Jeff’s B-day is definitely one of those annual events where all the MAC people come together again and catch up w/ each other’s news. This year’s Thanksgiving-Jeff’s B-day party took place at the new Baton Rouge restaurant located at the Leslie + Hwy 7 (230 Commerce Vallley Dr. E.; Tel: 905-764-6959). Another Baton Rouge I know located in downtown Eaton’s Centre. By 7:30 Sunday night, two out of three big round tables have already been occupied by this big group of us. “It is like a Chinese tea house style b-day banquet,” both Eliza and I nodded.
Dining out with a group of people is good coz you got to try a bit of this and a bit of that. This night I really felt like having beef, something lean/less oily. BUT the prime rib was really too big for me. I could finish The KEG‘s 8 oz, but not this 16 oz.!!! So, another alternative would be the Filet Mignon (8 oz.) with peppercorn sauce. It came with a big salad (I chose the House salad w/ French sauce coz they didn’t have Thousand Island), a side dish (I ordered baked potato. It’s sooo big and good! w/ the cheese). Overall, my meal was pretty good. It was not extraordinary impressive til I got a fork of Eliza’s barbecue baby back rib!
Baton Rouge’s renowned “fall-of-the-bone” baby rib was really good. Compared to Kelsey’s and Montana’s ribs, it is much juicier and tenderer. My God… Feeling good… I also got a fork of Allen’s seafood linguini (jumbo shrimp and scallops in a rosee sauce). I really liked it but I would hesitate to order coz it was very creamy. I doubted if I could finish the whole dish. Another impressive one was Vincent’s atlantic salmon entree (w/ tartar sauce). It was huge! I mean, lots of fries – tasty baby-finger size fries. And the salmon was about 2/3 of your palm size; salmon wasn’t dry at all compared to the one I had at the KEG. AND I especially liked the cinnamon apple side dish he had. (maybe I just love the smell & taste of cinnamon) Finally, I gotta thank Allen for a spoon of his Southern style apple cobbler (w/ walnuts and french vanilla ice-cream). The combination of warm and cold was a good after-dinner stimulation of your sense of taste. Overall, the Baton Rouge experience was really good. Price was okay too. If you order an entree and a drink (pop/iced tea), it would be around $35-40 (tax but not gratuity included).
After Dinner was Jeff’s and Ed’s performance. Then we had the after party at Jingle til 3. It was nice seeing the MAC gangs again (including Jeff’s cute little brother ^^), and meeting Ed’s new gf, Carmen, Unfortunately, Jeff’s gf, Rose wasn’t there. Maybe we’ll see her next year… or maybe sooner.
Filet Mignon (8 oz. w/ peppercorn sauce)