Cafe Beaujolais in Mendocino, CA

For our second evening's dinner in Mendocino, MH and I chose Cafe Beaujolais, another local favorite that closes for the winter. Luckily for us, by the time we got to the area, they had reopened for the spring. Cafe Beaujolais is located on Ukiah Street in an 1893 Victorian farmhouse. There is a lovely garden on the side of the restaurant, with tiny meandering paths. Another small building, called the Brickery, is where bread is baked fresh daily, supplying the restaurant, and selling to anyone savvy enough to stop by.

MH and I had made our reservations well in advance, and we're very glad we did. The restaurant turned away a number of people while we were there. Dinner is the only meal that is served, and it's a doozy. The restaurant clearly wants - no expects - you to linger over the crusty bread, shared appetizers, enormous main courses, dessert, and of course, lots and lots of wine.

There is not much to the decor. Upon entry, there is a simple waiting foyer with a long wooden bench and a coat rack. The interior of the restaurant is very utilitarian, but romantic; small, wooden tables and chairs nestled together with tiny votives on each table. The old wooden floor lies bare. Most parties were groups of two or three people; the restaurant really cannot accommodate groups much larger than four. It seemed as if most of the people there were locals. Many of the women were dressed in knit-wear, which is the norm that far up the coast. No one truly looked "urban," and no one talked terribly loudly. I felt as if I were in the jewel of this tiny town.

MH and I first split a salad of mixed garden greens, which came with baked marinated goat cheese and Niman Ranch bacon. We got the bacon on the side, where it would not detract from the slightly peppery taste of the greens. The presentation of both our main courses was similar; although MH got steak, and I got fish, both were served in a huge round dish over white beans, carrots, and kasha in a delightful mix. It was also rustic, and very filling. I did feel that although the food was excellent, it was very provincial.

Service was superior. The waitstaff was attentive, but not obtrusive. Cafe Beaujolais clearly prides itself on being a top-notch restaurant in an otherwise sleepy town. I only wish the food had measured up.


Cafe Beaujolais
7/10

MacCallum House in Mendocino, CA

MH and I went up to Mendocino for the long weekend. Before heading up there (and indeed, a month in advance), we made dinner reservations, knowing that things would book up quickly. One of the places we had been dying to try was the MacCallum House in Mendocino town. MacCallum House is an Inn which has a lovely bar - the Grey Whale (which serves from its bar menu), and a superior restaurant - the MacCallum House restaurant. MH and I have been to Mendocino several times, and every time we've made the trip, the MacCallum House restaurant has been closed for the winter. This time, however, it was open, and we leapt at the opportunity to try it.

The restaurant is housed on part of the first floor of the inn, and comprises only two rooms. On the rest of the first floor is the Grey Whale, which consists of a smallish bar area, and a wrap-around porch-like cafe (mostly two-tops) where visitors and guests can nosh on the bar food. The restaurant area is cozy. In the room in which we were seated, there was a lovely wood-burning fireplace, which was kept roaring throughout our dinner. It was quite chilly so far North in California, and it was pouring rain the evening we dined out. Our room opened onto the Inn's entrance. The other room was a bit larger, but it didn't have a fireplace, and it could only be accessed by a small door from our room. That room was attached to the kitchen and serving area. Not as nice, certainly.

MH ordered a glass of pinot noir to start. The bread basket came before we ordered, but it was unimpressive - it was all plain white bread. MH also ordered a salad, which was tossed with a sherry-hazelnut oil vinaigrette. The salad was very well composed. It had bitter greens, toasted hazelnuts, and sliced fresh kumquats. MH's hanger steak was also incredible. It came with an arugula-roasted shallot-walnut salad (delicious, but unnecessary after his salad appetizer), and a really great Pt. Reyes blue cheese popover. The popover was just perfect - eggy on the inside, crisp on the outside, and with a subtle blue cheese taste.

