Restaurant Reviews: Picasso

I graduated yesterday. Yay! My parents wanted to go to Picasso to celebrate, and oh wow, they made the right choice.

The decor is, well, Picasso paintings.

It didn't have the super-fancy feel of Robuchon, but the food was just as good. I think I actually had a better time at Picasso (except they didn't have the awesome bread cart!).

We started with a piece of green olive bread, a piece of baguette, and butter. It took us forever to decide what to order. Picasso is all prix fixe, so there were three menus to choose from. One was a $250 white truffle tasting menu which looked amazing. I'd regret not just going for it, but what I had was so perfect that I can't regret a thing. For the record, the white truffle menu includes a risotto, a butternut squash ravioli, and filet mignon, all of which incorporate white truffle in some way. I almost want to go back by myself and just have that.

My dad and I eat a lot of the same things, and Devin and my mom eat the same thing almost every time we go out. Dad and I are also the only wine drinkers. It took us a while, but we got the sommelier involved, and he suggested a Gevurtztraminer from Alsace that was absolutely wonderful and worked with every dish we ordered.

I started with the lobster salad, which came with tiny melon-balls of honeydew and artichoke, and some teardrop tomatoes. I usually find lobster rubbery, but it was just right. My second course was a crab filet; it was a huge piece of king crab leg over a bed of mashed potatoes. Delicious as well. For my third course, I chose to substitute the foie gras (don't like it, and am somewhat against it as well), for the carrot-ginger shrimp soup from the other menu. It came with just the shrimp garnish and the soup was poured into the bowl in front of me. So classy. Then I had the halibut and asparagus with hollandaise sauce. Yep, I had lots and lots of fish. My last dish was perfect.

Then dessert came. I ordered the chocolate... something. They had one chocolate dish option so I got it. It was basically the best chocolate lava cake I've ever had, and it came with hazelnut ice cream and a cute tuile cookie. I have never, ever had a dessert put in front of me that smelled so good. I swear, it was the first thing I said.

The size of the dishes and the timing of the service were both perfect. I didn't feel like a total glutton after, even though I had eaten five courses. The meal took almost exactly three hours. The waitstaff was very attentive, and the sommelier even kept our Gevurtztraminer chilled while we ate. It was even better chilled. Seriously, this wine was amazing, just perfect with seafood. I really want to find out exactly what it was so I can go buy some!

Our "ladies' gift" (what do they call those?) when my mom and I were walking out was a nice box with three palmiers in them. I haven't tried them yet, but posting about this now makes me want to, so I'm going to go eat one and watch The Next Iron Chef.