Dinner at Manresa

Tonight, I put the low-fat diet on hold and took my wife to Manresa, a restaurant in Los Gatos that is listed on Gayot's Top 50 Best Restaurants in America. Although the service was a little spotty, the food was quite good.

Manresa offers a 4-course fixed price meal, so we went for that. My first course was a sweet onion-brioche soup with manchego, a sheep's milk cheese from Spain. They put the manchego and a soft-cooked egg in the bowl, then poured the soup over it. Unlike French onion soup, this one was very creamy and the onion flavor was very subtle. The egg yolk also added to the thick, rich texture. Delicious.

My second course was a risotto, cooked with dandelion and seafood. I'm not so big on dandelion, which I think I've had before in some Asian dishes, but I went with it anyway, hoping for the best. Fortunately, it mixed well with the seafood: octopus, prawns, mussels, clams, and sea urchin. Oooohh...the sea urchin. Tasted VERY fresh. Have I ever gone wrong with risotto? So tasty...

The main course was veal cheeks braised in cider. I do feel somewhat bad about eating veal, so I don't eat it very often. But my principles are easily bent when the promise of excellent food exists. In this case, I didn't think it was worth it. The veal was good, yes, but nothing special. Seems like they could have picked another less cruel piece of beef, and it would have been just as good. To be honest, I enjoyed the wild mushrooms and vegetables that came with it more than anything else.

As an aside, my wife had a strange sausage-shaped piece of meat with her main course. I took a taste and though I couldn't figure out what it was, it tasted a LOT like Cincinnati-style chili. For those who don't know how good Cincinnati-style chili is, I suggest you have a sample next time you're in the Queen city (or its airport). It's greasy stuff, and you have to keep in mind that it's not really chili, but it's pretty good.

And for dessert, I had a quince souffle with lemon curd on top. It was pretty good, but it didn't stack up to the Grand Marnier souffle I once had at Au Jour d'Hui in Boston. That place knew their souffles.

All in all, an excellent meal, though it didn't demonstrate to me why it would be one of the top 50 restaurants in America. Supposedly, the tasting menu is out of this world, so maybe next time...