Dinner @ Gajalee

Tonight we had a big change of pace.  No Michelin stars.   No fine dining.   Just casual indian food.

Gajalee opened not that long ago, to pretty fantastic reviews.  Food critics and Yelpers alike have been raving about it, particularly mentioning how authentic it is.  Gajalee serves south indian coastal cuisine, from the Goa, Kerala, and Kamataka regions.  While I am not really familiar with south indian food, I was hopeful about this place, particularly as they are largely seafood focused, which sounded great to me, and as I still have yet to find an indian restaurant in San Francisco that I really like.  This continues to make me very sad, as I really do enjoy indian food!

Service was generally fine, but clearly a bunch of notches down from what I'm used to these days.  The waiter was a little difficult to understand.  Dishes were presented without any explanation, so I wasn't ever really sure what the side dishes and accompaniments were.  We were eating everything family style, but no serving utensils were provided.  When we asked to have the leftovers to go, all of our dishes and utensils were cleared away, and some plastic containers were handed to us.  We had no way to scoop the food into the containers and needed to ask for new spoons to do so.

There was nothing particularly notable about the decor of the restaurant, it was pretty generic and simple.  Hard wooden tables and chairs.  We were provided with both cloth napkins and paper napkins - the utensils were on the paper napkins and the cloth napkins were inside the water glasses.  I think the paper ones may have been intended just as a place to put the silverware?  I actually appreciated this, but it made me question the cleanliness of the tables!

It was really refreshing to just go to a "normal" restaurant, far more relaxed than the style of dining we have been doing so much of lately.

The prices were shockingly low for the seeming quality and quantity of food.  Definitely a good value, particularly compared to the far more upscale SOMA Amber and Pac Heights Dosa type of options, although the product was clearly lower quality than those places.

I didn't particularly like anything we ordered, but I think this could have been due to not ordering the sort of dishes I normally like.  There was some good spicing, which makes me hopeful that dishes more my style would be good.  Since I wasn't that familiar with south indian food, I stuck with recommendations from reviews, rather than what I'd graviate towards.  I'd like to return to try the chicken tikka masala, the palak paneer, and the fried fish.

Meen pollichathu: fish marinated in home made spices and slow cooked in plantain leaf.  $13.

This was a very large filet of sea bass, steamed in a plantain leaf, and covered with chopped onion and tomato based sauced.  The fish was moist and tender, and seemed decent quality.  The sauce was really flavorful, fresh tasting, and delicious.  It reminded me more of an italian dish than an indian one given the strong tomato and onion component.

It was served with a side of raita and a curry sauce, neither of which were really necessary as the tomato and onion sauce on the fish itself was so flavorful.  It also had a small side salad of raw red onions and peppers, which were surprisingly fresh and crispy, that I enjoyed, and also added to the very fresh feeling of the dish.

This dish was by far the best of the evening.  The whole thing felt light, healthy, and refreshing.  The tomato and onion sauce was really flavorful.  I wouldn't go out of my way for it, but I'd eat it again.  And $13 for a filet this size?  Very high value.

Fish xaccuti: tamarind and caramalized onion based sauce.  $13.

This is a dish I wasn't familiar with, from the Goan region.  I would have never ordered this normally, but I had read good things about it.

The fish used was basa, and it was really just a generic, flaky white fish.  Every chunk I had unfortunately had very small pieces of bones in it.

We had one diner with a sensitive stomach, so we ordered everything medium spicy.  This dish still had a nice spice level to it.  I didn't particularly like the spices or sauce, I think it just wasn't my sort of thing.  I didn't taste any caramelized onion.  This made me sad, as my favorite part of indian cuisine is the delicious sauces!

I didn't really care for this - the fish itself wasn't very good, I certainly wasn't a fan of the bone fragments, and the sauce just wasn't my sort of thing.  I would not get this again.  I've read that it is a really authentic dish however, so this could just be personal preference.

Paratha: multi layered white flour, pan fried.  $2 each (2 orders pictured).

Another recommended dish.  I almost really liked this.  I am more familiar with naan as my bread accompaniment to indian food, so this was nice to try as something different (they have a large selection of breads, but no naan).

It was made up of many layers, making it fun to eat, peeling off pieces.  The inside was moist, the outside crispy and fried.  It had a hearty flavor to it, and I was surprised to see that it was made from white flour, as it seemed more flavorful than that.  It was however just too oily for my taste.  Had it been just a little less oily, I think I would have really liked it, as it reminded me of fried dough.

