Petaluma Eats

Nick and I traveled to Petaluma and Point Reyes this weekend and had some really great food. There's so much that I can only provide a snapshot of each restaurant so that this post doesn't go on forever!


Up first was Sea Modern Thai, which is located conveniently next to the hotel we stayed at, the Metro. We ate a late lunch there, sharing a pan-seared scallop appetizer (don't they look delicious?) and each having entrees that come with rice and a small organic salad with roasted peanut vinaigrette. Nick had the angel eggplant with chicken (pictured) and I had the curried grilled prawns.


Everything was delicious and service was great. The Thai waitress even had to deal with slightly racist and condescending remarks from the two men in the table next to us, with questions like "If I told you you would live 10 years longer here in the US, would you still want to go back to Thailand? WHY wouldn't you want to stay here?" and "See that's why you don't want to live here; you don't have a boyfriend." I was so mad, but she handled it very nicely.

For dinner we ate at Le Bistro, which is the same name of the restaurant we liked in Hawaii. Here it was a tiny restaurant, with only nine tables and everything cooked by the chef/owner himself. The food was so delicious, Nick and I ate until we couldn't move. He had the soup of the day, a creamy tomato and red bell pepper soup, and almost licked the plate. I had the bistro salad with tiny diced veggies and a dijon vinaigrette.


For our entrees I had the parmesan-crusted prawns in a champagne butter sauce (sorry for the blurry photo; lighting was dim). It was so good despite the fact that I had prawns earlier for lunch. Nick continued his lamb trend and got the grilled lamb tenderloin. The vegetables that came with our entrees were great and so were the potatoes! Dessert for Nick was a flourless chocolate cake and they brewed decaf coffee just for me.


The next day we traveled to Point Reyes and ate at Drake's Beach Cafe, which is right on the beach. I was sad we didn't get to eat there for the fancier dinner, but lunch was casual and good. Their clam chowder was delicious, and my veggie quesadilla was huge and stuffed with roasted peppers, onions, and wild mushrooms. Nick liked his chicken sausage sandwich, but it wasn't that special.


Saturday night's dinner was on the main drag in Petaluma at Central Market. It houses a big open kitchen and we played our version of the Ratatouille game: "Which one is the chef? The sous chef?" Imagine our surprise when the head chef, Tony, comes to talk to us and to pour wine and water for other tables, and even serve them their food!


I had the chicory salad, which was okay, and Nick had the chorizo buns with housemade vegetable pickles. For our entrees I got the scallops (no surprise there) with a fall vegetable hash and some broccoli di ciccio on the side. Nick got the seared Angus hanger steak with a mushroom-leef bread pudding. We both agreed we really liked out entrees. The broccoli reminded me of Chinese broccoli at a Chinese restaurant, though.


After dinner I approached the chef and asked him to sign the day's menu for us. He was so excited to have been asked, let me tell you. He even handed me his business card with his cell phone number and email on it.

Brunch the next day was had at the Tea Room Cafe. It's order at the counter, fend for your own table, and bus your own table kind of place. That's fine, but it got kind of wonky when people didn't know the system. I chose the baked eggs with ham, spinach, and pesto, with a soy decaf latte, and Nick got a traditional eggs Benedict with ham.

Food was pretty and delicious, and my latte was served to me in a bowl. How weird is that? Okay, maybe not so weird, but I had never had it that way before.

All in all it was a great food-filled trip! I'm too lazy to list all their contact info and hours here, but it's easily searchable on Google and yelp!

Fins Market and Grill

We decided to try the new seafood place in town for dinner Sunday night. It's called Fins Market and Grill. The menu looked pretty basic with sandwiches, salads, and main dishes that are compose of grilled seafood, your choice of side, and coleslaw.

We got there at about 7:45pm and there was barely anybody else there. Our waitress said they were preparing to close up so we had about 6 minutes to order. Daviswiki had said they closed at 9pm, but I guess they close earlier on Sundays. We ordered promptly: grilled halibut for me with Maddie's patties, and grilled salmon for Nick with rice pilaf.

We felt bad about coming in as they were closing, but they were pretty nice to us about it. We felt better when a group of 6 people came in after us and they served them as well. Our coleslaw came out first and I was surprised. They presented it to us like a first course salad...except it was sliced green and purple cabbage with an almost-clear dressing. It was interesting to taste the cabbage so clearly with the slight tang of the dressing. It was not like any coleslaw I had had before.


