defend blood oranges to me please

Smiller and I did our Valentine's dinner last night. I love a reservation, so the Valentine's crowds are not my problem - it's the fixed menu I don't like. Although, actually now that I look at the Biba Valentine's menu, it looks pretty freaking good, but would be way too much food. Usually I don't like a fixed menu because I don't want dessert, but last night I actually got dessert. Anyway, this is our first course - paper thin slices of raw veal with capers, drizzled with olive oil, thin raw red onion on top, and a few dollops of basil mayo. We got a bread basket too so it was great piled on bread. More after the jump

I had burst Scott's bubble saying they don't have lasagna on Wednesdays, but now they do. Now it's W-Sat. I thought it only used to be Thursday and Friday, right? I guess they wised up, although I figured they did it like that for a labor vs. price point thing. Anyway, their lasagne is the best.

YES, my food photos are ugly. I know. Anyway, I always have to get Dungeness this time of year if I see it on menus, so this is linguine, dungeness, arugula, lemon, breadcrumbs. Delicious. I like how on the Biba menu they star the stuff that was in one of her cookbooks and tell you which one.

Baby's first zabaglione! I'd  never had it. This had pears and blood oranges. I respect the seasonality of that selection but let's get real -  are blood oranges good? I've bought them a couple of times recently and they've been tasteless. I'm beginning to think that people just like the name and the color. Where is the lie? I wish this had just had pears, or just flavorful, juicy oranges. But I loved the custard and the booziness with the marsala wine.

look how cute, they cut up the old menus with the rad Biba logo and sketch and put it under the dessert. We brought our own bottle, a red from Campania (I have a soft spot for that region even though it's maybe not a great wine region, but that's where our trip to Italy was), but the server smelled the cork and declared it bad. It wasn't expensive so no big deal. Biba has a dreadful by the glass list, but they have some ok and cheap bottles. They actually have a 25 dollar white from Campagia, an Aglianico. I'll have to try it sometime. We got a $45 Nebbiolo that was good.

So our entire dinner bill, with the wine, was much less than the prix fixe menu for the holiday, almost half as much, and I was pleasantly full but not stuffed with filet mignon. In March, there's a requiem for Biba. RIP, but the restaurant looks to be going strong. They had a guy playing piano in the bar and the dining room and bar were about 80% full on a Wednesday at 7. Love it!