Hawthorne Lane: Take TWO

Last week, I took Karen out to celebrate her birthday. Since it was a "school night", I thought that it would be nice to go somewhere interesting, fun, and low key. So, I decided to take Karen to TWO. Located in the space once occupied by the restaurant Hawthorne Lane, TWO was born out of chef/owner David Gingrass' desire to reinvent his restaurant to have a hipper and more casual atmosphere. We had the opportunity to visit Hawthorne Lane twice before it closed, the last time for its final cooking class.

While Karen had already been to TWO once before for lunch, I had not visited since our cooking class. While there were some differences in the decor, notably the wall panels and the lighting fixtures, the place still seemed to be quite similar to its previous incarnation.

Soon after we were seated, we were pleased to be presented with their starter plate of flatbread and biscuits. The flatbread was deliciously cheesy with a hint of heat and the biscuits were flaky and wonderfully buttery.


After a round of drinks (Karen ordered a mojito and I got a glass of Gloria Ferrer sparkling wine), we were ready to order dinner. We started out with a decadent appetizer, slow-roasted marrow bones served with crusty bread and caramelized onions. There was the perfect amount of marrow in the order: one bone for each of us with enough marrow to spread over the toasted bread. Despite the richness of the marrow, there was just the right amount so that we didn't feel overly sated by the starter before our main courses.


Since we were both pretty hungry, we decided to order a couple of entrées which we split. The first main course was braised beef cheeks with gaufrette potatoes, maple glaze, and horseradish crème fraîche. The beef was really flavorful and fall-apart tender and went very well with the horseradish. The maple glaze was interesting, having a slight hint of port, but was perhaps a touch sweet for my taste. Nevertheless, this was an excellent dish.


Our second main dish was a pan-fried pork cutlet, which could be prepared in two different ways. We could have ordered it with broccoli rabe and lemon, but opted to have it with spicy marinara and aged provolone cheese. The huge cutlet was deliciously tender and not at all greasy. With the marinara and cheese, it was reminiscent of a veal parmesan. It was another fine dish, though given the heaviness of the marrow and beef cheeks, it would have been more prudent to go with the lemon and rabe option.


For our side, we continued with the rich food theme and ordered some truffled macaroni and cheese. I enjoyed the mac and cheese, though the truffled flavor was a bit too strong for Karen's liking. I am curious if they used real truffle oil or something that came out of a laboratory.


Though we were getting quite full, it was, after all, Karen's birthday, so we ended the meal by sharing a decadent dessert, their signature "TWO Chocolates" mousse cake. The dessert consisted of semisweet and milk chocolate mousses, devil’s food cake, and caramel rice krispies. It was wonderfully rich and delicious. Even though I'm not a dessert guy, I'd definitely order it the next time I'm there.


So, there you have it, a fabulous birthday meal. I was a bit disappointed that they didn't do anything special for Karen, as per my OpenTable request, but the food was great and the service was prompt and attentive, so we really can't complain too much.

A Night to Remember: Dinner at the French Laundry

Sometimes, things just work out.

One of those times happened to Karen and me recently. Taking advantage of the Thanksgiving weekend, we decided to head up with Napa Valley for a few days. Since we don't usually stay up in Wine Country more than a single night, we thought that it would be fun to see if we could land a coveted reservation at the French Laundry (6640 Washington Street, Yountville; 707-944-2380). Owned by world-renown chef Thomas Keller, this 62 seat restaurant is recognized as one of the premier dining establishments in the world. Landing a table during the dinner hours in this tony Yountville restaurant is extremely difficult. In fact, there are web pages dedicated to doling out advice on how to get such a reservation.

So, a couple of days before Thanksgiving, I picked up the phone and called the reservation line at the French Laundry. When the receptionist answered, I told her that we going to come up with Napa for a long weekend and was wondering if we could get ourselves on the waiting list for each of those nights, with the hope that someone might cancel on a two-top during one of those evenings. Boy, was I surprised when I heard that there actually was a table for two available on Saturday night! I took advantage of this good fortune and immediately booked that open table. We were going to the French Laundry!


Arriving 15 minutes early for our 9pm reservation, we waited in the foyer of the rustic brick building, perusing the Bouchon and French Laundry cookbooks on the coffee table. After a few minutes, the host called our names and led us through the dining room to our seats. We sat down at the table, taking in the environment as we looked around the room. On the table in front of us was a neatly pleated napkin, on which was clipped a French Laundry clothespin.


Our dinner commenced with a couple of amuse bouche dishes. The first dish was warm Gruyère gougères, small savory pastries filled with cheese:


The second amuse bouche were a pair of ice-cream cone shaped salmon cornets with filled with crème fraîche. The cone was crunchy and its texture contrasted nicely with the minced salmon and silky crème fraîche.