We had two of these for four people, which was too much, a single one would have been fine as they were really quite large.  $2 was a very reasonable price.

Fish Thali: selection of different dishes served in a round platter.  $15.

The most recommended dish I'd read about was the fish thali.  I love getting to try a slew of things, so this appealed to me in that sense too, described as "selection of different dishes served in a round platter: kochambiri, two vegs of the day, basmati rice, dessert and two pcs of komdi vade, served with your choice of main course".  So many things to try!  However, the main dish that everyone raved about when referring to the thali was a fried fish, and ours came with a curry.

Komdivade: rice flour, gram flour, fenugreek seed, cumin, red chill.  This was the puffy bread in the center of the platter.  It was really hearty, with good flavor.  I didn't love it, but it was nice to have to dunk into all the sides.

Clockwise, from top:

Raita: This was different from the raita that came with the plantain leaf steamed fish in that it was loaded up with bits of raw red onion.  Not particularly interesting, but a nice cooling component.

Eggplant veggie side: I'm not sure entirely what this was, but it had chunks of eggplant and potatoes.  The potato was rather mushy and everything seemed overcooked.  Not really notable, but had ok spicing. 

Carrot halwa: grated carrot with cheese and milk.  This was delicious!  I didn't realize originally that this was the dessert, as it was included on the platter with the rest of the thali.  I had a bite of it mixed with some of the other sides, and thought it was really sweet and amazing, but perhaps a little too sweet and strange to mix with the fish in particular.  Then I remembered that the menu said the thali would include a dessert, and that the menu listed 3 desserts: rice pudding, carrot halwa, or gulab jamun.  Given that I certainly didn't see rice pudding nor dumplings, and this was definitely carrot based, I put two and two together.  I'd never had carrot halwa before, and I must say, I really liked it.  I was put off by the very mushy consistency at first, but it was a really nice level of natural sweetness from the carrot, balanced by some other spices, and enhanced by added sugars.  I didn't pick up on the cheese.  My favorite dish of the night, hands down.  

Cauliflower veggie side: another side that I am not really sure what it was.  The primary ingredient was cauliflower, but there were also some beans.  Again, very similar to the eggplant side in that the vegetables were rather mushy and seemed overcooked.  The flavors were ok, but nothing great.

Lentil veggie side: and yet another vegetable side dish.  Was this the kochambiri?  I thought kochambiri was supposed to be a raw, more salad like dish, but this is the closest thing to it.  More just mushy vegetables.

Basmati rice: fluffy enough rice, nothing much to say here.  We also had a regular order of this as well.

Fish curry: This wasn't much different from the other curry we had.  It was also basa.  The fish was in slightly smaller chunks and was less moist.  The sauce seemed very smilier to the xaccuti.  We all wondered if it was the same, but it seemed slightly different.  I wish the waiter would have mentioned that we were ordering two of essentially the same thing.  We really wanted, and expected, this to be the fried fish!

The only thing I really liked on this platter was the dessert.  I would not order this again.  In the future, I'd stick to ordering things a la carte - I'd get the fried fish, the veggie sides I was more interested in, and of course, the dessert.  That said, I did appreciate getting to try a bunch of things, and I would have never ordered the carrot halwa on my own.  This was a ton of food for $15, a great value.

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Sol kadi: kokum and coconut based drink.  $3.

I'd read that this drink would go well with the food.  It was crazy salty.  I didn't particularly like it, but it would have definitely helped to mellow out the heat had we ordered the food spicy.

Group Dinner @ Fleur De Lys

For a team bonding event at work, I organized a group dinner at Fleur de Lys, Hubert Keller's flagship Michelin starred restaurant in San Francisco.  I had never been before, but one of my dining companions has often told me that it is his favorite restaurant in the city, and when I found that they could fall within our budget, I was immediately sold.  The menu consisted of 3 courses, for $80 (normally $72 if not doing a group event).  They also offer 4 or 5 course options, for $82 and $95, respectively.  Given the two amuse bouches and generous mignardises, this is a fairly good price.

With any group event, you certainly don't get the same experience as dining in the restaurant as a smaller party, but Fleur de Lys did a good job at the group experience.  The staff were really easy to work with to arrange the event.

