the Filet at Le Cellier's was my best steak ever. However it lived up to all of my expectations....and after reading these boards-they were many
Ambiance: dark and romantic; tables were fairly close together but we did not feel overcrowded. We enjoyed watching other patrons' entrees arrive so we could view it before we ordered!
Dh precipitiously ordered the cheese soup w/ our drinks- kind of rushing our server I think. Unfortunately, right after we got our drinks she was given several tables with large groups so we were a little forgotten in the shuffle. Adequate service but not exceptional as I had been told to expect. (Tip was 18% I normally tip 20+% for great service but since she had others check in on us as she focused on the larger tables I felt this was sufficient)
Dh ordered the Filet(med), cream cheese mashed potatoes & sauce on the side as well as his fav bernaise sauce as well. I ordered the mushroom filet(well-no flaming pls- I know I'm crazy but anything pink makes me sick)
We got the cheese soup and breadsticks at the same time. I have to say that the soup was incredible! I actually liked the multigrain breadstick better than the pretzel bread but they were all quite good. Dh & I already plan on my making the cheddar soup at home; he encouraged me in looking up the recipe on allears as soon as we returned from our trip.
The steaks arrived shortly after we had polished off the breadsticks. We also requested softdrinks w/ dinner and those were brought separately. My biggest disappointment was ordering the Icewine Martini- it was too strong for me to enjoy-I should have ordered a nice cab or zin with my steak.
I thought that the mushroom filet was excellent with the butter truffle sauce-althought I tried the maple barbecue sauce dh had on the side and would love that recipe too! The fried parsnips were a pleasant surprise- nice and crunchy adding a bit of texture to the entree but I would imagine they absorbed the flavor of whatever they were paired with. The risotto was a lovely creamy flavor- not overwhelming at all to someone who dispises mushrooms. I did need to pick out several of the mushrooms but they were large enough to see in the dim lighting. Overall I thought it was very well done-and our server had it cooked medium well-but because of the poor lighting got away with it
Dh switched dipping his filet between the maple barbecue sauce and bernaise sauce. He also drizzled the maple onto the mashed potatoes which were tasty but not as good as the parmesean mashed potatoes at Chef Mickey's. I ate his broccoli as he doesn't eat veggies-they were very good.
We asked the server for softdrink refills when she checked in on us- but she did have to have a runner bring them to us with her apologies almost 10 mins later- she really was quite busy.
She did return to take our dessert orders...I ordered the sampler as I really wanted to try the creme brulee- but figured that dh would like the chocolate cake. Next time we would order one creme brulee and probably the kids' choc mousse- we were unimpressed with the choc cake offering in the sampling. The raspberry sorbet was outstanding and the creme brulee-a dream.
Total was about $108 but we had the DDE- and it came down to about $83- and I felt that overall it was a great meal that we would enjoy again.
