HAWKS

It was a dark and stormy night... we (my sister, brother-in-law, my mom and us)venturted out to Hawks for my mothers birthday dinner. Hawks is in the Quarry Pond complex in Granite Bay . It is a really elegant restaurant but cozy at the same time. We were early but were seated right away in a little room off the main dining room. When we were seated there was one other couple in the room but soon we had the room to ourselves for a while. Our server Josh was wonderful. He was knowledgeable and enthusiastic and very accomodating. We started with cocktails.. some different drinks.. The Drunken Bunny.. It was a drink made with a vitamin infused vodka,carrot juice and something else I don't remember. It was pretty good.. kind of sweet and made with carrot juice and vitamin infused vodka.. hey, it's good for you! The Red Oktober, was vodka, grapefruit juice and something red.. It was very refreshing. Drunken Bunny
Red Oktober

Tennis, my brother-in-law wanted
something non sweet and our waiter suggested a Manhatten. Not an ordinary one, this had Campari in it.. Tennis didn't like it. Charlie had his usual Margarita with Patron Silver.
We were given an amuse busche of a glass of Mushroom soup with a trace of truffle.. I thought that was really good.. very smooth and comforting.

We then started with appetizers and salad.. Jeanne (my sister) and I had the Seared Foie Gras. Tennis had the Charcuterie Plate. The Foie Gras was one of the best I've had, a huge portion. Tennis said the Charcuterie plate was good.. made in house.

Entrees were: Hawks Buger, Squab, Short rib, and Wagyu NY Strip. Up until now everything has been really good. But.. Tennis said the Hawks Burger was just OK and the fries greasy. Jeanny thought the Squab rather bland, my mother thought her short rib was good, Charlie and I had the Wagyu which I wanted rare and Charlie wanted raw.. it came out rare and well done. Our waiter thought Charlie had said well done. We got that problem corrected but the beef while good was disappointing. We both thought it wasn't as tender as it should have been. It was as tender as any normal NY steak. Nothing special.

Deserts: Persimmon Pudding and Brioche Beignets w/caramel and vanilla dipping sauce.

My mother ordered the Persimmon Pudding and it was good, the Beignets were light and fluffy puffs but the caramel tasted burn and the vanilla tasted like vanilla custard.

When I made the reservations they asked if it was any special occasion and I told them it was for my mother's 86th birthday. I thought they might do a little something special but I had to ask them to put a candle on the Persimmon Pudding. That was a little disappointing.

All in all I was dissapointed. The ingredients were top notch and fresh, the presentation was nice but the "wow" or even "hey, this is good" factor just wasn't there. I think the best things were the foie gras and the charcuterie plate and the mushroom soup.

Would I go back? Maybe..