Nancy, Kim, Leah and I headed out to the Neiman Marcus Cafe for a “company holiday party”. Nestled away on the second floor of Neiman Marcus in the Natick Collection, this cafe is a private little oasis. In fact, I never knew it was there until Kim told me we MUST go. We are greeted by the manager, Hans. He’s old school and the customer service is top notch (we would expect nothing less at Neiman’s!). Every meal starts out with a little shot of the most delicious chicken broth you have ever had, and for some reason, it feels so luxurious. Next, popovers. I could stop there, but I won’t. Two words: strawberry butter. Yup, AMAZING! The menu has a little bit of this and a little bit of that: seasonal soups and salads, sandwiches, quiche and burgers. I have the Cafe Burger ($17): white cheddar, crispy fried onion rings, applewood smoked bacon and roasted garlic aioli, served with a side of truffle fries. It’s a days worth of calories in one meal, but it’s the holidays and I’m treating myself (I’m worth it!). It’s a delicious burger – perfectly cooked and there’s just something delicious about the bun (bonus points that it didn’t get soggy). Don’t get me started on the truffle fries – thin and crisp, perfectly salty and delicious.

Neiman Marcus Cafe

2nd Floor: 310 Speen Street, Natick, MA

See their website here.

You may be wondering what the photo on the left is. While we were celebrating, we were also toasting a friend, Flo, who we lost very suddenly. We couldn’t believe the news that she had passed, we were just on a trip with her a month ago to the North Fork. Florence was an amazing woman, a good friend and a PR dynamo. She was a joy to be around and she will be missed. Here’s to you Flo!

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We had to run an errand at the mall after work, so we decided to grab a quick bite at Wasabi, located in the new section of the mall, across the way from Lord and Taylor. All the plates are made by the chef and then put on a conveyor belt that loops around the restaurant. All dishes are priced by the color plate they are on. Yellow is $2.50, orange is $3.00, red is $3.50, blue is $4.00 and purple is $5.00.

Above is the shrimp tempura, unlike any other shrimp tempura sushi I’ve ever had before. They had crunchy little rice crispy like pieces on the outside. I had to admit that I was worried about the freshness of the sushi. The shrimp tempura was the first one I tried and it was a little soggy for my taste – like it had been going around one too many times. All the other rolls that we had were very fresh.

Some things like hot items or appetizers can be ordered from your waiter.

In addition to sushi, they have fun things like seaweed salad or peanut butter and jelly rolls.

The seaweed salad here is top notch.

The restaurant is right in the middle of the walkway of the new part of the mall, so there is always good people watching.

Our server was good, even though he wasn’t bringing our food he was hanging out in the corner, keeping an eye our for us and was quick to help when we made eye contact.

I’m not a fan of mochi personally, but we tried some for dessert. Mochi is a Japanese rice cake with red bean filling inside.

Wasabi

Natick Collection, 1245 Worcester Road, Natick, MA

http://wasabisushi.com/

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MET Bar in the Natick Collection was fairly empty when we went one Sunday afternoon. The service leaves something to be desired…it feels like even the servers don’t want to be there. Here’s what we order:

The MET Bar and Grill
1245 Worcester St.
Natick, MA 01760

508.651.0003

http://metbarandgrill.com/

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