Dinner @ Amber Dhara, Palo Alto

Wednesday night, we tried out the new Amber Dhara in Palo Alto.  Amber is a small chain of indian restaurants around the bay area. My favorite indian food in the area is at their Mountain View location, which serves traditional indian fare. Their San Francisco restaurant is more upscale and more fusiony, and generally pretty good as well, although I recently had a horrible experience there.  So I was pretty excited to check out this new location, which promised to be even more contemporary, even though initial Yelp reviews have been pretty negative. They boil down to 3 main complaints: 1) It isn't Junnoon! (the restaurant it replaced). 2) The menu isn't the same as the other locations! 3) It is expensive! (These people have clearly never dined in San Francisco). I wasn't worried about any of these things, as I didn't love Junnoon, I was excited by the contemporary menu, and prices looked more than reasonable to me.

The menu certainly did not resemble that of any other indian restaurant I've been to. It was a combination of re-invented classics (like the "3 saag & paneer" with 3 different types of greens instead of just spinach and topped with dried cranberries or the "deconstructed butter chicken") or Californian/american dishes with indian flavors applied (like the seared scallops appetizer).

The interior was fairly upscale, but I was more than comfortable in jeans. Service was fine.

The mains were much better than the appetizers, which were good, but nothing standout. The desserts were not very good. The cheesy bread was the runaway winner.  See individual photos below for full reviews.

In summary, I'm glad I ignored the yelpers, as I enjoyed my experience at Amber Dhara and would gladly go back. I won't go out of my way to go there, but it was definitely an interesting spin on indian food, with decent quality ingredients, decent cooking execution, and decent spicing. If you go, get the butter chicken and the cheesy bread. Mmmm ... the cheesy bread. Maybe it is worth going out of my way for ...

Goda Spice-Crusted Scallops: moong lentil kichdi, basil & almond chutney.

A lot of upscale Californian places serve scallops over risotto, this was Amber's indian fusion take on that dish.

This dish was just ok. The scallops seemed like they had been seared a while before and just reheated at serving time, as they didn't have a nice crust and the inside was cooked through too much. The scallops themselves were mediocre quality, certainly not bad, but not sweet and flavorful.

The basil and almond chutney was fine, but didn't really add anything.

I liked the moong lentil kichdi, it was sorta like a nice comforting rice-a-roni :)

Trio of Tandoori Paneer: sun dried tomato, hazelnut cilantro, & malai, chili garlic chutney, salad.

Each big chunk of paneer had a different coating on it. Each was interesting, but I liked the reddest one the most (I think this was the sun dried tomato), although most people at the table liked the green one (hazelnut cilantro). These were well grilled but still kinda boring.

Because each piece was flavored so strongly, I didn't really understand why it came with the chili garlic chutney, which completely overpowered the flavorings in the paneer.

Salad was light and refreshing.

Deconstructed Butter Chicken - white meat tandoori chicken, butter sauce, kasoori methi dust, fried banana chips.

Winning dish of the night.

The Amber chain is known for their butter chicken. At all of the other restaurants, it is a more traditional preparation with shredded chicken. I thought this was much, much better. You get all the deliciousness of the butter chicken sauce AND the flavorful tandoori grilled chicken, all in one. And if you have read enough of my reviews by now, you know how much I LOVE SAUCES!!!

The sauce seemed exactly the same as all of the other Amber locations: DELICIOUS and addicting.

The chicken was moist, had a nice char on the outside, and had great tandoori flavor.

I didn't even notice the "kasoori methi dust" until I looked back at the photo, seems forgettable and a little ridiculous.

I liked the fried banana chips, but no one else seemed to. I just used them as another thing to dunk into the delicious sauce.

Lal Mirch Blue Nose Bass Tikka - Tandoor roasted, degi chilies, garlic chutney, house salad.

Wow, this looks ugly :)

This was pretty good. The fish had nice roasted flavor and was pretty moist. The salad was the same one that came with the paneer appetizer, light, refreshing, nicely dressed. The garlic chutney dipping sauce surprisingly didn't do much for me, I thought the fish was flavorful enough on its own.

Bharleli Vangi - Maharastrian style stuffed baby eggplant, peanuts, tamarind.

Blurry photo :(

Under all that sauce is baby eggplants. The eggplant flavors was completely overwhelmed by the sauce, it was very hard to tell what you were eating. The sauce was incredibly thick, more like peanut butter than sauce.

I love peanuts, I love eggplant, but this didn't really work for me at all.

Three Saag & Paneer - cottage cheese, mustard, Swiss chard & spinach, topped with dried cranberries.

More blurry photos :(

My second favorite dish of the night.

This was their spin on saag paneer. Instead of just spinach, it had mustard greens and swiss chard as well. The greens were delicious and well spiced. There was a nice amount of paneer in the dish as well, nicely cooked. I didn't really like the dried cranberries on top, the flavors and textures didn't combine well with the rest of the dish.

Manchengo Cheese, Onion & Piquillo Pepper Kulcha.

This photo doesn't really show what this is at all. We dubbed this "the cheesy bread". We ordered 3 more baskets of it throughout the meal and pretty seriously considered ordering even more. I think this was everyone's favorite item of the night.

Inside the bread is manchengo cheese and piquillo peppers. The peppers added a delightful kick. This was basically an Indian quesadilla. Our first order wasn't quite as good as the rest as it was a little bit colder (probably had been sitting while the rest of food was getting ready to be brought out), but the subsequent ones were served piping hot and amazingly melty. Seriously, the cheese was melted better than any grilled cheese I've ever had. The bread itself was good (we had plain naan as well, which was good for plain naan), but the filling was just ZOMG amazing.

This bread did present a major dilema: do you use it to lap up the butter chicken sauce or not? The butter chicken sauce is amazing, and normally you want to use your naan to do that, but this stuff was so delicious on its own that you almost didn't want to, else you masked the manchengo/pepper flavors. Life is hard :)

Classic Crème Brulee infused with mango, topped with blackberries.

I've been on a quest to get some good creme brulee lately. I've been ordering it everywhere I go where it appears on the menu. And I've yet to be satisfied. I should have known not to try it at an Indian restaurant, but you never know ...

I really didn't like this, but had a lot of it as I kept trying to like it.

The custard was pretty boring, with a light mango flavor. Not enough mango flavor to be a good mango dish, but not enough other flavor to be good without it.

The sugar layer was too thin, it didn't add any caramelized flavor that makes creme brulee good.

The caramel thing sticking out was good though.

Kesari Rasmalai - Soft poached homemade cheese dumplings in a saffron flavored light milk syrup.

