I took my sister and her kids to Clove – The Art of Dining to celebrate her birthday.

The restaurant is quite spacious with high ceilings, gold accents and a large bar right at the entrance.  It’s a sophisticated restaurant that offers a unique dining experience.  We all really enjoyed ourselves.

One thing that stood out to me was their cocktail menu.  I’ve never seen anything like it.  Each cocktail literally tells a story.  They call them “cocktail fables”.  It’s so fun.  I ordered “the gateway to heaven”.  They brought it out with a class cover on it, kinda like the Beauty and the Beast rose.  They lifted it up and released tons of smoke.  Once the smoke cleared what was left was a bright red drink in a dainty acorn shaped glass.  The drink was delicious and presentation was very impressive!  I wish I could have tried all of the cocktail fables.

My sister ordered sangria off their regular cocktail menu and my niece and nephew went with some mocktails, opting to try out one called blue mavi.  They were all very pretty.

For dinner we had:

  • Assorted Papad – served with 3 different types of chutneys.  It was great to be able to try the different kinds in one appy.  It was good.
  • Gunpowder Fries – my sister was expecting this to be spicier, but the way I see it is that usually people getting fries at an indian restaurant are maybe looking for something not so spicy.  I thought the fries were seasoned well
  • New Delhi Butter Chicken –  the star of our dinner.  I’ve never had butter chicken presented so beautifully before.  They poured out the butter sauce onto the chicken right in front of us.  This dish was my by far my fave of the night.
  • Afghani Lamb Masala – unfortunately, the consensus at our table was that this dish wasn’t for us.
  • Onion Tomato Raita – delish!
  • A Mix of Plain and Garlic Naan – very yummy also.

At the end of our meal we got the gulab jamun cheesecake.  They brought it out with a candle and happy birthday writing for my sister and it just made our experience all the more magical.  The cheesecake was yummy, although I was pretty happily stuffed at this point so I only had a couple bites.  My sister loved it.

Our server, Ashman, was fantastic.  She was attentive, answered our very many questions and was impeccable with presenting dishes and cocktails to us.

I loved this place.  They really do show you the art of dining.

I normally don’t give 5 stars when there is even a single dish that I’m not crazy about.  This is my first exception because even though we didn’t care for that one particular dish, it didn’t take away from our dining experience.  I was excited to tell all my friends about it.  Great restaurant.  I highly recommend this place!