The RiveR Café...

For a very special birthday treat, we went for lunch at the River Café, right under the Brooklyn Bridge. Abi and I had been to the River Café a wee while ago as a treat from work and we thought at the time how much Mops and Pops and Abi's parents would love it.

The restaurant's not very big, and has a lovely little drive-way and garden out at the front, with flower pots and pumpkins decorating the doorway. Inside it feels quite Jerseyish, it's rather fancy but it's not pretentious, the staff are all very friendly and smiley - the food is amazing and the view... well, the view is just fantastic!

This was the view from my chair - we must have had the best table in the place, we could see everything, the Brooklyn Bridge, the amazing skyline, even the Statue of Liberty in the distance.

The sun was shining through the windows, filling the restaurant with warm light - it was so lovely and relaxing, with the amazing food and drink - it made it hard to leave. Mops and I had a seafood trio to start, with shrimps, raw ahi tuna and little lobster dumplings, and Abi and Pops had a crab and coconut soup, then Mops, Pops and Abi all had an amazing looking steak and I had the most deliciously crispy duck... Mmmmmmm, I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.

We were pretty stuffed after that, but somehow managed to find room to share some pudding, so Abi and I shared a sticky chocolate pudding and Mops and Pops had some pumpkin pie to get into the Thanksgiving mood... it was all amazing.

It was great being right infront of the window, we could see all the little boats going by and the massive ships sailing passed, the jet skis whizzing along and the tug boats pushing the heavy loads down the river, even the police we out in their little boats...

We were there at the ideal time too, as the sun was beginning to set the water got more and more sparkly and the sky got more colourful. After our amazing lunch we went from the tranquil and beautiful setting of the restaurant to the not so beautiful setting of Bedstuy for a cup of tea and some homemade cheesecake (which we managed to find some room for before falling asleep!).

It was the most wonderful day, walking across the bridge and having such a delicious meal.
It was all just perfect.