Another dessert I really didn't like.

I'm not really sure what I expected given the menu description, as I'm not really familiar with indian desserts. This doesn't inspire me to try more.

The cheese dumplings were kinda just cold flavorless lumps. The sauce was milky, with saffron flavor and pistachios. Not really my thing.

However, one friend loved the sauce and was literally drinking it out of the bowl.

[ Originally posted Jan 28, 2012 on Google+, moved here so I could link to it ]

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Foie Gras Dinner @ Alexander's Steakhouse, San Francisco

It is no secret that I love Alexander's Steakhouse, both in San Francisco and Cupertino.  They have amazing steak, obviously, but also my favorite burger in the city, fantastic seared foie gras, creative and tasty appetizers and desserts, and from what I hear some pretty fabulous seafood preparations as well (raw and cooked).  I could go on and on, but you can read about these things in my past reviews.

You can only imagine how excited I was to find out that they are hosting multi-course foie gras dinners once a month until the California foie gras ban goes into effect in July.  To say I was looking forward to this event is an understatement!  I gathered together a group of 8 diners, all equally interested in eating lots of foie gras, including one person who had never had any foie gras before (no better way to try it out, getting to try it in pretty much every form imaginable from a restaurant known for it) and including one person with a real camera.  You'll notice the quality difference in these photos!

Like the Lafitte event, this was a prix fixe, with each course including foie gras.  And just like Lafitte, there were protesters outside to greet us.  There were some differences between this event and the Lafitte one: the Lafitte event started with cocktails and passed appetizers, where this one started right with the sit down dinner.  The Lafitte one occupied the entire restaurant, where this one was in the private event space downstairs, while the regular restaurant was in full operation upstairs, on a busy Friday night (although total numbers were probably about the same, ~40-50 diners).  Both events were very well done, but I felt the food at the Alexander's event was better and more refined, although the Lafitte event was more comfortable and rustic feeling.  I recommend attending more of these events at either restaurant in the future.

The format was 6 courses, plus an amuse bouche and palette cleanser, each with drink pairings, for $150.  I felt the price was completely justified.  The wines were all pretty amazing and paired really, really well with the dishes.  It was very clear that someone put a lot of time into figuring out these pairings.  The pours were generous.  The food was all fantastic, executed very well, and made up of very high end and less common ingredients, using fancy cooking techniques (foams, gelees, soils, etc), and creative texture and flavor combinations.  Plating was gorgeous.  Service was good, pacing was pretty perfect, the general manager was there the entire time answering questions, and they managed to serve the entire room really efficiently at each course, serving each full table at once.  Well done!

I can't wait to go back for the next one of these dinners to see what they think of next!

Chef discussing food sourcing and what awaits us!

The owner of Sonoma Foie Gras discusses his history with farming and foie gras production.

 To start off, the chef and a local foie gras producer gave brief talks.

Amuse bouche: foie gras macaron!  A black sesame macaron filled with foie mousse, foie gras powder, and black Hawaiian sea salt.

This was a preview in many ways of what was to come!  In terms of ingredients, we'd see these macarons again in the dessert, the mousse in the second course, and the powder in the palette cleanser and main.  I think this was likely them just being resourceful and making an extra dish out of components they already had, but I liked how it tied everything together.   And we'd see plenty more fun dishes, with powders and other creative cooking techniques.

The mousse was very creamy, but the foie flavor was pretty subtle.  Without the foie powder on the plate, this would be somewhat lacking in foie flavor, but if you scooped up lots of the powder with every bite, it was delicious.  I am glad one of my tablemates instructed us all to eat as much of the powder as possible, as it was definitely the most flavorful and best component of the dish!  The sea salt was delicious and added a nice complexity to the dish.  The macaron itself was forgettable, with not a very strong sesame flavor, but was absolutely adorable.  It was a  little awkward to eat ... was it finger food?  And how did I scoop up more of that amazing powder?

Not the best dish of the evening, but fun and a great start!

Shigoku oyster, sea salt cured foie gras terrine, and wakamomo.

The first real dish! I was shocked to receive a trio of oysters, certainly expecting only one.  These were high quality oysters, some of the best I've had (and actually well cleaned, unlike most oysters I've had lately!)  The foie was a little slice of terrine, that wasn't all that flavorful, and was fairly lost in the brininess of the oyster, but I didn't actually mind this fact at all, as the oyster was delicious. This was the first time I'd ever heard of, or tried, wakamomo.  It is a little preserved Japanesse baby peach, super fruity and sweet, and complimented the oyster perfectly.  This was all very fresh and delicious!  (Side note: how fun of a word is wakamomo.  Say it, "WAKAMOMO!")  I also really appreciated the general manager stopping by our table to educate us about what we were eating, as this was an unfamiliar ingredient to us all).

The oysters were paired with Schramsberg Blanc de Blancs NV, a sweet, smooth, and delightful sparkling wine.  A very good pairing!

A meal starting with champagne, oysters, and foie gras?  We were happy campers, and about to get even happier!

Whole wheat walnut bread, butter, sea salt.

Standard Alexander's bread service followed, a choice of Acme breads: whole wheat walnut, olive, or baguette.  Served with Straus Creamery butter and sea salt.

Foie gras mousse, yuba crêpe, pain d’epices, candied fennel, red currant

This was the dish I was most intrigued by based on the menu description.  There was a lot going on on the plate!  The main component was the foie gras mousse rolled up inside of a yuba "crepe".  The mousse was again very creamy and delicious, but with not that strong of a foie flavor.  I adore yuba, so I loved this, and thought the texture combination of the yuba and mousse was particularly interesting.  Also on the plate were some red currants, crispy fried yuba, a crostini, and some assorted sauces.  I didn't really like the fried yuba, it was oily and hard to eat, as it just broke apart when you tried to cut it.  I wasn't really sure what to do with it.  The crostini was flavorful and I enjoyed spreading some of the mousse that leaked out of the yuba on top of it, and rubbing it all in the accompanying sauces.  Overall, very tasty and successful!

Paired with Schloss Johanissberg Riesling Kabinett, Rheingau 2005.  This was incredibly sweet, by far the sweetest wine we had all evening.  Since I love sweet things, of course I liked this.  You could smell the sugar from several inches away, and I was a little surprised to be having it with a savory dish, worried it was more of a dessert wine.  But it actually paired really well, with the richness of the foie cutting it nicely.  At this point I stopped doubting the sommelier!

Terrine of foie gras, red beet, blood orange, and canpari-infused pop rocks.

