Ubuntu!

Hubby took a rare Saturday night off, and we headed up to Napa for a mini-getaway. A concert at the newly-refurbished Uptown Theater (Toad the Wet Sprocket, one of our mutual faves), a night at a lovely B&B, and dinner at Michelin-starred Ubuntu restaurant!

If you've never eaten at Ubuntu, let me tell you, it's quite an experience. The dishes are all around $15-20 each, and they're kind of small, but the restaurant encourages sharing. So you end up ordering 4-6 dishes for two people and sharing everything. And believe me, you WILL want to order that much - the food is amazing. Just put yourself in your server's capable hands and order pretty much anything he/she recommends. It's ALL good.

Our dinner began with an amuse-bouche of compressed watermelon with some powdered something on top and (I think) an avocado mousse underneath. I forgot to get a picture of this, but it was...interesting. Loved the watermelon, but the powder on top (kind of curry-ish?) was a little distracting.

First course:

Traditional steamed buns, stuffed w/ burrata and coated with crunchy corn
‘bianco di maggio’ ONIONS, WILD PLUMS, HONG VIT

(No, I don't know why the description of the dishes on their website seems to be randomly capitalized.) This was delicious, if a wee bit bland. I think it could have used a little more texture. Most of it was very soft and pillowy.

Next up:

SAVORY lemon financier, almond, estrella family ‘unnamed cow’
‘rossa Bianca’ eggplant mosaic, SUCCULENTS, BLACKBERRIES, ras el hanout

This was the very best dish of the night, in my opinion. That cheese was fantastic. If you were to eat just one thing on the plate, then something else, it might seem odd, but when you got a little bit of everything in one bite, it was like heaven. And the greens on each dish were absolutely integral. Make sure you eat the greens!

rustic rancho gordo ‘yellow eye’ bean stew (v)
ROSEMARY, CHILI, smoked ‘red russian’ KALE

This was a delicious cassoulet-like stew. It doesn't photograph well, but there were some crunchy crouton-type things on the top and it offered an excellent textural counterpoint to the smoky bean stew (seriously, how did they get that flavor without bacon??).

‘riverdog farms’ potatoes, CUCUMBERS, roasted/raw/emulsion/ash
“ticklish” CUCUMBER, horseradish, FICOIDE GLACIALE

Ash? Yeah, that's what I thought too. But this didn't taste ashy at all - it was very fresh and delicious. Those light green things are the little cucumbers. The glaciale was a succulent plant that had purple, ruffly edges and looked almost as if it had been crystallized. It was crisp and fresh and yummy.

Our final dish was:

charred ‘purplette’ ONIONS and TOP condimento, brioche, burnt with love
roast ‘turkey’ FIGS, their pulp, crudo and kimchi, garnet ‘AMARANTH’

I'm so sorry I forgot to take a picture of this one, but it was scrumptious. I'm not usually a fig person, but hubby is, and the server highly recommended it, so I was willing to give it a try. I'm so glad I did, because the savory-sweet-salty balance was perfect.

Overall, it was an amazing dinner, and I'm so glad that we were able to have that experience. I'd highly recommend it to anyone - vegetarian or meat eaters.

Review: The Carvery (Harry's Hofbrau)

The Rugrat and I were running errands on Tuesday and saw that there was a big "Now Open!" sign on The Carvery, a new restaurant across from the Target shopping center. Mr Wonderful and I have been anxiously awaiting the grand opening, so on Wednesday evening, the three of us headed over there for dinner.

I'm not a big fan of buffet restaurants, but this one is a little different. It's more cafeteria-style: you get your tray and then slide on down past the different stations, and the helpful friendly folks behind the counter dish up whatever you want. This is a meat & potatoes kind of place, very guy-friendly. They have turkey, roast beef, tri tip, chicken, pork -- all different kinds of meat. I opted for a standard Thanksgiving dinner: turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing & gravy. I even got a little cranberry sauce on the side! Then you get a choice of a few different salads, and a white or wheat roll to go along with it. Mr Wonderful got the tri-tip, and Rugrat had the child's frankfurter plate (an oversize hotdog, sliced up, without the bun). All of us enjoyed the food - the meats were tender and juicy, the mashed potatoes were tasty, and the salads were fresh. My only complaint would be that the turkey gravy needed more pepper, but I was easily able to add it at the table.

Prices are reasonable for what you get: it's around $10-11 for a dinner meal (including meat, side dish, mashed potatoes and roll). Lunches, kid's meals and senior meals are slightly less expensive. They also have a wide variety of daily specials if you're not interested in a bunch of sliced meat. Check out the link to the restaurant website for details on what's available each day.

