No pictures available – sorry. It was a last minute decision to give this a try. Charming restaurant located on Alameda de Las Pulgas in Menlo Park where each section is like a room in a house. Very fresh ingredients and their short rib was absolutely amazing. Definitely worth trying!
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Charming Flea Street Cafe in Menlo Park
Posted in Peninsula, Uncategorized on August 9, 2009| Leave a Comment »
Las Vegas Dining Experience: Cut, Aureole and Bouchon
Posted in Other US Cities, Uncategorized on July 23, 2009| Leave a Comment »
Please forgive the short entries as life has become more and more hectic.
Aureole in Mandalay Bay Resort is known for its 1 Michelin Star dining experience and the 42-foot-tall glass-enclosed “wine tower” filled with Lucite wine bins and thousands of bottles of wine. It is a quite a site as you spiral around the tower on your way down to the restaurant. The restaurant is beautiful and the food was good, but wasn’t great. We expected more but walked away with a less than memorable experience.
CUT in the Palazzo, on the other hand, was absolutely delicious! It is the second location for Wolfgang Puck’s Beverly Hills steakhouse of the same name in the Beverly Wilshire, a Four Seasons Hotel. I love the ultra-modern decor even though it doesn’t feel like a steakhouse. The steak was cooked to a perfectly seasoned medium-rare and we ordered a wild mushroom medly with shishito peppers that was absolutely and innovatively delicious. Our dessert was a very interesting new twist to a classic fruit cobbler. It was so refreshing and delicious with the balance of the strawberries and raspberries paired with the crumbling cookies. Absolutely amazing!
Bouchon in the Venetian surprised me this time with the best chocolate croissant I’ve ever had. Crumbling and flaky crusts and real dark chocolate on the inside. Fabulous! They also make the most crispy bacon – just the way I like it. Yum!
Sorry for the lack of pictures. It was difficult to use flash as we didn’t want to disturb someone else’s dining experience and sometimes we forget to take them because we’re eager to taste the food.
Aureole http://www.aureolelv.com/
Cut http://www.wolfgangpuck.com/restaurants/fine-dining/3801′
Bouchon http://www.bouchonbistro.com/
Kaygetsu in Palo Alto was absolutely delicious!
Posted in Peninsula, Uncategorized on June 24, 2009| Leave a Comment »
Kaygetsu is located in a strip mall on Sand Hill in Palo Alto near 280 which is surprising as I wouldn’t normally expect a great restaurant in such locations. It is unpretentious located and the decor is very simple, but the Kaiseki style is anything but. Kaiseki has its origin in tea ceremony, but has evolved in the 19th century as restaurants in Japan began to serve this sytle in a less formal way. According to Kaygetsu, it “is designed to delight the mind and the spirit as well as to satisfy the appetite”.
Here’s the 9 course menu:
Sakizuke (starter): red-bell pepper “tofu” with sea urchin, avocado, chive, dashi sauce and wasabi.
Sashimi: we had Alaskan wild salmon and other fresh daily assortments.
Takiawase (slow-cooked dish): shrimp, jpaanese eggplant, snow peas, sato imo potato cooked in clear fish broth with bonito flakdes and rated ginger and kinome.
Hassun (assortment of flavors): soft-shell crab with spaghetti squash, anago (sea eel) roll with burdock, cucumber with kinzanji miso sauce, lotus root stuffed with mustard, seasonal fish, miso marianted and grilled seared kampachi (amberjack) sushi
Agemono (deep fried fish): bamboo shoot and kobe beef (American), yuba (tofu ski), hajikami giner, shiso leaf
Yakimono (grilled dish): organic petaluma chicken roll with minced fish, corn and carrot, endive and orange salade, truffle oil dressing
Gohan mono (rice dish): rick cooked with vegetables, dark red miso soup, house picked vegetables
House-made original desserts: black sesame kudzu mochi, green tea/banana roll cake
Bay Area Food Snob 