Have you ever noticed that you can almost always predict what a dining experience is going to be like, by the bread basket? And in this case, with savoury premise-baked pasties, we anticipated that our evening at The Gates would be perfect and it was.

The perfect evening started with a great Canadian Merlot.

D and I share spice rubbed, pan-seared scallops perched atop crisp lardon (similar to bacon), roasted grape tomatoes and brussel sprouts. The dish was enhanced with honey lavender aioli. Ohh la la!

Our hosts shared their own scallops along with herb and flour crusted squid served with chili lime tzatziki.

For our mains I chose the evening’s special of salmon in phyllo, with shrimp and beet risotto. The portion was so generous that I took home half of my meal which I understand even tasted great a day later.

D was over the moon with the house-made spinach linquine, fennel, tomato, asparagus and honey lavender cream. He and our host both decided to team the pasta with seafood and were very impressed with the number of succulent mussels and shrimp.

Our female host opted for the herb salted tenderloin with chirizo and apple salsa served with roasted tomato salsa hash. It looked so delicious that I think that I will have to taste it in the near future.

Some evenings are made because of the food. On this evening with these good friends and important conversation, the evening was perfect even before the food came along. Imagine our delight when it was so lovingly prepared and beautifully displayed. This night, the food was the “icing on the proverbial cake” (and we didn’t even have dessert)!

Kath’s quote: “Life is about the decisions we make to live passionately or passively. Where’s your passion?”
― Laura Castoro, Icing on the Cake    

Love never fails.