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I went to Gary Danko last night with the woman. Only the third real high-end dining experience I've had (other 2 were L'Espalier in Boston and Chez Panisse). It was fantastic:

We got to the restaurant about 20 minutes early. Sat at the bar and had a drink while waiting for our table, and wound up getting seated 10 minutes early.

The way Gary Dankos works is you choose 3, 4, or 5 courses ($65, $81, and $96 respectively). If you choose 5 courses you get appetizer, fish entree, meat entree, cheese course, and dessert. We decided to get one 4-course and one 5-course, skipping the meat on the 4-course meal (we just generally don't eat much meat).


This was the menu:

Autumn Menu
Caviar Service ~ 1 ounce. Black River Osetra $95 or Golden Osetra $125.

Appetizers
Glazed Oysters with Osetra Caviar, Salsify and Lettuce Cream
Lobster Salad with Persimmon, Chestnut Mousse and Pomegranate Seeds
Treviso and Romaine Salad with Banyuls Vinaigrette, Anchovies and Parmigiano-Reggiano
French Red Pumpkin Soup with Braised Rabbit Terrine, Pomegranate, Walnuts and Lavender
Seared Ahi Tuna with Avocado, Nori, Enoki Mushrooms and Lemon Soy Dressing
Seared Foie Gras with Caramelized Red Onions, Seckel Pear and Huckleberries
Risotto with Lobster, Rock Shrimp, Fall Root Vegetables and Sage Oil

Fish and Seafood
Pan Steamed Shellfish with Thai Red Curry and Jasmine Rice
Pancetta Wrapped Frog Legs with Sunchoke Purée, Potato and Lentils
Striped Bass with Potato-Chorizo Risotto, Pearl Onions, Niçoise Olives and Sauce Verte
Herb Crusted Yellowfin Tuna with Parsnip Purée, Maitake Mushrooms, Shallot Confit and Flageolet Beans
Seared Sea Scallops with Butternut Squash Purée, Roasted Cauliflower, Pistachios and Sour Cherries
Roast Maine Lobster with Yellow Chanterelle Mushrooms, Edamame and Tarragon
Horseradish Crusted Salmon Medallion with Dilled Cucumbers

Meat and Game Birds
Lemon Herb Duck Breast with Duck Hash and Quince
Herb Crusted Loin of Lamb with Beets, Polenta, Escarole and Raisin-Pinenut Relish
Beef Tenderloin with King Trumpet Mushrooms, Potato Gratin, Cipollini Onions and Stilton Butter
Quail Stuffed with Porcini and Foie Gras with Sweet Potato, Brussels Sprouts and Pomegranate Gastrique
Guinea Hen Breast with Hen Sausage, Bacon-Butternut Squash Risotto and Apple-Sage Compote
Moroccan Spiced Squab with Chermoula and Orange-Cumin Carrots

Savory Tart of Seasonal Vegetables with Quenelle of Goat Cheese and Mesclun Greens

Cheese
A Selection of Farmhouse and Artisanal Cheeses Presented Tableside

Desserts
Trio of Crème Brûlée with Cookies
Saffron Caramel Pear Tart with Noyau Ice Cream
Huckleberry Buttercake with Oranges and Spiced Vanilla Cream
Chocolate Caramel Peanut Torte with Peanut Butter Mousse, Coffee Ice Cream and Caramelized Banana
Chocolate Cream with Passion Fruit Mousse and Black Tea Ice Cream
Non-Cholesterol Grand Marnier Soufflé with Blackberry Sorbet
Seasonal Sorbet or Ice Cream Sampler with Cookies
Baked Chocolate Soufflé with Two Sauces



So to the meal:

Amuse-bouche was a small piece of seafood sausage sitting on fennel/mushroom cream. Sounds strange, but it was really excellent.

Appetizers: Woman had the oysters. These weren't on the shell, but in a little bowl with the salsify and cream and caviar. Absolutely spectacular. These are not flavors I am usually a huge fan of, but they really worked fantastic in this dish. Really one of those dishes where you "taste the sea." I had the lobster risotto, which was good but not fantastic. It was certainly perfectly creamy with a nice delicate balance of the flavors, but the rice grains did not have the perfect firmness.

Fish: We started by sharing the scallops. These were fantastic. With the accompanyments it was a really earthy, autumn dish. Very unusual for scallops, but it worked perfectly.

Fish and Meat: We had the tuna and the venison. Oh, now I see that the venison that we had is not on the menu I just cut and pasted from the website. It was juniper-crusted venison with braised red cabbage, cranberries, and some kind of strange fungus. That was really fantastic. The meat was perfectly cooked and perfectly complemented the sauce. The tuna was also great. Nowadays it seems like tuna is invariably done in an asian style so it was nice to have something different. This was also great. Like the scallops, very earthy, but in quite a different way -- sharper flavors but at the same time a bit heavier on the root vegetable feeling.

Cheese: We had both ordered the cheese course, but at this point we were getting pretty full and still had a ways to go. So we downgraded to sharing a single cheese plate. Gary Danko is famous for their cheese, and it did not disappoint. My favorite was a semi-firm French goat cheese, while the woman slightly preferred a firmer swiss sheep's milk cheese.

Dessert: We had the pear tart and the chocolate souffle. The souffle was merely decent -- actually not quite sweet enough (and I tend to like less sweet chocolate flavors). I didn't really want to get it, but felt almost obliged. Should have listened to myself. The pear tart, however, was fantastic. A perfectly crispy almost crackly-paper crust with a great balance of pear and caramel and saffron, and then intensely almond-flavored ice cream to accompany.

Petit-Fours: They brought a whole big plate of petit-fours at the end, which were also great. Favorites were some kind of fruit jelly (normally I hate these, but this was spectacular) and a tiny little passionfruit cream tart.

Wine: We got a bottle of fairly obscure california Pinot for $85. This was the only meh point of the meal. The wine list contains some spectacular choices, but the really good stuff is prohibitively expensive (like $350+). I wanted to try an Amarone but they had nothing under $400. So we wound up with one of their lower-end wines, which was OK but no great shakes. It would have been fine as a wine you bought at a wine shop for $15-$20, way overpriced at $85.

Service: Really spectacular from the moment we walked in the door. It seemed a bit stuffy for the first 5 minutes or so, but that was probably more us than them. After that it was excellent. They are perhaps slightly overly fussy (e.g. when I got up and looked around for the bathroom, I had not glanced left for half a second before someone asked me "bathroom, sir?" and directed me to the right place. When I got back, my napkin had been picked up from where I had dropped it on the table, and neatly refolded). But overall fairly unobtrusive while at the same time extremely attentive.

Overall: Despite the criticism about the wine, overall the meal was fantastic and worth every penny. Total came to $330 after tax and tip, and I'd definitely go back.