Lots of fun on this plate, but my least favorite dish of the evening, by far. Beets three ways: regular cooked beet chunks, beet dust, and fried beet slices. And did I mention ... pop rocks? I wish they hadn't told us those were there, as it would have been far more fun to discover on our own :)  The terrine was very, very buttery both in flavor and mouthfeel.  I didn't actually enjoy it very much and felt like it needed some bread to go with it, as I really felt like I was just eating spoonfuls of butter.  Delicious butter, and with some beets to go with, but still, butter.  Others at my table really enjoyed this dish however, I think I was the only one who wasn't thrilled.

Paired with Domaine Weinbach Muscat, Alsace 2009, another fairly sweet wine.  And again, another fantastic pairing, as the sweet wine was needed to cut the richness of the butter terrine.

“Liver & onions”: Seared foie gras, caramelized onion, and noble No. 5

I was most looking forward to this dish, as seared is my favorite preparation of foie gras, I absolutely love caramelized onions, and pinot noirs have been my favorite wines lately!  It did not let me down and was my favorite dish of the evening.

The foie was creamy, delicious, and seared perfectly, as Alexander's always does.  Served on top of a big mound of soft, delicious caramelized onions, as promised.  Also on the plate was a chocolate miso sauce, compressed apple, and frizzled garlic.  The apple didn't really do it for me, but the crispy garlic added a great crunch and a really strong flavor component.  A bite of the seared foie, a few strands of onion, a few crispy garlic shreds, dragged through the chocolate miso ... ZOMG.  So.  Good.  I wanted more!  MOAR!

Paired with Peay Pinot Noir Scallop Shelf, Sonoma Coast 2009, a really smooth pinot with very little tanen.

Somewhere around here, our foie gras virgin gleefully declared that foie gras was "Somewhere between awesome and fantastic!".  Hurrah!

Pineapple gelee with shaved foie powder and raspberry sauce.

At this point, we were given an intermezzo to prepare for the main course.  The gelee unfortunately didn't have a very strong pineapple flavor and the tiny dot of raspberry sauce wasn't sufficient.  The foie powder, like in the amuse, was amazingly flavorful and delicious.  But, the whole thing just left me wanting more, and my palette did not feel cleansed.  Bring on the main event!

Foie basted beef filet, roasted foie gras powder, black trumpet soil, balsamic teriyaki, onion sprouts.

Cooked perfectly medium rare.

As you'd expect, the main course was a steak.  We were not given any options on "how would you like that cooked?"  It showed up medium-rare, as it should.  And, as you'd expect from Alexander's, this was amazing.  While the "Liver & Onions" dish was probably favorite, this was a very, very close second.  A really, really fantastic steak.  Perfect execution - great sear on the steak, tender, juicy, flavorful, etc, etc.  The onion sprouts were surprisingly flavorful, I forgot how strong of an onion flavor they could have, and were a really fun way to get another flavor into the dish.  The trumpet soil was really crazy, had a gritty texture and somewhat got stuck in your teeth (yes, it really was like eating soil!), but it was delicious, provided a great earthyness, and fun to eat at the same time.  The sauce was amazing, a sweet balsamic teriyaki infused with foie gras.  So much going on flavorwise here, I wanted to lick my plate clean.  The only criticism I have of this dish is that there wasn't all that much foie gras present.  I really didn't mind and enjoyed this immensely, but I know others were expecting some seared foie on top or something with the foie more prominently featured.  After the previous two dishes that were so foie forward however, this was totally fine with me, and I probably would have been sick of it if it included another lobe of seared foie gras.  Ok, maybe not :)

Paired with Dunn Cabernet Sauvignon, Howell Mountain 2006.  Another great wine.  Fantastic on its own, a big wine, very fruit forward, and with more tanen than I normally like, but it went so well with the filet that I didn't mind at all.  Another successful pairing!

Black sesame panna cotta, foie gras brioche, chantilly cream, black sesame macarons, miso leche, black currant sphere.

Every good meal must end with a foie gras dessert, right?  I was a little surprised that we didn't receive any sort of granita or something after the steak and before the dessert.  But maybe when your dessert is going to involve foie gras, cleaning the palette doesn't really make sense!

This dessert was kinda just a jumble of components. Our friend the black sesame macaron showed up again to end the night.  The panna cotta had a very intense sesame flavor which was nice, but I didn't really get how that went with a macaroon.  Or the foie gras broiche cake chunks, which were decently moist cake with a subtle foie flavor.  And who doesn't love some chantilly cream?  But what was the black currant sphere doing there?  I didn't really know what to do with all of this, and tried out all sorts of bites mixed together components, but didn't find much that seemed to go together flavor or texture wise.  Being a dessert-o-holic I gobbled it up (and some of the abandoned ones by my tablemates), but this was a pretty weak dessert.  I'm glad I wound up at a friend's house afterwards where they had Anthony's chocolate chip cookies, Bi-Rite salted caramel ice cream, house-made gummy rum-n-coke bottles, and homemade truffles!

Paired with Broadbent Malmsey Madeira NV.  This was lovely, with a great caramel flavor to it.

Bidding on foie gras terrine infused with port and truffles.

Happily showing off his "winnings" of assorted foie gras products.

At this point, everyone was happy, sorta tipsy, and feeling generous!  So the event concluded with a silent auction, with items such as foie gras, cases of wine, restaurant gift certificates, and "experiences", like working the bar at Alexander's.  Our table was filled with "winners", and we walked out with quite the bounty of coolers of foie gras, cases of champagne, and lots of certificates.  Go team!  Did I mention that all profits from the dinner were donated to the Coalition for Humane and Ethical Farming?

Every meal at Alexander's usually concludes with cotton candy.  The flavor changes every time.  No, it isn't particularly amazing cotton candy, but I adore this tradition and was quite sad that we didn't receive any (well, as sad as one can be after an absolutely phenomenal night!)  I must have voiced this sadness a little too much, as my lovely friends decided to take action and request some.  So we were given some blood orange cotton candy, yum!

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Swedish Dinner @ Jardiniere

Jardiniere is a classic French restaurant, located in Hayes Valley.  On Monday nights they do a special themed 3 course dinner, always $49, INCLUDING WINE PAIRINGS.  The themes vary from ingredients (next week is potato theme), to locations (tonight's was Swedish), to holidays, to concepts (like "breakfast for dinner"). This sounded like a great value and a perfect excuse to check the place out, and when I saw they were doing a Swedish dinner, it seemed like a great opportunity, since one of my favorite dining companions is Swedish, and I thought this might be a nice treat for him.  They also offer a few additional dishes a la carte (but not the standard menu), a vegetarian option for the prix fixe, and do not require everyone to order the prix fixe.  The menus are publish ~2 months in advance, but we found a bunch of changes on the menu we received from what was published online.

