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!

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Lunch @ Cyrus

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pretzel croissant, brioche, chive biscuit.

My picks!  All served warm.

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

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

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

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

Epi, honey wheat, pretzel croissant.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The diakon shreds in the bottom added some good texture.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chorizo Crusted Scallop with Sweet Corn and Lobster Froth

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Palette cleanser: avocado lime lollipop.

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

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

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

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

This was the main dish my dining companions selected.

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

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

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

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

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

Black Sea Bass with Pea Sprouts and Asparagus, Lemon Verbena

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yuzu Crémeux, Bergamot Meringue and Cream Cheese Ice Cream

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cocoa Nib “Affogato”, Condensed Milk Semifreddo

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

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

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

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

The sauce was warm rum sauce, very boozy.

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

Goat Milk Panna Cotta with Rhubarb, Parsley-Lime Ice

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

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

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

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

First, the chocolates and candies.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chocolate pot de creme, rice pudding with mango

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

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

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

Root beer float lollipop.

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

Maple bourbon glazed donuts

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

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

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

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

Decaf coffee.

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

Take home treat: kouign amann

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

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

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

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Snake & Butterfly Chocolate

Today I attended one of the Artisan's Markets at Williams-Sonoma.  They hold these once a month, and bring in assorted merchants each time.  One of the vendors today was Snake & Butterfly, a local chocolate maker.  I've encountered them at a few other events, but I've never really been that into their chocolate.  The bars are all made with 62% dark chocolate.

Notes on the bars I've tried.  As always, multiple tastings are reflected in brackets.

• Bacon toffee: "A distinctive blend of beans from the Barlovento Coast of Venezuela, and beans from Bali that are smoked in-house over native applewood."  Ingredients: Organic cocoa beans, organic evaporated cane juice, organic cocoa butter, organic agave nectar, organic sugar, bacon, butter, salt. Tasting notes: Gross.  Mediocre chocolate with subtle bacon flavor that mostly just tastes burnt.  Interesting ingredient list with cane juice, agave, and sugar all used. [ Ok bacon flavor ]
• Cherry & chili: "A distinctive blend of beans from the Barlovento Coast of Venezuela, and beans from Bali that are smoked in-house over native applewood." Ingredients: Organic cocoa beans, organic evaporated cane juice, organic cocoa butter, organic dried cherries, chipotle.  Tasting notes: chocolate isn’t ZOMG but chili adds a nice kick, cherry adds a nice chew. [ nice chunks of cherry, has some serious heat to it ] [ best of their bars ]
• Ginger & nib: "A Criollo bean from the Puerto Cabello Coast of Venezuela - delicate, sweet and velvety. The pleasing crunch of roasted nibs and chewy-sweet glow of candied ginger. " Ingredients: Organic cocoa beans, organic evaporated cane juice, organic cocoa butter, organic candied ginger.  Tasting notes: like their other bars chocolate itself isn’t that great, candied ginger is nice, nib adds a nice crunch. [ Flavors very subtle, didn’t pick up on ginger or nib really.] [ Ginger provides a nice zing, chocolate not that interesting, didn’t pick up on nibs. ] [ Chocolate fairly generic and not interesting.  Kinda gritty texture from the nibs.  Doesn’t have much ginger ]

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Xocolatl de David

Today my local amazing chocolate shop (Fog City News) had a guest chocolatier on site: David Briggs, from Xoxolatl de David.  I'd tried several of his bars before at the now-defunct weekly tasting events they used to hold, and had been very impressed.  I was really excited to go today to get a chance to try even more of his products!  Unfortunately, he only had two that I hadn't tried before to sample, even though he makes many more varieties.

