This was my fourth visit here (Andrea’s third). When we last dined here, it was a 1 Michelin star under the new chef, Chef Harrison. They picked up their second star last August. This time, I asked for the table up front right next to the kitchen with a great view of all of the action. This also had a great benefit of getting a lot of attention from Chef Harrison or maybe it was because we had eaten here multiple times already, but either way, we certainly appreciated it.
The meal started off with a three canapés. The first was a bite with raw Half Moon Bay squid, plums, currant topped small rounds of kohlrabi all atop a a Swedish crisp bread. The second was raw venison topped with huckleberries beautifully served in a microflower arrangement. The third was cured and dried lamb heart, horseradish, creme fraiche wrapped in a bundle of sorrel. Each were uniquely and beautifully presented with such obvious meticulous preparation and combination of ingredients. The squid was just a touch on the fishy side so I knew Andrea wouldn’t like that so much. The venison and the huckleberries were a fantastic combination. Since the lamb heart had horseradish and creme fraiche, I figured this would be Andrea’s favorite. So, a very nice start with a sort of preview into what the rest of the experience would be. These 3 canapés were merely the first of 18 courses tonight.
Our next course was the Mt. Lassen trout which was cured. The broth came from fermented root vegetables with some currant wood oil. The orange color of the trout is similar to salmon and I’ve always been a big fan of salmon, but less so of trout. However, we’ve seen a lot of delicious trout dishes in our dining as of late (e.g. Valette, Birdsong, Flour + Water, Akikos, Smyth, etc.) that it won me over and I no longer think of trout as an ersatz replacement for salmon. For this dish, I liked the balance from the fermented root vegetable broth that gave a bit acidity to the dish.
Next came the caviar supplement (you know we had to get that) course. The caviar was golden osetra (from a producer we hadn’t heard of) served atop honeynut squash and grilled pumpkin. On the side there was a small Hönökaka, a Swedish Rye flatbread. This is a modern Nordic restaurant, and we love the different breads at this meal since it’s not something we encounter often. The caviar itself was delicious and of high quality, but I cant’ say this was one of my better caviar presentations. I think I just prefer something with a bit more creaminess to it. Although again, I can’t fault the meticulous preparation and presentation.
Next dish was the scallop dish. The scallop was from Maine and was served raw. This is served in thin slices sandwiching thing slices of cured pork belly, so a sort of fine dining surf and turf, lol. Theis was topped with translucently thin pieces of turnip and pickled pine pollen with a side of fresh cream.
The next two dishes came out together. One was a black cod from Half Moon Bay with Jerusalem artichoke (aka sunchoke. we noticed that in London, they always called it Jerusalem artichoke and this shows a bit of Chef Harrison’s UK background). The second dish was the tunnbröd made into a mini taco with some smoked cod, bur chevril, and wood sorrel in a nice green a floral preparation.
We were then presented the duck from Oz Family Farm in a beautiful floral presentation and served as a preview of the duck we would have later in the meal.
Then came the bread course – spelt bread with a fresh cow’s milk cheese with herbs and flowers.
Next came an interesting dish, sort of their take on a faux carbonara that consisted of a Gilfeather rutabaga with a bit of pickling to give it a bit of acidity topped with smoked pork fat for the sauce.
Next was a layered dish wild black trumpet mushroom on top and toasted buckwheat and local chanterelles underneath. This dish, not surprisingly had a mushroom umami flavor to it.
Next came their version of a mini Scotch egg, but made with a quali egg, some preserved quince, topped with a slice of Perigord truffle (quite fresh). This was also another nod to Chef Harrison’s UK background and was an amazing bite. I thought the size using a quail egg made for a nice ratio of the wrap to egg and the truffle came a nice lingering earthy flavor.
Finally the duck came with a trio of dishes. The primary dish was the duck breast cooked over smoking applewood and in addition to the sauce, a dollop of cream made from the duck fat (fat is flavor!). This may be my favorite duck dish ever. The duck had the fat nicely rendered, was perfectly cooked with a bit of smoke. The sauce was rich and the addition of the duck fat cream gave a creamy richness to each bite.
On the side, we also had a beautifully prepared young baby vegetables with some mussels. There was also a little lettuce taco with bit of duck leg and truffle cream
Next came the meat course which was a bit of striploin from a dairy cow perfectly cooked and seasoned. This was accompanied by some greens and onion and garlic puree. The sauce was made with Mt. Eitan Raya cheese as another nod to his UK background. Cheese flavor was pretty subtle to what you would think for a cheese sauce (and you can see it was a thin sauce).
Then came the start of the sweet dishes. I suppose this next one was a sort of palette cleanser. It was made with fermented pear juice with preserved rose petals, but as you dug down below there was lemon thyme, elderberries, and toasted rosehip. I’m glad the rose flavor was subtle since generally I’m not a fan of rose flavor in my food, but this was delicious, esp. with the burst of flavor from the elderberries.
Dessert came with two dishes. One was clotted cream, Brunost, a Norwegian cheese, and dried yogurt and the second were small globes made of a roasted yeast cake filled with black garlic fudge and spelt bread miso topped with a whey caramel. Both these desserts with rich and layered with flavors.
For the mignardise, we were given a trio of bites. The frozen acorn cake miso was playfully served in a small bowl with acord caps. The tiny sweet wheat buns with birch syrup and brown butter were beautiful. Lastly came the kombucha gummies. Gummies seem to be a thing to end the meal (e.g. our meal at Core by Clare Smyth), but honestly, I find it to be anticlimactic.
I didn’t talk much about the wines. They now have two levels of pairings, a standard and a reserve and so of course, we did one of each so we could try the maximum number of wines (and sherrys). These were all interesting sourced from producers we generally had not heard of from all over the world. The contrast in the pairings also made for very interesting tasting. The standard pairing usually featured younger wines that may have been more fruit forward or lighter, whereas the reserve pairing had more developed flavors. We didn’t necessarily prefer the reserve wines every time, but it made for an interesting comparison and pairing with the food.
All in all, this was a fantastic dining experience. They food is clearly more refined and developed since we last dined here. I don’t think Nordic food will necessarily be for everyone, but we loved all of the breads and grains, the fermented, pickled, dehydrated ingredients, the balance of the dishes with the inclusion of some acidity. The ingredients and preparation of dishes are incredibly meticulous. The bonus was certainly the amount of attention we received from Chef Harrison, but either way, it was an incredible experience.
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