Sashimi, steak, and dessert @ Alexander's

Friday night, I wanted just a little more food after eating a ton at TGIF that evening.  Something light, like some raw fish.  And Emil, as always, wanted foie gras.  So, we headed to our goto place: Alexander's Steakhouse, to grab a quick bite at the bar.  This is one thing I adore about Alexander's - where else can I get quality sashimi, while dining with someone who is eating a steak topped with foie?  They are so much more than a steakhouse!!!

Since I've reviewed Alexanders about a thousand times, I'm skipping all the details not related to the dishes we actually had that night.  This review is also less detailed in general, as I wasn't really taking notes, and was just enjoying a casual evening.  Service was fantastic, the staff friendly as always, particularly the bartender who we chatted with while dining at the bar, and the chef who gave Emil some tips on making his own torchon!

Amuse bouche: Gougère.

Our amuse was a little gougère.  It was served cold, which was disappointing, particularly after the insanely amazing gougères we had at Cyrus a few weeks ago, filled with a hot, melted gruyere.  This one was fine, but nothing remarkable.  I liked the parmesan powder on top, it was intensely parmesan flavored and really did wake up my palette!  But man, now I just want the Cyrus ones again!

Intermezzo: Blackberry gelee, kumquat pearls.

Our intermezzo was a little blackberry gelee, which had a strong blackberry flavor.  I didn't really taste the kumquat in the pearls, but they added a bit of pop.  Not sure what the leaf was.  Emil thought it was too sweet of course.

Tai Sashimi: Japanesse snapper, cucumber, violet, agretti, black bean dashi, red onion.  $17.

What a beautiful dish!  Yes, I was at a "steakhouse", but I was getting raw seafood, with this incredible presentation.  This is what I adore about Alexander's, it is just soo much more than a steakhouse!

The tai was served as 4 generous cuts, skin on.  It had a good firm texture, but wasn't very flavorful.  It wasn't bad, it just wasn't particularly good.  I had tai sashimi the next night at Atelier Crenn as well, and was similarly disappointed by it.  I haven't had a lot of raw tai, so I don't have many comparison points, perhaps this is just a fairly mild boring fish in general?

The dish included some lightly cooked edamame, that were a really nice texture, and added to the Japanesse feel of the dish. There were also some thin slices of red onion that complimented the fish well, along with agretti and some other herbs that I couldn't identify.  The cucumbers were very thin slices from the entire cucumber, rolled up. They were fresh and flavorful.  The dashi broth was very light and didn't have as much flavor as I'd like.  I'm not quite sure where the violet was, perhaps in the crispy things on top?

The entire dish was light and refreshing, which is what I was going for, but somehow didn't quite come together for me.  I wanted more intense flavors.  There was a tiny slice of jalapeno (?) that really completed the dish for me.  The bite I had that contained the kick from the pepper was really quite good, but unfortunately, I only had one such bite.  My other bites just didn't have a whole lot of flavor pop.  I'm glad I tried it, but I wouldn't order again.

10 ounce grilled filet mignon ($47) topped with seared foie gras ($22).

Emil of course ordered his regular dish, the filet mignon, with seared foie on top.  He orders it rare, and they always deliver it perfectly executed with a giant hunk of foie.  I'm more of a medium-rare girl, so I just had a couple bites of this from the edge.  It was tender, with a great sear, and a flavorful crust.  The foie of course was creamy and delicious and added to deliciousness the dish (though, I'd personally prefer a tiny bit more sear on it).  This is a reliable classic, always worth getting at Alexander's.

Brand new dessert, I didn't get the name of it.  $12.

They had a new dessert on the menu tonight, and knowing what a dessert-o-holic I am, they sent it my way.  I didn't catch the name of it, nor the full description since I wasn't expecting it, so I'm certainly missing details here.

The main component was a lemon poppyseed cake.  It was served in a large chunk, several medium sized chunks, and some small cubes.  It had a great lemon flavor, a nice crunch from the poppyseeds within, and was quite moist.  I'm not really a fan of this style of cake in general however, and I'm particularly just really sick of lemon, so I didn't love it.  But, if you like this sort of thing, this was really well done.

The cake was accompanied by some lemon ice cream.  It was creamy, very strongly lemon flavored, and fairly sweet, but balanced by tartness from the lemon.  Again, I'm pretty sick of lemon so I wasn't into this, but surprisingly, Emil was, due to the tartness.

The rest of the plate was a bunch of components I love: Tiny little violet meringues! Violet cream!  Candied crushed violet petals!  The tiny purple meringues were adorable.  There was also hard style meringue that was crisp and way, way too sweet, even for me.  Perhaps it would have gone well with the tartness of the lemon, but it seemed like sugar overload.  The cream had a very subtle violet flavor.  I absolutely loved the crunch and taste of the candied violet.

I wouldn't order this one again, but entirely because it is just things I don't generally care for, as everything in the dish was well done, and lemon and violet are a lovely combination.

Bowl of rice pudding.

This is normally part of the elaborate "Tropic Thunder" dessert.  I have a serious thing for pudding based desserts (rice puddings, tapioca puddings, mousses, crème brûlée, etc).  But I really wasn't in the mood for a huge dessert, and I really have been kinda anti-passionfruit lately, which the real dessert features prominently, so I asked for just a bowl of the rice pudding.  They nicely obliged :)  The rice was cooked nicely, firm but not crunchy, the pudding was creamy, and it had a slight coconut flavor to it.  A little boring on its own, but this isn't how they intend you to eat it, as the real dessert has a slew of other components.  I actually couldn't finish it all that night (they brought me a very large bowl full!), so I took it home and enjoyed it the next day with fresh strawberries and blueberries on top, and it was delicious!  I'd love to see more rice pudding dishes on the menu, preferably without passionfruit, so I can enjoy it again!

Not pictured was our cherry cotton candy (really, really intense awesome cherry flavor!) and our mignardises (one of the violet meringues, a black sesame macaron, and a tiny cake).

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Lunch @ Cyrus

I've been pretty busy, so I'm late to post this review, but I took fairly extensive tasting notes during my meal, so hopefully I can remember and capture most of the details here.  But unfortunately, I do think some details have slipped my mind.  Note to self: make sure to write posts within a day of dining!

Anyway, last Saturday, we headed to Cyrus for lunch.  Cyrus is a two Michelin starred restaurant located up in Healdsburg.  I went there a few years ago, and at the time, it was the best and most memorable meal I'd ever had.  I've been eager to go back, but given that it is over 1.5 hours away, I haven't really been able to find an excuse to make it in for dinner.  I was excited to see that they just started a Saturday only lunch service in May, which seemed like a much better fit than dinner, since we could drive up, have a long leisurely lunch, and then spend the day in the sunshine and warmth of wine country!

The lunch experience is exactly the same as the dinner, a long formal meal, either 5 courses for $108 or 8 courses for $135.  The 8 course includes one more savory main dish, a cheese course, and another dessert.  For most of the courses, there is a choice for each.  In addition, there is a vegetarian menu, and you can pick any course off of the vegetarian menu as well, mixing at matching as you please.  The restaurant is actually insanely accommodating - if you let them know in advance, they can also do a vegan tasting.  Or, gluten free, which doesn't just mean they skip the bread, or bring you stale outsourced bread, instead they provide multiple house baked breads and other treats!  The table next to us had a gluten free diner, and I've never seen someone with a special diet so well taken care of.  Every step of the way, she was given something extra special, even at the end, when we received a take home pastry for the next day.