The restaurant is lovely!  Downstairs is a large open bar and lounge area, that I'd love to dine in sometime (they serve bar menu or a la carte there as well).  Upstairs is fairly romantic, with an open area down to the bar and lounge.  Nicely decorated, fancy but not stuffy, with a big round dome area with twinkly stars, and lots of mirrors.  Service was attentive but not overbearing, not particularly notable in any way.

The meal was good, but not spectacular.  This was somewhat expected as we were eating swedish food at a french restaurant, on a night where the normal kitchen staff has the night off.  I like the whimsy of themed dinners though and would go back for another when the menu was appealing.

Menu for the evening

Bread and butter

Fairly warm roll, with a crusty exterior and nice chew to the inside.  Butter had large salt crystals on top.  Not particularly noteworthy.

Salt Cod Croquettes, Wild Arugula and Fennel Salad

Paired with Tenuta la Ghiaia, Vermentino "Almagesto" Colli di Luni, Liguria, Italy 2010.

This was a generous sized appetizer!  Three potato and salt cod croquettes, served on top of an arugula and shaved fennel salad, with battered fried meyer lemon slices, and a meyer lemon aioli.  The croquettes were fried nicely, with a crispy exterior and creamy interior.  The filling was mostly mashed potato, with not much fishyness, but was quite salty from the salt cod.  On its own, a bite of this was too salty, but dipped in aioli, or paired with the salad, was well balanced.  The salad likewise was too strong on its own, with too much acid and seemingly overdressed, but again, if you paired it with a bite of the croquette, it provided a nice lightness against the deep fried patty and the acidity complimented the saltiness.  The deep fried slices of meyer lemon did not really do much for me and were just kinda greasy and too much fried, but the lemon flavor in the aioli worked very nicely.  Overall, successful when all the ingredients were combined into a perfect bite.

Our swedish dining companion said that the only thing swedish about this was the salt cod, as none of the spicing nor croquette itself were remotely swedish.

The wine was only ok.  Fairly sweet and I didn't really get the pairing.

Note: The menu online had listed a salt cod crostini, but I'm glad it was a croquette instead.  The menu also listed a totally different wine.

Swedish Meatballs,  Rice Pilaf, Dill and Lingonberry Sauce

Paired with Laurent Combier, Crozes-Hermitage, Rhone Valley, France 2010.

The meatballs were a combination of veal, pork, and beef, served with a very sweet sauce that was a reduction of lingonberries, veal, pork, and beef stalk, and the water from the rice pilaf.  The three meatballs I received were completely inconsistent: one was medium-well and fairly dry and not very good, one was medium and ok, and one was juicy and more medium-rare.  They weren't particularly flavorful however, but did have a nice crust on the outside.  The sauce was sorta cloyingly sweet when combined with the meatball or rice, but I really enjoyed dipping bread into it once the rest of the food was gone.  The rice was a mix of white and red rice, and also on the plate was some asparagus and arugula, none of which was particularly noteworthy.  The dill was barely detectable.  There were also some lightly pickled cucumber slices that added some acidity and helped lighten the dish up.

The waiter who brought us this dish just set it in front of us with no explanation, which I was a little annoyed by.  I wanted to know what I was eating!  Luckily, I asked our main waiter for details later and he was incredibly knowledgable and happy to tell us all of the details, including the finer points like how the sauce used the water from the pilaf!

Our swedish diner said that this was somewhat swedish, at least in that it was meatballs and lingonberries, but that serving it with rice was not normal.

The wine was incredibly fruit forward, both in smell and taste.  It was 100% syrah.  Drinkable,  but nothing noteworthy.

Note: The online menu listed a totally different wine pairing.

Vegetarian option:Carnaroli Risotto, Chanterelle Mushrooms, Asparagus and Parmigiano-Reggiano, white wine and truffle nage

One of our fellow diners opted for the vegetarian option.  It wasn't on the menu, so we had no idea what to expect.  It turned out to be a lovely risotto, with plentiful mushrooms and asparagus, surrounded in a delicious foam.  From the two bites I stole, I can say that his was tastier than ours.  There was nothing remotely swedish about this.

Napoleonbakelse, Creme Legerre and Tangelo Marmalade

Paired with Royal Tokaji, Late Harvest Tokaji "Mad Cuvee", Hungary 2009.

A deconstructed napoleon, three powdered sugar covered puff pastry squares, spheres of vanilla pastry cream, tangelo segments, and a sweet puree.  The pastry squares were pretty standard and not noteworthy.  The pastry cream was likely pretty standard, not very vanilla flavored.  The citrus was nice and refreshing.

The wine was crazy sweet and was like drinking syrup.  I love sweets so I enjoyed it, but not paired with the dessert.  Too much sweet paired with sweet in a non-compatible way.  One person described it as liquid apple jolly rancher.

Note: the online menu listed a different wine and a completely different dessert.  We were looking forward to trying the swedish cheesecake :(

White chocolate cremeux, black thai tea, pecan cake, meringue, candied pecans, passionfruit

We ordered an additional dessert, because, um, I love dessert.  I'm not 100% sure I got the description correct here, as the menu I received listed "caramel foam", which this dish definitely didn't have.  The online menu lists a "caramel meringue", and this did have meringue, but I wouldn't call it caramel.  And neither menu mentions the passionfruit sauce, which I'm positive they described when they brought it to us.  And they said it was roobios tea not black tea.  Hmm.

Anyway, I didn't really taste any white chocolate whatsoever.  The big snake like thing in the middle (the cremeux) tasted exactly like thai iced tea!  It was kinda incredible how much it reminded me of drinking a thai iced tea, with the tea infused flavor and the sweetness from the cream.  I didn't love the consistency however, fairly thick but not that creamy.  There were a few candied nuts, a few dribbles of passionfruit sauce, and a sweet sugary piece that all seemed like garnish that didn't really add much.  The pecan cake was not particularly interesting nor flavorful.  The meringue was fluffy and ridiculous sweet, a very soft style more like a marshmallow.  It didn't really go very well with everything else, but it satisfied my recent desire for soft meringue, that I've been having since the baked california at Haven (now THAT was good meringue!!!)  Anyway, overall, meh.

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SF Chocolate Salon

Today's big adventure was the SF Chocolate Salon, held at Fort Mason.  There were ~40 or so chocolatiers, with assorted plain bars, flavored bars, and truffles plus a few wineries and other confection makers.