My only complaint is that the salad was served on a medium sized plate, which barely fit on the small two-person table with our entrees and basket of bread. I know that you are supposed to finish your coleslaw first, but I like a bit of vegetable with my entree so I stubbornly kept it balanced on the table with my entree.

Our entrees came out after a bit of a wait, and the first thing we noticed was that they had switched our sides. We decided not to say anything because it wasn't a big deal, just a small disappointment. After snapping photos we just transferred the fish fillets across plates and were happy.

Nick's salmon with my Maddie's patties (I'm guessing they're smashed potatoes with cheese and paprika):


My halibut with Nick's rice pilaf:


The potatoes were good but a bit salty. There was a hint of creaminess but it could have used more. The pilaf was kind of bland, but what can you expect? Maybe they will be more on point if we go earlier in the dinner hour. Both of our fish fillets were cooked perfectly, with some delicious grill marks and seasoning and tender flesh. The sauce they gave us was way better than your average tartar sauce. They could do more presentation on the plate, but this is a seafood joint so as long as that's good, I'm happy.

We'll be back to try other things on the menu. It wasn't a smash out of the park, but it wasn't a complete miss either. I'm keeping my mind open due to the nice service despite the hour and the fact that they just opened two months ago.


Fins Market and Grill
2171 Cowell Blvd #F (next to Common Grounds)
Davis, CA 95616
(530) 750-5000
website

Daily 11am-9pm, Fridays 11am-10pm
Sundays they must be closed at 8pm

Indyna Bistro and Sunday cooking

We've been eating out for dinner the last few meals, and one of the highlights was discovering Indyna Bistro on E street last night. I was craving Indian food from All India Cafe back home in Pasadena, and wondering if Kathmandu Kitchen would hit the spot. See, KK has a lunch buffet that Nick and I love, and which makes it wholly not worthwhile to eat there for dinner. Plus ambiance is nonexistent.

Fortunately, the night before we ate at Zen Toro and spied Indyna Bistro on the second level of the same center. BTW, Zen Toro was as good as ever, even though we had to wait on a busy Friday night. Nick suggested Indyna when I told him about my craving and we checked out the reviews on Daviswiki. They were mainly positive with most of the negative comments about decor or service. Since Nick and I care mainly about the food, we decided to give it a shot.

Stepping inside the modern space I immediately catalogued it in the "nice casual" category of Davis restaurants. Casual enough to wear jeans to, but with an environment much nicer than your average fast food/sandwich place. Thai Bistro falls into this category as well. I liked it. The service was pretty nice, with the host asking us if the table he selected for us was all right.

The menu was pretty standard, except for the curry selection. You first picked what meat you wanted, be it chicken, lamb, or shrimp, and then what sauce or curry you wanted. Nick and I decided to go for the chicken thighs and legs with the tikka masala sauce. My favorite Indian dish has got to be aloo gobi, which is a cauliflower dish. We ordered this as well. Each entree there comes with salad, and your choice of naan, brown rice, or basmati rice. It can also be made into a dinner set, with soup, naan, rice, and a side dish. Nick and I also opted for the garlic basil naan.

I wish I had brought along the camera to show you the dishes we got. The presentation was simple but nice. The portions were small but turned out to be just right with the amount of basmati rice they gave us and the naan. The chicken in the tikka masala were tender, with just a bit of charred flavor, and the cauliflower was nicely spiced and served with peas and potatoes. However, I couldn't really tell the difference between their chicken tikka masala and Kathmandu's chicken makhani. Maybe the sauces are similar?

The only thing that was sort of a miss was the garlic basil naan. The basil was of the dried kind and very sparsely spread on the naan. It also came out to use somewhat cold. Well, not cold really, maybe room temperature...but I like my naan warm. Next time we'll try the aloo paratha and some other sauce for our meat.

Price was around $30 for the two entrees with rice and salad, the naan, and a mango lassi for Nick. The service was great. Everyone there was super nice, and they even apologized for letting my glass of water sit empty for maybe 5 minutes. It wasn't too full in there, and I hope that they last here in the cutthroat world of Davis restaurants.

