Sage

It's restaurant week here in Boston, so for my birthday this past Monday I wanted to dine at Sage. I've eaten there a few times and have never had a bad meal. Usually we eat at the bar and split an appetizer and entry. But this time we had a real table, as we had 5 others joining us in the celebration.

I learned of Sage's special restaurant week menu in the local paper and was pysched to give it a try. We started the meal with a cocktail. I figured, hey, it's my birthday, I'm having champagne so I ordered a very tasty kir royal. We then ordered a round or arancini - risotto balls - for the table. The coating was nice and crispy and the risotto inside was warm, still sticky. They were huge, too! One was definitely enough per person.

For my first course I had a mushroom and buffala mozzarella tart. The presentation was more like a Sicilian pizza - square crust with toppings. Doesn't matter what the term is, the tart was fantastic. I was very happy with my choice. And it went well with the wine selection. Jennifer ordered a bottle of tempranillo. Red, not too sweet, bold but not overpowering, with a bit of a bite to it. another good choice.

My second course was a greatly anticipated pork shank, with rabe and a slow-roasted tomato. The pork shank is what had sold me on choosing Sage when I had read the menu in the paper the week before. I am a big fan of pork. And I had an incredibly tasty pork shank at Jacob Wirth about 2 years ago and I still think about it whenever I pass by. And I was greatly disappointed with the shank at Sage. Very little meat. I have this thing I do when I eat: I eat the rest of the stuff on my plate and save my favorite for last. I had eaten a bit or two of pork that had fallen from the main shank, and then proceeded to eat the rabe and the tomato. Both were excellent, by the way, especially the tomato. Then I dug into my shank. What looked like a nice hunk of meat was a big glob of grissle. There was a bit of meat on it, but for the size of the shank, I'd say it was 80% grissle. It just was poor meat selection on their part and a huge disappointment for me. My friend who ordered the steak was also disappointed. And a friend who ate at Sage a while ago also had a poor selection of meat. My advice - stick to the pastas or meat dishes that are more processed. Their butcher isn't very good.

I had the three canoli (with a candle and a rendition of happy birthday!) for dessert. Each canoli was filled with a different filling - I couldn't tell you what they were right now, but they were fabulous. The shells were about 1/2 in in diameter, about 3 inches long, so not they typical big-fat-cigar type canoli. The pasty held its crispness and the filling wasn't gushy, nor tastelessly thick. I also had a bite of a chocolate timbale which was very dense and rich. A perfect chocolate treat. Even though the timabale was quite small, it's richness made it difficult for my friend to finish the whole treat. Yes, that much chocolate.

In the end, I was very pleased with the evening. I'm incredibly blessed that I have such good friends so close by. The meal was terrific. Next time, though, I'll order the gnocchi.