will try again on a "normal" night.. three times a year, every decent restaurant is full: easter, mother's day and valentine's day. i had booked a room at the attached ambassador hotel (which despite being in the middle of remodeling some areas is great) along with a dinner for my lady and me on the evening of the 14th.
things didn't start out so well. i was told initially that the credit voucher i'd gotten along with my room rate at the hotel wouldn't be honored. nonplussed, i sort of stared at the server and i could see her looking over me at someone else. i guess it was a manager who had initially told her to be the "tough cop", but immediately she said that she was mistaken and they would credit the $100 toward the meal. guess the manager changed his mind. i thanked her and told her i was standing down from defcon 1. in fact, a little later i went further and told her that if there was a serious problem i'd take it up with the hotel since they had booked the package. she assured me that wasn't necessary and everything went fine from there.
my date ordered a beet salad to my lobster bisque and chicken cordon bleu (over pasta?) to my filet of beef. desserts were her cheesecake to my mousse. the lady's meal from start to finish was very good, especially considering the volume offoodthe kitchen was required to turn out. my steak was perfectly cooked and the bisque was very, very good. the mousse was just a large enough portion to top off the meal and it was very smooth and tasty.
the only problems i had with thefoodwere the sides for the steak. the kitchen attempted a saffron risotto for a side dish, and it was an epic fail. they get a do-over on that one some day, because making a dish so complicated for that many people at once was a daring, if ill-fated, thing to do. it was mushy and flavorless. the heirloom (or whatever) carrots were pretty lame, too. the other thing that was problematic was that this was one of those eateries that doesn't put salt and pepper on the table. hate that! the steak needed a little salt and the risotto needed all the help it could get, but when asked, our server (who was really excellent and cheerful under such pressure) produced both shakers immediately.
two wine-oriented quibbles: first, they provided a complimentary glass of "champagne" to start the meal, and i guarantee you it was anything but. it tasted like a sparkling moscato to me, and not a very good one at that. a better sparkler would have gone very well with the mussel "shooter" that led off the meal, because some bubbles would have gone well with that flavorful one-bite treat. the bottom line is that if it's not champagne, please don't call it that. if it's not, please say it's a sparkling wine. lastly, if it's not from chardonnay, pinot noir and/or pinot meunier, say what grape(s) made the wine. as in, "it's a sparkling (whatever grape) from (wherever)."
second, their "reserve" wine list had, with the exception of one bottle from washington state, nothing but california wines on it. it would be nice to see something more representative of the world of wine if a place is going to separate one set of wines from another.
all said, though, the chalkboard was a lovely place with excellent service and as the title of this review states, i will definitely try it again on a less-busy night. i'm sure it will be a pleasure.