This weekend Elise and I celebrated our fourth anniversary with a fantastic dinner at Creo in Stuyvesant Plaza. Thankfully our good friend Chef David Gibson was in the house and helped make our experience a memorable one.

After ordering a couple of libations we started our meal with Ahi Tuna Tartar served in sesame “taco” shells with avocado, ginger-cilantro vinaigrette and seaweed salad on the side.

Oysters can be a bit of a textural issue for both Elise and I but the buttermilk fried oysters with remoulade and honey Tabasco were cooked perfectly and complimented the crunchy buttermilk exterior perfectly. I was leery about the honey Tabasco as fried seafood generally falls into the savory end of the taste spectrum for me, rather than sweet. I didn’t get much spice from the Tabasco but this still worked beautifully, leaving me spooning as much of the remoulade, honey and roe I could on the last of the oysters.

I hate to say this, and actually put these words in the archive of the internet forever, but I’m a huge fan of brussel sprouts. Roasted, fried in pig or duck fat, whatever you want to throw at them I’m game. At Creo they’re roasted and topped with a slight drizzle, some parmigiana reggiano and marcona almonds. I would have finished these myself if it wasn’t for the impending main dish and already starting to feel full.

The NY Strip was on special that day and the Chef assured me that the cut of meat had some perfect marbleization going on. I took his advice and could not have been happier with the choice. I don’t eat steak out often as I think there are much more complex and interesting dishes out there, but every once in awhile I get a serious hankering. This fit the bill perfectly and leaves me craving for more as I type this. This was so incredibly flavorful it could have been the only thing on the plate and it still would have been perfect.

Elise’s haddock was mild in flavor and really let the lobster, corn and cippolloni onion chowder shine.

The strawberry ice cream and crème brûlée for dessert were a great way to end our meal (although I think we were both bursting at the seams by the end of it).

Thank you to Chef David Gibson and the staff at Creo for taking such great care of us on our special day. After Yono’s, a completely homemade meal from scratch, and New World Bistro for our previous anniversaries, it’s time to start thinking about how to top this for next year’s!
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