City Table At The Lenox Hotel

A few weeks ago, I made some last-minute plans to meet Daisy and Alicia for a late dinner. Alicia was headed up to Boston to spend one last night at her apartment before the movers came to take the rest of her stuff to Connecticut. The dinner was, therefore, bittersweet. I was happy to catch up with and spend time with Daisy and Alicia but sad that Alicia would be leaving the Boston food blogger scene -- though she has promised to come back often and we know she'll create an awesome Connecticut scene soon enough.

Alicia picked me up and we drove around Back Bay looking for parking for at least 20 minutes, a last reminder of something she won't miss. We finally lucked out and found a spot about a block from our destination. We hurried inside the Lenox Hotel and found Daisy a few moments after we wandered into City Table.

The dimly lit restaurant was pretty quiet, which was to be expected on a cold weeknight after 8 p.m. We sat down, immediately chose and ordered our cocktails (champagne cocktails for Alicia and Daisy and a St. Royale for me), and then fell into conversation. I think our waitress stopped back three times to check on us before she realized it was going to be a while before we ordered food. She didn't seem bothered by it at all and just waited until we were ready.

Finally, we broke conversation long enough to peruse the menus and decided to share a bunch of appetizers. I love doing this. A lot of times, I enjoy appetizers more than a main course, and I love the small serving size, which lets me try so much more. The ladies were in total agreement of this philosophy.

We went for the hangar steak tacos, roasted pumpkin agnolotti, sweet potato gnocchi, and the house made burrata cheese and prosciutto di Parma salad.

While I enjoyed all of the dishes, I was surprised to find that the hangar steak tacos were my favorite of everything we tried. Tacos just sound so basic compared to everything else, but these were fun and creative in presentation and flavor. The well-seasoned, ancho-rubbed meat was on the medium-rare side and came with mini tortillas, guacamole, and spicy tomatoes.

The roasted pumpkin agnolotti was served with brown butter, spicy walnuts, and Bosc pears. I would never think to pair ravioli or pumpkin with pears, so I liked this interesting combination. And the walnuts seemed pretty unusual at first but packed a subtle heat after a moment. (Sorry about the terrible picture.)

The sweet potato gnocchi was a real treat as it came with duck confit -- not to mention a savory red wine sauce and some parmesan cheese. Tell me I'm not the only one who gets excited about the words duck confit... I love the stuff!

We thought we'd be good and round things out with a salad. Though I'm not sure eating this salad, with its creamy hunks of burrata and salty slivers of prosciutto, really counts as being good! The most interesting aspect of this salad was the grapefruit. I throw oranges in salads sometimes but have never added grapefruit. I will now. The whole thing was topped with a lovely white balsamic and fig reduction.

We all enjoyed our drinks and dinner and had fun hanging out and catching up in the cozy, warm atmosphere of City Table. We ended the night by admiring the Lenox Hotel's Christmas tree and saying our goodbyes to Alicia.

Have you been to City Table? Do you have a favorite "hotel restaurant"?