His chocolate bars all use one of three different chocolates as the base: 68% Chocolate from Bolivia, 72% Chocolate from Ecuador, or 74% Chocolate from Dominican Republic.  Almost all include fleur de sel for a really nice salty finish.  The bars are very unique, featuring savory ingredients like cheeses, olive oil, pork products, etc (he was one of the first making a bacon bar).  My dining companion who does not like sweets came along today, which is very rare for a chocolate event, but I promised him savory chocolate, and he was indeed impressed enough with this to purchase several bars.  I've never seen him buy anything besides a 99% or 100% before!  Some of the other really interesting sounding savory varieties, that I haven't tried, include Chicharrón, Hazelnut & Black Truffle, "Salt & Pepper", Creme Fraiche, River's Edge Chevre, Rhubarb ... the list goes on and on!

I've only had the chocolate bars, but David also makes caramels, nougats, chocolate covered nuts, and a variety of other confections.  And, as I just discovered ... foietella: foie gras chocolate spread.  Yes, really.  How do you think this sounds to a foie gras lover like me?  Amazing ... imagine it spread on a croissant?  Or warm brioche?  I must order this before July 1!

Anyway, I highly recommend these bars.  Unique, complex, and really quite tasty!  In particular, I love how the tasting experience changes as you savor these, the finish on many of them is just incredible.

My tasting notes, from past chocolate tastings, purchases, and today's event.  As always, subsequent tastings are in brackets.

• Almond & Pimentón: 68% dark chocolate from Boliva.  “Marcona almonds fried in extra virgin olive oil, and seasoned with smoked spanish paprika, and fleur de sel”.  Tasting notes:  This bar is amazing.  Smooth, glossy dark chocolate with a subtle bitterness, with whole flavorful almonds, a nice spice from the paprika, and an amazing salty finish.  The tasting experience is incredibly complex, starting with the bitterness and almond flavor, moving into some spice, and finishing with a great smoky, salty flavor. [ This bar is really good to have a small bite of, but it gets old fast.  After having it a number of days in a row, I’m pretty sick of it. ] [ After not having it for a while, it grew on me again.  Nice smokey flavor. ] [ Re-visited a few months later.  I love the smokiness to this bar! And the almonds! ]  He also makes a chocolate covered nut snack version of these: chocolate covered Marcona almonds fried in extra virgin olive oil, and seasoned with smoked spanish paprika, and fleur de sel.  I'd LOVE to try those!!!
• Brown Butter Bar:  72% dark chocolate from Ecuador.  “Brown butter (local sweet cream butter cooked, first to remove the moisture content, and second to caramelize the remaining milk solids) ... and a little fleur de sel”.  Tasting notes: Incredibly smooth, amazing buttery flavor.  This reminded me of a perfect dessert, turned into a chocolate bar!  It basically had all of the flavors of a lovely brown butter cake, drizzled with caramel and chocolate.  A complex tasting experience, and really quite delicious! [ Really amazing caramelized flavor in this bar.  Sweetest bar of his that I've tasted, totally my thing! ]
• Miso: This one isn't released yet, but we got a taste.  I'm not sure of the details of it - he mentioned a white miso from a local producer, and it included a number of other ingredients as well.  Tasting notes: This was incredible.  Salt and chocolate are a classic combination, and in this bar, the salt was replaced by the miso.  It worked really incredibly well.  There was so much flavor going on in this bar.  I just got a tiny taste, so I didn't get to really experience it fully, but I'll certainly buy this one when it comes out!
• Olive Oil: 68% dark chocolate from Boliva, extra virgin olive oil, fleur de sel.  Tasting notes: This was really interesting to try, particularly compared to the other bars made with the same base chocolate.  The olive oil made it creamier, softer, and reminded me more of a milk chocolate.  I couldn't exactly taste olive oil, but there was clearly something different with this bar. [ This is incredibly creamy.  The mouthfeel is just amazing.  The salt on the finish is great. ]
• Parmigiano-Reggiano: 72% dark chocolate from Ecuador, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, fleur de sel. Tasting notes: So strange.  That … was really chocolate with cheese in it.  Can’t say I liked this, but it was certainly interesting.  You don’t taste the cheese at first, but it is very strong on the finish.  Cheese is in large flakes throughout the bar, resulting in a somewhat gritty texture. [ The first experience of this bar is of chocolate, and then the parmesan comes through in the finish.  It is really crazy ... definitely, cheese and chocolate! ]
• Piment d'Espelette: 74% organic chocolate from the Dominican Republic, piment d'espelette, fleur de sel.  Tasting notes: Hard and glossy dark chocolate, decent chocolate flavor, not much spicing.  I appreciated the hit of salt.
• Salted Caramel: 72% chocolate from Ecuador, filled with salted caramel.  Tasting notes: caramel very thick, but beautiful flavor. Loved the salt in it.  Chocolate unremarkable.