At the French Laundry, you have the choice of two menus: the chef's tasting menu and the "tasting of vegetables" menu. (As I understand, there is also an unpublished 20 course tasting menu, but that needs to be ordered in advance.) Since it was the first visit to the French Laundry for both of us, we decided to order the chef's tasting menu.

The first course of the nine course tasting menu was the classic Keller dish "Oysters and Pearls", a sabayon of pearl tapioca with Beau Soleil oysters and white sturgeon caviar. The dish was wonderful. The texture of the tapioca contrasted nicely with that of the sabayon, and the oysters and caviar provided a perfect amount of briny flavor. We enjoyed this fabulous course with a flute of Pierre Gimonnet, a classic pairing of champagne and caviar.


For the next course, we had a choice. We could have had the hearts of palm salad, but we opted for the Moulard duck "foie gras au torchon" with stewed Oregon huckleberries, Tokyo turnips, spiced bread crumbs, and Garden Mâche, which was available with an additional $30 charge. If you follow our food adventures in this blog, you'll know that both Karen and I are huge fans of foie gras. Without a doubt, this was the single best foie gras dish that we've ever eaten. It was absolutely phenomenal. The foie gras was served with three different types of salt: a grey salt from the Brittany region of France, a Japanese sea salt, and a "Jurassic" salt from Montana, each with a different flavor and coarseness. Served with a side of toasted brioche from the Bouchon bakery just a couple of blocks down Washington Street, the dish was a meal in itself.


One very nice touch: in the middle of this decadent course, one of the servers came by to refresh our accompanying brioche with a hot slice of freshly toasted bread. The wine director steered us to a 2006 Yves Cuilleron Blanc "Roussilliere", which paired fabulously with the foie gras.

Next came the first of the fish courses. For this course, we had a choice of two different dishes, so Karen and I ordered one of each. I order the "Tartare" of Kona Kahala with cauliflower fleurettes, toasted Marcona almonds, Satsuma mandarins, and mizuna greens. I have to say that I was a bit underwhelmed by this course, especially after the two previous dishes, both of which were simply stunning. I was expecting some bold flavors, but this dish was a bit flat in my opinion.


Karen went with the line-caught Atlantic striped bass with glazed sunchokes, wilted Arrowleaf spinach, San Marzano tomato compote, and niçoise olives. This dish was pretty good, much better than my choice of fish. For this course and the next, we enjoyed a glass of Spencer Roloson viognier, which again was a great pairing suggested by the wine director.


Our second fish course was the fantastic sweet butter poached Maine lobster tail with caramelized cippolini onions, sugar snap peas, Yukon Gold "Pommes Maxims", and "Mousseline Bearnaise". This dish was as good as it looks. The lobster was perfectly cooked and buttery, especially with the luxurious Bearnaise sauce. The potato crisp was crisp and savory, but a bit difficult with eat with a fork and knife.


After the two fish courses came the meat courses. The first meat that came out of the kitchen was the all-day braised Kurobuta pork belly with grilled hearts of romaine lettuce, celeriac purée, and Périgold truffle glaze. The pork belly was succulent and fall-apart tender. The purée was a nice complement to the rich pork, but the romaine lettuce seemed a bit out of place on this plate. To go with this course and the following one, we had a glass of 2005 Brewer Clifton pinot noir. The wine was again quite good, a testament to the fine skills of our sommelier.


Our second meat course was a herb roasted saddle of Elysian Fields Farm lamb with globe artichokes, Nantes carrots, golden chanterelle mushrooms, and sweet garlic "jus". We could have opted for a course of Wagyu beef in place of the lamb, but the $100 supplemental charge seemed a bit steep to me. The lamb was amazing tender and quite flavorful. I enjoyed this dish very much, but I think that Karen was a little less impressed.


After finishing the lamb course, both of us were getting pretty full. We had finished all of the main courses, so we were now heading into the desserts. Our first dessert course was a cheese plate: "Petit Sapin" with Royal Blenhein apricots, red beet relish, and arugula leaves. I was not expecting a soft cheese for this course, but I liked it. I think that Karen enjoyed this dish as well, even with the beet relish.


Next came a palate cleaning feijoa sorbet with Maui pineapple relish and angel cake. The sorbet was very refreshing and the angel cake was very light. Given the heaviness of the previous courses, this was a welcome dish to enjoy at this point in our meal.


