Dale Miller Restaurant - Albany, NY

A month ago we were supposed to go out to dinner to celebrate my 33rd birthday, but I got crazy sick and spent the night on an antibiotic cocktail instead.  The next three weekends we were traveling, so Saturday night was the official birthday dinner.

About six months ago I stumbled across the fact that, despite being a relatively small city, Albany was home to one of the premiere chefs in the country.  Dale Miller Restaurant was opened a few years ago with a 4 star menu at surprisingly reasonable prices. I asked for a gift certificate as a birthday present from my mom so that we could dine out in style. So last night we put our if you're gonna go out to dinner, make it count philosophy to work.

Hey! Look at us! We're showered!! Take a picture!! 

This was only moments before B got so excited to leave the child and get to the restaurant that he sprinted to the car and left me tottering down the stairs in my heels. Honey? Oh! Right! Sorry. I just got so excited!!

 Whoa! First Dirty Martini, AKA: Vat of deliciously salty vodka.  I now know the blue cheese olives are just in there to help sober you up when you're half way through.

 Second Course: Spicy Sesame Ahi Tuna Tartare with grilled pineapple, avocado ice cream, & passionfruit lemongrass consomme 

I don't even like ahi tuna, yet this was amazing. This is what going out to dinner should be like.

Third Course: Pan Seared Rougie Fois Gras with a vanilla poached pear, walnut crostini, root beer gastrique, and a cherry compote.
   

This was intense.  We had never had fois gras before, but again, if you're just going to stick to what you know, why bother going out to a great restaurant?  It was extremely rich.  Weird, right? That liver would be oily and fatty? The flavor combinations were impressive, but we both decided that it would have worked better as a one-bite amuse-bouche instead of a full plate of food. 


Fourth Course (not pictured): Blue point oysters with a candied lemon mignonette, served with an apple core vodka shooter.

I didn't have any, but B was in a deep state of heaven.

Fifth Course: Carpaccio of grilled zucchini with blistered grape tomatoes, feta cheese, and toasted cumin aioli.

This was good, but not mind blowing.  We needed something light after the fois gras and this fit the bill.



Sixth Course (not pictured): Crispy Seafood Wantons with spicy yellow pepper sweet and sour sauce.

These were awesome, but put the nail in the coffin.  No dessert for us.  Just some amazing coffee to finish the night.  The dinner was absolutely everything we were hoping for.  We were there for 2 1/2 hours and it flew by.  Thankfully we only tried about a quarter of the menu so there will be all kinds of other surprises in store when we go back next time.