We were celebrating Andrea’s birthday at her favorite restaurant. This was our seventh time here, but surprisingly we hadn’t been here in a year…when we were celebrating her b-day last year!
We both ordered cocktails, which didn’t arrive until our 4th course/bite. Andrea had the Californios Martini and I had the Cantarito. The martini was gin and tequila based with some Lagavulin 16 Year Scoth, olives and a few dots of chile oil. My Cantarito was a tequila-based drink with a lot of citrus including grapefruit soda, cara cara orange, blood orange, lemon, and lime. Both were quite delicious. Mine was a delicious, but a bit simpler compared to the martini. Andrea also ordered the wine pairing and I was waiting to later order the mezcal flight.
First came the showing of the corn which showed the 6 varieties of corn that they use, three local and three from Mexico. Also, very shortly after we were seated, our first dish, Chilapita, came out immediately along with starter champagne as well as an Agua Fresca made from green strawberries served in a traditional shotglass/candle holder (complete with crucifix etched on the bottom). This first bite was incredibly rich and flavorful. The cup was made from masa negra, a cranberry bean mousse, topped with caviar from Tsar Nicoulai. Andrea absolutely loved this bite. The richness of the mousse was balanced with the fresh salinity of the caviar. What a great start.
Shortly after finishing that first bite, our second course Tostada arrived. This was also different than we’ve in previous visits. The tostada was made with blue masa with local Dungeness crab and serrano crema, topped with Tsar Nicoulai smoked trout roe which in turn was ringed by small rounds of serrano pepper.
Third course was the Bocol. This also was also new both in flavor and technique. This was made with black corn and filled with a mushroom mole and morels and topped with Santa Barbara uni.
The fourth course was the Aguachile Negro. This dish featured some dry aged kampachi with pickled jicama, femented turnips, white peach, all topped with peach sorbet. This had just a bit of a Japanese sensibility about it and not surprisingly was paired with the IWA 5, Assemblage 4 that we know well from both the IWA 5 sake maker dinner at Birdsong as having purchased various Assemblages at True Sake.
Next came the caviar course. Last time it was in a corn soup so this was a very different presentation. This Flan de Jamón Ibérico was the carrier for the Tsar Nicoulai Golden Reserve Caviar. There were also fresh sugar snap peas and pea tendrils. We’re big fans of peas so this was a fantastic dish with or without the caviar (although all the more decadent for it). Can’t say we had much of of the taste of the jamón though.
Next came the Escabeches which would be used to acompany the tacos to come. The escabeches included lacto-femented carrots, pickled cucumber, and limes.
The first taco was one of their classics, the Bacalao Negro. The black cod was fried with a mezcal batter on a sourdough tortilla. The cod was atop a small bed of grilled poblano and anaheim pepper salsa. The cod was topped with a dotted checkerboard of huitlacoche and corn crema. This is basically a very upscale fish taco and so very good.
The second taco was the Codorniz. This was a made with roasted quail and pineapple with a al pastor negro all served on a hickory gold masa tortilla.
Before the next taco, we were shown all the ingredients that go into making the two moles. This third taco was the Camote Y Mole. The camote (i.e. sweet potato) was nixtamalized, which is basically the same treatment that corn goes through with limestone to make masa. The camote has a fantastic carmelization to it that gave it a bit of texture/crunch. On the dish, the camote separated the two moles. This was served with a poppy and sesame tortilla.
About this time I also received my mezcal flight which included 3 mezcals. The first was a Perro Verde Espadin, the second a Del Maguey Jabali, and the last was a Macurichos (it was one from their Artesanal line (stone milled, wooden vat fermentation, clay pot distillation), Arroqueño I think). All were decent, but I preferred the Del Maguey since it had a richness and unctuousness to it. I also liked the Macurichos quite a bit as well (we’ve had some of this at Tahona Mercado as well as at home) and it definitely has a bit of kick with a 50%+ ABV. As much as we enjoyed the mezcal tasting standalone, it was so much more enjoyable with the tacos, so much so that Andrea said that next time she’d skip the wine pairing and just go with mezcal.
For our finale, we had the Pescado Zarandeado. This is grilled rockfish with herb leaves (including shiso) with black turtle beans and tortillas along with an array of salsas – roasted tomato, avocado, a chile sauce, and pickled onion. I couldn’t help but place a bit of everything on each taco. So good.
We were showed the variety of fruits that would go into the desserts. The first dessert was called Frutas de Rancho Bernard. This looked like it was just an unassuming (although beautiful) palate cleanser, but was more than that. The topping was a granita made with cara cara oranges (we’ve been buying cara cara oranges at our local farmer’s market to enjoy as a guilt free dessert at home), but underneath was some fresh cara cara, a white guava sauce and cresenza ice cream to give it a bit more rich creaminess.
We were also served my final mezcal from my flight. This was a special batch of Luneta made for Californios specifically. It was their mezcal distilled with caco, canela and corn, but it was aged 18 months and the color is so striking. The flavor was much richer with all of the other ingredients and perfect to go with dessert. We really wished we could buy a bottle of this.
A series of desserts came out. The Empanada was sugared and filled wsith strawberries. This was also served with a glass of Mexican Champurrado chocolate drink and a “Marcona Almond and Pixtle Ice Cream” with the recommendation to dip the empanada into the ice cream. Yes, please!
Next came the following:
- Tamarindo and Raspberry Paleta in Lime Spun Sugar, Dusted with a Raspberry and Chile Morita Tajín.
- Strawberry Taco made with a Tierra Vegetables Farm Corn Shell, Yerena Farms Albion Strawberry Sorbet, and Horchata Gelato.
- White Chocolate ‘Bubulubu’ made with Preserved Passionfruit and Tonka Bean Marshmallow.
- Nixtamalized and Piloncillo Candied Mandarin Dipped in Guatemalan Chocolate
These were fun although the cotton candy ingredients sounded so interesting, but in the end was just too sweet for me.
At the end of the meal, we did of course asked to visit the kitchen (something I always recommend to anyone dining here) to talk to Chef Val and to visit the wine cellar (the collection always wows me). We’ve always had a consistently great meal here which is not something we can say of many other fine dining restaurants. The only quibble I’d have was with some of the timing on the courses. Our meal started out so rapidly, our cocktails didn’t arrive until the fourth bite, and then there were some lulls in service later in the meal. It ended up being about 3 hours overall, but it was a great time once again and I hope we don’t wait so long to dine here again.
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