The last of the nine courses on the menu gave us two options for dessert. As it is our habit, we picked one of each course. I chose the "Charlotte aux Poires et aux Dates" with Bartlett pear sorbet, "Japonais", candied hazelnuts, and pear coulis. Like the previous sorbet dish, I like this dish quite a lot. At this point in the meal, I was definitely okay with enjoying some lighter dessert fare, and this dessert was lighter than it appeared.


Karen picked the "S'Mores" with cashew nut "Parfait", caramel "Délice", and "Sauce a la Guimauve brûlée". As with the corresponding dessert during our last dinner at Manresa, I wasn't a huge fan of the S'more, but that's probably more of a reflection of my personal preference than anything bad about this dessert.


With the last of the nine courses, we were finished with our dinner. Oh wait. We still had the mignardises.

After clearing away the dessert plates, the waiter brought me a Meyer lemon pot au crème and set a Tahitian vanilla crème brûlée before Karen.




After those two desserts were cleared away, we were completely stuffed. But there was more yet to come. Next came a little bowl of chocolate caramel macadamia nuts and some olive financier cookies (not pictured).


Next, we were presented with a huge platter of chocolates. On the suggestion of our waiter, we picked one of each type of chocolate for a total of six. It was six chocolates more than I should have eaten - now we were completely stuffed.


At this point, our waiter asked me for my camera so that he could take a photo of the two of us to commemorate the occasion. Here's a photo of two very sated diners:


Last, but not least, about a quarter past midnight, came our final mignardises course: a gold box filled with pâtes de fruit and other petit fours. I managed to try each of them, somehow finding a tiny bit of open space in my stomach.


Of course, such opulance does not come without a price, and a hefty one at that. Here's the damage:


Ouch.

As a final treat, our waiter presented us with some shortbread cookies to take home, courtesy of their pastry chef.


The service that we received that evening was impeccable. It was perhaps the cleanest and best executed service that I've ever experienced at a restaurant. The pacing of our meal was superb and we were never lacking for attention. Throughout our dinner, the waitstaff cleared our empty plates as soon as we finished our food and kept our water glasses full with complementary bottles of Hildon still water.


The members of the waitstaff were obviously well-practiced, delivering top-notch service throughout the evening with spot-on precision. It seemed like each of their movement were deliberate, well-thought out, and completely choreographed. Our main server was quite friendly, but it was not the personalized-type service that we've enjoyed at other restaurants, such as Frasca and Chapeau, though I don't think that either of us would have expected that type of atmosphere at a restaurant like the French Laundry.

All in all, we had a fabulous meal. It was definitely one of the best meals that I've ever enjoyed at a restaurant. Everything was there: spectacular food and flawless service in a luxurious setting. But, on the other hand, neither Karen or I thought that the food was far superior to that of Manresa, where we've enjoyed a couple of fabulous dinners at a much lower price point. In fact, we both thought that the food was, in fact, quite comparable. While the service at the French Laundry was superior to Manresa, I'm not convinced that it justifies the difference in price. So, did we enjoy our dinner? Absolutely - it was a fabulous dinner, perhaps a once in a lifetime opportunity to dine at one of the best restaurants in the world. Would we go back? Maybe (and really just maybe), though it wouldn't be any time soon, especially with Manresa just a short drive away.

1300 on Fillmore

(This post is way overdue, but better late than never, right?)

A couple of weeks ago, Karen took me out for a fabulous birthday dinner at 1300 on Fillmore (1300 Fillmore St; 415-771-7100), a new restaurant located in the Fillmore Jazz district of San Francisco. Having opened only five days prior to our visit, 1300 on Fillmore features American food with a Southern flair. Indeed, their website describe their cuisine as "Soulful American". Opened by Executive Chef David Lawrence and his wife Monetta White, 1300 on Fillmore is located in the Heritage on Fillmore high-rise, next to the soon-to-be-open Yoshi's Jazz Club.

Arriving at the restaurant, Karen and I initially walked right by the nondescript wooden front door. Once we realized our mistake and made our way through the entrance, we found ourselves surrounded by the dark walls of the stylishly appointed space. Designed by the MCCARTAN design firm, the restaurant exudes sophistication without feeling overly formal. Covering its walnut and chocolate brown walls are portraits of famous legends of jazz, an homage to the heritage of the surrounding Lower Fillmore neighborhood. Strategically placed rows of indirect and spot lighting provide just right amount of illumination to offset the dark walls without losing the intimate and cozy feel.

When we arrived, the restaurant had ample availability (not surprising given its recent soft opening and the time of our mid-week visit), so the hostess led us to a four-top near the Eddy Street-facing windows in the main dining room. Since it was my birthday, we started off our dinner with a little bubbly - I enjoyed a glass of Gloria Ferrer as we perused the menu.