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Scream Sorbet

Warm weather makes me crave one thing even more than foie gras: ice cream!

I've never been a fan of sorbet, as it has always seemed inferior in every way to ice cream, gelato, or soft serve frozen yogurt.  Perhaps the only thing it beats out for me is nasty hard frozen yogurt.  But ... there is one place that makes sorbet that does indeed make me consider it something worthwhile: Scream Sorbet!

Scream sells at the Thursday and Saturday Ferry Building farmer's markets (among other locations).  Their sorbet is made fresh in small batches, and the flavors change constantly.  They generally have a few nut based flavors and a few pure fruit flavors.  The nut ones are often incredibly creamy and indistinguishable from ice cream, and the fruity ones can be intensely flavorful and refreshing, really capturing the essence of fresh, seasonal fruit!  And the staff are always so friendly, and seem to genuinely love the product!

I present to you my tasting notes, from the past year+ of trying various sorbets.  As always, subsequent tastings are listed in brackets.  

• Chocolatey
• Hazelnut chocolate: Like frozen nutella.  Nice! [ hazelnut flavor not that great ] [  yum, tastes like nutella ]
• Chocolate coffee: very nice coffee flavor.
• Valhrona chocolate: Nice chocolate flavor, really creamy, very good.
• Chocolate coconut: nice coconut flavor, combines well with chocolate. [ Somewhat gritty texture from the cocoa powder, no coconut flavor, didn’t really like this ].
• Chocolate almond: kinda chaulky, not very good.
• Chocolate saffron: not much flavor.
• Spicy chocolate pecan: creamy and flavorful [nice spice like mexican chocolate] [ nice and spicy, don’t taste pecans ] [ strange mouthfeel, nice spice ]
• Chocolate peppermint: subtle peppermint, not very chocolatey.

• Nutty
• Peanut brittle: not as intense peanut flavor as I'd like.
• Maple walnut: nice flavors [decent but not that flavorful]
• Cashew chai: really nice.  chai flavor was great.  really liked this one [again, really good]  [ nice chai flavor ] [really nice chai flavor]
• Pistachio: very pistachio-y but I don’t like pistachio much to start with.
• Coffee almond: nice coffee flavor.  [  Icy but good coffee flavor ]
• Cashew caramel: meh [ tastes like a honey roasted cashew, really caramely, yum ]
• Almond pink peppercorn: savory, strong pepper flavor.
• Almond vanilla: nice nutty flavor.
• Saffron almond: Nice saffron flavor
• Peanut vanilla: Creamy, very strong peanut flavor, awesome. [ Really creamy, great peanut flavor ]
• Almond pink peppercorn: Very savory, not sweet, pepper flavor is subtle.  If you like savory sorbet, I could imagine really liking this.  It could have some fantastic pairings as well.
• Vanilla macadamia: Really great flavor from macadamias, good vanilla flavor too.  Definitely like this one!