Speaking of the pastry, the course numbers are a serious understatement.  For example, with the 5 course menu, you first receive 5 canapes, a substantial amuse bouche, bread service with amazing breads that you do not want to skip, then 3 of your courses, then a palate cleanser, your final 2 courses, then a slew of mignardises, which includes the standard chocolates, candies, and pate de fruit, but even includes puddings, and then, when you think it must possibly be over, you get donuts with the bill.  And of course the aforementioned take home pastry.  If you were celebrating a birthday or other important event, they also throw in another dessert course that includes fresh chocolate chip cookies and shakes.  And to start, they offer caviar and champagne service.  This is a serious meal, and doing it in the middle of the day actually seems far more fitting than at night ... I can't imagine having this meal in the evening and possibly being able to digest and go to sleep!  I also cannot fathom having the caviar, 8 course, and birthday celebration ... I'm curious how many people can pull that off, while still having all the bread and mignardises.

There are optional wine pairings, also $108 for the 5 course, or $135 for the 8 course.  I wanted just a little wine for the meal, to help highlight my dishes but not really get me drunk, so I had the sommelier pick some wines that were available by the glass to go with mine.  He selected a riesling to go with the majority of my courses, and then a half glass of tokaji to go with my foie gras, and a half glass sweet dessert wine to go with my dessert.  This was the right amount of wine, but the pairings didn't work very well (details below in the food notes).  In the future I'd try to do something different, perhaps splitting the regular pairing.

The restaurant decor is formal and fancy, the patrons dressed up even at lunch time.  The service was all very good, definitely formal, but not quite stuffy.  We were served in unison.  Dishes were cleared at the appropriate time, new silverware replaced appropriately, etc.  Thorough explanations were given of every dish.  The meal was nicely paced.  The only service issue we had was that we were not offered any coffee, espresso, or other drinks to go with our desserts, and I really, really wanted coffee to pair with the sweet dessert.  The bread service was also slightly strangely timed, where we were left with no bread but really wanted some to pair with our food.  I think this is because we were in the last seating, so they were not circulating with the bread basket as regularly.

At the end of the meal we were offered a kitchen tour.  Since we were one of the last tables, the kitchen was fairly quiet and the chef had stepped out to walk his dog in the lull between lunch and dinner service.  It was nice to get a behind the scenes glimpse, but it would have been much more fun to see the kitchen in action!  What we did see was how immaculate the kitchen was, with well designed areas for each function.

Overall, the meal was good, but there were no dishes that really, really wowed me (actually, wait, that isn't true - the donuts are totally worth driving 1.5 hours for.  I'm not joking.  But of the "real" courses ...).  There was also nothing that was bad either.  These were all well thought out dishes made with high quality ingredients and executed perfectly, but something just felt safe and slightly boring to me.  I realize how absurd that statement is, given that the meal involved spheres, gelees, mousses, foams, and shattered ice cream.  I've been doing a ton of high end dining lately, eating lots of Michelin stars and molecular gastronomy, so I guess I am rather hard to impress these days.  Anyway, I'd go back if in the area, as this was one of the better meals I've had this year.  The staff is clearly very skilled and the price value here is high, particularly with all the extra treats thrown in!  And did I mention the donuts?

Canapés : gruyere gougeres, strawberry bubble, okanomiyaki, campari and grapefruit gelee, shitake broth

Cyrus always presents you with a tower of canapés to start, before you even order.  The tower has five items, one for each of the 5 tastes (sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and umami).  We started at the bottom, so as to conclude with the sweet top!

Umami: shitake mushroom, yuzu, and lemongrass broth.  This was a warm, pure broth.  The yuzu really came through on the finish.  It was a little boring to just sip on broth though.  The flavors were good and I think it would be really delicious as a full on soup with some mushrooms, other vegetables, or perhaps some dumplings.

Sour: okanomiyaki topped with tamarind sauce.  This was a tasty little bite!  The okanomikayki was slightly fried, warm, and somewhat creamy on the inside.  The tamarind sauce on top left a sour finish, exactly as designed.  I wish this were bigger!

Bitter: campari and grapefruit gelee topped with candied grapefruit peel.  The grapefruit peel on top really gave it a great bitter finish, again, exactly as intended.

Salty: gruyere gougere.  This was awesome.  A warm gougere filled with amazing melted gruyere fondue.  The cheese was incredibly flavorful and delicious.  Even though it was described as a fondue, I don't think any of us were prepared for it to be so perfectly creamy and melty.  I bit it in half to look inside, and wound up with melty cheese all over the place :)  Delicious.  I'd eat more of these in a heartbeat!

Sweet: strawberry bubble topped with micro wasabi.  Some molecular gastronomy going on here.  This burst in a really fun way when you bit into it, exploding what tasted like the most amazing pure strawberry jam ever into your mouth.  It would have been disastrous if someone had tried to bite into this just to see what it was without putting the whole thing in their mouth!  I thought this was fun and playful, but one of the other diners commented on how sick he was of spheres.  Granted, we've seen a lot of them lately.

We all thought the gougere was the best of the set, and that the okanomiyaki was the 3rd best, but we differed on the rest.  Our ordering of these really did reflect exactly our tastes!  My picks were: gougere, strawberry bubble, okanomiyaki, canpari, and finally the broth.  The other diners, having much less of a sweet tooth, both put  the strawberry last.  One other diner picked: gougere, canpari, okanomiyaki, broth, strawberry and the other picked: gougere, broth, okanomiyaki, canpari, strawberry.

These were a fun set of tastes to get us going and excited about the meal.  I really love the idea of stimulating all the senses!

Amuse bouche: Uni puree, cauliflower cream, puffed rice, nori, matcha powder.

Next up was the amuse bouche.  A little stand was placed in front of each of us, and then a small cup perched upon it.  This was a parfait of sorts, made up of uni puree, cauliflower cream, puffed rice, a few tiny shreds of nori, and matcha powder.

There wasn't nearly enough uni for me.  I adore uni, and I barely got a taste of it in here.  It came as a very thin layer of very smooth puree in the bottom of the cup.

The majority of the cup was filled with an incredibly fluffy, mousse-like, cauliflower cream.  One other diner described this as being as light as whipped cream.  It tasted incredibly like cauliflower.  I'm rather sick of cauliflower, and I really, really wanted to taste the uni, so this was unfortunate to me.  The cauliflower and uni flavors did go together well.

The puffed rice on top gave a great crunch and added texture to the whole thing.  I'm a sucker for creamy and crunchy contrasts!  However, the nori and matcha were completely lost in the strong cauliflower flavor.

I really wanted to love this, as I really enjoy savory custards and uni, but really this was just too much cauliflower cream for me.  When we discussed it afterwards, we all had really differing opinions on how much uni was in here, and on how strong the cauliflower flavor was, so it seems like these may have been inconsistently constructed.  While I expect some variation, and our perceptions to be different, one person really seemed to have gotten a lot more uni than the rest of us.  Great concept though.

Goat's milk butter, cow's milk butter from Spring Hill, Mendocino sea salt, pink Hawaiian salt.

In preparation for the bread service, we were given a duo of butters and salts.  The goat's milk butter indeed had a goaty taste to it, and thus I didn't care for it (sigh, I wish I could like goat milk!).  The cow's milk butter was good, standard, high quality butter.  The salts were both very flavorful.

At this point, we'd already had 5 canapes, an amuse bouche, and still had our five courses left!  So when we saw the bread basket coming, I was initially tempted to skip the breads, but they had so many options, and they all looked sooo good.  And, they were warm.  And made in house that morning.  How do you say no?  I'm glad we didn't, these were far better breads than most restaurants serve.  We did show some restraint, and each only picked three (out of 7? choices).

Pretzel croissant, brioche, chive biscuit.

My picks!  All served warm.

The pretzel croissant was very buttery, flaky, had a nice crisp crust, and was loaded up with sesame seeds, which provided a nice heartiness.  I'm not really sure what was "pretzel" like about it however besides the seeds.  This was certainly a well executed croissant, but it made me really, really crave the pretzel croissant from City Bakery in New York.  This was great to eat on its own in-between courses.

The brioche was likewise very, very buttery.  Almost too much for my taste, and too much to just eat the roll as is, but I partially got it in anticipation of my upcoming foie gras, which it worked very, very well with.  More on this later ...