Both of us were pretty hungry, so we ordered two appetizers: the freshwater shrimp hush puppies and the bourbon braised pork belly. These hush puppies differed from ones that I had eaten in the past as it appeared to have a simple cornmeal coating as opposed to a layer of deep fried cornbread batter. Accompanying the basket of shrimp hush puppies was a small ramekin of spicy ancho chile remoulade. The Louisiana-style remoulade was different from mayonnaise-based ones that I've made myself, but it provided just the right amount of heat to accent the flavor of the piping hot and tasty hush puppies. After polishing off the shrimp, we started in on the pork belly. The generous portion of braised meat was fall-apart tender and simply succulent. However, I didn't care so much for the shelled white bean puree on which the pork was served. Normally, I like the combination of sweet flavors with pork (ever tried pig candy?), but in this case, the sweetness of the bean puree just did not work for me in this dish.

For the main courses, Karen and I split the skillet fried chicken and the maple syrup braised beef short rib. The fried chicken is one of the house specialties and requires 30 minutes of prep time. The chicken was excellent - its crunchy coating was packed with flavor (highlighted with cumin, if I'm not mistaken) and sealed in the juices, resulting in a savory and moist entrée that's well worth the wait. The side of truffled mashed potatoes with pan gravy was tasty as well, but it is the chicken that is the highlight of this dish. With three pieces of chicken per order, there is plenty of goodness to share. Our other main course was delicious as well. Our order of short rib had only a small sliver of bone, which meant that we were able to enjoy a generous portion of tender beef between the two of us. I don't normally associate sweet flavors with beef, but it definitely worked in this dish, in marked contrast to the braised pork belly. The sides of mashed potatoes and braised greens were good, but it was the short rib that was the headliner on this dish. We liked both of our selections quite a bit, but if there was a small complaint, it was that both of these dishes came out to us a bit on the cool side. The plates were each very hot, but the food itself was less so. Nevertheless, the chicken and beef were very good, despite cooling off quickly. We just chalked it up to newness of the restaurant; hopefully, they'll be able to work out the kinks quickly.

The service at 1300 on Fillmore was impeccable. Our server, Annette, was very friendly and attentive to our needs, as were the bussers who kept our water glasses from going empty all evening long. Since it was a bit slow that evening, Annette stopped by our table frequently, not only checking to make sure that everything was going well, but also chatting with us about the restaurant when we expressed interest. Both Chef Lawrence and his wife paid a visit to our table in order to welcome us to their new venue as well as to pass along birthday wishes, which I thought was quite nice. At the end of our meal, Annette brought us an order of chocolate-filled beignets, on the house, topped off with a birthday candle. The freshly made beignets were accompanied by chocolate and vanilla dipping sauces - they were a delicious end to a very nice meal.

While it was a bit slow during our visit, I suspect that soon it might be difficult to land a reservation there, especially on weekends. During our dinner, a large party came in to the semi-private 22-person party room, located just off the main dining area. Apparently, they had already been receiving some requests for that party room, even though they had not yet started taking reservations officially at that point in time. Once Yoshi's opens, I think that they'll be getting a lot of the spillover traffic from its next-door neighbor, especially since they will be serving dinner until 11pm and a lounge menu until 1am. They have also applied for permits so that they can host live jazz entertainment, which will be quite nice once they start up their weekend brunch. We plan to pay them a visit again soon.

Range: Our Dinner in Pictures

Last weekend, Karen and I were finally able to meet up with Tesha and Jeremiah for dinner out on the town. Even though my ex-pat friends have been back in the Bay Area for over nine months, it's been amazingly difficult find a mutually workable time to get together for a nice, sit-down dinner due to our exceedingly busy schedules. In fact, we were fortunate that Tesha had just flown back from Europe last Friday and was eager to meet up for dinner (despite the jet lag).

Karen and I thought that we would introduce them to one of our favorite dining spots in San Francisco, Range (842 Valencia Street; 415-282-8283), a Mission District destination featuring American cuisine. Karen has this knack for picking out up and coming restaurants before they become the buzz of the town. Range was one such find, a restaurant that we visited well before it received its Michelin star rating.

We started our dinner with a round of drinks. The ladies both opted for a peach bellini, while we guys went for the cocktails: Jeremiah had a Dark and Stormy, while I chose the Siren. While we were sipping on our drinks, we ordered a couple of appetizers. We put in for an order of the chicken liver mousse, the silky smooth and fabulously tasty starter. It was so good that I probably could have devoured the entire serving by myself. Since Tesha isn't a big fan of offal, she started out with a bowl of the lentil soup, which was also quite good as well.