• Fruity
• Lime mint: mint flavor really intense from fresh mint leaf.  not my thing but very intense flavor
• Orange mate: subtle flavor but nice.
• Pineapple guava: bursting with flavor, refreshing, but you have to like the flavor of these things
• Pear: super flavorful!
• Quince: very sweet
• Apple walnut: tastes like apple sorbet, no walnut flavor [ sorta like applesauce] [sorta apple but meh ]
• Cranberry satsuma: nice and tart!  cranberry and satsuma flavors both very pronouced and delicious
• Quince vanilla: meh, no real flavor [ meh, no real flavor, soggy ]
• Page mandarin: nice strong citrus flavor
• Tangelo: very intense citrus flavor, but meh, citrus. [ Nice tart citrus flavor. ]
• Guava: refreshing, nice guava flavor.
• Grapefruit: sweet, not very strong grapefruit flavor, more like a classic sorbet, kinda icy.
• Strawberry lemon: not very flavorful
• Strawberry shortcake: this is kinda amazing.  shortcake flavor is simulated using almonds.
• Olallieberry: Just kinda sweet, not great flavor.
• Blackberry olive oil: This was really strange! The blackberry was sweet and tart, and the olive oil was really strong on the finish.  Not flavors I'd ever think of putting together, but ... it worked in a really surprising way.
• Spicy peach: refreshing, yet with a nice kick.  Very good!

• Vegetable-y
• Pumpkin guts: pumpkin seed, not as flavorful as I’d want.
• Kambucha coconut: decent pumpkin flavor.

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Dinner @ Spruce

Sunday dining options are always ... limited.  Many places are not open.  Or ones that are, often do not have their executive chefs around that night.  I'm always searching for good Sunday night venues.

Spruce just announced that they were bringing back their "Burgers and Burgundy" promotion on Sunday nights, something they did a few years ago.  Basically, they have their famous burger available in the dining room and lounge, and then offer some additional toppings (besides the additional ones they always have: assorted cheeses, caramelized onions, sauteed mushrooms, foie gras, fried egg, etc) to "spruce" up your burger.  And then they pick three different burgundies that they offer by the glass, or you can do a flight of 2 oz pours.  This sounded kinda fun!

I'd been to Spruce before to dine in the lounge and had the burger, and while I thought it was good, it wasn't one of my very top burger picks.  It has won so many "best burger" awards though, that I figured this would be a pretty good Sunday night option.  But, the real draw was their foie gras and waffles - perhaps the most memorable preparation of foie gras I've ever had (certainly in the top 5 ... and I eat a lot of foie gras), and I was really eager to get back and have it again (with seasonal variation of course).

My first trip to Spruce I sat in the lounge area, and this time we sat in the actual restaurant.  We were seated at a nice corner table in the back room.  There is plentiful space between tables and it felt really private.  As an added bonus, the chairs had purse hooks on them!  Dining in the dining room was otherwise a pretty similar experience, starting with an amuse bouche and bread service, and finishing with some petit fours.  The only striking difference from my last trip was how much less dressed up diners were.  The Sunday crowd is much less formal than the mid-week crowd!

Service seemed about the same in both locations, generally good and knowledgeable, however we had one major service issue.  Our appetizers came out, and the server almost reached our table, only to realize that our amuse bouches had not been cleared away, and that we had no appetizer plates or utensils.  He disappeared with the dishes, someone else came to clear our old plates and set out new ones, and then ... we waited.  Several minutes went by.  I made a comment to my fellow diners about how I hoped that our appetizers weren't just sitting there getting cold, as they were really temperature sensitive items, and they reassured me that the kitchen would re-fire them.  I was skeptical. Anyway, several minutes later the appetizers are brought to us.  It wasn't really enough time for our dishes to have been re-made.  And ... they were cold.  And it really, really effected the quality of the dishes (see full comments below).  The amazing foie gras and waffles was not only not amazing, it was actually kinda bad.  So when the waitress came back to ask us how things were, we hesitated, and then were honest.  She apologized and offered to send us a new batch.  We accepted, and as we hoped, it made a difference.  They certainly made up for the issue by bringing us a new dish, but this really shouldn't have happened in the first place.

Besides that hiccup, I was really impressed with our server.  She was incredibly knowledgeable, particularly about the wines being offered, and could talk about them at length.  She also seemed genuinely interested in the wines and food being served, and talked about elements of them that she appreciated.  She also could suggest good wine pairings to bring out different aspects of the dishes.

