Restaurant: Ocean Grill

Friday was a day to celebrate. William and Kate finally tied the knot after 8 some years of dating. It also just happened to be Aaron's birthday. He is not happy about sharing his birthday with them for the rest of his life. I told him to stop crying, I have had to share my birthday with Ruth since I was born.

Anyway, for dinner Aaron chose to go to Ocean Grill, which as you can guess is a seafood restaurant. It is also part of the Food Fight Restaurant group that Fresco, the place we went to for our anniversary, also belongs to.

Aaron and his dad went to Ocean Grill when they came to Madison to find an apartment. It was during restaurant week and they had lunch, so Aaron wanted to check it out for dinner.

Overall, the ambience and decorations were really nice, although a little tight. For an appetizer, we shared the calamari with peanut sauce. This was super delicious, but I couldn't eat much of the sauce because there was definitely some spice to it. It is the first time either of us have seen calamari paired with peanut sauce and we liked it.

The wine list wasn't too impressive, so we decided to try some of their specialty cocktails. Aaron had an ocean margarita, which they normally make with well tequila. Major faux pas. I'm not really interested in an 8 dollar margarita where they didn't choose a tequila to compliment the drink. Anyway, Aaron ordered it with Patron. I had their mango tango martini with mango vodka, limoncello, and pineapple juice. Both drinks were good, but very strong. One is definitely enough.

For entrees, they had some tempting specials, but we both opted for choices from the regular menu. Aaron had a bacon wrapped filet with gorgonzola sauce and I had a pepper-encrusted tuna steak. I wasn't expecting much from my meal and mostly chose it because it fit into my diet requirements, but it was outstanding. The tuna was extremely fresh, perfectly seared and flavorful. Aaron's meal was excellent as well.

For dessert, Aaron had vanilla creme brulee and I had lychee sorbet. Yum! Unfortunately, the service at Ocean Grill is kind-of lacking and does not match the quality of the food. We may come here sometime for a couple small plates at the bar, but I don't think we will be back for dinner.

After dessert, we enjoyed the nice weather by going to a bonfire and drinking our required Oberon for the year. Overall, a great night and happy 25th birthday for Aaron!