Aunt Maude's

is a restaurant in Ames that I've been hearing about from the beginning. I've never been there in the four months I've lived here until tonight.

We had our annual holiday dinner for work at Aunt Maude's this year, and let me tell you: this could be my new favorite place. We had pre-dinner drinks and appetizers (for me a Gin and Tonic and some of the smoked salmon artichoke dip) and mingled and then sat down to dinner.

First came the salad, which had a red wine vinegarette and shredded Parmesan cheese. It wasn't drowning in dressing, but it wasn't too dry either, which was nice.

Then came dinner.

Three words: Main Street Chicken. Holy moley!!

The description on the menu ("Main Street chicken: Tomatoes, Scallions, Mushrooms, Spicy Garlic Butter Sauce, Wild Rice Pilaf, Seasonal Vegetables") doesn't even do it justice. First of all, the Spicy Garlic Butter Sauce with the diced tomatoes, and scallions on top was to die for. The chicken was tender and juicy, and with the sauce it basically melted in your mouth. I don't normally like Wild Rice all that much, but this Wild Rice Pilaf was the perfect light, fluffy grain to go with the chicken. The seasonal vegetable was corn, which was also delightful. I am pretty sure it was cut directly off the cob. So delicious.

After dinner came dessert, of course! While almost everyone else got the peanut butter cup cheesecake, I went for the vanilla creme brulee, which was delightful. Basically, I needed to be rolled out to my car at the end of the evening.

If you're ever in Ames, you better come see me, for one, and if you do, I will take you to Aunt Maude's and we have a jolly good time eating and drinking ourselves into a delicious meal stupor.