(Another) Birthday dinner at Grazie’s

We had a birthday dinner for our son at Grazie’s last night. As usual, we left it to Signore Marcello to come up with the dishes for the evening. A close family friend, who happens to be a priest, also joined us for dinner this time, and he came, fully kitted with his camera, his very newly prized Nikon D90, plus his wide angle lens, and bags of tricks. He very kindly snapped the following photos.

We started off with a calamari and cos lettuce salad;

Birthday boy wanted a pizza as well, and this pizza was personally prepared by Signore Marcello himself:

(Thin crust pizza, with just fresh mushrooms, salami, onions, and some mozzarella cheese as toppings, absolutely delicious!)

We were also served lovely white bread and tuna carpaccio:

Then came the mains, and Signore Marcello himself served this rather delightful seafood (crayfish, mussels and calamari) linguine. We had this the last time we were here, and so thoroughly enjoyed it, so we were very happy he chose to serve this again, this time.

Next, the beef tenderloin on a bed of fresh sauted mushrooms and thinly sliced potatoes;

Followed by burrumundi in white wine sauce.

We finished with panne cotta with toasted almonds, and unlike our previous dinner where we all shared one serving, we requested for three servings to be shared among six of us. Of course the birthday boy’s was slightly special.

Grazie’s is undoubtedly, our current favourite italian restuarant, as every dish was stellar,  and we think it is because Signore Marcello lends his personal touch every time we dine there. Now we’re trying to come up with a plan to get other family members to agree to a family reunion dinner (Chinese New Year 2009) at Grazie’s. If that happens, it will definitely be a major shift in tradition! We’ll see.