Anniversary Weekend

A week ago the hubs and I celebrated our 1st year anniversary. Things have been quite busy around these parts so we decided to keep it low key. No extravagant getaway, no fancy gifts. Just a husband, wife, their pug, and some good eats. It was perfect.

On Saturday we drove up PCH to have lunch at a favorite seafood shack. Not before spending some time on the sand, though.

The husband practiced his Lola art on the sand.

The dog has already been taught to roll over. Next trick: cartwheel. Too bad she was more interested in licking my face.

We made our way to Neptunes Net, a seafood shack just north of Malibu.

There's no real appeal to this place except for its to-die-for view of the ocean and fresh seafood boiled for you on the spot.

For our anniversary evening we made reservations for the Water Grill in downtown LA. It has amazing reviews and is touted as one of the best seafood restaurants in town.

We were most definitely not let down by our meal. To top it all off, they're currently offering a "no corkage" special! When we found out about it, we grabbed a Merlot that we purchased during our honeymoon in Napa and brought it along to enjoy with our dinner.

The waiter offered us an amuse-bouche to begin our meal. We've never had one of these before, and we were pleasantly surprised! Its purpose is to stimulate the 5 senses in preparation of the upcoming meal; and stimulate it did! This thing was aaamazing. A bit of salmon rolled into a thin slice of cucumber, topped with a dollop of horseradish, garnished with dill, and a mini slice of grapefruit on the side. I could have eaten 15 of these for dinner and would have been totally satisfied. Good thing I didn't though because we had an entire seafood feast yet to enjoy.

The real meal began with selections from their raw bar.

An assortment of East Coast oysters (per the recommendation of our waiter from Boston), king crab nuggets, and Peruvian scallops.

First course included Big Eye tuna tartar and a roasted beet salad.

We've got this love affair with tuna going on. Can't get over it.

A variety of roasted beets, lavender cured(!) feta cheese, greens. The salad was out of this world. I know it sounds so plain, but it was nothing short of excellent. It had beet chips!

The husband ordered Pacific Swordfish with peppadew hummus and mint yogurt sauce.

I enjoyed Sturgeon with a side of beet risotto. Perfection.

For desert, we ordered a black cherry chocolate cake. I'm not a huge chocolate cake person in the first place (although husband <3's>

Pecan shortbread cookies. The melt-in-your-mouth kind. Totally made up for our less than impressive dessert.

The Water Grill was hands-down one of our most favorite dining experiences. I can't believe we waited so long to visit it, especially with it being so nearby! We also happened to be sitting at a table behind an older couple celebrating their 18th wedding anniversary (we overheard them sharing the news with the waiter). I couldn't help but poke my head into their table and congratulate them. We shared with them that we were also celebrating our anniversary: the big #1, to which the older man replied "it only gets better!" Yes, indeed it does. :)