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Atwater's
Restaurant Review
Such is the case relative to a recent return visit to Atwater's. It was a very cold winter night and I was wrestling with a severe case of cabin fever. I took one look at Lauren and saw what I determined to be an equivalent gleam in those deep green eyes that seemed to say "Let's go out for dinner!" I was an easy mark. Since I never let on that I had already made plans, I simply said: "Would you like to go out to Atwater's this evening?" And so, the game was on!
The appetizer by the way, was Brie Crab Cakes ($15 - New England crab with molten Brie and roasted shallots), the salad was a Caesar ($8 - with Classic Caesar dressing and sour dough croutons) and the entree was a Seared Black Sesame Tuna ($28 - Served Medium Rare on Grilled Spring Vegetable, Jasmine Rice and Daikon Radish Seeds with Citrus Sesame Buerre Blanc). The wine was a Fess Parker Chardonnay and the cocktail (of course) was Grey Goose.
The Grey Goose was a decent-sized cocktail, the glass of Fess Parker was generous, the crab in the appetizer was quite plentiful and tasty, the plate presentation was very nice, the service - by the bartender - was well-paced and professional, and the flavors were exquisite. Although the final tab was a bit high, on this particular evening our bar tab was the culprit; the prices were actually very reasonable. We were both impressed - especially on a slow evening (when problems can often show up). I can only imagine the smile on my face had I entered the dining room and stayed for dinner. The menu had many items that I would like to go back and try. Even the Sunday brunch sounded great. In any case, it was a fine and relaxing evening and I can easily award Atwater's Four Zins for a job very well done; I urge that you put it on your list of places to try... soon!
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One
of the things that I decided to do when I made the decision to again review
restaurants in the Fox Valley area was to revisit several of the places that
I had previously reviewed and take another look. When/where appropriate,
I'll note improvements or if applicable, challenges that need attending. I
also decided that since I can't always afford to partake of an entire dining
experience - especially if the dinner is for a re-review, I'll do a short
piece about the visit. 
It
was mid-week and mid-winter; it was no real surprise that the place was
fairly deserted. We decided to pull up a chair near the roaring fire in the
bar area, order a cocktail and warm up for a minute while we contemplated
dinner. The short version of the story is that neither of us was extremely
hungry, so we decided to remain in our very comfortable easy chairs instead
of heading in to the dining room. There we had long and soothing
conversation, cocktails, wine and an appetizer, after which we split a salad
and dinner... and all the while we remained almost the sole occupants of the
place, oblivious of anyone or anything else.