I arrived in the middle of the event, probably a mistake.  It was fairly crowded and crazy, with lines for every vendor, and of course, plenty of people cutting those lines.  And a surprising number of vendors were already out of samples, which was lame, since ticket prices weren't that cheap.

It would be impossible to review the insane amount of chocolate I had today here, so I'll slowly post my reviews when I have some downtime in the next few weeks.  Stay tuned!

In related news, it turns out, there is such a thing as too much chocolate.  After 3 hours of eating chocolate, I can safely say that I have no desire to eat more chocolate right now!

Reviews:

• {cocoa}
• Amano
• Christopher Michael Chocolates
• Cocotutti
• Dandelion Chocolate
• David Bacco Chocolatier
• E. Guittard Chocolate
• La Châtelaine Chocolat Co.
• Monterey Chocolate Company
• Neococoa
• New Tree Chocolates
• Nicole Lee
• Saratoga Chocolates
• Sixth Course
• Snake & Butterfly
• Socola
• Vice Chocolates
• William Dean

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Chocolates from Neo Cocoa

If you have been following my weekly chocolate reviews, you already know that Neo Cocoa is one of my favorite chocolatiers.  They make mostly truffles, but are somewhat different from a traditional truffle in that they are just the creamy center, or "heart", of the truffle, and are not coated in a chocolate layer on the outside.  The ganache that makes up these truffles is creamy and just so delicious, with a strong dark chocolate flavor.  I've tried all of their truffles many, many times over the past year.  This is a compilation of my tasting notes, with separate tastings denoted by brackets.

My favorites: crushed cocoa nib, toasted coconut, and pumpkin spice.

You can find these at the La Cocina stand in the Ferry Building daily, or at the Saturday Ferry Building Farmer's market.

Signature 10 Piece Box, with Handy Guide.  $24.

• Truffles (in my order of preference):
• Almond Butter with Smoked Sea Salt: Tasting notes: This one doesn't actually do it for me, even though it totally should.  The ganache in this one just isn't as awesome as usual. [ Agreed. ] [ Meh, not interesting, sounds better than it is. ] [ Don't taste almond, ganache isn't as creamy, smoked salt is awesome, but there isn't enough. Don't want to try this one anymore! ]
• Cool Peppermint: Tasting notes: solid. good ganache with nice mint flavor infused. [agreed]  [nice mint flavor, a little subtle, delicious ganache] [ agreed ] [ nice to slowly let dissolve ] [ nice mint flavor, really nice ganache ] [ too subtle, not enough mint flavor ]
• Crushed Cocoa Nib:  Smooth ganache truffle, topped with nibs.  Tasting notes: Great ganache, love the crunch from the nibs. [ great ganache ] [ nice!  lovely ganache and then nice crunch on top] [ crunch from nibs on top, love it ] [ Nice crunch from nibs, great smooth ganache ] [ The ganche is delicious and I love the textural crunch from the nibs.] [ Nibs just add such a fun crunch. Love this one! ] [ Smooth, creamy ganache. The nibs then add a layer of bitter complexity and crunch. Finish stays bitter from the nibs, which is really nice. ] [ I think I like this less than I used to. The ganche is still smooth and creamy, and I like the crunch from the nibs, but overall, I want more flavor. I think perhaps the zesty lime ruined me, as now I find myself yearning for a bit more complexity. ]
• Mocha Cinnamon: Mocha flavored truffle, rolled in cinnamon powder.  Tasting notes: This is my least favorite flavor. [ Not one of my favorites, chocolate truffle isn’t as flavorful, I don’t like the powdery outside]  [ Agreed, don’t like powder outside. ] [ Do not like powder ] [ Really don't like.  The cinnamon powder doesn't go well with the chocolate and it adds a horrible mouthfeel. ] [ The ganache is creamy and great, although I don't taste mocha. But I just don't like the cinnamon on the outside. It makes it chalky.
• Pumpkin Spice: Milk chocolate, with pumpkin pie spicing. No actual pumpkin in it. Tasting notes: Creamy, smooth, delicious chocolate, with excellent spicing. Strong enough that you really knew it was pumpkin pie inspired, but not overwhelming. Went amazingly well with the chocolate. Love it!
• Toasted Coconut: Nice smooth chocolate ganache with coconut flakes throughout, infused with coconut oil. Tasting notes: Coconut adds nice texture, standard delicious, smooth, flavorful Neococoa ganache. [ Delicious ganache with coconut flakes ] [ Agreed ] [ Shredded coconut throughout is nice ] [ Nice coconut flavors, noms ] [ Super creamy ganache from coconut oil inside, lovely toasted coconut on top.  One of my favorites. ] [solid. good ganche ] [ Super creamy ganche infused with coconut oil? Rich, chocolatey, good coconut flavor. Strangely I didn't like the flakes this time, the texture was a bit off for me. ] [ Nice coconut flavor, I like this one again. ]
• Warm Ginger Root: Tasting notes: Ginger flavor not strong enough. [lovely ginger flavor, delicious ganache]
• Wild Cherry Dark Chocolate:  Tasting notes: Great neococoa ganache with added complexity of cherry flavor.  Loved it, cherries and chocolate go together so well! [no real cherry flavor ] [ cherry flavor not very strong ] [ Not very strong cherry flavor]
• Zested Lime: Tasting notes: very subtle lime flavor is in the ganache itself. [ Too subtle for my taste.] [ Lime flavor too subtle, not enough flavor ] [ Really nice.  Ganache is perfect, lime is nice touch. ] [ Really, really creamy ganache. That part is really quite nice. You can't really taste the lime much though. I want more lime flavor! But overall, this is a top pick for me, just based on how good the ganache is. ]
• Marshmallows
• Cherry Marshmallow: Tasting notes: Nice gooey marshmallow, with cherry ganache chocolate on both sides. [ This is a case where the whole is less than the sum of the parts. I love neococoa truffles. I love marshmallows. I love chocolate and marshmallow. But, these just didn’t really do it for me. ] [ Nice fluffy marshmallow, but chocolate not very standout like this. ]
• Espresso Marshmallow: Tasting notes: Nice gooey marshmallow, espresso ganache on both sides, but not much espresso flavor.

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Baked Goods from La Boulange

Several years ago, I went to my first La Boulange in Pac Heights. It was my first time having Greek yogurt, and my first time having yogurt and granola, and I got hooked (it probably helps that their granola is insanely decadent, the Greek yogurt is amazingly creamy, and that it is served with tons of honey and fresh fruit). I have very fond memories of that place, and whenever I was in Pac Heights would always stop in for the yogurt and granola. There were only one or two other La Boulanges in the city at the time.