We had 24 people, and a single main server.  She was pretty busy throughout the evening, but was attentive enough. There were additional servers who helped bring out the food, kept our water glasses filled, and brought out the bread.  The dishes were presented with very minimal explanation, which, given the number of components on the plates, was a little annoying.  I wanted to know more details, and when I asked for them, was still only given partial explanations.  The staff also didn't seem interested in telling me these things.  I think they were just very busy and flustered.

I had to set a fixed menu in advance, with only two appetizer choices, a few entree choices, and no dessert choices.  However, I was able to have considerable input into the menu options, and although my very top choices weren't available for the group, my second tier of choices all were.  They also offerred a vegetarian menu, and were able to handle assorted allergies, substituting out dishes as necessary.

We worked with the sommelier in advance to come up with wine pairings, which were fabulous.  They have some very nice wines to offer!  I also really appreciated their respect of our budget.  We needed to spend about half of what they normally charge for a regular wine pairing, and thus we opted to just purchase some bottles to go with each course.  As we approached our limit, they let me know, and asked for guidance on how to proceed.  They also saw that we were consuming a lot of wine at the start while we were waiting for our first dishes, and stopped refilling glasses quite as quickly to pace us, so we didn't hit our budget before the mains arrived.

The meal started off very slowly.  I was actually surprised at how long it took for any food to arrive, not even bread or an amuse bouche.  Once it started arriving, pacing was good, fairly fast actually, and things moved right along.  I'm not really sure why it took so long to get started, perhaps they are used to groups ordering cocktails and not wanting to start eating right away?

For several in our party, this was one of very few fine dining experiences.  It was cute to see their confusion when the amuse bouches arrived, as they didn't understand why dishes they didn't order were appearing before them :)

Overall, the food was all very good, but not particularly memorable other than the downright adorable plating and whimsy to the dishes.  I probably wouldn't order any of these dishes again, but, they also weren't my first choices to begin with.  That said, the execution level was very impressive for group dining, with the food arriving fairly simultaneously, and all the correct temperatures.  Certainly one of the better large group dining experiences that I've had.  If they can do a group this well, I'm pretty confident that their regular service must be great, and I plan to return before July 1, so I can try out the foie gras dishes that they are known for!

Amuse Bouche #1: quinoa salad and cappuccino.

The first amuse bouche was described as a "cappuccino", paired with a bite sized salad, both cold dishes.

The cappuccino was made from a piquillo pepper gazpacho, topped with parsley mousse.  It was served with a straw.  I did not enjoy my first few sips of it through the straw, as only the gazpacho came through.  The gazpacho, although light and refreshing, had a very strong pepper flavor, that was just too much on its own.   However, the mousse complimented it very well, and mixing some into the gazpacho mellowed out the flavor quite a bit.  The mousse itself was really creamy and delicious.  I really enjoyed the experience of consuming this, alternating between drinking through the straw and using the straw to just scoop some of the mousse into my mouth, like I would with a milkshake topped with whipped cream.  In fact, this was much more milkshake like than cappuccino, I'm not really sure why they called it a cappuccino, as the mousse was far to thick to simulate frothed milk, and more closely resembled whipped cream.

The quinoa salad was topped with smoked chorizo and a dot of aji amarillo.  It had a decent earthyness to it, but it really was just a generic bite of quinoa salad that could come from just about anywhere.  The most boring dish we'd see all night, by far.

Both components were plated in vessels perched upon cucumber slices.  I don't think we were intended to eat them, but it seemed strange to have edible garnish that we wouldn't eat.  Sort of the opposite of the more common problem of having inedible garnish.

This amuse was a good foreshadower of the meal to come: it would be filled with multi-component dishes, cute plating, and some whimsy.

Baguette, fruit and nut bread.

The bread service was a little strange.  Rather than being asked what we wanted, 4 slices of bread were just put on our plates, 2 each of baguette and a bread filled with fruit and nuts.  I would have asked for only one slice and skipped the baguette.  This seemed pretty wasteful.

The baguette was just a generic, standard baguette.

The non-baguette bread was hearty, soft, with a nice chew to it.  Mine had some full chunks of nut, I think macadamia, and some dried fruit, I think apricot.  This bread varied substantially from person to person however.  I'm not sure if they were actually serving different bread, or if the ingredients were just not well distributed, as some of us had a lot of fruit and nuts, and others didn't.  It also seemed like there were different fruits and nuts in different slices.  Anyway, I liked this bread, but it wasn't spectacular.

