Daniel's

despite four last-minute cancellations, we still had six attend yesterday evening's dinner at Daniel's in Hamburg. Daniel's is to Hamburg as San Marco is to Snyder - tops. in a simple yet elegant setting, it's fair to say the group enjoyed the food, chat and the raging thunderstorm.
our posse started with Daniel's escargot appetizer: snails in a garlic butter sauce wrapped in a pasta cocoon. let me tell you, if balsamic is my #1 lure, garlic is a close second. i've never had escargot before and was not disappointed with Daniel's delivery - very good. The group also sampled their standard baked goat cheese appetizer (great), and special appetizers: butternut squash ravioli (good) and seared sashimi tuna (good). i also had their mozzarella salad with crispy prosciutto (average as the prosciutto added nothing to the dish).
as far as the entrees, i debated between ordering their veal chop and their roasted lobster tails over angel hair pasta in a vanilla bean butter sauce deciding for the later (doesn't seem like a difficult choice with that description though). jeff harrington decided to order what i didn't and grumbled about it afterwards as the sliced lobster tails with the hint of vanilla in that sauce were awesome while the veal chop was average. other choices included their standard tenderloin of veal with lobster (great), their halibut filet with crab meat (very good) and their rack of lamb with sea scallops - the lamb was perfectly tender and the scallops were perfectly crusted (excellent).
the group ordered an assortment of desserts, including their white and dark chocolate mousse (good), their chocolate marquis over a pistachio anglaise (excellent) chocolate timbale (didn't try) and their mascarpone with strawberries (very good).
Daniels's is fine dining and except for the some of the smallish portions which you would expect at such an establishment, i have little complaint (although i should have ordered a side of potato pancakes) so Daniel's joins the ranks of the elite with an A.