Date Night at Chez Henri

On Friday night, Bret and I had a long overdue date night.  We were looking forward to kicking the long weekend off with dinner reservations at Chez Henri.  We had 8:30 PM reservations for the dining room.  Bret and I both really wanted to check out their famous Cuban sandwich but we discovered that you can only order that at the bar.  Since neither of us were in a rush, we gave up our reservations to wait for a table at the bar.  While I sipped on my Moscow Mule, I was happy to discover that Elina and her hubby were having their own date night!  It was an unexpected surprise but so great to run into a friendly face!

Soon enough, Bret and I were seated at a table on the bar side of the restaurant.  For dinner, I decided on a glass of Cava while Bret opted for the Rhum Cocktail Marilene. 

Since there were a lot of appealing dishes, we decided to split a few plates instead of ordering entrees.  As a sidenote, while you can't order from the bar menu in the dining room, you can order from the dining room menu on the bar side of the restaurant!  We obviously ordered the pressed Cuban sandwich with the slow-cooked pork.  I actually found the sandwich to be a little dry but I really enjoyed the plaintain chips that came with the sandwich.

We then moved onto one of the specials of the day - soft shell crab topped with chipotle rubbed shrimp on top of a chipotle and avocado salad.  I loved this dish, even if the kitchen was a bit aggressive in their use of red onions.

Bret and I decided to split one more plate - the most ridiculousy delicious conch fritters covered in a guava barbecue sauce.  This is unlike any conch fritter I've tried before and I could have eaten a whole plate by myself!  The chipotle aioli was the perfect dipping sauce for the barbecue glazed fritters and I'm definitely going to be recreating this aioli at home!

This was our first visit to Chez Henri and I absolutely cannot wait to go back and try some of their entrees.

Chez Henri is located at 1 Shepard Street, Cambridge, MA.