But ... overall, this was a fairly disappointing meal.  I enjoyed my time at the restaurant, but the food didn't meet my expectations, which were formed from past experiences.  Perhaps it was the Sunday thing?  I'm not sure about going back soon.  On one hand, I'd like to go and try my luck again at getting great foie gras and waffles.  On the other hand, there are only a few more weeks left, and so many other foie preparations out there.  Did we just have an off night?

Amuse bouche: Carrot and ginger soup.

The amuse was a creamy carrot soup.  I thought it was a little too thick, with a strange mouthfeel.  The ginger was very refreshing however, and I really liked the carrot + ginger combination.

Not pictured is the bread service.  Last time we had the choice of a roll or a really nice cranberry bread, but there was no choice this time, only a roll offered.  It was hot, with a slight crust on the outside, moist on the inside.  Decent, but nothing particularly memorable.  The rolls again came with two types of butter: standard butter or a garlic and chive butter.  The garlic and chive had good flavor and was more interesting than plain butter, but I preferred the honey butter we got last time.  Mmmm ... honey butter!

Hudson Valley foie gras: vadouvan waffle, strawberry, pistachio.  $23.

The moment we were all waiting for ... foie gras and waffles!  Two of us were familiar with this dish from our last trip (and he had actually had it again more recently as well), and one person had not yet gotten to experience the foie gras and waffles masterpiece.  Since the first time I had the dish, I've literally raved about it whenever someone mentions foie gras.  I was so excited to get to have this again, and to share it with the newcomer!

The dish looked basically the same as before.  Two quarters of waffle stacked up, with one ball of torchon rolled in pistachio on top, one on the side, and a seared chunk of foie gras.  The other aspects of the preparation were changed up to be more seasonal.  The pear slices were replaced with strawberries.  And the syrup poured on tableside was a rhubarb syrup rather than pear syrup.  There was no replacement for the pear jelly.

Unfortunately, that is where the similarities ended.

The waffle was cold.  It was kinda spongy.  It was honestly no better than a waffle from a breakfast buffet that had been sitting for hours.  This was a sharp contrast to last time, when it was crisp and rather perfect.  The waffle was improved in our replacement version of this dish, as it was at least warm that time, but it still was a little spongy, not crispy, and the vadouvan spicing, which I loved so much last time, wasn't noticeable at all in either version.

The foie gras torchon balls rolled in pistachio were exactly the same as our previous visit.  Creamy, great flavor and consistency, paired well with the pistachio.  The first time I had this dish, these balls were the most amazing component, as they melted into the waffle like butter.  In our first serving this night, since the waffle was cold, the foie didn't melt in at all.  So while it was tasty, it was just torchon spread on nasty waffle, so it totally did not create the same "waffle and melted butter" experience that had been so amazing the first time.  When we got our replacement version of the dish, the waffle was warm, and the foie balls did again melt into them.

The seared foie gras was really nicely executed.  Lovely sear on the outside, slight charred flavor, creamy, high quality foie.  Of course, the first time we received it it was cold, but the second time it was warm.  This was a really nice seared chunk of foie and I enjoyed it very much.

The strawberry chunks were just strawberries, not particularly good or bad.  I didn't think they went as well with the pistachio as the pears had.

The syrup poured on was a slightly tart, slightly sweet, rhubarb syrup.  Like last time, they poured a little over the top waffle, and then took it away!  This meant that the second waffle didn't really get any syrup at all, and was just dry, and lacked the sweet component to pair with the foie.  When we got the replacement dish, we asked to keep the syrup, and it was much better to be able to add some on.  I didn't like the rhubarb syrup nearly as much as the pear syrup.  It didn't seem to compliment the foie gras nearly as well, nor did I really like it with the waffles alone.  Last time I remember thinking that I could easily enjoy regular waffles with the pear syrup rather than standard maple syrup, and this time, I certainly wouldn't have wanted this syrup.

