17

On Saturday night, to celebrate Nikki coming home, to have a late Valentine's day and to observe my birthday, Nikki and I went to 17. I'd read good things about it before, but Houston has so many great places to eat that we'd never got round to going. Well, we'll be back, soon.

Nikki started with the gulf coast lump crab, which I had thought about ordering myself. The crab and the avocado was great, I could have done without the grapefruit it was sitting on, but that's just me. Nikki likes grapefruit and I don't, so she had no complaints. I had the duck ravioli, which was absolutely delicious. For main courses Nikki had the lamb chops, they were really tasty and I had the Texas hill country venison, which was outstanding. Both main courses were wonderfully presented. The butternut squash and the chestnut tart with the venison were absolutely great but the best thing about the meal, the most unforgettable piece, was the side dish of black truffle macaroni and cheese we ordered. It was unbelievably good. Next time we go I may just order 4 of those instead of a main course.

The chocolate cake I had for dessert was really nice too and they wrote Happy Birthday on my plate with chocolate sauce which was a great touch. Nikki had the crème caramel which may or may have been very good but I didn't get a sample, so I wouldn't know.