The chive biscuit was incredibly moist, full of chive flavor, and also fairly buttery.  Really tasty, although it seemed somewhat out of place.  It didn't really seem right to be eating this heavy biscuit with my light salmon starter, and there wasn't really anything on the menu it seemed like it would really pair with.  It was really good though.

Fantastic breads, and I loved the variety of choices, no standard dinner rolls here!

Epi, honey wheat, pretzel croissant.

Since I wanted to try the butters, which didn't really go with my selection, I also tasted my neighbor's picks.  His were more standard dinner breads.

The epi was adorable.  I've never seen one so small before.  It had a nice crust with a good chew on it.  I believe it was sourdough.  Decent, but I'm spoiled by getting Acme Bakery's amazing epi all the time.

The honey wheat roll was really hearty, full of seeds, and lightly sweetened.  Like the epi, it had a good crust on it.  If I'd wanted a more classic roll, I'd certainly get this.

Not pictured was the roasted garlic sourdough that none of us selected.

Chilled Salmon with Ginger and Daikon, Snap Pea-Basil Broth

Finally!  Our first real course arrived.  We all selected the same dish (our other choice was a "Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato" dish that didn't sound nearly as appealing).  The dishes all arrived simultaneously, and the broth was poured in tableside.

This was local king salmon, first poached in olive oil, and then chilled.  It was topped with finely grated ginger and micro basil.  Underneath was the shredded daikon.

The salmon was a good firm texture and consistency, but wasn't very flavorful.  It seemed like the olive oil poaching may have wiped out the flavor.  It wasn't bad, but was very forgettable.

The ginger was very intense.  I was the last to try my dish as I was taking photos and notes, and thus had a warning that the ginger would be strong, but my fellow diners were a little shocked when they took a bite and wound up with a mouth full of ginger.  A little went a long way, and there was perhaps too much on the plate, or at least, it was really easy to get too much in a single bite given the plating.  I mixed some into the broth and thought it complimented it really nicely and really appreciated the ginger element.

The diakon shreds in the bottom added some good texture.

The broth was delicious.  Really flavorful and just let the phenomenal flavor of fresh spring peas shine. I eagerly lapped up all of the remaining broth with my bread.

Overall, this dish really didn't impress me, but I really liked the broth.  I'd gladly have consumed a bowl of it.  Who needs the salmon anyway?  This was my least favorite dish.

I had this paired with a glass of riesling.  It wasn't particularly noteworthy.  Since I didn't want more than two glasses of wine total for the meal, the sommelier suggested that I get this wine to pair with my first, third, and fourth courses since they were all seafood.  I didn't find that this wine really went that well with any of the courses, perhaps I just didn't care for it much to begin with.

Humane Foie Gras and Cherry Blossom Parfait, Barley, Sea Beans and Shizo

And of course, the dish we were there for, the foie gras!  I was very excited for this, as clearly I've been on a serious foie gras kick and I love savory custards!

This was beautiful.  It is hard to see in this photo, but the foie gras mousse was topped with a translucent layer of cherry blossom gelee.  This made the puffed barley, sea beans, shiso, and powdered cherry blossom on top look like they were floating above the surface.  Stunning.

There was a generous amount of foie gras mousse.  It was perfectly smooth and creamy, full of foie flavor, and quite excellent.

The cherry blossom gelee layer had a very subtle floral flavor.  It had a slight sweetness to compliment the foie gras.  The consistency was very jelly like and a little hard to break through.

Like the puffed rice in the amuse bouche, the puffed barley here was crispy and added a fantastic crunch.  I am really so into these creamy custards with crunchy bits on top!  They remind me of two of my favorite things: ice cream topped with nuts/cocoa nibs/etc or greek yogurt topped with granola.

I had this paired with a fantastic half glass of Tokaji Aszú, Királyudvar “6 Puttonyos”, Hungary 2003.  Liquid sugar :)  I can't get enough of tokaji these days, particularly paired with foie.

I was enjoying this dish, for the foie, for the creaminess, for the tokaji, but something seemed to still be missing.  That is when I remembered that I had asked for the brioche roll in anticipation of this dish.  So instead of just eating a spoonful of the parfait, I took a piece of the brioche, plopped the mousse on top, added a little gelee, and tried it that way.  In an instant, it all came together so much better!  The brioche, which was otherwise too buttery for me, was completely transformed with the creamy foie mousse spread on top.  I know it sounds crazy that adding foie gras to something would make it less rich ... but it really worked.  Of course, eating it in this way was a very different experience, and I oscillated back and forth between just having spoonfuls of the parfait, or spreading it on the brioche.  I liked the completeness of the flavor when added to the brioche, but I enjoyed the actual experience of eating the creamy parfait on its own more.

Overall, I loved the idea behind this dish, and really enjoyed eating the foie this way, but I did feel like there was something still missing to really take this up a notch, perhaps a stronger flavor in the gelee, or a fruit component?  I'd still get it again, but it seemed like it could use a little more refinement.  Or perhaps, I've just had sooo much foie gras in the past few months that it is really, really hard to create a version that wows me anymore.  Don't get me wrong, it was good, and I'd get it again if I could.  My favorite savory dish of the meal.

Chorizo Crusted Scallop with Sweet Corn and Lobster Froth

At this point in the meal, everyone was supposed to receive a sea bass dish.  But I was difficult and did not want any of the selections for the subsequent meat dish, and instead selected the scallop (normally the option opposite the foie gras).  The chef decided that a better progression for me was to have the scallop at this point, and the bass while they were having their meatier main courses.

The scallop was crusted with chorizo, served atop a sweet corn puree, with a lobster froth on the side.

When I first cut into the scallop, I was very disappointed.  To me, the perfect scallop is one with an excellent sear on the outside, a slightly caramelized crust, and medium-rare on the inside.  This had no real sear on it and was fully cooked all the way through.  However, the scallop was large, fresh, and once I got over my disappointment of the doneness level, the dish really grew on me.

The chorizo crust was a really fantastic compliment to the scallop.  Salty, flavorful, but not at all overwhelming.  It was similar flavor-wise to a more common bacon wrapped scallop, but was far more refined and a lot easier to physically eat!

The corn puree was absolutely delicious.  It was sweet, creamy but with texture, and just really quite good.

The lobster froth was very light and foamy, with a subtle flavor.  I'm not sure I could have identified it as lobster if I hadn't been told.

I was impressed by how well these components all worked together, highlighting different aspects of the scallop.  The chorizo brought out a meaty aspect, the corn puree brought out the sweetness, and the foam accented the delicateness.  Really a wonderfully composed dish.  If the scallop had been cooked a tiny bit less, this would have been a home run.  My second favorite savory dish of the meal.

Palette cleanser: avocado lime lollipop.

To prepare for the main course, we were brought a palette cleanser.  These were frozen avocado lime sorbet lollipops.  They were cold, creamy from the avocado, with a nice lime flavor.

They were presented slightly awkwardly - we were each supposed to take one, eat it, and then give the stick back immediately, so the server stood there expectantly watching us and waiting for the stick back.  I couldn't really take the time to take a photo, write down what it was, and savor and appreciate it.  But I'm likely the annoying exception (that said, I think every table around us had someone with a full size camera taking photos of their food, where I was just taking quick snaps with my phone!).

I liked the idea here, particularly the cold aspect to it, and the sorbet lollipop was cute, but the actual execution didn't seem like much of a palette cleanser, as it was pretty rich from the avocado and not very refreshing.

Seared Beef Cheek with Tonburi, Green and Black Garlic, Lotus Root, Natural Jelly

This was the main dish my dining companions selected.

I haven't ever really cared for beef cheeks, mostly due to their texture, which is often kinda gummy or slimy.  However, this beef was incredibly tender, with a fantastic crust on it.  The flavor was very pronounced, very ... beefy.

