Terrine

Terrine, a fairly new restaurant at 8265 Beverly Blvd. in Los Angeles was the venue to celebrate my friend Mary's belated birthday. My niece Aimee took her family there and everyone was happy with everything.

Our reservation was for 8:30 p.m. but we arrived at 8:00 p.m. and they gladly sat us. The outside patio was very nice but was also very noisy so we opted for inside which was cozier. I brought a bottle of wine; corkage is $25. Our server was an energetic fellow that opened our wine for us and gave us the menu. He answered our questions and off we went.

I asked Mary if she liked Foie Gras and she wasn't really sure. I took a chance as I was confident she would like the Foie Gras Terrine which came with slices of baguette and prunes. After Mary's first bite, her eyes almost popped off her face. She loved it and so did I. It was so creamy and just delicious. I could have had only that with bread and wine and I would have been perfectly happy. We finished our slices of bread and still had the terrine so we asked our server for more bread. We finally got it after about 10 minutes.

On the menu was something called Half Mary's Chicken cooked in Chermoula spices/sauce. Mary was inclined to order the chicken named after her.  The chicken didn't seem enough so we ordered a side to share. Cauliflower in brown butter and Bearnaise and tarragon sauce. How could that not be good.  I ordered the Squid Ink Spaghetti with Serrano chile, basil and bottarga. Our server suggested we share both but Mary didn't want anything to do with my black pasta!

Mary loved her juicy and spicy chicken which I had a bite of and it was truly delicious. I enjoyed my spaghetti with slices of squid which were very tender and the whole thing had a bit of a kick to it. The cauliflower was cooked to perfection and we both loved the sauce.

For dessert, we had to order the "Birthday Cake" (that was on the menu). It was chocolate, sea salt caramel and toffee. They looked like tiny brownies. They were to die for. We loved them.

We never saw our server again after we ordered our dishes. Not once did he come to see how we were doing or if there was anything else he could get for us. I poured our wine till the end. The manager and part owner, Francois was highly visible but most of the time he just walked back and forth and occasionally brought food to the table. He walked by our table several times but never stopped. He seemed to be just concentrating on the food on every ones table and forgot about the people.

The busboy was the nicest, most concerned employee of the evening. I asked for his name and I informed him that I had a blog and that I would mention his name. Yesterday, both Mary and I could not remember his name;  one of the effects of getting older. I was so upset that I called the restaurant and gave them the table number and the name of our server. At first she said she would try and find out. The next time I called, she informed me that they are not allowed to give the names of the employees.

Note to the busboy who took care of our table 8 on 3-16-15 : You have my card, feel free to email me so I can properly acknowledge your services. So sorry for our lapse of memory. You deserve a raise!