After we polished off the starters, we each ordered a glass of wine to go with our main course. Rather than going through a detailed analysis of each of our entrees, all of which were very good, I'll let the photos do most of the talking.

Karen ordered the Alaskan halibut with a stew of pancetta, flageolet beans and fennel:


I went with the slow cooked pork shoulder with romano beans and a morel mushroom sauce:


Jeremiah ordered the special of the evening, roasted quail on a bed of trumpet mushrooms:


After some deliberation, Tesha picked the pan-seared hanger steak with fingerling potatoes and a horseradish sauce:


As usual, the food was fantastic. Each dish was generously portioned, full of flavor, and just well-executed. As delicious as the entrees were, the desserts, made in-house by pastry chef Michelle Polzin, might have been even a bit better.

The bittersweet chocolate-armagnac soufflé with chocolate sauce:


The strawberry shortcake with lemon cream:


Freshly made crêpes with blackberries and ice cream:


The Three Sister's Serena cheese plate with raw cow’s milk cheese with date purée and hazelnuts:


A snapshot of us, the happy diners:


Once again, our dinner at Range was excellent. It is simply a great place for dinner, whether you are celebrating a special occasion or just passing though the neighborhood during the evening hours. Range is one restaurant that I plan to visit again and again.

Tsunami Revisited

Last night, Karen and I dropped in for dinner at the restaurant where we had our first "official" date, Tsunami Sushi (1306 Fulton Street; 415-567-7664), in the NoPa neighborhood of San Francisco. We had thought about ordering take-out last night, but the evening weather was pretty nice, so we made the short walk from Karen's place over to the restaurant. As an added plus, we brought along a $15 gift card from our CozmoDeck that we purchased earlier this year.

The interior at Tsunami is cozy and the decor is very trendy; with the contemporary music playing in the background, you almost feel like you are in a nightclub rather than in a sushi bar. We didn't have reservations, but luckily there were a couple of open seats in the lounge area. We started out our dinner with an order of Tsunami fries, rectangular planks of yams lightly coated in tempura batter, deep fried, and served with a small dish of red salt. To accompany our meal, we decided to order a bottle of sake. Tsunami is well known for its extensive selection of sake, all imported from Japan. We settled on a bottle of Tedorigawa Daiginjo "Chrysanthemum Meadow", which was fragrant and floral.

After polishing off the tasty fries, we moved on to the main attraction: sushi and sashimi. Our first main dish was a Scorpion maki roll, which had tempura shrimp, kani (crab), and cucumber topped with unagi (freshwater eel) and avocado. The roll was big (8 pieces), which was good as we both really enjoyed this dish. After we finished off the roll, the empty plate was cleared away and replaced by a platter with all of the sashimi specials of the day: waloo (escolar from Hawaii), seigo (Japanese sea bass from Nagasaki), Kona kampachi (amberjack from Kona, Hawaii), hirame (halibut from the East Coast), and aji (horse mackerel from Japan). We split the sashimi right down the middle with each of us getting one of the two pieces of each fish. All of the fish selections were very fresh and flavorful. While each type of sashimi was quite good, we both really liked the waloo, which had an amazing texture to go along with its fine and delicate flavor.

After the sashimi, we moved on to nigiri sushi. We ordered some unagi (our usual) and a plate of amaebi, raw prawns served with their deep fried heads on the side (which is the real reason for ordering this dish). Both orders were good, especially the amaebi head, though I was a little surprised that the unagi didn't come coated with the usual sweet sauce. I was still a bit peckish, so we ordered a second round of nigiri consisting of an order of hotate (scallop) and broiled bincho (albacore tuna). Both dishes were good, but the broiled albacore didn't taste much different from the non-broiled version that I'm used to.

In between the two rounds of nigiri, our server (whose name unfortunately escapes me) brought over a small tokkuri of umeshi sake, on the house. While the gesture was nice, we normally eschew warm sake, so we continued drinking our daiginjo. However, after the bottle was empty, we decided to try the complementary sake, which cooled off to room temperature. Boy, were we surprised! The sake had a pleasant aroma of almonds, which was strong but not overpowering. It was very smooth and quite sweet. Normally, I can only tolerate so much in the way of sweet alcoholic drink, but the amount of sake that we had was just right. It was a really nice way to cap off our dinner.

Karen and I both had a good time last night at dinner. Each time we have been to Tsunami, the food has been great and the service friendly and attentive. The complementary sake was very nice as well. In addition, they gave us a gift card from the CozmoDeck to the sister restaurant, Nihon, which I thought was another nice touch. We'll definitely have to make another return visit to Tsunami.

Redd is the New Black?

