Thursday, March 11, 2010

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Fabulous food and the one you love . . . BY Shavaughn Moss ~ Lifestyles Editor ~ shavaughn@nasguard.com: It all started with one e-mail from a media colleague seeking advice on where to take his wife for a nice, quietly elegant, out of the way dinner for Valentine's Day. It seems that one e-mail that opened a "flood gate" of correspondence from people seeking advise on where to take their sweetie for Valentine's night. Some wanted elegant, while others, working on a budget wondered where they could take their date for about $50 per person, but still get good food, and I did my best to help them out. Those e-mails got me thinking about what restaurants would actually be open, on Sunday — a day when most restaurants are closed. I found that while some restaurateurs are holding fast to their closed signs even though Valentine's is on a Sunday, quite a number are turning the open side and will offer special menus for lovers on the day. And I just had to bring the offerings to you. Compass Point, on West Bay Street, is offering a three-course menu for $90 that comes with a glass of wine. For less than $100 you can dine on lobster bisque for your soup, choose between lobster thermidor or rack of lamb for your entrée and complete the evening on a sweet note of guava duff. The Blue Lagoon Restaurant & Lounge in Club Land'or on Paradise Island has a $79 and a $91 menu on offer. For the higher-priced menu, you get to choose between shrimp salad or conch chowder or green salad for your starter. Roast tenderloin or poached grouper in white wine or stuffed chicken breast with mushroom, spinach and shrimp with a choice of strawberry cheesecake or coupe Valentine make for dessert are your options. The lower-priced menu is for the surf and turf with vegetables and mashed potatoes, along with the other courses. Even Bennigan's Restaurant is getting in on the act, with a $40 menu. You get a choice of Caesar salad or shrimp bisque for starters, a choice of lobster thermidor or New York strip served with golden fried onions and roasted red potatoes and vegetable medley, with red velvet cake with chocolate dipped strawberries and two glasses of wine. At the Wyndham Nassau Resort & Crystal Palace Casino, both their restaurants — the Black Angus Grille and Moso restaurants will have sumptuous specials priced from $69 to $138 — with the entrée of choice making the difference in the price points. Whatever you decide on, you get to choose between gulf shrimp and scallop cornucopia with champagne black truffle butter or oyster trio — apple vodka oyster shooter, oyster Rockefeller and black and blue baked oyster comes for a starter, and a choice of soup or salad — sweet roasted carrot and beetroot soup or select green salad with warm pine nuts tossed in passion fruit vinaigrette. If you decide on the chateaubriand for two, accompanied with baby vegetables and béarnaise sauce you pay $138; the broiled lobster, salmon, and steamed crab with trio of vegetables and savory sauces will cost you $69 and the Serrano-wrapped capon breast with Bahamian spring vegetables with woodland mushroom jus is $69. There's something for every pocket. The sweet endings to the meal is the pastry chef's gourmet dessert sampler — warm banana, raisin bread pudding with brandy sauce, chilled strawberries romanoff and Grand Marnier and double dark chocolate truffle cake with raspberry coulis. The Noni Way Café, on Coral Harbour, is offering up live entertainment with its $75 Valentine's special. With four appetizers from which to choose, you can order according to what your taste buds want from organic pumpkin bisque, green salad, lobster salad or conch salad. For the entrées it's a choice of rack of lamb, broiled lobster tail, herb stuffed roasted Cornish hen and spiced rice with garlic mashed potatoes and steamed root vegetables, with a choice of dessert — triple layer chocolate cake a la mode or crème brulee and a glass of wine. With a lobster and shrimp bisque to jump-start your meal, followed by a breast of chicken stuffed with lobster, spinach and provolone cheese on au gratin potatoes with saffron lemon butter and cream sauce served on a bed of green beans and honey carrots, and three cream strawberries stuffed between a brownie and chocolate cookie, including a glass of wine is $45 per person or $80 per couple