In other food news, Nick decided to bring out the cookbooks and make steaks in a parsley-mustard sauce and dauphinoise potatoes. I decided to make a chicken salad for lunch tomorrow from the Barefoot Contessa to use our sandwich bento boxes, which involves roasting my own chicken breasts. And since I got the chicken breasts anyway, I threw in a recipe for parmesan-stuffed chicken breasts from our Great Food Fast cookbook to be cooked and frozen for another day when we don't feel like cooking. You'll get to see the chicken salad in tomorrow's bentos.

Here are some photos:

Dinner

Closeup of dauphinoise potatoes

Parmesan-stuffed chicken breasts

Redd

For Valentine's Day we decided to delay celebrating so that we'd avoid the rush Thursday night. I took advantage of this plan by suggesting we make a day trip out of it and eat at this place I'd been dying to eat at in the Napa Valley. Reading good food blogs can have you highly anticipating a place you've never even laid eyes on, just by the strength of the description alone.

I'd read about Redd in Yountville first on the Restaurant Whore blog (one of my absolute favorites) and had the urge to eat lunch there right away. I mean, a four-course tasting menu for only $5o? And they serve each person different dishes? I'm totally there. I just need a reason to go. And bam, Valentine's Day steps up to the plate.

We made a reservation for 1p.m. on Saturday the 16th, and I licked my lips in anticipation. Reading the menu online doesn't do the restaurant any justice. We got there at about 12:45pm, walked around a bit, then strolled past the small patio to the modern wood door at approximately 12:55pm. Didn't want to be too early, you see. Other online reviews have mentioned the starkness of the modern decor of the interior, but I loved it. I especially loved the rich wood floor...on the ceiling. The dining room was made a lot homier by the wall of windows with a wildflower garden just outside. It was just a perfect blank, white-tablecloth slate for the food.

We looked over the menu briefly, feeling silly because we knew we wanted the tasting menu. It was a new experience, telling our waiter to let the chef decide what to serve us. Nick and I did tell each other what we would have ordered, which ended up making the whole experience a lot more fun. Why? Because without knowing us at all, Redd gave us pretty much what we most wanted even when we didn't know we wanted it.

Both of our first courses were raw preparations. Nick got the sashimi of hamachi on sticky rice with edamame and a lime ginger sauce. Nick's favorite part of his dish was the lime vinaigrette, though there is a special place in his heart (and stomach) for sticky rice. I got the tuna tartare with crispy rice, avocado, and chili oil. I'm pretty sure there was also some citrus fruit in there. Redd scored on this one because they were two of the first courses Nick would have picked for himself, and out of the two, I immensely preferred the tartare. The crispy rice provided a nice contrast in texture to the rest of the dish. I even liked the citrus. The micro cilantro was also a cool touch.


Our second courses were both cooked seafood dishes. Nick received the petrale sole with jasmine rice, mussels, and chorizo in a saffron curry nage. There was also a thick layer of foam with a taste we couldn't quite place. "For the lady," our waiter said (and I had to suppress a chuckle at his seriousness), "we have caramelized scallops with a cauliflower puree and almonds." I just about gasped, and Nick and I seriously wondered how they knew us so well. These were the exact entrees we had picked for ourselves in our game at the beginning of lunch. Let me choose from a menu, and I will always pick the scallop dish.


My scallops were perfectly cooked, with one side browned, sitting atop of little cauliflower florets, almonds, and golden raisins, which were themselves on top of a super creamy cauliflower puree. There was also a balsamic vinegar reduction that went excellently with my scallops. Everything was well-seasoned and matched the other parts of the dish, except for the raisins. I don't care for raisins.


Nick liked his dish because of three things: the mussels, the chorizo, and the rice. It was presented beautifully, with the foam obscuring everything but the mussels. The petrale sole was mild in flavor, but accompanied by such strong flavors as chorizo, saffron, and curry, I think the chefs at Redd made an excellent choice.

As for our third courses, Nick and I didn't get a chance to surmise this far, so we were just preparing to be surprised. Our waiter had caught on to the fact that they had done well so far, so as they placed our third plates in front of us, said they hoped they had furthered their record with this one. I received the short ribs with a horseradish crust, potato puree, and root vegetables. Nick got the quail with lentils, a poached egg, bacon bits, some frisee, and garlic cream. Man was I jealous when I saw those lentils.