I ordered sturgeon, and it was topped with smoked caviar. It also came with butter lettuce topped with chopped anchovy and olive. This tasted really good, but the oil from the sturgeon (which was delicious, by the way), seeped into the butter lettuce, making it oily and unattractive. The sturgeon was supposed to come with sauteed red potatoes, but I had asked to substitute the vegetable of the day for the potatoes. However, when the fish arrived, there was nothing but the butter lettuce on the plate. MH asked the waiter politely where the vegetable dish was (MH really stepped up here - I was actually a bit embarassed say anything), and the waiter said he had forgotten! He offered to have the chef fix up a fresh batch.

Unfortunately, 15 minutes later, we didn't have the vegetables, and we were through eating. Our waiter came back, extremely contrite, and told us he would buy us dessert. We weren't going to say no to this offer, so we chose the chocolate mousse with creme anglaise and nut brittle. Superb! Although the mousse did not have as dense a chocolate taste as I would have liked, it was made richer by the creme anglaise.

We really enjoyed this dinner, and it was certainly made better by the ambiance (cozy inside, blustery outside) and the attentive service.


MacCallum House
8/10

Plouf in Downtown SF

UN was in town last night, so I made a reservation at Plouf. The restaurant is located on Belden Place, which is really a little alleyway on which several restaurants are located. It was raining terribly, but the touts (read: hostesses) from each restaurant were out under the awnings, trying to drum up business by accosting passersby who might not have already made reservations. Plouf touts itself as a Gallic seafooder, and at least half of the menu is devoted to fish and shellfish.

Plouf itself is set in an unassuming storefront. The typical bistro tables and umbrellas were set up outside (although because of the rain, there were few takers). The inside of the restaurant had a plethora of small tables set up right next to each other, and a few coveted booths. Since I had made a reservation, we got a booth. There was an open kitchen with bustling black-and-white-striped-shirted waiters running around. The music was booming, and it was very difficult to hear/be heard due to the cavernous ceiling (off which things really echoed). I was surprised at the rocking ambiance the restaurant tried to effect, due to the fact that it was a sleepy Tuesday night and most of the clientele was over 40.

UN ordered snapper, with broccoli rabe and calamari. He asked to have the snapper broiled instead of fried, and to substitute another vegetable for the calamari. When UN's dish came, the snapper was clearly fried. When he questioned the waiter, the waiter told him it was surely broiled. I didn't think it looked broiled, but I kept my mouth shut. UN began to eat, and no sooner had he taken a few mouthfulls then the manager came over to apologize; the chef had, indeed, prepared the fried snapper instead of the broiled snapper. He offered to bring a fresh dish, but UN politely declined (but not before teasing the manager).

I had the herbed roulade of salmon with roasted cepes (an earthy mushroom), and mustard greens with a pomegranate glaze. I was expecting a small medallion, but the salmon was quite a lot of fish, prepared a delicate medium. The greens were pleasantly sharp, and the pomegranate glaze was actually excellent. The one letdown was the cepes. They tasted as if they had come from a can.

MH, in a huge change of pace, started with the tuna ceviche, but then got a vegetarian dish - the crispy risotto cakes, and marinated portobello steaks with wild mushroom and port jus. The ceviche was served with Japanese seaweed salad, which had a good consistency. MH's portobello steaks were juicy with a pleasant sponginess. I thought their flavor was quite tasty. MH also convinced me to order some frites. They were crispy, matchstick fries, but not seasoned well enough.

In a bid to appease us, the waiter came back after we had finished eating, and personally apologized for mixing up UN's order. He also offered us some complimentary port or sauternes, which we declined. By this point, we had gotten used to the loud music, and so we stayed for another 20 minutes, talking and relaxing. It was still raining when we left, and as we walked out of the alleyway with our umbrellas held above our heads, we saw our waiter, crouched under an overhang, smoking a cigarette. It was very French.


Plouf
6/10

Cafe Marcella in Los Gatos, CA

MH and I made reservations at Cafe Marcella for dinner last Sunday night, and boy, are we glad we did. We showed up on time for our reservation, and the place was packed! There was a particularly loud party taking up two large tables by the door, the bar was overflowing, and every table was taken. We stood by the door for about 15 minutes before we were seated. The wait wasn't that bad; it gave us plenty of opportunity to scope out the restaurant and its clientele. I'd say the patrons were mostly in the 40+ range, although there were a few younger couples.