Butter, salt on the side.

The butter plates were placed on the table in front of us, and I inquired about what type of butter it was.  The server looked at me like I had 10 heads and didn't say anything.  I asked again, "Is this cow's milk butter? Are they both the same?"  And he again just stared at me, finally saying, "It is butter.  For the bread".  Was it that strange to ask about this?  Often when there are two butters provided, they are different!

Anyway, it was good quality butter, and the salt on the side was really flavorful.  I appreciated it done this way, rather than the little vat of salt that places sometimes bring and you wonder if others have dipped their fingers into it before ...

Amuse Bouche #2: Spinach and parmesan gratin.

A second amuse bouche arrived, a warm gratin.

The cheesy spinach layer was topped with an additional cheesy layer and toasted pumpkin seeds.  The spinach was really mushy and somewhat off putting, almost a puree, although I don't think it was supposed to be.  It seemed very overcooked.  The cheese layer was creamy and was just too much additional cheese.  I didn't like this at all.

The tiny little gratin dish was adorable.  I really enjoyed all of the miniature serving dishes they used throughout the meal!

SYMPHONY OF: Petite caesar salad, foie gras lollipop, smoked duck crostini, parmesan mousse, and tuna fondant with caviar.

I LOVED the sound of this appetizer.  So many amazing components, on one plate!

The caesar salad was nothing notable.  The romain lettuce was crisp and fresh enough, but it was just lettuce.  The dressing was fairly standard caesar dressing, somewhat lacking in anchovy flavor.  It was topped with fried spaetzle, again showing the chef's creative and playful side.  They were crunchy, tasty little bits, and far more interesting than standard croutons.  But overall, just a standard caesar salad.

The foie gras lollipop was the element of the meal I was most looking forward to, given my love of foie.  It was indeed the highlight of the appetizers.  Creamy, with a good foie flavor.  Topped with a tiny bit of grainy mustard and served on top of red cabbage.  I didn't understand the cabbage at all.

I'm not sure what the smear of orange sauce was, apricot perhaps?

The smoked duck crostini was a small slice of bread, topped with the smoked duck, topped with mozzarella, and apricot.  The duck had a really good smoked flavor, but was very chewy, and just really not my thing.

The next component was one not mentioned in the menu description, a parmesan mousse.  It was very creamy, very intensely parmesan flavored.  It was really strange to eat on its own, kinda just too much parmesan.  I realize in retrospect that perhaps it should have been combined with the caesar salad, as caesar salad normally has parmesan, and was lacking that entirely, and this item wasn't listed on the menu.  Hmmm.  I wish I'd thought of combining this at the time!  Or perhaps spreading it on some bread?  I didn't enjoy it much as it was, but I think there was potential here.

The tuna fondant was really fluffy and had a nice tuna flavor.  The caviar on top added a good saltiness and of couse some texture.    My second favorite dish on the plate.  I wonder how it would have also combined with the caesar, perhaps bringing in a fishy flavor that seemed missing.

Overall, this was cute, playful, full of different textures, and I enjoyed getting to have so many assorted bites, but besides the foie gras, nothing here was that fantastic.  I think I may have just missed the potential in combining things in winning ways however.

Both appetizer choices were paired with a really lovely Riesling.  It was sweet, but nicely balanced.  I really, really liked this wine.

CHILLED DUNGENESS CRAB SALAD: With shavings of young vegetables, lobster infused vinaigrette, and lobster fondant with caviar.

This was my neighbor's dish, and he graciously let me try some of it.

Yes, this was a crab salad.  What, you can't see the crab?  It was hiding under the bed of frisee and assorted shaved vegetables.  It came with a little dressing on it, but a cup of additional vinaigrette was provided to allow the diner to add as much as he or she wanted.  It was a very light and refreshing salad.  The frisee almost seemed too bitter to pair with the delicate, sweet crab however, as it was all you tasted.

There were also some slices of beet, perched atop goat cheese.

The lobster fondant was similar to the tuna fondant in my dish.  It was a surprisingly light mousse, with a really strong lobster flavor.  It was also topped with caviar, which again provided a fun pop and saltiness.

Another well designed dish, but it wasn't as interesting as it sounded.  I preferred my appetizer.

LOCAL PETRALE SOLE: Dungeness crab, sea urchin and caviar, olive oil potato purée, toasted bacon brioche.