My short rib was pull-apart-with-fork tender, and came with the best potato puree I've had in a long time. The crust was interesting, but I didn't taste any horseradish. It was a heavier offering, and at this point I started to feel like I was going to have to take a nap after we ate. Nick's quail was delicious with its salty skin, but the best thing on that plate was the lentils. We both agreed we'd have to learn how to cook lentils because, damn, this was good. I also don't know how they poached the egg so that the egg whites looked like a dollop of cream.


When they cleared our third course plates, our waiter remarked that we both looked ready for dessert. Since Nick and I hadn't even laid eyes on the dessert menu (even online), we didn't know what would be coming. And yet, Redd surprised us again by giving us exactly what we would have ordered.

Nick got the citrus tasting dessert, which included a lemon panna cotta, creme fraiche with huckleberries, and a citrus yuzu float with tapioca. The presentation was lovely, and Nick ate every bit of it.


I got the peanut butter and chocolate dessert, which consisted of a chocolate sorbet (topped with some sea salt) over honey-roasted peanuts, a peanut butter-gianduja creme tart, and a parfait with honey whipped cream, honey brittle, peanuts, and chocolate syrup. Everything was rich and delicious. There was so much on the plate that I felt like I was getting three desserts instead of just one.


At the end, we just marveled at how they selected perfectly for us without so much as a word of preference from either of us. I thought they must have some secret microphone at the table to record if we said we preferred things over others, but Nick countered that reasoning by reminding me we hadn't even seen the dessert menu. Then again, he considered, maybe they just give women the chocolate dessert by default. Hey, I responded, I don't mind that line of thought one bit.


Two hours of a lunch that we didn't have any say in, and it was still a fabulous experience. Cheap, too, considering a four-course menu at other places would have cost at least $25 more each person. I highly recommend Redd for an experience you won't soon forget.


Redd
6480 Washington Street
Yountville CA 94599
(707) 944-2222

Lunch	11.30am to 2.30pm Monday to Saturday
Dinner	5.30pm to 10pm Nightly
Brunch	11am to 2.30pm Sundays

Zen Toro

Months ago, we decided to try Zen Toro based on the rave reviews on daviswiki, Brett's recommendations, and my coworker's glowing comments. We went for lunch, and were struck by how different the place looked from when it was Tapioca Express. The inside is sleek, dark, and befitting the small, bistro space. The lunch we had was satisfying and a fresh take on Japanese food for the Davis area.

Fast forward to the present. Zen Toro is one of our favorites, and we thoroughly enjoy the Hawaiian-influenced, fusion-tinged Japanese cuisine that Masa and Masako Nishiyama proffer for our enjoyment. At lunch, I enjoy the Zen Toro lunch special, which starts with a small bowl of Hawaiian saimin noodle soup, and a tiny salad of baby Yolo-county mixed greens with a light vinegar dressing. All of their lunch specials start with this, but they leave out the soup if you get a sushi and noodle combination.


My plate comes with rice, chicken teriyaki, shrimp and vegetable tempura, a fish puff, a small scoop of macaroni salad, and a slightly bitter cabbage salad that provides a nice, sharp contrast to the rest of the plate. The chicken teriyaki is sliced and tender, and the tempura is pleasingly crisp. Once, they included a slice of acorn squash, which was a nice surprise. People have commented on the inappropriateness of the macaroni salad, but I think they haven't noticed the Hawaiian influences on the rest of the menu.

The presentation here is valued and beautiful. For example, my favorite roll there, the ZT crunch roll, always comes out beautifully arranged with an artistic sauce spread. The ZT crunch roll features tempura shrimp, maguro, and BBQ eel, with cucumber, avocado, snow crab, and green onion. It's a delicious fusion of flavors.


Dinner there is also delicious, and long with various dinner specials, they feature several entrees that aren't found anywhere else in Davis. Nick had the Kuwayaki duck breast, that comes with a warm mushroom salad, sansho peppers, and a soy glaze. He thought it was great, though he would have preferred having a knife to cut the duck breast. The warm mushroom salad was a different sensation in the mouth, and provided a nice foil for the strong, heavy duck.


Last night he tried one of their Japanese-Italian fusion entrees: the shrimp scampi (Masa's Asian style scampi shrimp). Huge shrimp accompanied soba pasta with shiitake mushrooms and sake, garlic, and butter. This entree wasn't as well executed as some of their other dishes, and suffered from our comparisons of the Italian verson of the dish. It was also new eating pasta with chopsticks, but this was fun.