Last weekend, Karen and I headed to Napa Valley for a short getaway to celebrate her birthday. In addition to taking her on some wine tastings and indulging her fondness for massages, I wanted to take her out to a nice setting for a birthday dinner. I had heard good things about Redd (6480 Washington Street; 707-944-2222), a relative newcomer to the high-end dining scene in the town of Yountville. Named after executive chef Richard Reddington, Redd is located on the south end of Washington Street, just down the road from The French Laundry and Bouchon and next to Thomas Keller's latest venture, Ad Hoc, which we visited earlier this year.

Unfortunately, Karen's birthday fell on Mother's Day weekend this year, so all of the prime-time reservations had been booked well in advance. When I called a couple of weeks before her birthday, the only available slots were before very early (i.e. before 5:30) or quite late. Since we wanted to have a relaxing time and didn't want to be in a rush to drive up to Napa, we opted for the late time slot. Of course, this meant our dinner reservation was set for 9:30pm.

We arrived at the restaurant a few minutes early and were immediately seated at our table. We are both fond of tasting menus, but given the late hour, we were unsure about whether we should instead order a la carte this time, or if we would go with the five- or nine-course menu. Eventually, we settled on the five-course menu, though we felt a little boxed into this decision, something on which I will elaborate in a moment.

One of the interesting things about the tasting menu at Redd is that though everyone at the table is required to order the menu (just like at many other places), each diner gets a different dish for each course. So, for our five-course menu, we were going to get the opportunity to taste ten different dishes.

Our dinner started out with fish dishes: hamachi sashimi with sticky rice and edamame in a lime ginger sauce, and yellowfin tuna tartare with avocado, chili oil, and crispy fried rice.



I really liked both of these dishes. The tartare was especially good, highlighted by the contrast in textures between the tuna and the rice, which was very crispy. The sashimi was also quite tasty; the fish was very fresh and well-prepared.

The second course of the tasting menu consisted of two seafood courses. The first was a John Dory filet with creamy jasmine rice, mussels with chorizo in a saffron curry nage. The other plate was a caramelized diver scallop over cauliflower puree and almonds with a balsamic reduction. (Apologies for the washed out photos of these dishes; there's only so much that you can do with a little point-and-shoot digital camera with those lighting conditions.)



The fish, mussel, and chorizo dish sounded odd to me, but the flavors worked pretty well together. The scallop dish was also quite nice and had a nice contrast in textures with the shellfish, califlower puree, and nuts.

Our next courses were the glazed pork belly with apple puree, burdock root, and soy caramel and the quail with broccoli rabe, sausage, chili flakes, and white beans.



I thought these dishes were decent, but perhaps not quite as good as the other courses. As we were eating this course, Karen said that she thought that the dishes up to (and including these) were on the verge of being too salty. I too had noticed that while the first bite of each dish seemed to be bursting with flavor, there also appeared to be an increasing note of saltiness with each additional bite. Perhaps you could chalk this up to personal preference, as neither of us are heavy-handed with NaCl, but I suspect that others would have found the dishes to be saltier than the norm, if not too salty.

Next came the meat courses: The Napa Valley spring lamb, served two ways (braised and roasted) with spring vegetables over a bed of creamy mascarpone polenta, and the Prime New York steak and shortribs, with fingerling potatoes and creamy ramps.



Luckily for us, these dishes were not oversalted. The lamb was very tender and flavorful, with nary a hint of gaminess. Both preparations of the beef were also tasty as well, with the New York steak roasted to a near-perfect doneness. The portions on both plates were really quite substantial, especially for a tasting menu course. We asked our server about the portion sizing, and she said that the a la carte portions are substantially bigger.

For dessert, we had very different plates; the first dessert was a Meyer lemon flan with crème fraîche, accompanied by cream cheese ice cream with tapioca pearls and a homemade tangerine soda. The second dessert was a peanut honeycomb parfait with a chocolate peanut butter giandula.



Both the desserts were very good, though by this point in the dinner (and at this time in the evening), they were a touch on the heavy side.

Overall, despite what we perceived to be a heavy hand with the salt, we thought that the food was very good. There were a lot of interesting and innovative combinations of flavors and textures which worked well together. However, we were disappointed with one aspect of dinner, namely the service. We found that the wait staff, while courteous and friendly, was somewhat impersonal and seemed hurried. Even though our dinner took two and a half hours, both of us felt rushed by the staff. I know that five courses over 150 minutes can hardly constitute being a short and hurried dinner, but on the flip side, it does taken something unusual to make people feel rushed over that time frame.