The restaurant is located on a quiet side street in sleepy downtown Los Gatos. The interior of the restaurant is spartan (white walls, plain bar area), but the flowers on the table and the bustling staff make up for the lack of gorgeous decor. NB: An adjoining market sells wine and other grocery items. Cafe Marcella is listed as a 2005 Zagat noteable restaurant.

Once we sat down, away from the breezy door area, the food took over. MH started with a simple salad of arugula, endive, and candied pecans, sprinkled with roquefort, and then moved on to the filet mignon, served with a balsamic glaze, mashed potatoes, and topped with blue cheese. The filet was one of the most delicious pieces of meat I have ever tasted. It was perfectly aged, and had a mouthwatering gaminess that was perfectly complimented by the balsamic glaze. I had the duo of grilled Scottish salmon with scallops, served with aged balsamic vinegar. The sides were asparagus and potatoes. I substituted out the potatoes for some additional vegetables, which turned out to be broccoli rabe and carrots. The salmon was cooked well (texture was good), but the flavor of the grill was overwhelming. I much preferred the two perfect scallops, and the asparagus, which was outstanding.

Our entrees were so good, we passed on dessert. MH took the opportunity to finish our glass of wine, a syrah blend which had gone well with both of our selections.

We really enjoyed our dinner. In recent memory, the only other comparable restaurant on the Peninsula that we've frequented was Le Papillon, in San Jose. Cafe Marcella is the kind of place you return to again and again. This is a small-town restaurant with a big-town feel (especially in the food), and I highly recommend a visit.


Cafe Marcella
8.5/10

Mistral in Redwood City, CA

At the bequest of SM and AB, we went to Mistral last night. SM and AB are considering having an event there, and we went to test the waters, as it were. SM made reservations on Opentable without any problem, even though it was for a Saturday night. MH and I were the first to arrive, and we were promptly seated by the hostess. Someone brought water and bread immediately. The bread is almost like puffier pita bread, and comes in little rounds, which are sliced in half (on the diameter). A vinaigrette sauce for dipping comes with the bread basket. The vinaigrette honestly tastes like salad dressing.

We did our research before we went, and found out which entrées were on the event menu. I ordered the salmon en croute, which was served in philo with spinach. SM ordered the chicken breast. AB ordered shrimp and lobster risotto, and MH (ordering off the event menu) ordered penne with blackened chicken, and corn salsa. My salmon was moist, but had some perilous bones that I only noticed because I started picking at the dish as I got more full. The philo dough crust was quite buttery and heavy. There were also some julienned vegetables, which were also buttery. SM's chicken was plain, but good. AB's risotto was creamy, with a nice give to the rice. MH's dish was just average; all the components were cooked well, but the dish didn't really mesh well. The Southwestern-meets-Italian was not a big hit.

I should note that MH was the only one to order an appetizer, duck potstickers, which we all tried. The potstickers came with an asian cabbage salad, and some sweet-and-sour dipping sauce. There were four potstickers on the plate, which MH cut in half for us. These were actually pretty tasty, and the presentation was lovely.

We also knew what desserts were on the event menu, and to that effect, ordered an autumn fruit crumble, as well as a chocolate chambourd ganache cake. The chocolate ganache cake was dense, but because the ganache had been whipped, it was lighter than one would expect. The fruit crumble was fine, but did not have the same intensity of flavor as the ganache cake.

The food was fine, but the service was negligent, bordering on poor. Our waiter seemed to determine early on that we were not big spenders (i.e. we twice declined his offers of wine or cocktails), and he studiously ignored us for the rest of the evening. We saw (and heard) our waiter laughing loudly with the table across from us after those guests ordered cocktails and several bottles of wine, but when we attempted to get his attention to order, he turned away. Repeatedly. In his defense, it was a busy Saturday night, but we were kept waiting and waiting - sometimes for upwards of 30 minutes - to put in our orders for the next course. When our entrées came, they came piecemeal, so the first dish set down was placed nearly 5 minutes ahead of the last dish set down. Does this restaurant not use trays to carry all dishes at once? Apparently not, and we definitely suffered for it.


Mistral
5.5/10