We also tried their surf and turf roll, with tempura shrimp, slices of rare tataki beef, and these fabulous deep fried tempura onion slices. The roll itself was alright, but I didn't like the texture of the beef as it slid down my throat. The onions, however, were the best part. They reminded me of the onion rings at BJ's and Cattlemen's, but were somehow lighter and more enjoyable.

It was packed on Friday night of a three day weekend, which is a sign that this restaurant is doing something right. My friend Lyndsay says the miso soup is one of the indicators of a good Japanese restaurant, and she rated Zen Toro's version as very delicious, which I concur. Try it at least once, and let Masa and his team impress you with his take on contemporary Japanese cooking.


Zen Toro
132 E St. #1A
Davis, CA 95616
(530) 753-0154

Lunch: Mon- Fri: 11:30am-2pm
Dinner: Mon-Thurs: 5-9pm, Fri-Sat: 5-10pm
website

Cafe Mediteranee

During a recent discussion of our favorite places to eat at in Davis, Nick and I tried to come up with our top three.

#1: Thai Bistro
#2: Seasons
#3: ? We couldn't decide between Zen Toro and Cafe Mediteranee. Nick says it depends on my mood.

According to daviswiki, Cafe Mediteranee is a Middle-Eastern eatery, and it has a lot of things on the menu that I like, including shawarma and kabobs. The food that is to die for there, however, is the rice. Just like the naan at Kathmandu, I swear this is the food of the gods. I don't know what they flavor the rice with, but my best guess is chicken broth and butter, along with some other spices I can't quite put my finger on.

It's an order-at-the-counter type of restaurant, with customers taking their numbers back to their tables to await food brought out to them. Silverware and water is self serve, and you sit wherever you want: any of the rooms inside, the back patio, or the cute wrought-iron tables in front.

I usually get the same thing: a chicken kabob plate. Plates here come with rice, a pita, and a choice of two sides from a selection of nine. They are about $9 to $10, but with all the food it comes with, I think this is well worth it. I like the yogurt and cucumber dip and the pasta salad. My plate also comes with about 6 pieces of chicken pieces that have been grilled, with edges slightly crispy but the meat still moist. The pita comes warm and ready to dip. You can also order other sides a la carte for $2.50 with a pita.



Nick varies his choice between the beef lule kabob plate and the half chicken plate and invariably gets the babaganoush and the three-bean salad. The beef lule kabob comes as two little logs of ground beef that has so much more flavor than you're expecting from how they look. Nick compares it to beef koubideh he gets at an Iranian restaurant back home. It's delicious and a must-try. The picture below has the babaganoush and the potato salad.


The quality of the food has been consistent over all the visits we've made over the last few months. Because of this, I think of it as comfort food. When I want something satisfying, simple, and guaranteed to make my stomach feel good, I go here. The rice is worth it alone.


Cafe Mediteranee
113 D St.
Davis, CA 95616
(530) 759-7007

Mon-Thurs: 11am-9pm
Fri-Sat: 10am-10pm

Shangri-La and Chuy's taqueria

Since we are moving this week, we haven't been cooking in the apartment. Yesterday, we ate at Shangri-La on 8th Street and today we ate at Chuy's on Lake.

The reason I decided to eat at Shangri-La yesterday was that they had listed on their menu "Crabmeat and fish maw soup." This is one of my favorite soups and it's so good down in LA that I had to see what it was like in Davis. I think my expectations were too high, because at Shangri-La it was nothing like what it was supposed to be. Fortunately, the soup was still good, if I tried not to think about what it should have been.

We also ordered their peking spare ribs and spinach with garlic. I wanted Chinese spinach with garlic, but they didn't have that. Everything was good, and the ribs weren't that bright reddish color that I'm used to seeing. The spinach was so delicious, I might have to go back just for that. I've never made spinach that good before. The only thing was that eating there was kind of depressing because we were the only ones there.

Today, at Chuy's, I ordered a tostada plate with carnitas, and a fish soft taco. Nick had the special, which was the taco salad. The fish taco was good as always, with salsa, great seasoned white fish, lettuce, and slices of avocado. Drizzled with a bit of lime, it was great. My tostada plate was good, but it was too much for me. I liked the guac and sour cream on top.