Though, given the time, we were leaning towards going with the five-course menu instead of the nine-course one, our server came over and told us that the kitchen informed her that no nine-course menus would be served after 9:40pm, so we could only go with the five-course menu. What kind of rule is that??? We were seated at least fifteen minutes before that deadline, but we took a little bit of time to order our drinks and to peruse the menu, and hadn't gotten around to placing our order until a quarter to ten. As it appears that we were the last party of the evening, was that rule set up to exclude the last party (and only the last party) of the evening from ordering the nine-course menu? That rule simply doesn't make any sense to me. As I mentioned, we weren't leaning toward the nine-course menu anyway, but it would have been nice to have that option or at least be told in advance of this deadline, lest we want to have a three and a half hour dinner starting around 10pm. Don't get me wrong, I understand that the chefs and staff don't want to hang out all evening, but I just don't get why they would institute a rule to exclude a single party from going with that option. Though the food was quite good and worthy of a return visit, the flap in service takes them down a couple of notches in my book.

Offal Is Good!

Did you know: Duck fries are to mallards as Rocky Mountain Oysters are to bulls?

I found out this fascinating fact tonight during my dinner at Incanto (1550 Church Street; 415-641-4500), the Italian restaurant in the Noe Valley neighborhood of San Francisco known throughout the Bay Area for their house-cured meats. Food Network fans may recognize Incanto executive chef Chris Cosentino from his recent challenge against Mario Batali on Iron Chef America in "Battle Garlic". (During the next couple of months, Incanto will be featuring a special garlic dinner menu on Friday and Saturday evenings that serve up the same dishes as the ones created during that ICA battle.)

Karen and I had talked about paying a visit to Incanto well before Cosentino's television appearance brought the restaurant into the spotlight, so we took advantage of the opportunity to check it out tonight. In addition to their cured meats, Incanto is well-regarded for their emphasis on using fresh, local ingredients and their award-winning collection of Italian wines. Cosentino is also well-known for his creative use of offal in his menu. In fact, Cosentino writes about variety meats and their preparation in his blog, cleverly titled Offal Good.

Since this was our first visit to Incanto, we decided to stick with the house specialties. We started with the antipasto plate for two, which consisted of house-cured meats, roasted garlic and green onions, and marinated carrots. (We did consider the duck fries though.) The plate had several kinds of cured meats, including a homestyle head cheese, a lamb pâté, some mortadella made with pistachios, and some goose proscuitto. Karen really liked the head cheese, and I was quite pleased with the mortadella. For our main courses, we decided to split a pasta dish and an entree. For the pasta course, we chose the chicken liver agnolotti with fava beans and chianti. I had been looking forward to trying an agnolotti dish after reading Alan Richman's article touting his favorite variety of pasta in the January 2007 issue of Bon Appétit. The pasta was good; the savory filling was silky smooth and bursting with flavor inside al dente wrapping. For the entree, we picked the roasted lamb neck with cardoon, mint, and polenta. The lamb was perfectly cooked, its exterior roasted into a beautiful and tasty crust encasing a generous portion of juicy, fall-apart tender meat. It was great, definitely a dish that I would order again and again. The polenta was quite good as well - we were wondering how much cream and butter went into its making.

We both really enjoyed dinner tonight at Incanto and would recommend it to anyone who is interested in trying something different. Unless, of course, you are a vegetarian, in which case you should look elsewhere for dinner. There aren't a lot of options for non-carnivores there. There are a couple of interesting things to note about Incanto. In response to the San Francisco ordinance requiring restaurants to boost their minimum wage and provide health care benefits for all employees, Incanto instituted a 5% service surcharge to pay for the additional costs. The second note of interest is that Incanto offers filtered still and sparkling Hetch Hetchy water, free of charge, to address concerns about the environmental impact and costs of bottled water. The additional cost of the service charge ended up being balanced out by the free sparkling water - it was a wash for us.

Manresa: A Culinary Experience (with pictures, of course)

Last week, as I was wandering from John Wayne Airport to the office, Karen called me and asked if I would have any interest in going to Manresa this weekend. She had just taken a quick look on OpenTable and saw a couple of available seatings. We had talked with Tesha and Jeremiah about going to Manresa, which they had never visited and which we had visited previously for our one year anniversary. Unfortunately, our friends were unable to join us, but we decided to take advantage of the opportunity to pay another visit to the two-star Michelin destination.

Yesterday afternoon, we made the hour-long trek from the City down to little town of Los Gatos, nestled near the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Though we arrived a bit early for our reservation, we were warmly greeted at the door and promptly seated at a window-side table. We didn't even really need to look at the menu, as we both assumed that we were going with the chef's tasting menu. Once again, we would leave our dinner in David Kinch's very capable hands. We also ordered the wine pairing for the tasting menu, splitting one flight between the two of us.

