I am not usually a fan of restaurants that claim to be fantastic, get rave reviews, but do not take reservations and are always booked...solid. Hey, I want to try to the food, too! But, and this is a big but, Ben and I finally made it to Tilia last night and it was wonderful and worth every piece of praise. [Sidenote: We had a slight mishap with another new/re-opened restaurant this year that also claimed to be phenomenal but turned out to be an utter disaster...I will exclude its name as I need to give it one more chance.] Back to Tilia: we heard that you can get in later in the evening so we went to a movie and then headed to the restaurant at 930. It as amazing to see that the entire place was packed, the bar + all of the tables (kudos to them). Luckily, Ben and I were seated immediately and, not surprisingly at all, we ordered a lot of food and ate it all in mere minutes.

Our feast included the:

Butternut Squash Soup: Hands down, the best squash soup I have ever had...although a close second goes to Birchwood.
Potted Meat: The meat of choice was duck breast and is served like paté covered with its own fat. Any concern that you may have of eating this goes out the window once you spread it on grilled toast and devour.
Mussels España: Although not as good as the mussels that we had on our honeymoon in Spain, these were delicious.
Scallops: These were good but I would not order them again.
Brussels Sprouts: One word, mmmmmmm. Covered in ham and walnuts.
And, if we hadn't eaten enough: Toffee Date Cake smothered in caramel.

I am ranking Tilia up there with 112 and Alma...which I believe to be the highest of praise.