The black garlic puree was flavorful and very good.  I love the subtle flavor of black garlic.

The lotus root was miso glazed and my favorite component of the dish.  Cooked just enough to be soft, yet still fairly crisp, although it was a little bit strangely sticky.  My dining companions both did not care for it, I think due to its sweetness, so I got to enjoy both of their pieces.

This dish would have been really complemented by a nice glass of red wine.

I'm glad I didn't pick this dish as it just really isn't my thing, but it was well executed for what it was.

Black Sea Bass with Pea Sprouts and Asparagus, Lemon Verbena

My main dish was the bass that the others enjoyed while I had the scallop.  This was the same dish that they had, except scaled up to a main dish portion by doubling the fish.

The bass was cooked nicely, moist and tender, but it didn't have much flavor.  The skin was not crispy nor slimy, but just kinda there.  I would have preferred it without the skin, but it did make it look a lot prettier.

The asparagus was served two ways: a shaving of white asparagus and a full spear of green asparagus. The spear was cooked perfectly, slightly al dente, crisp.  It was wrapped with umi-budō, which I didn't really taste, but again, looked nice.

The pea sprouts were likewise perfectly executed.  Slightly crispy, very fresh.

The sauce was a lemon verbena beurre blanc.  I normally love sauces, but this one I really did not care for.  It was salty and had a weird thick mouth feel.

There was nothing wrong with this dish execution-wise, in fact, quite the contrary, I can't really fault the technique on anything, but it was just rather boring.  No component really compelled me to eat more of it, nor did they combine together in any meaningful way.  Perhaps if I liked the sauce it would have tied things together better?  Or perhaps scaling it to a main dish portion this just didn't work as well.  For example, when the others had this dish, they had the same amount of asparagus and pea sprouts, but half as much fish, which seems more balanced.  Either way, this dish bored me and really seemed to be missing something.

Yuzu Crémeux, Bergamot Meringue and Cream Cheese Ice Cream

Next up were our main desserts.  They arrived really rapidly after we finished our last savory courses.  I was surprised by this, because it was faster pacing than the rest of the meal, but mostly because we were not offered coffee or any other drinks with our desserts.  I really enjoy having some bitter coffee with my sweet dessert, and was a little upset that we didn't have any.  I would have asked for some, but our desserts involved frozen components, so they would have melted while waiting for the coffee.

Anyway.  My dessert was this crazy looking dish.  It needs some explanation!

On top was the "cream cheese ice cream", with a few little shiso leafs.  As you can likely see, this was no ordinary ice cream.  It was shattered into pieces.  It was cold, but due to this form factor, not creamy.    It unfortunately didn't have a very strong cream cheese flavor.  While I thought this was fun and creative, it really just wasn't nearly as tasty as regular ice cream.

Also scattered inside of the ice cream pieces were a few tiny little bergamot meringues (the hard style).  They were cute little things, and again, it was fun to eat and discover them amongst the rubble of ice cream, but they weren't particularly good.

There was also some sort of streusel, I'm not quite sure what it was, underneath all of the ice cream.

After a number of spoonfuls of this, I was a little stumped.  Where was the yuzu crémeux?  Was I just missing something?  I know this was a creative dish, and the ice cream certainly didn't come in an identifiable form, so perhaps I just missed the crémeux?  But I sure didn't taste any yuzu.  I flagged down a server to ask about this, and he said there should have been a pudding in the center.  There definitely wasn't in mine!  My dish was whisked away and quickly replaced by a new one, with a center of a very sour yuzu pudding.  There is no way I could have missed that the first time!  I didn't really care for it, too sour for my liking, and the flavor seemed to clash with the ice cream.

This was a fun and creative dish.  The play of different textures and temperatures was particularly interesting.  It was enjoyable to eat, but it just didn't taste very good.  This made me sad, since it sounded like all things I like - pudding, meringues, ice cream!  My least favorite dessert.

This was paired with a really sweet wine, I forget what it was.  I thought the pairing was rather horrible, as they were both just way too sweet.  I really, really wanted coffee!

Cocoa Nib “Affogato”, Condensed Milk Semifreddo

We knew when we saw quotes on the menu that this wouldn't be a normal affogato.  In fact, it did not contain any coffee whatsoever, nor traditional ice cream.

On the bottom was a chocolate brioche crouton.  It was topped with the condensed milk semifreddo, and a garnish of chocolate.  Then, a warm rum sauce was poured over it tableside.

The chocolate brioche was served warm, always a win in my book, particularly when paired with a frozen component.  It had cocoa nibs throughout, which gave a great crunch.  It quickly soaked up the sauce, making it moist and quite delicious.

The condensed milk semifreddo was creamy and sweet, lighter than a standard ice cream.  I really liked it, and thought it went well with both the brioche and the sauce.

The sauce was warm rum sauce, very boozy.

This dessert was good - basically moist chocolate cake, warm sauce, cold creamy ice cream ... kind hard to go wrong :)  However, it really, really needed some coffee to go with it!  It was good this way, but would have been soooo much better with the contrast of the bitter coffee.  I really wish they had offered us some coffee.  I also wish I'd picked this dessert!  It was my favorite of the main desserts, and second favorite of all of the desserts.

Goat Milk Panna Cotta with Rhubarb, Parsley-Lime Ice

Our dining companion who does not like sweets selected this dessert.  The panna cotta was a good texture and consistency, but was, unfortunately for me, very goaty, as advertised.  It was topped with the parsley-lime ice, which was a great contrast both in temperature and texture to the panna cotta.  Totally not my thing due to the goat milk, and I don't think my friend loved this, but for a dessert, this was about as good as it gets for him, being slightly sour and refreshing, rather than just sweet.  If I liked goat milk, I would have really enjoyed this.

Mignardises: english toffee, ginger chew, peanut butter cup, salted caramel chocolate, champagne pate de fruit,  hazelnut crusted chocolate truffle, huckleberry macaron.

After our desserts, it was of course time for more desserts.  I wish I'd taken a photo of the full mignardises cart, as it was a sight to behold.  It had been parked directly in my line of sight the entire meal long, taunting me with promises of more and more desserts.  I was pretty stuffed from all of the previous dishes, including the full size desserts, but ... who can resist more desserts!  I took one of everything :)

At this point, we asked for coffee.  While I really had wanted it with the main desserts, I also thought my chocolates would be enhanced by it.

First, the chocolates and candies.

English toffee: This was interesting, but not very good.  The bottom was a saltine, then came the toffee, a thin layer of milk chocolate, and finally almond slivers.  The toffee was just sweet and not very complex, the saltine kinda stale tasting, the chocolate layer too thin to taste, and the nuts were also kinda lost.  Note that I'm spoiled by regularly consuming the insanely addicting almond brittle from GL Alfieri at the Ferry Building, so my toffee standards are rather high.

Ginger chew: This had a really strange mouthfeel.  It was kinda mushy.  Filled with shreds of ginger.  Not really what I was expecting.  I didn't like this.

Peanut butter cup:  Not your standard peanut butter cup!  The majority of it was a peanut infused milk chocolate, and then it had a dark chocolate top layer, and was topped with some salt and nuts.  The body of it was crunchy from little bits of peanuts.  The salt was the perfect contrast.  This was really quite tasty, my second favorite of the candies.

Salted caramel filled chocolate: This had a milk (possibly dark?) chocolate shell, with a gooey salted caramel filling.  It definitely lived up to the salted part, so many “salted caramel” things fail to really deliver on the salt.  This was pretty good.

Champagne pate de fruit: Pretty standard pate de fruit.  It was sweet, with a good mouthfeel, but the flavor was not that interesting.

Hazelnut crusted chocolate truffle:  This was by far my favorite.  It had a milk chocolate shell, a creamy sweet milk chocolate filling, and was rolled in candied crunchy hazelnuts.  Great flavors and nice contrasting textures from the creamy filling and crunchy coating.  Certainly one of the best chocolates I've ever had at a restaurant, and on par with many fancy truffles I've had.

