We recently were given a gift certificate for Tocqueville, which is one of our favorite higher-end restaurants. These days, we seldom go out for a “fancy” dinner (been there, done that), and I find it hard to justify spending $350 to $400 for, say, The Modern, or Picholine, as good as they are. Tocqueville, though, offers food and service of similar quality, but dinner tends to run under $250 for the two of us. I like that it is a la carte, so we don’t have to order more food than we want. With the amuses bouche and mignardises, we find 2 appetizers, 2 mains and a shared dessert to be more than enough. It’s a nice splurge.

This time we started with the foie gras terrine and the sea urchin carbonara, then on to the sea trout with carrot-ginger puree and a tarragon and champagne emulsion and the roasted guinea hen with foie gras sausage. For dessert we shared the pumpkin tart with maple ice cream. Everything was delicious and creative, as always.

We had a lovely bottle of 2008 Chateau Senejac Haut-Medoc, a good buy at $50 (only about twice retail).

Dinner (or lunch) at Tocqueville always feels like being transported to France, if only for a few hours.