Nick's taco salad was served in this taco bowl that had a flaky, buttery texture. It was very different. He was surprised to find a layer of beans down at the bottom as well. I think he liked it. I decided to order a Mexican coke to see if it really did taste better because it has cane sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup. It was good, but I don't think I'll pay $2 regularly for one.

The guy that works behind the counter is extremely nice, and offered to wait on us once he knew we planned to eat there. The salsas there are delicious, especially the chunky one.

I forgot to bring the camera, but I can assure you everything looked delicious.

Shangri-La Restaurant
1750 8th st.
Davis, CA 95616
(530) 753-3398

Sun-Thurs 11:30AM-9:30PM
Fri-Sat 11:30AM-10:00PM


Chuy's Taqueria
1260 Lake Blvd. Suite 103
Davis, CA 95616
(530) 756-4183

Mon-Thu 10:00AM-8:30PM
Fri 10:00AM-9:00PM
Sat 8:00AM-9:00PM
Sun closed

Bistro 33

Many Davisites who come across our URL might think that our favorite restaurant must be Bistro 33. I actually named it Bistro for two because more often than not, it's just the two of us eating out together. We come here occasionally, and today we came for brunch. I had the salmon nicoise salad, and Nick had the salmon hash.


This was the third time I got the salmon nicoise salad, and it wasn't as good as I remembered. The baby leaf lettuces were cute, though. Nick's salmon hash was good, but he asked for his eggs overeasy but they came out solid. Sad.


It was nice sitting out on the patio (though the wait was super long and we could see empty tables) but I felt that it wasn't a place I would probably eat at again for a while. It's good when you get a craving, but it's nowhere near our top ten places to eat at in Davis.

Bistro 33
226 F Street
Davis, CA 95616
(530) 756-4556

Sunday: 8am-10pm
Monday-Wednesday: 11:30am-10pm
Thursday-Saturday: 11:30am-midnight

Korea House

Korean barbeque is one of our favorite things to eat, but until last week we hadn't had the pleasure of actually grilling the meat at the table. With just the two of us, this wasn't possible. Last week we went to Korea House in Sacramento as a farewell dinner for one of our closest friends, and snagged the corner table with a grill. Korea House is in a neighborhood filled with other Korean bbq places and Korean businesses, but is rather hard to spot given its secluded location in the back corner of a semi-deserted strip mall.

Our waitress happened the be this older Korean woman who gave off a stern, but grandmotherly air. She didn't lift an eyebrow at the amount of food we ordered, which included the green onion style pancake, two mild beef and tofu stews, and two table barbeque platters, one of beef, and one of pork. This was of course accompanied by banchan, the traditional side dishes, that I must admit I look forward to the most. The ones we received this time included pickled cucumber, kimchi, daikon, bean sprouts, sweet potato, and this small, dried tiny fish.


Our pancake came out first, paired with a spicy soy vinegar dipping sauce. The fluffiness of the cake contrasted well with the salty, sour taste of the sauce. Our waitress brought out the banchan and crisp romaine lettuce leaves first, then a huge plate of our bbq pork and beef (bulgogi). There were tongs and scissors to help us arrange the meat on the greased surface she set on the table burner. Luckily for us, she started us out by putting a huge amount of meat on the grill and arranging it for us.


The delicious smells filled the air, and soon our plates were crowded with various banchan, meat, and rice. When I asked what the lettuce was for, my friend informed us that you wrapped the meat in it, along with a slice of the chili pepper and a clove of garlic. I did this, but avoided the sting of the pepper and the garlic. I know, I'm a lightweight!

Nick did most of the grilling, and I have to say my meat came out perfectly. Plus, the grill is designed in a way that you can push the meat off to one side, still on the surface but off the burner, to keep warm. Unfortunately, we didn't figure this out until the waitress showed us. She also came to turn the heat down when we were almost through grilling all of the meat.

We ordered our tofu stews mild, but this does not mean without flavor. The last time we were here, we ordered the medium and could barely eat it all without our throats burning and protesting. The mild let us experience the flavor of the tofu, beef, and mushrooms while still giving us a kick. At Korea House, the tofu isn't as silken as I've had it at other places, but I like the texture of the tofu here because it stands up to the strong flavor of the soup.