at the Columbus Tavern Restaurant on Paradise Island. If you're thinking about taking that special someone to the legendary Sun And... Restaurant, the folks at Sun And... have produced a special menu that is priced a la carte, with six appetizers from which to choose — creamy tomato soup with a drizzle of vodka, a beef and vegetable soup, grilled shrimp cocktail, portabella mushroom stuffed with pork tenderloin, Sun And...Caesar Salad, or Sun And...Salad; there are also six main courses to suit every palate - rigatoni pasta served with a sour cream lemon zest sauce topped with shrimp, pan-seared grouper filet, Sun And...Cracked Lobster, surf and turf for two (Angus beef tenderloin topped with broiled lobster), rack of lamb and stuffed chicken or stuffed turkey with Sun And's special recipe. Four delicious desserts round out the meal - Gran Marnier, chocolate, coconut or guava soufflé, apple tarte, cheesecake and flourless chocolate cake. The Sun And... prices range between $10 and $90 per item. A check of the Atlantis restaurants show that while many of their restaurants will be open, only one so far has a special menu that's been priced. The Courtyard Terrace at the One & Only Ocean Club is offering an appetizer of roasted shrimp, basil risotto, truffle creamed mushrooms and white asparagus confit, a salad of organic duet of young beets, farm goat cheese, watercress with blood orange and hazelnut vinaigrette and for the entrée a choice of filet of beet, poached lobster with saffron veloute, scallion potato croquette, brocollini and soy caramel or seared sea bass, Iberico Ham, melted baby fennel, tomato Israeli couscous and olive oil au jus, a sorbet red wine to cleanse the palate before enjoying the chef's dessert sampler is to be had for $125. Double D's Restaurant on East Bay Street is offering two menus priced at $30 and $40 according to the entrée you choose. All patrons get conch chowder as a starter with a dessert. The pan-fried salmon with mango salsa and broccoli and carrots and herb rice is the lower priced menu with the lobster and steak combo with roasted garlic potatoes and broccoli and carrots, on the more expensive side. Each menu comes with guava duff for dessert. At Montagu Gardens Steak & Grill restaurant, east of Club Waterloo, is where I found the lowest prices that were definitely rock bottom. For $26 they are offering mixed baby greens salad, roast prime rib of beef and stuffed crawfish, scalloped potatoes, fresh broccoli and carrots and guava cheesecake or chocolate cake. The second menu comes with the same salad and dessert, but the entrée is roast rack of lamb, chicken breast stuffed with broccoli and cheese. For $65 Circa 1890, on Shirley Street is offering crab and lobster bisque or fresh tomato and basil salad or field greens with strawberry vinaigrette for a starter with a choice of entree between a Chilean sea bass with white truffle risotto and steamed white asparagus or prime rib au jus with chicken florentine with fresh homemade fettucine, and a choice of desserts — flourless chocolate torte or mixed berry crème brulee. A number of other restaurants I checked said they would open on the day of love, but at my press time, still hadn't finalized what their Valentine specials would be, while others said they were opening to the public, but would just be serving their regular menu offerings. For those persons that want to spend a quiet evening at home, but don't necessarily want to cook Balduccino Fine Foods in the Cotton Tree Traders Plaza, East Bay Street is offering a sweetheart of a dinner special for two that you can take home, but which has to be picked up on Saturday. In their Package Amore for $115, you get mini beef wellington & kalamata and artichoke tarts, with heart-shaped lobster ravioli in seafood Alfredo sauce with garlic bread and chocolate mint soufflé for dessert. Their Package Te Amo costs $125 and you get the same starter and dessert, but a grilled teriyaki salmon, with lemon-scented Basmati rice and stir-fried vegetables for the entrée. All orders they say must be placed by Thursday, Feb 12. All packages also include a bouquet of fresh flowers that you can present to your Valentine. Whatever you decide to do — whether it's dine out, whip up your own meal or take a meal home, and pretend that you cooked it — have a fabulous evening with food and your Valentine. Wednesday February 10, 2010