OLEANA Dinner, FINALE Dessert

As far as my reviews go, I obviously can't eat out at the best very often as a student. That wasn't the case on Valentine's Day.

We started at Oleana (Turkish, various Mediterranean) in Cambridge.Lucky for me, when I made the reservation just two weeks in advance, the only times not reserved were 10:00 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. Because we had dessert reservations, we actually wanted 5:30, so I got lucky. Anyhow, I had been wanting to try this place for nearly a year ever since I read about the chef, Ana Sortun. Since Oleana opened in January of 2001, it has received significant recognition, including "Best Pastry Chef" and "Best Al Fresco Dining" by Boston Magazine. The James Beard Foundation also nominated Oleana for "Best New Restaurant in America." Most recently in the spring of 2005, the JBF named Sortun the "Best Chef Northeast." The praise was worthy.

First from the "Pret A Manger" list, I had the American Bean & Walnut Pate with Homemade String Cheese. This list, as explained by the kind French waiter, was similar to tapas. Knowing this, I wasn't surprised when the $4 dish was simply a few shavings of string cheese along with two fairly small mounds of the pate. Together, the pate on the cheese was about as good as any cheese, dip, cracker combination could be.

For an appetizer, I had the "Fried Mussels & Hot Peppers with Turkish Tarator Sauce." I know it says fried, but for whatever reason I was still surprised when it was placed in front of me. I guess I had never had my mussels fried, despite having eaten them hundreds of times. They were awesome, but varied from piece to piece. You could usually tell by the shape, but sometimes I suspected half mussel, half pepper and I got all pepper. These peppers complimented the mussels and the sauce well but were quite hot. When I found the biggest piece to contain three peppers, I needed an entire glass of water to cool down. The strep, literally living out its final hours inside my throat, actually went fairly unbothered. One or two pieces were also just soft pieces of butter basically, as there was nothing inside the fried shape. But all in all, these were some of the better mussels I've ever had.

The Garlic and Almond Soup with steamed almond milk, chorizo and fried date was equally as good. Similar to a French onion soup, this one tasted like it had bits of bacon in it, although they may have been small pieces of almond. On the side was fried date, which was good dipped in the soup. Eating the date itself was like biting through a complex chocolate bar. The first layer was a fried, breaded crust, followed by the sweetness of the red date.

For the meal, we had the flattened lemon chicken with Za'atar & Turkish cheese pancake and the homemade sujuk with sweet potato kibbeh and sumak onions. As usual, it took me nearly 20 minutes to decide between fish or meat and then an additional 10 to decide on which meet, but I was happy with my decision. The sujuk came served in the form of two sausages, one of about average size and one half as big. It was served over the onions and a sweet sauce alongside a small mound of sweet potato kibbeh, which tasted similar to what sweet potato cuscus might taste like.

As good as the sujuk was, the less original choice, the flattened lemon chicken, was even better. The chicken was cooked perfectly. It was tender and juicy, but the cheese pancake underneath really made the meal. It was probably the best chicken entree I've ever had. I only wish I had more ways to describe what that really meant.

At the end of a small side dish, two appetizers and two entrees, we were pretty much full but would have gotten dessert had we not had reservations elsewhere. Maureen Kilpatrick, the pastry chef, has a history with Sortun, and after spending time apart, they reunited for the opening of Oleana. I will certainly make a trip back solely to try of the desserts.

Unaware of the next destination, I was excited when we arrived at Finale. I had heard about it but never been. We got the Molten Chocolate Cake, one of Finale's signature desserts, and the seasonal sampler. The cake was small but very thick and filling. The outer crust protected the inner hot, gooey chocolate. I used the small scoop of coffee ice cream to help get down the rich cake. The picture does it justice. The seasonal sampler was an assortment of pieces and/or sauces of pear, peach, lemon, orange, milk chocolate, almonds and butterscotch. I didn't get to try much of this, but again the picture is worth more than any words.