We’re in San Antonio for Mary Elizabeth and Becca’s wedding (yahoo!) this weekend. They generously offered to let us stay the night with them when we flew in very late last night and it was so great to catch up with them and to see their amazing house – it has more square footage than the lot for our house in SF! Everything is truly bigger in Texas! In any case, this post is about food…and they recommended this place, Bliss, so we had to try it. It’s also the #4 rated restaurant for San Antonio on Trip Advisor, which I also find to be a reasonable guide.

Bliss is a contemporary American restaurant with some Tex-Mex flavors. Andrea started with the Tomato ancho soup which had ok flavor as far as it went, but could have been more flavorful with more comp lex, layered flavors. I had the ceviche, which we both found to be excellent. It had great acid with a touch of sweetness from the lemon, lime, and orange juice. All this was balanced with the creamy richness of the avocado and a bit of starch from the crisp plantain chips. This was really delicious.

For our mains, Andrea went with the short ribs and I went with the duck and foie gras. Both were solid dishes. The duck came with a blueberry compote which worked perfectly. The foie (which we can’t get in California) was cooked perfectly and was deliciously unctuous, like a meat butter. Even the salad with a bit of strawberry and some good acid was a great balance to cut through the richness. My main gripe with the duck was that the fat was not rendered enough. Andrea’s short rib was tender and flavorful and was tasty with the mushrooms and potato and jus. The sauce has horseradish, but I barely tasted any of that and it would have been nice to have had more of that flavor, but it was still a hearty comfort dish.

For dessert, I went with the butter cake and Andrea went with the Kubota squash cheesecake with ginger crisp crust. Both were ok. My butter cake. was just too doughy tasting. Andrea’s cheesecake would have benefited from a stronger ginger flavor crust. Dessert is really just more of a palate cleanser for us at the end of a meal and it served that purpose, but they were only ok.

Wines were decent (selection was mostly California and French), nothing exceptional (I had a rose from Provence and a Willamette Pinot and Andrea had a sparkling rose from Oregon, a Lodi Cabernet and a Fonseca port ). Service was very attentive and the pacing was brisk and timely. All in all, we enjoyed it and would recommend if you’re ever in San Antonio.