Lena and Habana

continued

Our dinners lived up to the festive vibe, starting with an amazing (and new-to-the-menu) appetizer of seared duck and cilantro-microgreen-topped polenta cakes perfect for sopping up every drop of decadent gravy. A roasted red and golden beet salad with avocado sauce and a crispy parmesan cracker was similarly excellent, although small enough to leave us wanting more. Surf (giant sea scallops) and turf (cumin-and-paprika-rubbed thin-sliced skirt steak) were both pleasing, although the shellfish's robust barley-grain risotto was heavy on salt.

"The service has been pretty much perfect this time," I sighed contentedly to my companion as we lingered over coffee and a berry-garnished sweetly dense flan (also consider the dulce tres leches cake). I spoke too soon, because our still-smiling server arrived to drop off someone else's check and trotted out of sight before I noticed.