An 8 Course Meal

To celebrate Hunky's return home after 6 months on the road we purchased a Gilt City coupon to have an 8 course dinner at a local restaurant Merlot on Maple.  It was an experience.

Before we get into the details here are a few things I learned about attending our 8 course celebration dinner...

• Don't arrive too hungry.
• Don't arrive too sleepy.
• Your courses won't arrive with instructions - so just do the best you can - and hope that those that you are eating with aren't embarrassed as you attempt to, for example I don't know -  cut through really hard cheese without shooting pieces of it across the room...
• Don't fill up on the bread basket - even if it is delicious and the time between courses makes you want to gnaw off your own arm.
• If the atmosphere is headlined by a British couple in an argument due to a lack of music or any background noise you and your dining partner will probably come down with a case of the giggles. 
• If another couple is seated very very close to you - close enough that you no longer notice the British couple arguing - close enough that you might as well be sitting together - close enough that their conversation, which is super awkward, might as well be your conversation - then the giggles may continue.
•  You may get hungry enough at some point during taking photos of all 8 courses that you forget to take a photo of a few courses and just clean your plate.
• 2 ravioli is never enough.  Not ever. Especially when they are delicious.
• If your waitress doesn't seem kind or engaging - try the person who buses the tables.  Her name was Alma and she was fantastic!
• I truly, truly missed my husband he is probably the most fun person I know and I am so happy to have him back home!

 

Cheers to Hunky being home!  Note the tired looking eyes, the sleepiness will set in around course 5, just before the food sickness. Also - I wish this photo captured sound so you might be able to listen to the British couple bicker.  Even though they were obviously angry their accents were just lovely.

  Prosciutto and aged Parmesan - how does one eat this? 

 

Our Menu

 

I could eat this quiche everyday for the rest of my life - it was that good.  And those greens, don't they look manly?  I hope you think so, because they are called "Manly Greens" 

  

This soup was really cheesy.  I believe that the next course is the one I devoured without photographing - it was a yummy little egg plant bite.

I believe this was Hunky's favorite course.  A super meaty sauce on a bed of homemade noodles.

 I could have eaten about 20 of these ravioli - by far my favorite course!

Hunky is such a good sport. He's probably starving waiting to eat those ravioli!

Look how blurry I am!  Hopefully you can make out the thumbs up - we're most the of the way through our dinner and still going strong! 2 bread baskets in!  And yes, in case you are wondering, I have worn my jean jacket pretty much every day since I purchased it :)

The meat course.  Now this is what a palm sized serving looks like!

 Drunken angel food cake with a chocolate filling... yumm

We made it to dessert!  We missed the final course of assorted cookies because Hunky wasn't feeling well.  Which was okay because it gave me an excuse to down more bread before we left!

Have you done any fun Groupon-like excursions lately?