Another vendor dinner this week. I bummed an Uber ride with Steven so it was great to catch up. I don’t come down to Palo Alto often for dinner (last time was an event at Nobu). The vendor had rented out the whole restaurant for the event, so that was nice. From what I remember (mostly immersed in conversation) of the hors d’oeuvres, they were very good.
They have a nicely stocked bar. I did notice they had Condesa and Monkey47 gins that we like, all of the Fortalezas, and a nice amaro selection. I asked for a mezcal cocktail. They made me something with kiwi (it might have been Kiwi Be Friends?). It was nicely made, but not very mezcal forward, so for my second cocktail, I asked for something more smoky and they gave me a white negroni made with mezcal which was perfect. Alas, I did not get to finish it since when I set it down when I went to the restroom, it was cleared.
After the chat/presentation, we all headed to the main dining area. First course was the Golden Ossetra Caviar, one of their signature dishes. This was a dungeness crab and yuzu sabayon inside of an egg shell topped with caviar from Tsar Nicolai. I love eggs and I really liked the presentation of the egg in the egg cup. This was a great start and (spoiler alert) was my favorite dish of the evening.
Before the second course came the bread and butter which in this case was the parker house rolls and a piled ribbon of butter. The rolls were ok (definitely nowhere near the best we’ve had), but the butter was a nice presentation.
Next came the Kataifi-Wrapped New Zealand John Dory. The shredded filo dough around the fish was also quite striking set atop a bed of leeks and sauce (butter, lemon. champagne, herbes). The waitperson said this was their version of fish and chips, lol. It was good and overall a well executed dish.
Next came the 14 Day Dry-Aged Flannery Beef Ribeye. This also had some effort in plating with the beef on one side and the Yukon Gold potato mille-meuille set opposite on the plate. The plate was wringed with squash and pepper chimichurri. I was amazed how evenly cooked the beef was and asked them if it was sous vide and they just said it was seared on 3 sides (whatever that means. I still think it was sous vide). It was very tender although I didn’t quite get the unctuousness (or the smoke) I like from when I cook ribeyes. It was a good dish, but not my favorite personally given my steak preference.
Lastly was the dessert wa sthe Dark Chocolate “Gâteau” which had a pistachio filling (like a Dubai chocolate bar…) and a Sakura cherry blossom ice cream topped with a bit of gold leaf.
All in all a nice meal for banquet dining and would be interested to try them for a regular dinner. Wine pours were quite stingy and really no second pours (although I didn’t ask). A bit surprising, but I don’t know what the deal was with the vendor and the restaurant.
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