Pam W.
Yelp
Celebrating my birthday and wanted to do something special. I've been eyeing Lemaire for a while but to be honest I'm not a fan of getting dressed up to go for dinner. But when it's your birthday and you've eaten at just about every restaurant that allows flip flops, you sometimes have to splash out for the food.
Flip flops stored away, fancy outfit donned, reservation secured...I'm doing this! Oh and my husband came along for the ride.
After studying the menu, reading reviews and viewing all the photos of my fellow Yelpers, we had a good idea of what we wanted to do, and it involved eating an embarrassing amount of food, but we really wanted to experience Lemaire. So here we go...
We were greeted by our server Lori, who was phenomenal. Her vibe matched ours and the service she provided elevated our experience. I reviewed with her the items we wanted to eat and I left it to her to course it out.
First things first, beverages. My husband got the old fashioned. I haven't been drinking so wasn't sure I was going to have anything but made a game-time decision to get a half bottle of Bordeaux. Mind you it was expensive ($60), but well worth it. I looked up the wine and it was highly rated and after tasting it I get why. It was lovely.
For food we got fried oysters, Caesar salad, raw oysters with mignonette, scallops, filet, pork chop and chocolate mousse cake and coffee for dessert. We left it up to Lori to figure out the order of things and how it was served and she did a great job.
We started with the fried oysters, which had the best fried chicken crust and they were served with bread and butter pickles, ham and hot sauce with a remoulade. Jeez these were good!
Next up was the little gem Caesar salad. Loved this appetizer! The dressing was more like a Caesar vinaigrette, which a appreciate. And the anchovies...honestly just fry up a bunch of those and let me devour them.
Then the oysters on a half shell with mignonette. They were good but I had bits of shell, which was a little off putting. I mean, they opened oysters way better than I can, so who's complaining.
Next up was the scallops entree with blue crab succotash. We split this too and my goodness that was a good decision. Soooo glad we decided to do that. No regrets.
And the entrees. My husband got the cider-brined pork chop and loved it and I got the filet mignon substituting grits for potatoes. Delicious. We brought both home.
And finally dessert. Chocolate mousse cake and they wrote happy birthday on the plate and presented it with candles. Also forgot to mention that Lori brought sorbet ahead of the entrees.
This most definitely was the best meal I've had in Richmond and probably one of the best I've had in a long time. I'd do it again in a skinny minute. Just wish flip flops were appropriate attire.