This dish was clearly much better when served at the proper temperature, with the warm waffle, melty foie torchon, and hot seared foie far better than a cold soggy waffle with torchon smeared on it and cold seared foie on the side, but it still did not come together as well as the last variation.  Some of it was execution of the waffle (not crispy, not spiced), but  I think the biggest thing missing was the sweet component to really enhance everything.  The rhubarb sauce just didn't do it and there was nothing in place of the pear jelly.

I paired this, at the server's suggestion, with a half glass of Tokaji.  It was sweet and lovely, and only $4.50!  I loved that they let me do a half glass!

Overall, this was still creative and good, but it paled in comparison to the previous version.  I'd certainly order it again if I went back, and I'm curious to see if they'll have another version before July 1.  $23 is a great price for the dish, particularly as it includes both seared foie and the balls.

Bellweather ricotta gnudi: asparagus, sweet onion emulsion.   $16.

At the Taste of the Nation event a few weeks ago, we had the pleasure of eating Spruce's dish: Bellweather ricotta gnudi with spring peas.  It was one of the best dishes I had that night, soft, pillowy gnudi, delicious fresh peas, in a fantastic sauce.  We were shocked at how wonderful it was, particularly in that setting as they were preparing it on a little burner and plating it rapidly to pass out to the hoards.  When I saw this on the menu, I was very excited, as it sounded like exactly the same dish, but with asparagus in place of peas.

It wasn't. At Taste of the Nation, the gnudi were traditional gnudi.  That is, they were little balls of basically ravioli insides.  These were instead a large format, with a pasta wrapper.  They reminded me far more of pierogies than gnudi, particularly as the filling seemed to have potato and they were finished with a butter and onion sauce.

The pasta was well executed, slightly al dente, with a slight chew that was enjoyable to bite into.  The filling was soft and indistinguishable from mashed potato.  Not bad, but not at all what I was expecting given that we ordered gnudi, and that I'd had traditional gnudi from them before.

The asparagus came as a couple spears and a couple shaved stalks.  Executed fine, slightly crisp.

The sauce was salty, but not all that flavorful.

This dish was all fine, but forgettable.  I wouldn't bother ordering it again.

Spruce burger, fries (split).  $16.

And ... the famous Spruce burger.  Like last time, I was splitting this with someone else, and they split it onto two plates for us.  This also meant they doubled up the toppings and fries, and they don't charge a split fee.  Score?

They offer a bunch of options to add to the burger: gruyere, cheddar, or blue cheese, caramelized onions, sauteed mushrooms, fried egg, foie gras, bacon, pancetta, and probably a few more things I'm forgetting.  At future Burgers & Burgundy nights, they'll be offering special add ons that they don't normally have.  We added blue cheese, and the other diner of course added foie gras.  The foie was nicely seared just like our appetizer, thought it was fairly small.  It was only $12, so this was a good value, and really did enhance the burger quite a bit.  How is it that not everyone orders foie on their burgers!  And perhaps it just seemed small after seeing the foie that Alexander's allows you to add to their burger, which is rather ridiculously large (literally, as big as the burger itself) and far more suited to adding to a steak (which I think is what most people do).  Anyway, good topping selection.

On the side of the plate comes a bunch of things to dress up your burger yourself: lettuce, pickled onions, thin slices of pickled zuchini, and tomato.  The tomato was better than last time, but still not great.  Alas, it is not yet tomato season.  The lettuce was nice and crisp.  I loved the pickled stuff, and ate my entire serving, plus all of that of my fellow diners.  I enjoyed it on the burger, but also just on its own.  Sour, vinegary, yum!

There was also standard ketchup and mustard.  They seemed like generic versions from a jar.  Compared to the amazing mustard at Alexander's, this is also a letdown.

The bun was the same as last time, english muffin style, and smaller than the patty.  I found this made it a little annoying to eat, as I always run out of bun in the first place, and the small size just exacerbates the problem.

The burger patty itself was not good.  We ordered it medium-rare, and it came medium, perhaps even medium-well.  It was dry.  Not flavorful.  And it had hard bits of gristle in it.  It was far better last time I was there, when it was properly cooked medium-rare, but it wasn't particularly flavorful then either.