Huckleberry macaron:  This was very, very sweet.  The cookies were not quite right, they did not have the crisp exterior that makes for an awesome macaroon.  The filling was a little odd as well, with two components: one was insanely sweet, I'm not sure what it was, and then there was a tiny bit of huckleberry jam filling too.  The huckleberry jam was very good, but overall this was just too sweet and not perfectly executed.

Chocolate pot de creme, rice pudding with mango

The mignardises cart contained much more than just candies.  It also offered puddings!  Not only do I get a slew of desserts after my dessert, I get puddings?  Be still my heart!

The milk chocolate pot de creme was topped with a malt pudding layer, a oreo cookie like chocolate crumble, and little chocolate balls.  The puddings were creamy and a great consistency, the crumble and little balls gave a contrasting crunch, and there was plenty of chocolate flavor.  Served in a cute little jar.  This was all pretty good, but I'm spoiled by having some incredible chocolate puddings at work, and the pudding didn't have quite the intense chocolate flavor that some of those have had.  Good, but not great.

The rice pudding came with a mango sphere.  More spheres!  The presentation, I think intentionally, reminded me of an egg.  The pudding was creamy, the rice cooked well, and there was a good balance of rice to pudding.  The mango added a good additional, sweet, flavor.  Again good, but not great.

Root beer float lollipop.

One side of the lollipop was root beer flavored, the other side vanilla cream flavored.  This was a really fantastic lollipop!  The root beer flavor was really strong, and the vanilla mixed in really was exactly like a float.  Dessert in a lollipop!

Maple bourbon glazed donuts

When our check arrived, it came with even more desserts.  Yes, seriously.  After a full size dessert each, a plethora of puddings, candies, and chocolates, they thought we still needed more.  A little donut for each of us!  They were clearly fresh.  Piping hot.  Covered in an delicious maple bourbon glaze.  These things were downright amazing.  Ridiculously sweet from all of the glaze, but absolutely addicting.  Remember how one diner doesn't like sweets?  Lets just say that his extra donut didn't stand a chance of being wasted, no matter how full, or sick of sweet we were at that point.

These were perhaps the best donuts I've ever had in my life.  Being fresh out of the fryer certainly elevates them considerably, but they were also just really well done.  Moist, fluffy, and the glaze.  Oh the glaze.  So tasty.

Our server came back over to ask if we needed anything else.  I jokingly exclaimed "yes, more donuts!".  Ok, maybe I was half serious.  I think I was joking.  I was stuffed!  So much sweets!  She didn't miss a beat.  "Sure, another round of donuts?"  And a few minutes later, three more appeared before us.  And guess what, that extra donut disappeared even faster this time.

Seriously, so good.  I can't get over these things.  We took some time to walk around the town after our meal, and when we were walking past the restaurant on our way back to the car, I said that we should just go get seated at the bar to have drink and more donuts.  This time I definitely wasn't joking, but no one else followed my lead.  These were, hands down, my favorite dessert of the meal, but also, my favorite dish.  I feel ridiculous going to a two Michelin star restaurant and raving so much about the donuts of all things, but these were absolutely amazing.

Decaf coffee.

The coffee came with a pitcher of steamed milk.  I normally drink my coffee black, but I love it when they include steamed milk.  My ideal coffee drink is actually black, with just a dollop of foam on top (no milk mixed in), and this allows me to create that!  The coffee was ok, nothing particularly memorable, which for a decaf is good.

Take home treat: kouign amann

But wait, there is more!  Everyone receives a take home pastry as well!  Boxed up, and packaged with a label that reads, "Tomorrow?"  Cute!  Also included with the pastry is a copy of your personalized menu.

Since one of our diners doesn't like sweets, I got two of these.  I got to try one later that evening and one the next day.  While it held up ok, it was certainly a lot better the first day, as the exterior lost some of its crispness overnight.  Still, it was awesome to wake up to for breakfast!

This was a very buttery pastry with chocolate filling.  The outside was coated in sugar and was highly caramelized.  Really pretty good, and a wonderful treat the next morning!  It was the meal that just kept on giving ...

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Dinner @ Benu, a la carte

We recently discovered that Benu offers an a la carte menu during the week.  Prices are pretty standard for the neighborhood: appetizers ~$15, mains $20-40, and desserts $12.  This seemed like a great way to try out some of the food, but not do the full on extravaganza of the $180, 18 course menu they always offer.

The space is well designed.  To get to the entrance, you walk by the kitchen, which is surrounded by glass walls, and even has a viewing platform.  You also pass through a really nice garden area.  Inside is swanky yet comfortable.  The bathrooms were really nice, with both hooks and shelves for your personal belongings, the toilet paper end folded into a V after every use, and high quality paper-clothes.  Yes I know, it is just a bathroom, but I was particularly impressed with this one!

Service was good, polite.  Dishes were presented and cleared synchronized.  Waitstaff were knowledgeable about all of the components of the dishes.  I tried hard to order one dish from the tasting menu that I desperately wanted to try (the foie gras xaio long bao that everyone raves about and I really wanted a chance to have before July 1), but the waiter wouldn't budge.

I was really looking forward to this dinner, but it just didn't wow me.  It wasn't bad, but there was nothing memorable.  I'm not sure if my expectations were just high given that they have two Michelin stars and I've heard such great things about it (although, always about the full tasting menu).  Or maybe it was just the seasonal elements being quite boring, as it is hard to get excited about things like fennel and cauliflower.  Either way, it really failed to leave an impression.  One of my co-diners had been to Benu a few times before, always for the tasting, and had loved it then.  His impression was that the small bites concept just didn't scale up to full size portions very well, and I somewhat can understand that opinion.

The most memorable part of the night was not the food itself, but rather the way things looked.  The serving pieces, particularly those that overlapped with the tasting menu, were very impressive.  I'd heard that many of them were designed for the restaurant, and that was quite clear, as these were unique, clearly single-purpose, pieces.  The plating and creativity in the desserts was also impressive, even if I didn't love the food.

I wouldn't go back for any of the dishes we had, although I'm still interested in the tasting menu, as it has some signature dishes that are supposed to be great.

Cute little stone that was used for all silverware placement. 

Each diner had a stone on the table in front of them.  When silverware was changed out, it was placed onto the stone.  I really appreciated this, even though I know they clean their tables, I still always hate my silverware sitting on them!

One annoyance though: I'm right handed.  I was the leftmost person at the table.  All of our stones were on our right, but the waiter moved mine to the left, presumably so he could better reach it?  But this made it so that my silverware was always on the left.  I moved it back once or twice to the right, but he moved it back each time.  Everyone else had theirs on the right.  It made putting down and picking back up my silverware kinda uncomfortable.

This spoon was our first piece of silverware, to go with our amuse bouche, which I somehow don't have a photo of :(  It was a cold sesame tofu dumpling, with a green asparagus broth and green asparagus chunks, topped with a tiny little bachelor button.  It was very cute, but I didn't actually like the tofu much.  It was firm, with no real flavor of its own.  I didn't taste the sesame.  The asparagus on the other hand was bright, light, and flavorful.  But overall, not very interesting.

Buckwheat lavash, toasted nori, sesame seeds.

Instead of bread service, you get a lovely wooden box full of these crackers, standing up in little slits.  Excellent presentation, the serving-piece clearly designed for this purpose.

I thought they were absolutely delicious.  The buckwheat and sesame seeds gave them a hearty taste and the nori added a saltiness and further flavor.  They were super thin, and crispy yet pliable at the same time.  They were flavorful enough to be good on their own, but I would have liked something to dip them into.

Brut Rose, $22.

I wanted only a single glass of alcohol for the evening, and wanted something that would pair with all of my courses, so went for the brut rose.  I expected this to be sweeter than it was.  It was surprisingly bitter.  I didn't like it that much.

