Sub-Fabulous: Piperade & Millenium

Piperade and Millenium are the last two restaurants we've tried. We had enjoyable meals at both restaurants, but will likely not return to either.

Piperade's space is actually quite fabulous. The space is warm and elegant with wood beams on the ceilings, wide-planked hardwood floors, and a large communal table at the restaurant's center. The menu is a fun read, including dishes such as a sheep's milk and ham terrine and foie gras sauteed with Monterey squid. Everything on the menu seemed so creative and unusual to us, perhaps because we're very unfamiliar with Basque cuisine. I settled on an apple and calamari salad, steamed pacific snapper with fried garlic, and orange blossom beignets. While my dishes were all fairly tasty, they read better on the menu. We tried a basque white wine, which was really disappointing. It was fairly tasteless and had a effervescence reminiscent of alka seltzer, rather than a sparkling wine. Oh well.

We visited Millenium with a vegetarian-centric group. The atmosphere was perfect for a big group -- we were seated at a large round table. Again, the food was complex, interesting sounding, and fairly good, but nothing superb. I started with a warm spinach salad before moving on to some sort of tamale and a cobbler for dessert. It was nice to see my vegetarian friends have a whole menu from which to select, but I did feel a little bad for the carnivores of the group. While I'm sure they enjoyed the food, I think a nice, meat-serving restaurant would have pleased them more. Again, oh well.