How boring am I? I came home from work today. Amy was already home and I was starving. We had the usual conversation.

"What do you want to do for dinner?"

"I don't know. What do you want to do?"

I was trying to stay on the cheaper side tonight, because our credit card bill broke the bank this month (too much eating out!). Somehow, we ended up on our way back to Adams Morgan and LeftBank.

They say the biggest sign of insanity is repeating the same actions over and over and expecting a different outcome. HELLO?! Don't you remember a couple weekends ago -- the $90 check, average entrees and mediocre service?  Yeah, yeah, but the melon and prosciutto...hmm, that was good.

But this time seemed different. Our waitress, Natalie, was the perkiest waitress we've ever had. She knew every dish on the menu and, unlike the waiter we had last time, actually gave us a sushi menu.  On top of that, she was able to rattle off the entire tea-infused martini menu. Our previous waiter didn't even know they had them. When they were out of something that we ordered (the salmon napoleon), she recommended the fried calamari (it was her favorite) which turned out to be wonderful.

We did learn one lesson from our last visit. We stayed away from the entrees and ordered five first courses. Natalie even said it was a good idea to order that way. All of the dishes were great - tuna tartare, melon and prosciutto, sausage and lentil ragu, grilled asparagus salad...oh, and the calamari.

I was feeling really good about this meal...then the waitress brought the check. It came to about $95. Wait, wasn't I trying to do a cheap meal tonight?

Just like last time, the culprit was the alcohol. Those tea-infused martinis were $10 each, and then we let Natalie talk us into several glasses of wine.  They were out of the wine we requested, but were offering a more expensive wine by the glass for $7. Four glasses later, we were presented with a $38 liquor bill.

Ouch. Again.