Wasn’t sure if we were going to eat out this Thursday since we ate out twice last week, but who am I kidding. We decided to go back to another low key place we enjoyed. Octavia is the sister restaurant to Frances at which we ate last Wednesday. Octavia was a 1 star restaurant until the the latest Michelin guide that just came out and was largely closed during the pandemic. From past dining experiences, we remembered Octavia fondly for the very affordable and generous tasting menu. We had a 5:30 reservation…we generally prefer to dine early because, one, I go to bed (and wake up) early and two, we prefer a less busy restaurant. It’s always quieter during the earlier dining hours and service is more attentive.
We of course went with their tasting menu plus wine pairing. Prices had gone up – it used to be about $65 for the tasting menu and it’s now $90. There is a bakery on premise and the bread and butter to start were quite tasty in their glutinous chewiness. The first course consisted of 4 small dishes, all vegetable. A couple weren’t very memorable, but we both thought the squash with the mint yogurt and pomegranate was the best. the second “course’ was a gem salad and a montery squid and ink and pasta. In a high end fine dining, these would have likely been 2 separate courses (i.e. salad and pasta), but this was consistent with the tasting menus when we’ve dined here before where multiple dishes were served per course.
The gem salad was fine, but nothing special. i did really enjoy the squid and pasta which was very squid flavorful, decent pasta, and well seasoned. The third course was a pair of entrees – a halibut with a couple moles and a pork neck with a chicken demi glace. Again, typically, a fish and meat course would have have been separate courses, but in this format they were served basically together (slightly staggered). The mole and sauce were the stars of both of those dishes although I did also like the pork neck preparation (very tender, not very “porky” tasting though.
There was quite a lull in the timing on the service while we waited for dessert (the dining room was full and the volume quite loud at times). We had a pair of desserts. The tart was very sweet, but the pear gelato was subtle, but very nice and balanced the sweetness of the tart. The semifreddo was very good as well and the crunch of the crust added a nice textural component. Wines were decent, nothing special, but good pairings for the food. All in all, still an enjoyable dining experience.
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