Il Villaggio (Italian)

For our monthly lunch date, we met Karin and George at Il Villaggio, 211 Berlin Road, Cherry Hill, NJ, today. Since there was a baby shower, we were seated in the smaller room with windows. It was great that the doors could be closed so the noise was minimal.

We had a wonderful 3 hour plus lunch! Everyone was so awesome and knowledgeable!

Fresh, crusty bread was brought to the table, along with seasoned butter and olive oil. Yummy!

We shared the following appetizers:

Oysters special...

Clams Posolipio, littleneck clams sauteed in a zesty white wine sauce - tasty!

Broccoli rabe & sausage, sauteed in a roasted garlic olive oil, with grape tomatoes

We shared the following entrees:

Veal Tortellini special - so flavorful!

Gnocchi with gorgonzola and porcini sauce. The gnocchi is so light and airy. Wow!

Since we let them know we'd be sharing, they gave us small plates. How thoughtful!

Veal Saltimbucco (not on the menu, but we requested and voila!...)

Scallops Risotto, pan seared, served over mushroom risotto with truffle essence

Jay's small plate...

We finished with a cheese tray that included goat cheese, truffle honey, and manchego cheese...

Wines enjoyed:

Excellent meal - awesome friends!


We then stopped by the bakery next door for goodies for later...

Siri's Thai French

Since our anniversary is on Valentine's Day, and EVERYONE eats out on that day, we celebrated our 29th anniversary on Sunday at Siri's Thai French, 2117 Route 70 West, Cherry Hill, NJ. We had a wonderful meal.

We were promptly seated for our 6pm reservation, by a window, which provided a nice view, but was a bit chilly. We stayed because Jay knew that she'd soon be warmed by the wines that we brought.

Appetizers:

Jay enjoyed the seafood dumplings special, which were light and flavorful...

Ken loved the skewers of grilled marinated chicken satay with Thai Peanut Sauce, and once again asked Jay to make the cucumber salad...

Entrees:

Jay was impressed with the pine nut crusted rack of lamb. Mustard contributed to making the delicious sauce a bit tangy. Yum!

Ken devoured the chilean sea bass special. Both entrees came with scalloped potatoes.

Dessert:

Jay ordered the macadamia nut tart. Ken doesn't normally like dessert, nor does he like macadamia
nuts, but he ate more than Jay! LOL

Wines enjoyed:

Side note: There was a table of 6-8 really loud and obnoxious people. I guess they don't realize that BYOBs are a bit classier than the neighborhood bar that they normally go to. We were able to ignore them for the most part, but wow people! and you call us ignorant...

Ginger Asian Cuisines

After playing pool today, Ken came home starving. Where to go? Where to go? Ginger's of course! (7 Wilkins Station Road, Medford, NJ) We arrived at 4:30pm, and were promptly seated.

They had specials! Woohoo!

Jay was abstaining from wine today, so instead we enjoyed a pot of green tea. Jay forgot her phone, so Ken took pictures...

Ken enjoyed the coconut shrimp for an appetizer, and the Steak and Scallops for an entree. The entree was very flavorful.

Jay ordered the Hawaiian Breeze special: mahi mani with grilled asparagus and a salad. Appetizer choice was soup or spring roll - so she ordered the spring roll. Dessert came with the meal - Japanese ice cream - very interesting. She ate Ken's portion as well.

As always, we ordered the House Special fried rice to go with our meal.

Leftovers for tomorrow's lunch.

While dining, we noticed a LOT of take out orders. So glad that they are doing so well. Such nice people...