This was my main dish.  This is normally an appetizer on the menu, but I really wanted this as an option, and for group dining they couldn't have it as an appetizer, but offered to scale it up and do it as an entree instead.  I'm guessing that it normally just has half of this plate.  But a chance to have even more crab and urchin?  Sounds good to me!

There was a lot going on here.  The bottom layer was the olive oil potato puree, then the sole, then a chunk of crab, then a chunk of sea urchin, then some caviar.  It was surrounded by a lobster and uni bisque that was poured on tableside.  Also on the plate were some chunks of mushroom and a pepper sauce.  And it came with a bacon brioche.  Wowzer.  And I thought the "Symphony" was made up of power house ingredients, how often do you get a few of my favorite things, crab, urchin, caviar, lobster, and a nice fish, all in one dish?

The sole was nicely cooked, flaky, moist, with a good texture.  It had a decent flavor.  Nothing particularly exciting, but a well done piece of white fish.

The crab on top was fine, but not particularly memorable.  It was cold, which I think was by design.

The urchin was creamy, with a good briny flavor.  It wasn't quite on par with some uni I've had lately at sushi restaurants, but it was good enough.

The caviar was more of the same caviar we'd had in the appetizers, again, providing saltiness and pop.

This tower of components was all good, but it didn't really sum up to be greater than its parts, which I had hoped for.  It was also a little hard to cut everything up into small enough pieces that you could get a bite that contained all of the elements - sole, crab, urchin, and caviar.

The mushrooms seemed totally and completely unnecessary.  They were just chunks of mushroom and didn't pair particularly well with anything.

The dots of pepper sauce were good.  It was spicy, and I enjoyed dipping the crab into it.

The lobster and urchin bisque was creamy and pretty delicious.  It made for an awesome sauce on the potato puree.

Speaking of that potato puree - it was the highlight of the dish for me.  Yup, a dish made out of insane ingredients that I love, and the POTOTO is the thing I rave about?  It was just awesome.  Smooth, creamy, delicious.  So flavorful from the olive oil.  My tasting notes just say AWESOME in all caps here :)  I could have eaten a whole bowl of this, particularly with the bisque on top.  YUM.

I'm not entirely sure why this came with bacon brioche.  The bread wasn't particularly noteworthy, just some brioche with a subtle bacon flavor.  I'm glad it existed however, because it allowed me to soak up every last drop of the potato puree and the bisque.

Overall, this dish was a bit of a disappointment, because I expected great things given the killer ingredient list.  It was all good, but the only thing I'll really remember is the potato puree.  Which may possibly even beat out the foie gras as the highlight of the meal ...

This was paired with a white wine that I didn't catch the name of.  It was really interesting, served in a large burgundy glass, and it did remind me of a red wine, even though it was white.  Sorry I don't have more details on what it was ...

HAWAIIAN SWORDFISH,  SEED CRUST, POTATO MARBLES & SPECK: Basquaise & pinot sauce with a side of saffron soup.

This was my neighbor's dish.  Again, he nicely let me try some of it.

The swordfish was a fairly thin, small piece.  This dish was substantially smaller than any of the other entrees, I'm not sure why.  The portion of fish alone was smaller than the sole dish, which then had the crab, uni, and bread to go with it, and the other choices included large portions of buffalo, filet mignon, or a trio of lamb.  The swordfish, like the sole, was good, quality fish, cooked well, but not particularly memorable.  Topped with a nice enough caper and pepper sauce.

The potato was very thinly sliced, cooked well so that it wasn't too mushy nor to crisp, but at the end of the day, just potato slices.  Nothing compared to my puree!

We couldn't find any speck in the dish.  Perhaps it was forgotten?  It seems like it would have paired well with the swordfish.

The sauce however, was amazing.  Oh, the french and their sauces.  I couldn't get enough of it.  Once I ran out of potato puree on my plate to lap up, I moved on to soaking up all of this remaining sauce with my bacon brioche.  And then when the brioche ran out, and there was still some sauce, with my baguette that I never thought I'd bother eating.  Had I discovered this sauce earlier in the meal, I would have tried to combine it with my potato puree.  Now THAT would have been amazing.

I did not try the saffron soup, but it was described as being very intensely saffron flavored.

I preferred my dish, but this sauce was pretty spectacular.

This was paired with a pinot, that was pretty complex, with very subtle tanin.

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COFFEE RUBBED BUFFALO STEAK, WITH PICKLED FIGS: Caramelized leeks, espresso and fig red wine sauce, cornbread madeleine.


