This year I’ll be celebrating a lot of 30th birthdays with my friends (mine included!) and the Husband and I got to help celebrate our friend Michelle’s this past weekend.  She and her husband love to try new (to us) restaurants and he’s really good at find restaurants the Husband and I haven’t been to before.  When planning out her birthday, her husband found Pamplemousse and made reservations for our group.  The restaurant is located in a little nook which we almost missed because the Husband and I were distracted.

Once inside, we were in a very cozy and homey restaurant with lots of charm.

When we arrived, there were two other groups there and we were seated next to them.  I thought it was a bit odd to place everyone so close to each other in a relatively empty restaurant, but as the evening went on we didn’t really notice them until it was time to sing Happy Birthday and they joined in.  We were pretty loud ourselves though so hopefully we weren’t too annoying to the other diners!

In addition to the regular menu, Pamplemousse also offers a 4 course prix fixe menu of $38.  Since we brought dessert with us, we concentrated on the main menu instead.

To celebrate, the six of us decided to go with wine of course! We ordered a bottle of Chenin Blanc and the Syrah-Merlot below to share.  It was the first time I had a Chenin Blanc and I loved it.  I believe the Husband enjoyed the Syrah-Merlot.

In addition to french bread (and the most amazing butter I’ve ever had), we were brought a complimentary crudités basket.  It included Belgian Endives, Cherry Tomatoes, Celery Radicchio, Carrots, Fennel, Radish, Broccoli, Cucumber, Zuccini, and Cauliflower.  We were also brought bowls of olives and individual dijon vinaigrette dipping bowls.  The website notes that this basket is complimentary with all meals that order main courses.

There were so many delicious-looking appetizers, but I decided to go with a classic french dish – escargots.  Our server mentioned beforehand that the recipe they use used to have more butter, but the Americans tended to feel there was too much butter so they added white wine to it.  Unfortunately, I felt that the white wine took away from the classic flavor.

The Husband ordered the Venisson Pate.  It was interesting – not good nor bad – just not what we were expecting.

The restaurant had a number of specials that night and I ordered the Seafood Pasta which was scallops, shrimp, and lobster over fettuccini in a lobster sauce.  I enjoyed the scallops and shrimp (especially because they took the tail shells off! I hate when restaurants don’t).  I’m not much of a lobster fan, but I enjoyed the dish as a whole.

The Husband ordered one of the other specials – Boar.  It was incredibly tender and flavorful – a great dish in a very nice sauce.

The dessert menu looked mouth watering and if we hadn’t brought cake, I would have ordered chocolate mousse.  We will definitely be back one night for dessert! As for our actual dessert, my friend’s husband called ahead of time and asked about a slicing fee if he brought in the cake.  They charged $3 per person which we thought was quite reasonable.

Overall, our service was excellent.  This was a nice place for a celebration and would be a great spot for a romantic evening for two.  A good thing to note – when the bill came out for the six of us, gratuity was included; but when we split it on 3 credit cards, the gratuity didn’t come along with it which wasn’t realized.  We assumed it was included and didn’t tip! Thankfully, our server noticed it before we got in our cars (and didn’t assume that we were big assholes) and we were able to clear the whole thing up quickly.  Oops! Glad it all worked out in the end