Surrounded by the seemingly Vegas-inspired gold, red and orange decor at the Reef Grille in Padonia, we sat awaiting the moment when our $13.99 Whole Maine Lobster Dinner would arrive while the sounds of the original "Lady Marmalade" played in the background. Before I describe how the dinner was, let me give you the context of this moment.
M and I are die hard foodies and two weeks ago we were lounging at my house waiting for her delicious Tomato Tart to finish baking. We popped in a dvd of the old Julia Child French Chef shows and first settled on watching the Lobster Show. There was good, old Julia with her kitchy sixties hair-do wrestling around with various sized lobsters. A significant part of the show was aimed at showing one how to enjoy the head/body fat and meat. We blissfully mused on how much we love lobster and contemplated that perhaps it was time to get out the big steamer pot and track down some to see how we liked that head fat.
Lo and behold, the other night, I'm watching a little televison and on comes the advertisement for "Lobster Night" at the Reef Grille which is fairly close to my office. The Reef Grille used to go by the name The Rib 'N Reef and with the new employment of the word "grille", I've been thinking that they are trying to change their image -- especially with the addition of the letter "e" to the word "grill". I had been to the Rib 'N Reef many times (there was a terrific seafood salad on the old menu) and considered it an "old man joint" if you know what I mean.
So, it was the perfect storm: lobster craving, wanting to use the new info on head fat eating, and a inexpensive price.
I will cut to the chase and tell you straight out that we were not disappointed in the least and in fact, were fairly delighted.
We started out with an order of Grilled Oysters (a special) -- 6 for $6 or $7 -- they were wonderfully flavored with garlic, parmesan cheese and spinach and perfectly cooked. In fact, they were so good, we ordered another round.
Onto the salads -- nothing special there, but that's not what we were there for.
The second round of oysters came which were polished off as we took in the ambience of being the youngest patrons there.
Then came our lobsters with baked potatoes. The set up included little plastic bibs, crackers, small forks, lots of napkins, wet naps, plates for the shells. On the plate next to the lobster was a baked potato and a wedge of lemon -- the waitress referred to the lemon wedge as the lobster's cell phone. Perfecto!
The lobster was perfectly cooked, sweet and delicious...and the head fat was everything Julia promised us!!! Then, my partner in crime, did something brilliant: she mixed the fat into her potato and being the sweet soul that she is, she gave me a bit to taste. We thoroughly enjoyed our lobsters.
Dessert was offered -- in the interest of science and research we bit on the idea of trying the Creme Brulee cheesecake. When it came, it looked interesting: a layer of creme brulee had been somewhat caramelized on top of a slice of cheesecake. Alas, it was just ok, but for you, our readers, we went the distance and ate some anyway.
This was a gem of an experience. We will be back to the Reef Grille on another Tuesday night, I am sure.
Food & Kisses, GiGi
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