I didn't get a photo of it, but I also enjoyed some of my other neighbor's dish, the buffalo.  It was tender, nicely cooked, lean buffalo, served already in slices.  The coffee rub and espresso and fig red wine sauce had a really fantastic coffee flavor, mellow yet pronounced at the same time, really quite refined.  Another phenomenal sauce.

FLEURBURGER: Lightly spiced dark chocolate ganache, home-made beignet, banana flavored milk shake & frozen fennel ice cream “Pommes Frites”.

This is their signature dessert.  I didn't actually have very high expectations for this, even given all the rave reviews, as it seemed pretty gimmicky.  I had to admit that it was adorable and pretty amazing looking, but I seriously doubted it would be that good.  For the most part, I was wrong.

The burger had beignets as buns.  The beignet was cold, coated in sugar, and not that great.  I was also still coming down from my amazing donut experience at Cyrus a few days prior, and I think pretty much no donut-like element was possibly going to impress me.  It would have been much better had it been warm and fresh however.

The patty was the chocolate ganache, coated with even more chocolate sauce.  The ganache was creamy, intensely chocolatey, and really quite good.  It was topped with a slice of "cheese", made from passionfruit gelee.

It was fun to pick this up and eat it as a burger, but given that I wasn't loving the beignets, I preferred to just take the ganache out and eat it alone with a fork.

Of course, every burger needs some lettuce, tomato, and onion, so we were provided with a mint leaf, and slices of kumquat and apple to top the burger.  And of course, a kiwi pickle on the side.  These were just standard chunks of fruit, but totally adorable.

The plate also had some dots of strawberry "ketchup".

The cuteness continued with the fennel ice cream french fries, served in an container made from chocolate.  The chocolate was pretty standrad, but I loved the idea of the edible vessel.  The fries were intensely fennel flavored, but I didn't particularly like them.  These components definitely fell more on the gimmicky rather than good side of the spectrum.  I also wasn't sure how I was supposed to eat them.  I picked up the first fry, but it wasn't structurally sound enough to withstand being held like that, and subsequent ones were certainly too melted.

And then there was the banana shake.  It had chocolate and caramel sauce swirled in.  Topped with whipped cream.  And more banana slices.  Oh my gosh this was good.  I never expected to have the best shake of my life at a fancy french restaurant!  (although, this seems to be a trend - a few days earlier I had the best donut of my life at two Michelin starred Cyrus).  I wish you could just order this shake.  It kinda makes me want to check out Burger Bar again, as they have a large menu of shakes (and several dessert burgers too).

Anyway, this dessert was a surprise delight.  The shake was just incredible and the ganache really quite good, although the beignets, fries, and other components were rather mediocre.  But seriously, how ridiculously adorable was it?

Mignardises: madelines with chocolate dipping sauce, fruit tart, hazelnut chocolate truffle, meringue, caramel tart, gingerbread mousse on banana bread.

Each section of table was given a little tray of mignardises.  We had four people sharing this tray, but one doesn't like sweets, and one was full and not really wanting more dessert, so two of us basically got this entire tray.  I'm not complaining :)

The madelines were served warm, rolled in powdered sugar.  They were moist and fine, but I don't really like madelines much.  The chocolate dipping sauce was pretty generic.

I didn't have the fruit tart.

The truffle was good.  Creamy, delicious, smooth chocolate, rolled in hazelnuts.  It tasted like Nutella, but with more texture from the chopped nuts.  Best of the mignardises.

The meringue was a crispy style, filled with chocolate.  It was very sweet and nice enough.  It would have gone well with some coffee or tea.

The caramel tart was a salted caramel.  Gooey, creamy, sweet caramel, nice level of saltiness.  Pretty tasty, and my second favorite of the mignardises.

Finally, there was a gingerbread mousse on a banana bread.  The bread was moist, the mousse had a good ginger flavor, but this was pretty forgettable.

The private dining alcove.

One of our two tables in the semi-private alcove.  The area was at the back of the restaurant, but not separated with hard walls.  A full private room would have been nicer, but this felt fairly secluded, and I actually liked being able to see the rest of the restaurant in action.  We had the maximum number of people (24, 12 at each table), and it was fairly cramped, particularly on the ends.  Our custom menus were printed out and came with a gold Fleur de Lys seal.  So fancy!

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 ...