Last week I met my childhood nanny for dinner at Aquitaine at Legacy Place in Dedham. Though I've been to the Aquitaine locations in Chestnut Hill and the South End, that was before this blog existed. Gasp!
We met on Wednesday night and the weather was perfect. My dinner date secured us a prime spot on the outdoor patio.
It had been years since I'd been to an Aquitaine so I had to re-acquaint myself with the menu. I couldn't help but giggle at the names and descriptions of some of the cocktails. For example, there is one called the Ruby Red Sipper and it's description begins with, "Click your heels three times." Cute!
We both decided on the same cocktail, a libation called the French Manicure. It was raspberry vodka, citron vodka, fresh lemon juice and fresh lime juice. I absolutely love this presentation! If this doesn't say "Girls Night," I don't know what would!
Cheers to the sugar rim!
With our cocktails our waitress delivered us two petite puffs filled with cheese! This amuse bouche was the perfect nibble while we looked over the dinner menu.
We kept sipping our fashionable cocktails and our waitress swung by again, this time with a white paper bag concealing the best part of any meal at French restaurant, the bread! The French baguette was crispy on the outside and doughy on the inside, my idea of the perfect loaf.
Everything on the menu looked so delicious we were having a seriously difficult time making any decisions. I should re-phrase, any decision that didn't involve ordering half the menu!
In the end, we decided to split three dishes. We started with the chopped bistro salad which the kitchen split for us onto two plates. This salad was fantastic! Over the mixed greens were hearts of palm, cucumber and feta cheese.
After cleaning our salad plates of every last lettuce leaf, we moved onto the grilled cheese and tomato soup, which again, the kitchen split onto two plates.
The grilled cheese came on sourdough bread and was stuffed with Barwell Farms West Pawlett cheese. As you can see, the bread was smothered in butter!
The tomato soup was a lovely rendition and garnished with fresh basil. Naturally, I ate my grilled cheese by dunking into the piping hot soup.
To round out our comfort food meal, we ordered a side of French fries. These are the kind of French fries you dream about. They were thinly cut, crispy, salted and addicting! They were served with a truffle mayonnaise.
Given how much we ate at dinner, it's kind of amazing that we found room for dessert. We mulled over the menu for a good ten minutes and eventually decided to split the profiteroles.
Look at that picture perfect profiterole! Soon after taking this photo we doused the plate in hot fudge.
No one's profiterole can beat the one served at Petit Robert Bistro, but these were valiant competitors.
The patio at Aquitaine is an urban oasis. In those two hours I felt transported to Paris, completely relaxed and blissfully full and happy.
Visit Aquitaine for yourself at 500 Legacy Place in Dedham, MA.
