We’re here in SB, so checking out some of the places to eat of course. Last night, we had a very enjoyable casual meal at Corazon Concina in the Public Market. Today we were going for a fancier venue. Caruso’s is a Cal-Italian restaurant at the Rosewood Miramar with a beachfront location. We were fortunate that the rain stopped yesterday and had a nice view and sunset. Caruso’s is a one of the two Michelin starred restaurants here in SB. They offer a 4-course or an 8-course menu. The 8-course is a chef’s tasting menu and the dishes are of course all pre-determined. With the 4-course prix fixe we could choose our dishes, so we figured we’d go that way and each just pick different dishes which we always share so we could try 8 dishes that we picked.

We decided to start with some cocktails which were beautifully presented (bergamot martini for Andrea and a garden gimlet for me). For wine, Andrea went with the Elite pairing and I went with the traditional pairing so that we could try multiple wines.

For courses, Andrea had the pea soup, the cacio e pepe, the vermillion, and the cheese souffle. I had the yellowtail, the Santa Barbara uni, liberty duck, and the honey panna cotta. We also added the bread course which included some local olive oil and some seaweed butter, both of which were very good. The highlights were the cacio e pepe, esp. with the 2018 barbaresco and the cheese souffle.

Service was very good and accomodating, food was generally good and tasty although not particularly innovative. We were certainly paying for the locale a bit (and several of our dishes had supplemental fees (the cacio e pepe, the cheese souffle), so it was an enjoyable meal, although quite pricey.