Foie gras steamed in sake,  fennel, green grape, sea grape, arugula.  $16.

Of course we had to order the foie gras to start!  This arrived without the broth, which was poured over it tableside.  They didn't do any other tableside presentations on the a la carte menu (at least, given what we ordered), and this didn't really seem necessary.  A nice touch I guess?

The foie gras was a really interesting consistency.  It was really creamy and incredibly smooth like a mousse, yet firm and not fluffy.  It had clearly been processed quite a bit, as you can probably tell from the photo.  The foie flavor was weaker than I expected, again, more like a mousse than a torchon or pure lobe.  I didn't taste the sake it had been steamed in.

It came with fennel in several preparations.  First was the light fennel and star anise broth, then there were very thin slices of shaved fennel bulb, and a few, very flavorful, sprigs of the frond.  Fennel seeds were featured in the accompanying bread.  This was my frist fennel and foie pairing, and I'm still just not sure what I think of it.  I'm used to a sweet component paired with foie, which fennel isn't.  It didn't not work, but it didn't particularly work either.  Fennel is just kinda ... boring.  The frond however was really intense, and a bite with that really had a flavor pop!

The sea grape and green grape were interesting from a texture and visual perspective, but I didn't think they did much for the dish.  I guess the green grape added a little sweetness.  I didn't see any arugula, as was listed on the menu.

At $16, this was a decent foie preparation, but I think there was less foie gras in here than it looks like, with more filler making it as creamy as it was.  This dish wasn't particularly memorable, and while I'd eat it again, I wouldn't go out of my way to order it.

Whole wheat fennel seed roll.

This was the roll that game with the foie gras.  It was served really nice and warm, perfect temperature. Crusty on the outside, soft on the inside.  Like the lavash crackers, it was really hearty tasting from the whole grains.  The fennel seed flavor was really, really strong.  I actually thought it was too strong and overpowering.  I enjoyed spreading some of the foie gras on the warm roll, as it would slightly melt into it like butter.  But so much better than butter.

Whole steamed bass with crispy skin, gai choy, turnip, mustard seed.  $32.

Hmm, where to start.  This dish was not really a success.

The turnip came as tiny little cubes.  Nothing much to say about it.

The gai choy was a fresh nice vegetable component.  It paired really well with the mustard sauce.

Speaking of the mustard sauce.  It was the downfall of this dish.  It was insanely strong and intense, and totally, completely overwhelmed the light flavored bass.  It was great with the greens, but just took over everything else.  A few bites with this, and I felt like my palette was blown.

And speaking of the bass, it was cooked decently I guess, just simply steamed, flaky, but really, really boring.  It had no flavor to speak of and there was just absolutely nothing noteworthy about it.

The crispy skin however, was amazing.  It was completely separated from the fish, lightly coated in a thin breading, and fried.  It was as crisp as can be.  Spicy.  Salty.  Like the best chip you've ever had in your life.  I couldn't get enough of it.  While the rest of this dish fell down pretty hard, the skin really almost made up for it, it was that fantastic.  It actually brings a smile to my face just thinking about it as I write this.

I wouldn't order this again, but I'd tell someone else to, and steal the skin when they weren't looking :)  For $32 though, this was a very reasonable dish, and although I really didn't care for it, quality-wise and component-wise, it is on par with many fish entrees at lesser establishments in the area.

Lobster glazed in cognac sauce, cauliflower, ramps, celery, pine nut.  $38.

The cauliflower came two ways: chunks and pureed.  The chunks were cooked well, left slightly al dente.  Good enough, but at the end of the day, just cauliflower.  I didn't think it paired that well with the lobster.  The puree was more interesting, as it reminded me of creamy mashed potatoes, and the cognac sauce was like a gravy with it.

The ramps were pickled, with a really awesome tartness from the vinegar that made your mouth pucker as you ate them.  They went well with the cauliflower.

The celery and pine nuts came in the form of a ragout.  This went really well with the cognac sauce.

Finally, the lobster.  There was a generous chunk of tail meat, two chunks of claw meat, and another piece that I think was also tail?  The largest piece was really quite chewy, and I didn't like it much at all.  The medium size piece was better, but still not that great.  The chunks of claw meat were tender and fantastic.

The cognac sauce was good, with a very intense cognac flavor.  If you don't like cognac, you would not like this dish at all.

Besides the claw meat, the only part of this I really liked was a spoonful of cauliflower puree, with some of the celery, and some pickled ramp, and of course, the cognac sauce.  Those were tasty bites, but certainly not $38 worthy bites.  I wouldn't order this again.

Black truffle bun.

This came with the lobster.  It was a warm, doughy bun, filled with lobster confit, served nice and warm.  I liked this.  The truffle flavor was very strong in the breading.  If it had been served on its own I think this would have needed more filling, as it wasn't that plentiful or flavorful.  In fact, I couldn't really tell what was inside of it, was guessing there was lobster but couldn't distinguish it, and had to ask the server.  This was sooo good with the cognac sauce however.  The truffle and cognac were a fantastic pairing.  My favorite bite of the evening (ok, perhaps tied with the crispy skin!) was a chunk of this bun, smothered with cauliflower puree and cognac sauce.  It reminded me of Thanksgiving dinner, where I often take a chunk of warm roll and load it up with mashed potatoes and gravy.  Really tasty.  Honestly, this dish would have been better without the lobster itself, as there were some good things going on here!

Lamill Decaf Coffee, milk, sugar. $5.

As is my standard practice these days, I asked how the decaf coffee was.  The server very strongly said it was good, so I went for it.  I love sweets and desserts, but I love them even more when paired with a nice bitter coffee!

This was indeed fairly complex for a decaf, with some real bitter quality to it.  However, it had a strange, almost chalky aftertaste that was a little unpleasant.  Served with it was steamed cream (I usually drink my coffee black, but I love it when they steam it!), raw sugar, and then, hidden under the wooden lid, some assorted other sweeteners in packets.  I was very amused that they hid those unsightly things! :)  Nice presentation all around, with wooden coasters and handless mugs.

Chocolate ganache,  peanut pudding, miso ice cream.  $14.

I have been staying away from ordering chocolate desserts in the evening these days as I've found them causing me problems with sleep (yes, my caffeine tolerance is that low these days ... long gone are my zillion shots of espresso per day days!), but this was on a bunch of lists as a top dessert, so I had to try it.

I had seen photos of this one before, so I knew what to expect, but it still was a sight to behold.  It was beautiful, well thought out and nicely composed, with a lot of contrasting textures, colors, and flavors, but it certainly looked better than it actually tasted.  Not that it was bad, but it just wasn't that good.  Chocolate and peanuts ... how do you go wrong with those???

First, what should have been the star: chocolate!  The chocolate ganache came in the form of some little logs.  Soft, creamy, but it was only ok.  I was a little surprised, as I expected more flavor intensity from the ganache.  The next chocolate component was the chocolate sponge cake.  It was a little dry, again, not very chocolatey, and just not that interesting.  You certainly wouldn't want to eat it on its own.  The best chocolate component was the chocolate shards.  These were totally surprising.  They were insanely thin and insanely crunchy!  I'm not sure what made them so crisp and crunchy.  I really liked them.  There was also some chocolate "soil" on the plate, adding a little texture to the creamy pudding, ganache, and ice cream.

Next up: peanut components!  The peanut pudding was piped on as a rope.  It was very creamy, and peanuty, but again, just not that interesting.  I'm not sure what it needed, but it needed something.  It was certainly more like just plain old peanut butter than "pudding".  Peanuts also appeared in their whole form, crispy, roasted, and slightly candied.  These added a good crunch.

And finally, the most interesting parts, the miso components.  The meringues were apparently miso flavored, but I didn't pick up the miso, they just tasted like plain meringue to me, which was pretty boring.  They were crunchy though, and added something texture-wise to the dish.  The miso ice cream was by far the most interesting thing on the plate.  It was sweet, a little salty, and really quite good.

