Part 3 Carnegie Hall NYC Tavern on the Green

Valentines Day dinner at Tavern on the Green was one of the highlights of my trip. What a beautiful, historic place and it sure felt special! Of course the holiday dinner was a 3 course Prix Fixe and we hadn't bought the wine pairings. And I think we were the only ladies in the room not there with our valentines. But Frank surprised his wife Karyn, and Lora, Margie and me, by having arranged a cocktail for each of us and a bottle of wine to share -- what a prince! (That's the card Karyn is holding in the photo)

Our table was small but I loved the room we were in and the beautiful floral arrangements. Apparently what was once the Crystal Room is now an outdoor patio - it was strung with white lights that I enjoyed looking at all evening.

For our first course, Lora and I had the Roasted Maine Lobster Salad with shaved green and white asparagus, frisee, and blood orange. Lots of lobster meat and very refreshing. Karyn and Margie had Jumbo Lump Crab Cake with baby herb salad and smoked chili aioli.

The amuse bouche they served us before the second course was a shot glass of mushroom soup with black truffle oil.

The Grilled Angus Filet Mignon may have been the best steak I've ever enjoyed in my life; that probably had a lot to do with the delicious Bearnaise sauce covering it and the thyme roasted potatoes and baby spinach were good too. One nice thing about prix fixe is the right size portion -- not too much food. I believe Karyn and Lora had the same thing I did.

With my seafood sensitivity, I couldn't choose the Carmelized Diver Sea Scallops with forbidden black rice pilaf and spicy mango coulis. Or the Pan Roasted American Red Snapper with leek fondue, ruby quinoa pilaf, and fresh pomegranate sauce. But after Margie had the snapper, she let me taste some of the quinoa with that pomegranate and it was delicious.

We thought we'd each get different desserts so we could taste all three. Lora had the Passionfruit Cheesecake with mango passionfruit compote, and red velvet crumble. Margie and Karyn had Pina Colada Creme Brulee with a toasted coconut tuile. I liked mine best, a Chocolate Raspberry S'more with housemade marshmallows, raspberry sorbet and raspberry coulis.

We all loved our strawberries in tuxedos as we finished our meals in leisurely fashion, enjoyed listening to live music in the bar, browsed the gift shop and watched as valentine-bedecked horse and carriages sat in the driveway hoping to give rides but there weren't many takers before we Uber'ed back to the hotel. I can see why my friend Susan liked this restaurant so much.