Times have changed! In the past month, two more have opened in my neighborhood. There are now 12 total, and they sell their cookie dough and pastry dough in grocery stores. I currently have 3 La Boulanges within a mile of my house and in a few weeks will have 2 more (they are opening one in the Westfield and one in the Metreon).

Anyway, I digress. As part of their new openings, they have been very, very sample heavy. Which has meant that anytime I've stopped in to get a single item, I've gotten to try out a few more too! And today I hosted an event at work and picked up a bunch of other new items to try out. Thus, I have a pretty comprensive list of items (mostly bakery ones) that I've tried recently. I've been dutifully taking notes, and today a friend asked what I thought of La Boulange. Little did he know he'd get this for a response :)

Summary: inconsistencies!

Cookies

Summary: Generally not very good, could be personal preference since I don’t like hard cookies.

Almond Croquet Bordelais

• Shortbreads
• Orange Blossom: Tasting notes: Meh. Very crisp, not very flavorful or buttery like shortbread should be. 
• Chocolate Chip: Tasting notes: Again, crisp, but this one was buttery, decent for that style cookie, but I prefer soft chocolate chip cookies.  [ Buttery, nice amount of chocolate chips, decent for this type of cookie.  Reminded me somewhat of biscotti, and went well dunked in froth of cappuccino ]
• Double Chocolate: Tasting notes: Again, crisp. Chocolate shortbread base with small chocolate chips. Ok chocolate flavor, but not buttery like shortbread should be.  [ Kinda bitter, but I really liked the crunch from the chocolate chips ] [ Very intense chocolate flavor, not bad ] [ A bit buttery, a bit chocolatey.  Not something I'd seek out, but not bad. ]
• Espresso: Tasting notes: Again crisp. This one was pretty bad. Not flavorful or buttery and had a real gritty texture from espresso grinds in it. 
• Spicy Parmesan: This was a shortbread, but savory.  Almost like a cracker, but still a shortbread base.  It had a tiny bit of cheese flavor, and I have no idea what the "spicy" referred to, as I didn't detect any spice.  It was soggy.  And had a horrible mouthfeel.  Did not like, at all. [ Nice and cheesy, but a bit strange texture-wise, as it was like a shortbread cookie, but savory.  It also had chunks of something in it.  It wasn't spicy.  This was almost good, but not quite. ]
• Nuage
• Cocoa nib: A meringue cookie with cocoa nibs inside of it. Tasting notes: Light, airy, very sweet, tiny amount of chocolate. Tasting notes (updated): Strangely eggy.  [ Nice cocoa nibs, but just sweet cookie ]
• Lemon: Lemon flavored meringue cookie. Tasting notes: Ridiculously sweet but very strong lemon flavor. Kinda eggy though. 
• Rose: Tasting notes: Subtle rose flavor, mostly just sweet, very airy.  Meh.
• Almond Croquet Bordelais: Sorta a cross between a cookie and a biscotti. Tasting notes: Nice almond flavor, decent sized chunks of almonds, caramelized like exterior. Pretty tasty and I’d enjoy this with a cappuccino.  [ Nice buttery, almondy cookie.  Crispy, but good flavors. ] [ These go great with coffee drinks.  Or red wine.  My favorite of their cookies, by far. ]  [ My favorite of their products.  Sweet.  Buttery.  Great crunch from the almonds.  Great with coffee. ]
• Congolais. Basically a coconut macaroon. Tasting notes: Just a big pile of coconut, but also sorta buttery/oily.  [ Really tasty, nice coconut flavor, perfect level of sweetness ] [ Very moist, great coconut flavor, like! ]
• Ground Hazelnut Cookie: sorta like a macaron but without the filling, just the cookie part. Tasting notes: Decent hazelnut flavor but not a good texture. [ Very strong hazelnut flavor, ground nuts make for interesting texture. ] [ very nutty, but meh ]
• Palmier: Buttery, with big sugar crystals on it, but just crispy and pretty generic.  [ Kinda dried out, not much flavor, sugar not caramelized. ]

Tarts/Pies: 

Summary: Generally not very good, due to the fact that their default tart shell is just hard and flavorless.

• Bunde Fruit Tart: Tart shell, almond custard-like filing, apricot and glaze on top.  Tasting notes: same old tart shell, custard filling not bad.
• Chocolate Ganache Tart: chocolate crust with chocolate ganache topped with cocoa nibs. Tasting notes: The crust was boring and lacking depth of flavor, but better than their standard tart shell. The ganache was super melty and pretty nice, but not that intensely chocolaty. The nibs on top added a nice crunch. Definitely one of their better tarts. [ Chocolate crust is pretty flavorless. Ganache layer is very smooth and creamy, but lacking a lot of intense chocolate flavor. Nibs on top give great crunch. ]  [ Tart shell is just chocolate crust, but the ganache is so incredibly creamy and delicious.  Best thing I've had there! ] [ Love, love this chocolate ganache. Creamy, chocolatey, quite tasty.  Would eat it as a pudding if I could! ] [ Ganache rich and chocolatey, pretty delicious, like the crunch from nibs on top ]
• Flan Tart: Tart shell with flan on top. Tasting notes: Flan nice and custardy, but the tart shell is again hard and flavorless. Would just prefer the flan!  [ Flan was creamy and eggy.  Tart shell soft and not bad.  One of the best tarts I've had there! ]  [ Flan was eggy but creamy and good.  Nice flavor.  Tart shell was soft and not bad.  I enjoyed this. ]
• Gâteau Basque: I wasn't actually familiar with what a gâteau basque was, but they had this available as samples.  It is apparently an almond based cake, but I didn't taste almond.  It almost seemed more like a custard to me, kinda eggy, soggy.  There was also a thin layer of cherry.  I didn't care for this.
• Goat Cheese and Pear Tart: Didn't really taste goat cheese, which was good for me since I don't like goat cheese.  The pear was ... purple, and I wouldn't have known it was pear if I hadn't read that.
• Pecan Pie: Again, same old tart shell, topped with bitter pecans.  Not good at all.
• Pumpkin Pie: Very creamy, nicely spiced, I think my favorite thing I've had from there in recent memory!
• Red Fruit Tart: Tart shell, custard filling, topped with raspberries and strawberries.  Tasting notes:  Same old hard style start shell that is mediocre.  Custard filling creamy with a nice vanilla flavor. Fruit was just fresh fruit on top, not notable. [ Generic tart shell, pastry cream, meh fruit.  All meh. ]
• Rustic Apple Tart: Tart shell with apple filling. Tasting notes: Apple filling was mushy, as if overcooked. Not very flavorful or spiced. Tart shell hard, flavorless, boring. 
• Rice Pudding and Apricot Tart: Tart shell, with layer of apricot jam, with thicker layer of rice pudding. Tasting notes: Same tart shell that I’m not a fan of. Apricot not very flavorful. Rice pudding kinda mushy, no real flavors to it. 
• Strawberry Rhubarb Tart: Tart shell, baked, sweetened chunks of rhubarb and strawberries, crumble topping.  Tasting notes: This was really quite good.  Sweet yet tart, fruit was cooked down to be soft. [ Again, pretty good.  Fruit was nice and soft, pretty sweet.  Tart crust was a lot better than other ones, seemed softer and leaning more towards being a pastry. ] [ Crust is sorta mix between pastry and tart shell, I like it more than their standard tart shell, but it was mushy.  Filling of strawberry and rhubarb very sweet and mushy.  Crumble topping had no flavor. ] [ Crust mushy, filling just sweet and mushy, crumble top completely lost.  I wish this was good, but it just isn't. ] [ Crust boring, filling somehow both too sweet and too tart, just mushy rhubarb.  I really didn't like this! ]
• Stone Fruit Tart: Mushy not very good tart shell, mushy filling.  Do not like.
• Tropezienne Tart: Brioche filled with whipped pastry cream, topped with big sugar crystals. Tasting notes: Pastry cream was kinda eggy. Would have liked some vanilla flavor or something more to it. Brioche was fairly flavorless as well.