Our dinner started out with several amuse bouche offerings. First we were presented with some petit-fours: olive madelines and roasted red pepper gelées. Our previous dining experience at Manresa started in the same fashion and once again, Karen loved the madeline and I really enjoyed the gelée. It was a nice way to kick off our dinner.


Our next amuse bouche was a garden green croquette, of which I did not get a picture. Similar in appearance to a tater tot, each croquette is filled with a liquid center and meant to be eaten in a single bite. Our croquette was bursting with the essense of seasonal spring vegetables from the Manresa garden, though it was not quite as good as the corn croquette that we had during our previous visit, which was utterly amazing.

After the croquette, we were served oysters with uni and sea water gelée. As you might know from reading past entries in this blog, we love raw oysters on the half-shell. With the uni and gelée, I was expecting a very briny tasting dish, but the tasty was more subtle and really brought out the flavor of the sea without overwhelming the palate.


The next amuse bouche was a kohlrabi and foie gras royale served with apple cider. The custardy foie gras mousse was velvety and rich, which went very well with the cider and the wine pairing. Karen thought that this was one of the best dishes of the evening.


Our last amuse was the famous Arpège egg. As some of you may know, I've made these eggs myself at home with the help of a Clacker. It looked like they also use a Clacker or another similar device in the Manresa kitchen. I also noticed that they sliced open the bottom part of the egg as I did, probably to help keep the egg balanced while it is coddling on the simmer water. The egg was fantastic as always, just a great balance between sweet, savory, sour, and bitter flavors.


Our first main course was a preparation of twice-cooked foie gras with strawberries over a strawberry-Pedro Ximénez sauce. The foie gras was unbelievably rich and absolutely exquisite. (You can probably guess that Karen and I both love foie gras.) This was definitely my favorite dish of the evening.


Our second main course was a fatty blue tuna belly salad over a seaweed pistou. The toro salad also contained a few tender leaves of Ficoïde Glaciale, an ice plant harvested from the Manresa garden. The salad was very rich and extravagent - two thumbs up.


The next course was a smoked sturgeon over red thumb potatoes and beets from the garden. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo until we had eaten the plates clean. The dish was very good, much better than a similar dish that I had on a Lufthansa flight a few months back. Karen even admitted that she liked the beets, which is quite a statement if you know her feelings about that root vegetable.

Our next dish was a Monterey Bay abalone with peas and asparagus and a vanilla soubise. This was fantastic. It was the most tender plate of abalone that I've ever had. The vanilla foam was quite subtle and enhanced the flavor of the shellfish without overpowering it.


The last fish course was slow-roasted monkfish with exotic Indian spices, naval orange, citrus foam, and spinach. While the flavors of the spices and citrus worked well in this dish, the fish was less tender than I expected, as was the spinach. While the taste was quite good, this was probably my least favorite course of the evening.


Moving on to the white meat course, we were treated to some slow-roasted pork belly of suckling pig in a green garlic stew with a fava bean maro. A fabulous dish, the pork tasted as good as it looked.


Our final main course of the evening was milk-fed spring lamb, prepared two ways, with a carrot puree and carrots from the garden. We were treated to a nice slice of loin, roasted to medium-rare doneness. The lamb was quite tasty but we both really liked the braised lamb, generously portioned and falling-apart tender. Another excellent dish.


Having finished the main dinner course, we had an intermezzo of strawberry sorbet with rhubarb soda. It was very refreshing and cleansed our palates in preparation for dessert.


Our first dessert course came in two parts. First was a caramel soufflé that was simply ethereal.


Accompanying the soufflé was a shot glass filled with butterscotch, espresso, and caramelized banana. This dessert was stunning. Even I, the non-dessert guy, really liked this offering. The flavors melded extremely well together to form a delicious and decadent dessert.


The final dessert was chocolate marquis, which our server described as a "deconstructed Rocky Road". It was okay, but as I'm not a huge fan of Rocky Road, it didn't do that much for me.


The end of our evening was bookended the same way it started, with madelines and gelées. This time, we were presented with a chocolate version of the madeline and a strawberry gelée. I enjoyed this course, especially the gelée, which tasted like an intense strawberry jam, but Karen liked the olive madeline better.


Once again, we had a fantastic evening at Manresa. Tim, our server, was great, as was the rest of the staff. They did a great job with the pacing of our meal, slowing things down as the courses became heavier, and were very attentive to our needs. Tim effusively answered our many questions about the restaurant, the food, and the wine. It was another fabulous dining experience, one that we hope to repeat with our friends in the near future.