Good food. Good times. Good Tastebuds!

Ah Tastebuds! You always treat us right. We get seated in a cosy little corner. Our waitress (she's waited on us several times, yet we don't know her name - shame on us) knows to let us settle in and peruse the cocktail list first - Ginger Pear Cooler and Sazerac this time. As we sip our cocktails (or throw them back depending on how good or bad the day has been) we review the menu - specials change up daily and the seasonal menu is starting to change. We also look at the wine list (short, but packed full of great, inexpensive offerings). We go for the 2008 Wildekrans Pinotage from South Africa.

And why did we choose this smokey, heavy, oh-so-good bottle? Especially since I am usually not a pinotage fan? Because our oh-so-good, but nameless waitress had raved about it on our last visit and let us sample it. Yummy!

We share a fried mozzarella ball stuffed with pancetta and nestled in a salad bed. Great crunch on the outside, melted cheese and pork inside.

The main course found me ordering the always good duck-leek spring roll served with a pear dipping sauce and cabbage-carrot slaw. Hubby had the salmon surrounded by succotash. Great, as always.

And then we splurged and had dessert. For me a blueberry cheesecake with lemon marmalade. Delightful. A square serving of cheesecake with blueberries at the bottom. This would have been delicious enough, but the lemon marmalade added both tartness and texture with just a hint of bitterness from the lemon peel. A wonderfully concocted dish. Hubby had peach and poppy seed ice cream scoops with chocolate slabs and chocolate fudge. The peach tasted like tradional homemade. The poppy seed scoop added texture (he thought if this was combined with lemon, it would be a great new ice cream). Tastebuds could have served just the chocolate slabs and he would have been happy because the chocolate was just that good!

Good food. Good times. Good Tastebuds!