Croissants:

• Almond Croissant: butter croissant filled with marzipan layer, topped with more marzipan and sliced almonds. Tasting notes: pastry was pretty mediocre. Marzipan was nicely sweetened. [ pastry dough just not very good, fairly dry.  Marzipan also didn't have much flavor.  Just not very good ] [ Dry croissant dough.  Marzipan filling inside was decent.  Flakes of almond on the outside were a good touch.  But did not like overall, croissant itself just not very good. ] [ Not remarkable croissant dough, almond paste wasn't really almond flavored, very dry even though fresh.  Meh. ]
• Chocolate Croissant: Tasting notes: slight amount of chocolate swirled into a decent flaky pastry, not particularly notable. [ Dry, flavorless croissant. Decent dark chocolate inside. But not a good croissant at all. ] [ Dough not laminated, not buttery or flaky.  Chocolate ok. ]
• Chocolate Hazelnut Croissant: butter croissant filled with chocolate and ground hazelnut. Tasting notes: decent flaky pastry, chocolate and hazelnut plentiful but not very strong flavors. 
• Ham and Cheese Croissant: Tasting notes: croissant wasn't remarkable, ham wasn't crispy, all was just fairly meh.
• Vegetable Croissant: butter croissant filled with mixed vegetables and cheese. Tasting notes: nice flaky buttery croissant dough, plentiful veggie and cheese filling. YUM

Other Pastries:

• Croissant Bread Pudding: Bread pudding made from croissant pieces. Tasting notes: not moist, not flavorful, meh. [ Incredibly moist, wet even, custardy, strong egg flavor. ] [ Very moist, had an eggy flavor, pretty good! ] [ Not very good at all.  Just a mushy flavorless base. ] [ Burnt, hard top, somewhat strange consistency body, not good ]. [ Too moist, soggy, no flavor.  How do they make croissant bread pudding not be awesome? ]  [ Just soggy and eggy, not good at all ] [ Soggy, mushy, perhaps the worst bread pudding I've ever had.  I really, really don't like this. ]
• Apple Turnover: Tasting notes: enjoyable flaky buttery pastry dough, but like the apple tart, the apple filling inside is mushy and not very well spiced.  [ The apple filling was horrible.  Seems like canned stuff.  Not good. ]
• Chocolate Eclair: Classic eclair filled with chocolate cream and topped with chocolate ganache. Tasting notes: The chocolate cream inside was chocolately and good. The choux pastry was fine, better than their tart or quiche shells. 
• Raisin Custard Swirl: Tasting notes: Pretty decent croissant style dough. Big sugar crystals on top. But not much raisin or custard. Goes well with coffee. 
• Orange Cinnamon Morning Bun: Tasting notes. Swirl of decent croissant style dough with good orange flavoring throughout. Didn’t taste a lot of cinnamon. Large chunks of sugar on top.
• Sugar Brioche: Tasting notes: basically just a dry uninteresting bread with some sugar crystals on top.  Meh. [ Again, dry, totally uninteresting bread, slightly eggy.  Better once I slathered it with Nutella. ]

Cakes:

Bûche de Noël. $34.

Summary: Nothing very interesting here.

• Pound Cakes
• Blueberry Vanilla Pound Cake: just like the plain pound cake, but loaded with blueberries. Tasting notes: generous on the blueberries, but still not very good. 
• Caramelized Pistachio Pound Cake: Tasting notes: pistachios were kinda soggy and bad texture, but the cake was moist and nicely buttery. Tasting notes (updated): Nice pistachio flavor, nice and buttery. 
• Peach Almond Pound Cake: Tasting notes: dry, didn't taste peaches or almonds at all.  Not good.
• Vanilla Pound Cake: Tasting notes: completely flavorless, not interesting texture, meh. Tasting notes(updated): Strange eggy flavor. Not good. [ Not very flavorful, not interesting ] [ No flavor at all, not good, not moist. ] [ Moist, decent pound cake, but didn't have much flavor on its own.  Slathered with some of their hazelnut spread or jams from the condiment bar, it was much better! ] [ Very buttery, but no real other flavor, do not like. ]
• Raspberry Financier: Tasting notes: cute little thing, nice fruit flavor in center from raspberry, but hard, not very fresh tasting. [ Nice raspberry flavor in center dot, but not enough of it. Moist, good texture from the nuts, but meh. ] 
• Seasonal Specials:
• Bûche de Noël: This was cute, but most of the toppings were not edible.  Cute little fondant embellishments are way more fun!  The end pieces were chocolate, but very mediocre chocolate.  The cake inside was basically like air.  Very fluffy, brown but not very chocolatey.  It was almost non-existent and sorta disintegrated away.  I guess this is normal, as bûche de noël is usually made of light sponge cake.  Of course, I never like cake very much anyway, so the part of these that I was excited about was the creamy filling, in this case, chocolate mousse.  It was ok, and I ate it, but there wasn't anything particularly notable about it.
• Galette Des Rois: Puff pastry crust with Frangipane filling. Tasting notes: Decent pastry crust, but flavorless filling.  [ Dry, flavorless pastry crust, slightly almond flavored creamy filling.  Not very good. ]
• Super Vanilla: Tasting notes: Moist, sweet, decent.
• Chocolate Fondant: basically a super dense brownie, topped with powedered sugar. Tasting notes: Decent rich chocolate flavor. Would probably be really good warm with ice cream! [ Moist, super rich, very brownie-like. One of my favorite things they make. ]

Macarons

Summary: some good, some bad, totally depends on flavors.