I did have fun making myself different bites, trying to combine different flavors and textures.  There was a lot to play with here, but I didn't ever find a bite that really wowed me with flavor.  I appreciated this dish more for its texture than taste.

I'm glad I tried this, but I wouldn't get it again.  $14 reflects the plating and creativity behind the dish.

Rhubarb,  yogurt, quinine, lavender tapioca.  $14.

Crazy, right?  There was stewed rhubarb and raw rhubarb, hiding under a blanket of yogurt gel, on top of lavender tapioca, with some quinine ice cream on the side.

This wasn't my dish, so I only had a few bites, but it was pretty marvelous.  The rhubarb was fresh, crisp, refreshing.  The yogurt blanket was slightly sweet, but still tart, nicely complimenting the rhubarb.  The flavor of the ice cream was really, really strange.  The lavender tapioca was lovely.

Overall a light, refreshing, not too sweet, dish.  I didn't have enough to fully evaluate it however.

Assorted chocolates.

Another very interesting serving piece, clearly designed just for this purpose.  These came in a box, which the server opened to reveal the tiers of chocolates.  Interestingly, we had five people at the table, and received two boxes, each with two sets of chocolates in them, four different kinds.  Luckily for us, one person dislikes sweets and has been to Benu several times and tried these before, so he just passed on them, but I found it really odd to serve like this.  I'm not sure how we would have divided them up otherwise, as there is no way to evenly distribute them.

Each of these chocolate surprised me, as they didn't taste anything like they looked.  They were all very sweet and not really that good.  From top to bottom along the left hand side, as described by server:

• Dark chocolate with lychee pate de fruit: this was actually a very thin dark chocolate shell, filled with lychee buttercream, with tiny chunks of lychee in it as well.  It was very sweet.  Not at all what I was expecting from a dark chocolate.  Third favorite.
• White chocolate with dried mixed fruit and almonds: This was actually the least sweet of all of the chocolates, which is not what you'd expect from white chocolate.  It was filled with tiny bits of dried fruit, in particular, I detected some apricot, which paired very well with the white chocolate.  This was my favorite piece, which is so strange, as white chocolate is rarely what I go for.
• Milk chocolate and walnut: this was a thin milk chocolate shell around a walnut caramel goo inside.  Not at all what I was expecting when I bit into it.  Topped with a crispy candied walnut.  The walnut and chocolate were a good flavor combination.  Second favorite.
• Milk chocolate and toasted sesame with cherry compote: The sesame here was very subtle.  The cherry didn't come through very well, which is a shame, as cherry and chocolate is a great combination.  The salt on top was a nice touch.  I didn't like this one.  Least favorite.

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Tasting Menu @ Commonwealth

A few weeks ago, I went to Commonwealth for the first time, and thought it was great - an incredible and rare mix of a casual setting, great service, reasonable prices, and serving interesting, tasty, seasonal food.  And, they are even open on Mondays!  So when my visitors wanted to eat some great food, and get a unique San Francisco experience, this seemed like a perfect fit - and it was!

On my first visit, we just tried a few items off the regular menu.  This time we were headed to try out the tasting menu.  It is an incredible value: 6 courses, plus chips, two amuses, and parting truffles for only $65 (and out of that, they donate $10 to local charity)!  Complete with complimentary house sparkling water!  Insane value, as it isn't like the courses are made out of cheap ingredients - this is high quality, good portion sizes, and includes ingredients such as caviar and foie gras.  Even more incredibly, they are extremely accommodating with switches to the tasting menu.  They offer the standard tasting, or a pescatarian version, or a vegetarian version, but if you want to just switch out a single item, they'll do that too.  In fact, every person in our 6 person group changed up something (sorry for being so difficult Commonwealth!).

Continuing in the insane value, you can add wine pairings for only $30!  This includes a pairing for every dish plus a sparkling wine paired with the amuses.  And continuing the theme of being incredibly accommodating, they allowed two uf us to split a wine pairing, pouring us each separately.  While this in itself is notable, what is even more amazing is that the two of us had different courses (since we'd each switched out something on the main tasting menu), and they even gave us totally different wines.  The drink pairings were nicely done, and I really appreciated that the server would explain to us, in detail, why each drink was paired with each course, describing elements of the dish and the wine, and how she felt they'd compliment each other.

Just like last time, I loved the atmosphere.  Open, bright, casual, relaxing.  It just feels really great to be there.  Service was again spot on, with elements of formality like clearing our silverware between courses, but also completely comportable.  The entire experience just matches itself so well, quality but not stuffy.  I'm really not sure how they pulled off getting everything so right here!

I will certainly return, for the regular menu or the tasting menu.  I just wish it were in my neighborhood!

House made potato chips with nori powder and vinegar mousse.

Every table receives some chips and vinegar dip when they arrive.  These were the same as last time, so I won't review them again.

"Naughty Eskimo": grapefruit, Fino sherry, tarragon, litsea, liquid nitrogen.  $11.

One member of our group ordered this "cocktail", intrigued by the ingredient of liquid nitrogen listed on the menu.  This was much more of a slushie than a drink, and was best consumed with a spoon.  So not what he was expecting when he ordered it, but quite fun!  Nicely sour too.

Amuse bouche #1: fluke crudo, grapefruit, fava, onion blossom.

This was a fun start to the meal.  The grapefruit component was a gelee used to wrap the entire bite.  Inside was the fluke, which was a decent quality piece of fish, a little bit soft, but very mild in flavor.  The sourness from the grapefruit gelee complimented it well.  On top was fava puree and a couple onion blossoms.  I didn't quite get the grapefruit + fava + onion combination, but it was clearly seasonally inspired and fresh.  The onion blossom was shockingly full of flavor.  I had my first chive blossom in an amuse bouche at Alexander's Steakhouse a few weeks ago, and felt exactly the same way.  I never knew little blossoms could pack sooo much punch!

Amuse bouche #2:  Chilled pea soup, lemon oil, aleppo pepper.

Another seasonally inspired dish, as peas have just come into season!  As you raised this up to drink it, the aroma from the aleppo pepper immediately hit.  It was really a fantastic scent.  I had high hopes for this, as I love fresh peas, but unfortunately the pea flavor wasn't quite as strong as I was hoping for, and the soup was fairly thick, a consistency that didn't work that well for drinking.  It did have a nice minty flavor to it that almost balanced it out in a refreshing way, but didn't quite hit the mark.

Meyer Lemon-Tarragon Soda.

I recently read about how Commonwealth makes their own house sodas, so one of the non-drinkers ordered this.  You can find the recipe online.  The tarragon flavor was really intense, so do not order this if you aren't into tarragon!

Course #1: caviar, textures of potato, crème fraîche, fine herbs, scrambled egg mousse.

There were so many components on the plate, I had a fun time trying to combine them in all sorts of interesting ways.  I just love constructing that "perfect" bite!  There were a lot of great flavor combinations to be had here!

The "textures of potato" were potato in four forms: crispy chips, potato puree on the bottom of the dish, and then chunks of purple and white potatoes simply cooked.  The chip was really, really good.  Perfectly crisp, perfectly salty, and actually really full of potato flavor.  I thought these were outstanding (which is interesting, because the house potato chips that they give everyone as a starter weren't that special).  The potato puree was basically creamy mashed potatoes, I think the crème fraîche was in there as well.  The pieces of cooked potato were the least interesting thing on this plate, and they didn't really add anything to the dish at all.

In addition to lovely edible flower petals, the herbs included very flavorful fresh chives and dill, which complimented the potato really well.  Now I remember why my mom puts dill in potato salad, and why people top baked potatoes with sour cream and chives!

The scrambled egg mousse was really delicious, and had a smoky flavor to it

The caviar gave a good salty flavor to everything, and of course, a fun little textural pop.

