Birthday Celebration Round 1: Italian

I figured I was going to give up celebrating birthdays after I turned 30, but I just couldn’t say no to good food and great company. As it happens, on my birthday, my friend Tania and Pierre are in town from Beijing. I also found out that my friend Amy’s birthday is only two days after mine. So Amy, Dara, Tania, I and our husbands had dinner at Luxor, an Italian restaurant in Shiroganedai created by Mario Frittoli, who used to be head chef of Il Pinolo in Kamiyacho (also appearances on Iron Chef).



I had actually been to Luxor once before, more than two years ago. I remembered the funky décor (a Lucite column filled with knives and forks greets you when you step inside) and the friendly sommelier. The sommelier is no longer there but the décor remains the same.

Now, Jason NEVER EVER lets me take pictures in a restaurant (he thinks it's totally unnecessary and very bumpkinish of me to want to take pictures of EVERYTHING) but since he was sitting at the other end of the long table, I managed to snap these shots. Lighting was low so I was forced to use flash and a couple of them turned out blurry, but it’s better than nothing.

For entrée, I chose a giant Hokkaido scallop baked in its shell with uni (sea urchin) sauce. The creaminess of the uni played off the crunchy breadcrumb topping really nicely, and I mopped up all the sauce with nice warm bread. We girls then shared two pasta dishes: the gorgonzola sauce of the gnocchi was punchy, and the black truffle risotto had a nice bite to it. My main dish of lamb chop baked in puff pastry was robust in flavor but at that point I was so stuffed I couldn’t finish it. What a shame.

Just when we were contemplating whether or not to order dessert, the restaurant staff brought out this plate for Amy and I. It turned out that Amy’s husband Gary, or maybe his secretary, made the special arrangement. She also ordered this chocolate birthday cake. Of course by this time everyone had his/her eye on the chocolate fondant with pistachio ice cream that we ordered two to share, on top of the cake. We are pigs!

I ate so much that I was dreaming of food that night. Burp.

In case anyone wants to try the place, this is the address: 5-4-7 Shiroganedai, Minato-ku. Tel: 03-3446-6900