Violet Cassis Macaron.

• Lemon: Tasting notes: cookie was not interesting flavor nor texture, filling was just kinda sweet lemon, not very good. 
• Caramel: Tasting notes: caramel filling was just tons of sweet, cookie was not interesting flavor nor texture. 
• Rum Raisin: Tasting notes: Filling was nice and boozy, pretty flavorful, decent. 
• Cherry: Tasting notes: nice, flavorful, complex cherry flavor. 
• Coconut: Topped with coconut flakes. Tasting notes: nice coconut flavor, yummy, flakes enhanced flavors. 
• Chocolate: Tasting notes: nice soft cookie, delicious ganache inside. Tasted like a really great brownie. Paired amazingly with coffee.  [ Very rich chocolately filling, good soft cookie, quite good ] [ Definitely my favorite of their macarons, but not really classic macarons.  It was basically like a rich, fudgey brownie. ]
• Coffee: Tasting notes: no flavor at all. Would have never identified this flavor. [ Coffee is in the cookie only, filling is just sweet.  Cookie nice and soft and well done, but sweet filling just doesn't work well. ]
• Pistachio: Tasting notes: pretty good, soft cookie, good pistachio flavor. [ Sweet, not tons of pistachio flavor. ]
• Raspberry: Tasting notes: really great raspberry flavor in both the nicely executed cookie and the sweet filling.
• Violet Cassis: Tasting notes: Looked beautiful, but no flavor. [ Strangely gummy on the outside, moist inside, not at all like what a macaron should be! ]

Quiche

• Cauliflower Quiche: Their same uninteresting pastry crust, filling with, well, cauliflower.  Not particularly interesting.
• Vegetable Quiche: Pastry crust filled with eggy custard, mushrooms, spinach, leeks, tomatoes. Tasting notes: Crust itself was forgettable, kinda oily and flavorless. Vegetables were inconsistently spread around in the quiche. Bites with tomato and leeks were particularly good.

Sauce/Jam

One of my favorite features of La Boulange is the condiments station.  It always includes their house-made spreads!

• Caramel Sauce: Tasting notes: sweet, goeey, decent caramel flavor.  [ Decent sweet caramel, no reason to purchase it, but, good. ] 
• Hazelnut Jam: Tasting notes: very very sweet but incredible hazelnut flavor. [ Intense hazelnut flavor ] [ Very nice flavor, quite tasty on bread ] [ Very good, I really enjoy this slathered on anything. ]
• Raspberry Violet Jam: Tasting notes: sweet jam, decent raspberry flavor.  Not outstanding, but better than what you find at most cafes/diners/etc. [ Very sweet, too sweet, not very good jam. ]
• Apricot Vanilla Jam: Tasting notes: sweet jam, decent apricot flavor.  

Other - Packaged Goods

• Granola: Tasting notes: so ridiculously tasty, particularly with honey. I love this stuff. Some of the best granola I’ve ever had.
• House Seasoned Potato Chips: Tasting notes: These were very oily and greasy.  Thin style.  Covered in visible herbs and seasonings, but really didn't taste like much of anything.

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Dinner @ Eiji

Tonight we went to another new sushi place, on the quest to find sushi that doesn't require 2 hour long waits or cost $100 per person.  So, we went to Eiji, in the Castro.  It is a small place, with only a few tables.  I was surprised to see no sushi bar, all food prep was done out of sight in the back.  We were dining with one vegetarian, and specifically choose to come here because they make their own fresh tofu, and have 3 different dishes featuring it.  They are also known for their strawberry mochi dessert, which I thought our vegetarian friend would enjoy as well.  We ordered an assortment of vegetarian dishes and sushi, cooked and raw.

The good: They take reservations.  Service was friendly and good.  Not too expensive - standard nigiri was $4.95, specials $7.95.
The bad: Nothing was very good.  Plum wine came with ice cubes in it?

I won't return.

Monkfish liver

 It was firm, and really just reminded me of catfood.  Did not like!

Cucumber salad

Nothing bad here, but nothing noteable either.  Just standard cucumber salad.

Cooked bamboo shoot, seaweed

 Decent crunch on the bamboo shoot, fairly pleasant seaweed, but no real flavor.

Toppings for tofu: green onion, sesame seeds, kelp, bonito flakes, diakon, ginger

Nice assortment of garnishes to add on top of your tofu.

Oboro Tofu

This was fresh, warm tofu, prepared tableside.  You could top it with any of the assorted toppings and add tamari for more flavor.  It was obviously fresh, had a decent soy taste, and was warm and creamy.  My tablemates enjoyed this much more than me, I found it pretty forgettable.  Perhaps I just failed to top it well?

Ankake tofu

Warm steamed tofu with some sauce.  This looked good, but didn't really have much flavor.  Noticing a theme?

Eggplant with miso and walnut sauce, pickled daikon

My favorite dish of the evening, but that isn't saying much.  Cooked eggplant with a fairly decent miso and walnut paste on top.

Veggie roll, poke roll, amberjack nigiri, amebi, tamago

I did not try the veggie roll.

The "poke roll" was recommended to us by the waitress when I asked for a roll recommendation.  It was tuna with some spicy sauce and shiso.  The tuna was really crappy, stringy, poorly butchered.  I didn't really taste any spicy sauce either.  Not good.

Amberjack was off of the specials menu, supposed to be fresh and great.  It was flavorless and forgettable, slightly chewy.

I did not have the shrimp, but the person who ordered it said it was horrible.

Tamago was decent, fairly sweet, but the nigiri was far too big.  Hard to see in this photo, but that is basically all egg, with just a few grains of rice.

Strawberry, red bean, mochi

And the dish the Yelpers all rave about.  A strawberry, covered in red bean, covered in mochi.  Meh.  My strawberry wasn't very ripe or flavorful.  The red bean didn't really seem to go with it (everyone at the table wanted it to be chocolate instead).  The mochi was good.

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