All five of us ate and ate until we could eat no more. We asked for only two refills of some of the banchan, but they will replace as many as you actually finish. It came out to around $125 for the five of us. I've heard that you must order at least two bbq platters when you sit at the tables with grills, to make it worthwhile for the restaurant. I completely understand this and recommend that if you want to grill the meat yourself, you come with at least five people. Having them grill it for you is great too, it's cheaper and just as good.

It has never been overly crowded when we've been there, which is nice because you never have to wait for a table. The waitstaff is friendly and the interior is clean and stereotypically asian. Be prepared, however, to smell like grilled meat for long after you've left the restaurant. I think it's worth it.

Korea House
9729 Folsom Blvd.
Sacramento, CA 95827
(916) 362-5013

Open 7 days, 11am-10pm

website

Seasons

It was completly coincidental that our first dinner out after we started this blog was to one of our favorite restaurants: Seasons. Don't let the "upscale" description scare you off: Seasons is actually very casual, very low key, with tons of attentive service, relaxed ambiance, and great-tasting food.

The decor inside is cozy and welcoming, with banquettes, two circular booths, and mahogany tables. There's an open kitchen and a bar, and yesterday from where I sat I could see straight into the kitchen, down to the sous chef's shoes (clean and black, if you're curious).

My particular reason for going to Seasons that night was that they had recently changed the menu and had listed "Sweet Corn Bisque with tarragon oil." Now, I absolutely love any kind of corn soup; I will go out of my way to eat it. Seriously. The reason that I informed Nick of, however, was that we had now officially been dating four and a half years, which is a legitimate reason to go to a nice restaurant.

I ended up ordering the corn bisque as my starter, followed by the grilled wild salmon entree. The wild salmon was accompanied with beluga lentils, three-bean salad, beet relish & butter sauce. Nick ordered the fried Nordic smelt with aioli as his starter, with the roasted pork tenderloin and apricot couscous, spinach & cherry-Zinfandel salsa as his entree.

My soup came out and my first spoonful was sweet, creamy, and delicious. I enjoyed the texture of the soup, which was neither too pureed, nor too chunky. The tarragon oil was a nice, pale green contrast to the pale yellow of the soup, but its licorice flavor didn't really add to my enjoyment of the soup.

Nick's fried Nordic smelt was salty, crunchy,and lemony. I thought it would be a great bar snack with some beer. Higher-end beer, but beer nonetheless.

Our entrees came out, and our eyes soaked in all the colors and textures represented on our plates:

Nick's pick was right up his alley, with its meat, fruit, and vegetable components, and not so much up mine. He enjoyed the pork tenderloin very much, asking no one in particular where they got meat so tender. He cleared his plate, even the couscous he said he could do without. I think that's a testament to Seasons' greatness. They included a roasted apricot (novel idea for me) and a nicely balanced red wine sauce that must have come from the cherry-Zinfandel salsa.

My salmon and all its accoutrements didn't disappoint either. One of my pet peeves is when the dish doesn't taste as good as it looks. I mean, it gets me all excited for nothing! However, Seasons delivered a perfectly moist, grilled salmon fillet, with crunchy, nutty lentils (I observed they must be called Beluga lentils because they looked like Beluga caviar), some chickpeas, and the best three-bean salad I have ever tasted in my life. I am in awe of the herbed brine that they used to marinate the green and white beans. In my opinion, that was the best and most unique part of the dish, and helped tie every element together.

Our waitress noticed us taking pictures of our food, and asked us if we wanted our pictures taken with the food. Slightly embarrassed, we politely declined, but appreciated the thought. We opted not to order dessert, though I must recommend their Scharffen-berger brownie, and walked out feeling full and satisfied. As we left, I turned to take one last look at the restaurant and decided that after three years of eating there, I had never had anything I didn't like. I just wish we could eat there more often!

Tips:
Make a reservation. You can do it through opentable.

Go for lunch for a cheaper alternative, with just as delicious food. It's never busy in the lunch hour, and you get great service for around $25 for two people including tip.

Seasons
102 F Street
Davis, CA 95616
(530) 750-1801

website

Lunch: Tue-Fri 11:30am-2pm, Saturday 12-2pm, Sunday (brunch) 11am-2pm
Dinner: Tue-Thurs, Sunday 5-9pm, Friday, Saturday 5-10pm