A late Valentine date at Lemuria

Valentine's Day was never a big thing with me and hubby. Every year, everywhere is always too crowded and too commercial -- movies, hotels, restaurants, concerts. Bah, humbug. :-P

If Valentine's Day is about you and your sweetheart, then celebrating it with a crowd is so not the way to do it.

What hubby and I do is wait a few days to celebrate the day of hearts. And this year, we decided to try out the restaurant named after a mythological island, Lemuria.

Before the restaurant became known as Lemuria, it was known as The Winery. It houses possibly a hundred or more wine varieties and was open to small parties half a decade ago. I even thought of having my wedding here but the lack of space for the guests and their cars made me cross it out from my list.

Located in a quiet neighborhood in Quezon City, Lemuria's main dining room can accommodate around 50 heads. There's also a function room which I believe can fit about 50 more. Hubby and I were hoping that we could have the place to ourselves that day, but a group of students from a culinary school were having their exposure trip of sorts.

Well, so much for a romantic lunch. :-P

For starters, we had raisin walnut bread and foccacia slices with balsamic vinegar and whipped butter.

Below, crostinis. Yum.

Both hubby and I decided to have soup. He ordered the soup of the day which was Cream of Pumpkin (above) and I got the Bouillabaise (below), which tasted a tad bit fishy (well, it was seafood soup but I wish the "fishyness" could have been tempered or masked by the "citrusness" of the orange).

Oh well.

For appetizers, hubby got the Prawn Saganaki (above) and I got the Seared Fois Gras with braised cabbage and fig glaze (below). I'm not particularly a liver lover and after a forkful, I exchanged appetizers with hubby who happily finished the Fois Gras. As for the prawn which was flavorful with tomatoes and basil, I could only wish the prawns were a bit bigger. Hubby and I love eating gargantuan prawns at home so seeing little shrimps was sort of a let down for us.

For the main course, I opted for the Sea bass, poached in saffron olive jus and braised fennel. Hubby ordered the Dutch Veal rib eye steak stuffed with duck liver, ancholade and port wine reduction. (Wow, that was a mouthful).

That's hubby's fork and knife attacking the veal. Well, maybe not "attacking" because admittedly, the veal was so tender, I almost didn't need to chew it as it slithered its way down my mouth.

For dessert, we had the Vahlrona Chocolate Souffle Cake with Lavender Ice Cream. I'm biased with anything chocolate so I can only say that I didn't give the cake a chance to sit on that plate too long :-)

Above, the glassware sold at Lemuria -- not surprising to find ridiculously exquisite crystal from a place where good wines are sold (below, the wine cellar).

Below, an adorable mailbox greets you just before entering Lemuria's dining area. Don't you just love darling details like these?

Overall, the lunch was ok. It's been a while since hubby and I went out on a real date so to me, the food was just secondary.

If there's anything that I loved about Lemuria, it was definitely the impeccable service. If only for that, Lemuria is worth going back to.

Lemuria now also accepts catering services for intimate, casual and formal lunches and dinners, cocktail parties and all sorts of functions. They even now have a partner venue, The Broadway House, conveniently located in New Manila, Quezon City. I haven't been there myself but I do plan to check it out one of these days.

Lemuria
5 Julieta Circle Horsehoe Village, Quezon City
+63.2.724.5211
+63.2.722.2185
+63.2.724.6306

http://www.lemuria.com.ph
http://www.brumms.com.ph