The fries were really not good.  Last time, they were kinda standard and not anything noteworthy, but this time, they were actually bad.  Insanely oily and tasted just like grease.  I really couldn't taste any potato at all.  At least they were crispy?  I don't think any of us had more than a few of these.  Really, really not good.

I wouldn't get this again, as the only enjoyable part was the pickled accompaniments.  I don't understand why people love this burger so much.  Perhaps they have just never had the one at Alexander's?

Alongside the burger, we tried the flight of Burgundies, $16 for pretty generous pours of each.  Not full glasses, but certainly more than standard flight pours.  The three wines were all completely different, and we all really liked one of them, thought one was good, and thought the last was pretty bad.  It was fun to compare, and this may have been the first time we all agreed on liking things in the same order!  The wines did arrive after the burgers however, which was unfortunate.  It would have been nice to have them to try both before the burger, and with the burger, and two of us were planning to order a full glass of whichever one we liked the most to go with the burger, but since they arrived so late, we never did.

Honey yogurt panna cotta, oat streusel, rhubarb.  $10.

And ... on to dessert.  I've got a thing for custardy, puddingy, desserts, including panna cotta, so we had to try this.

The panna cotta was described by the waitress as being not too sweet, nicely balanced, with a honey flavor.  Since we had one diner who doesn't like sweets, this sounded like he might possibly like it, particularly as it was paired with sour rhubarb.  However, it was insanely sweet.  It was creamy, and the consistency was nice, but otherwise, it was just far too sweet and not very good.  I liked the crumble on the plate to mix in with it.  I'm not sure what the strands were that it was topped with.

The rhubarb cubes were stewed, slightly tart, and tasty enough.

The streussels were rolled, very buttery, very flaky filo dough filled with something.  I couldn't really identify what it was, just kinda sweet.  These weren't particularly good.

I would not order this dish again.

Carrot cake, cream cheese bavarian, fried carrots, orange ginger granita.  $10.

Next up was the carrot cake.  The server told us this was somewhat of a play on carrot cake, with a few non-traditional elements.  In particular, she said the sweet cream cheese frosting was instead replaced by a creme fraiche topping, and that it was sour rather than sweet.  Again, seemed like perhaps our non-sweet liking friend would tolerate this.

The cake itself was really generic.  Moist enough, carroty enough, but incredibly uninteresting.  Granted, I'm a carrot cake snob as my great aunt has a carrot cake recipe that just blows away all other carrot cake (super moist, it includes crushed pineapple and nuts ... soo amazing).

On top of the cake, in equal parts, was the "cream cheese bavarian".  I'm not sure why it was called that, as it wasn't really anything like bavarian cream, nor did it really taste like cream cheese.  It was more like what the waitress had described, more creme fraiche like.  It was indeed not too sweet, but it wasn't particularly good.  It needed some more flavor or something, and the equal ratio of this to the cake seemed really odd.

The top layer was some form of sweet jelly.  I'm not really sure what it was.  Perhaps carrot?

And on top of that, was crispy fried candied carrots.  These were awesome.  Sweet, crispy, fried goodness.  I ate them all.

When the dish was brought out, one person asked for clarification on the granita.  The server said it was pineapple.  It wasn't.  It was, as the menu had said, orange.  It was sour, decent enough, but melted very quickly, and didn't really go with the carrot cake.  Why would I want cold granita with my carrot cake?

Overall, not a very good dessert.  The only thing I really liked was the fried candied carrot curls.

Alongside my desserts, I also had a decaf coffee.  As is my standard practice these days, I asked how the decaf coffee was.  The server told me it was pretty good, a swiss water process decaf, individually brewed.  It was actually pretty good, very, very strong and intense.  Still a decaf, but not bad.

Petit fours: Almond financier, apricot jam.

And one final little bite of dessert ... these had a base layer of almond, a thin layer of pastry cream, a  layer of cake, a thin layer of apricot jam, and another layer of cake.  Not noteworthy in any way, they were basically just a sum of their mediocre parts.

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