So what was the perfect bite?  A chip, dipped in the potato puree and scrambled egg mousse, with a little of the caviar and fresh herbs.  Fresh, salty, delicious!  So many flavors popping all at once.  I'm not sure if I was really supposed to be eating this with my hands, but it was really fun to create that bite, and how else do you eat a chip?  I really enjoyed this dish, it was my second favorite of the evening, and I'd gladly eat it again.

Course #2: oat crusted foie gras, rhubarb, brioche soldiers, hearts of fire, ginger.

Of course, this was the dish I was most excited about, as I've been rather obsessed with foie gras lately.

The foie gras was a generous slice of torchon.  It was creamy, salty, and just absolutely delicious.  Topped with some big chunks of incredibly flavorful salt as well.  The oat crusting was a little lost on me, but I loved this so much that I didn't really care.

The rhubarb came in two preparations: plain chunks and a sweet compote.  The compete was really well balanced, both sweet and tart, and went perfectly with the foie gras.  The rhubarb pieces I didn't care for, but I historically have not liked rhubarb (you can read all about why on my last encounter with a foie gras and rhubarb pairing at one of the foie gras dinners at Alexander's).

The brioche soldiers were warm and toasted.  So crisp and buttery that they almost seemed fried.  I thought they were absolutely delicious, but several others thought they were too buttery and rich, particularly when paired with the foie gras.  I really liked them.

The hearts of fire were cute I guess, but I didn't think really needed to be there.  I didn't detect the ginger.

This was all paired with a sweet white wine, that was delicious and again, complimented the foie gras really well.

This was the best dish of the night for me, I absolutely loved it.  So balanced, and that foie was just sooo good.  I want more of this now!

Pescatarian course #3: bacalao croquetas, almond gazpacho, seaweed salad, grape, saffron oil, espelette.  $14 if a la carte.

The pescatarian menu included this dish off the a la carte menu, rather than the foie gras.  I didn't get a bite of the croqueta, but did try the seaweed salad, which was flavorful, fresh, and crisp.  The almond gazpacho was also tasty, and I used my extra brioche soldier to soak it up.

Course #3: shaved carrots and radishes, ash coated goat cheese, quinoa, walnut, dill.  $12 if a la carte.

Wow, what a beauty!

The base of this was a slew of fresh, crisp assorted micro greens, herbs, arugula, and flower petals.  The dill again really stood out as fresh and flavorful.  It then had the thinly shaved carrots and radishes, which were raw, added some crispness, and were surprisingly flavorful given how thin they were.  The goat cheese was a soft style, crumbled.  I really don't like goat cheese, but everyone else loved this component.  The quinoa seemed toasted and was integrated throughout, adding nice little crispy texture.    The walnut was in a powder form, which I didn't really detect.  Finally, the salad was lightly dressed with a carrot puree based dressing.

I thought this was pretty and creative, but didn't really enjoy it much, perhaps due to the goat cheese, or perhaps because I was coming down off my foie gras high.  It also seemed like a strange placement in the meal progression, it would have been more appropriate before the foie?

Course #4: sweetbreads, prawn, favas, horseradish, fregola sarda, smoked pork jus.

This was the main dish from the standard tasting menu.  I'm not that into sweetbreads, and the a la carte menu had a dish I really wanted to try, so I subbed this out.  However, once everyone else at the table started exclaiming how amazing it was, I had to at least try a bite!

The sweatbreads were just perfectly cooked, flavorful, a good texture, and had a really nice crust.  One of my dining companions, who has eaten a lot of sweatbreads in his day, said this was perhaps the best preparation he has ever had.  I think this dish could make anyone who was squeamish or uncertain about sweetbreads change their mind!  It was served with well cooked fregola and a really delicious light broth as well.

The pescatarians at the table received a beautiful looking piece of cooked rainbow trout.  Unfortunately, they all ate it before I could get a bite of the fish (or a photo!), but I did try the accompanying components, including ramps and miner's lettuce, more seasonal vegetables that were just impressively crisp and fresh.  There was also some mushroom that was nice and earthy and balanced out the freshness.  The hollandaise sauce had a strange mouthfeel to it that I wasn't a fan of, but perhaps it worked better when enjoyed with the fish.

Alternate course #4: sea urchin, sea beans, kumquats, quail egg, brown rice cracker, pickled wasabi leaf.  $16 if a la carte.

Along with foie gras, I've been on an uni kick.  I guess this makes sense, as uni is "the foie gras of the sea"!  The tasting menu did not include any uni, and I had to fix that!  So, I subbed this in as my main dish.

It is hard to see in the photo, but there were three generous chunks uni.  The flavor wasn't quite as good as you would get at a high end sushi restaurant, but it was pretty nice and creamy.

The sea beans, herbs, flowers, and pickled wasabi leaf were all pretty, but I didn't taste them much at all.

There were plentiful kumquat slices, which I really enjoyed.  They were super flavorful, tart, and a good balance to the uni.

The quail egg was hard boiled.  It was cute, but not all that flavorful, and I didn't really think it mixed that well with everything else in the dish.  It wasn't bad, it just didn't really seem necessary.

The brown rice crackers added a good crispy element.

The perfect bite?  A brown rice cracker, topped with uni, topped with a few slices of kumquat.  Crunchy, creamy, rich, tart, all at once!  Again, I probably wasn't supposed to be eating this with my hands, but it made for such a great bite, and how else do you eat a cracker?

At $16 on the normal a la carte menu, this was a really good value, given the amount of uni on the plate!

Palette cleanser: blood orange sorbet, chantilly cream.

This was the same palette cleanser that I had a few weeks ago, since our waitress brought us the palette cleanser from the tasting menu that day.  It didn't blow my mind quite as much as last time, perhaps because I had high expectations this time, but it was still really quite good.

The sorbet was fruity and quite flavorful.  The chantilly cream was creamy and just downright delicious.  I love the contrast in this dish of the icy, cold, somewhat sour, sorbet and the creamy, sweet cream.

This is a fantastic palette cleanser, refreshing from the sorbet and sweet enough to leave you craving the real dessert course!

The Australian visitors thought this reminded them of a "fancy splice".  The splice is classic ice cream bar,  vanilla ice cream wrapped in pineapple and lime sorbet shell, on a stick.  It was one of my favorite treats while visiting there, and I can totally see the comparison!

Dessert: peanut butter semifreddo, chocolate ganache, frozen popcorn.

This was the same dessert I had last time as well.  When I had it before, I had no expectations at all.  This time, I went into it knowing that last time I thought it was the best dessert I'd had all year.  It didn't live up to those expectations, but it was very good.  Same salty, awesome, frozen "popcorn", sweet delicious caramel, and of course, the very rich peanut butter semifreddo, encased in chocolate ganache, and sitting atop a chocolate base.

Alternate dessert: yogurt, meringues,  kumquat, hibiscus.

This was an alternate dessert ordered by a fellow dinner who wouldn't have much chocolate at night due to the caffeine content.  I was also concerned about caffeine intake, so I split this with him.

The yogurt came as a frozen yogurt sphere that really was just ... frozen yogurt.  It had a very strong, tangy, yogurt flavor to it.  It was perched atop a crumble, I'm not sure what it was made from, but it had gotten kinda soggy and wasn't that good.

The meringues had a strange mouthfeel to them, and I didn't really like them.  I forget what flavor they were.

The kumquat slices were covered with a sweet syrup and were delicious.

The hibiscus came as marshmallows (the purple disks), that were fluffy, sweet, and quite good.

Overall, there were a lot of flavors and textures at play in this dish, and I can't really pinpoint anything wrong with it, but it wasn't really anything I'd want again.

Coffee truffles.

And ... a little parting chocolate.  This was really quite good - a strong coffee flavored creamy filling, dark chocolate shell, and rolled in cocoa powder.

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