One strange thing to note: when you place your order, the only drinks available at the cash register are sodas, but they DO have a bar area in another section of the restaurant (facing Lone Tree), so if you want a beer or two to wash down your food, you can definitely get that.

Finally, if you go there, be sure to bring a little cash so that you can leave a tip on the table. There isn't a full-service wait staff, but the place is crawling with helpful people who carry your tray to an empty table, refill your drinks, and bring out the kid's dessert (if you've ordered a child's meal). You pay prior to actually sitting down & eating, and there's no place on the credit card slip to add a tip, so leaving cash on the table seems to be the only option.

We were all quite happy with our meal here (even the picky Rugrat!), and we'll definitely be back.

Review: Cocina Medina

This is one of my favorite restaurants, and I’m lucky enough to live within walking distance. That’s a very good thing, because their margaritas are excellent. In fact, sometimes the boyfriend and I walk down there, get a pitcher of margaritas to share, and then stumble home afterwards, very satisfied and happily buzzed.

I’ve had their taquitos, camarones (both with the spicy “diablo” sauce and the milder garlic sauce), chimichangas, enchiladas, tamales and chile rellenos. Everything I’ve tried has been fantastic, with the possible exception of the tamale, which was a bit dry. Nothing beats their chile rellenos though…swimming in a smoky mole sauce and filled with molten jack cheese, it’s nothing short of incredible. The chiles always have lots of flavor and retain some “bite” rather than turning to a flavorless mush, like so many others I’ve tried.

If you’re in the area and hankering for a taste of authentic Mexican food served with a smile, give Cocina Medina a try.

Review: Qin's

Qin's Bistro & Bar opened yesterday in Antioch - mere blocks from our house - and we were among the first people to try it out.

This place is GORGEOUS. We felt very underdressed (he was in a t-shirt and shorts and flipflops, I was in a tank and capris and flipflops). This place has a very nice lounge-y vibe and I could easily see it drawing crowds of twenty- and thirty-something singles if it were located in Walnut Creek. The water wall is the first thing you notice, followed by the large, open bar immediately behind it. The light fixture over the bar is stunning. The restrooms are beautiful, and there's wood and tile everywhere. The place is very large, with (I believe) private banquet rooms in the back.

They had lots of staff there last night and the service was very attentive. I ordered a cosmopolitan with Grey Goose Orange vodka; Mr Wonderful got a Guinness. The drinks took a little while to arrive but when they did, my cosmo was perfect. Delicious, not overbearing but not weak either. Our waitress was sweet, but seemed inexperienced (not just because it was a new restaurant; I believe she hasn't had much experience as a waitress at all). We ordered Salt & Pepper Calamari and a Thai Steak Salad to start. The appetizers were amazing -- the calamari was perfectly cooked, with a little bit of spicy kick and no rubbery texture (which would indicate overcooking). The salad was excellent, with a tasty lime-based dressing and tender slices of steak.

The first indication that something might be not-quite-right was when our entrees came out. We were only about halfway through our starters when they arrived. This is likely due to the inexperience of the waitress (putting the order in to the kitchen all at once, rather than waiting a few minutes to submit the entree order after the appetizer order). But the entrees themselves were disappointing. I ordered the Thai Lemon Grass Shrimp with Coconut Rice. The rice was tasty, but the shrimp were woefully underseasoned and didn't taste like much of anything. In fact, I ended up dipping the shrimp in the chili sauce that came with my calamari in order to salvage it. And for $23, I think they could have given me much more than four (admittedly huge) shrimp. If I remember correctly, the dish mentioned green curry, which I was looking forward to, and I didn't taste any curry at all. I could be mistaken; I read a blog post about green curry earlier in the day and maybe I was just projecting, but I thought it mentioned curry. Anyway...disappointing. Mr Wonderful's Peking Duck was not much better. Again, the meat was underseasoned. It tasted fatty and bland. The duck came with three taco-shaped buns (I say buns, because they were obviously made of the same white, puffy dough as dim sum pork buns) and two sauces - a plum sauce and something else. He said it was "decent" when all the elements were combined, but it certainly wasn't spectacular.

After we finished our meal, we spoke to the manager and gave him our assessment. Generally I'd shy away from being so blunt about a restaurant's failings (I'd usually just not go back if it was bad) but we really want to see this place succeed. It's a HUGE step up for Antioch nightlife, and I'm thrilled that we're getting more high-end options out here in the far east bay. I hope that Qin's can overcome their difficulties in the kitchen and develop a good base of customers, because this place is definitely a step in the right direction. If Antioch's image is going to improve, we need more restaurants like Qin's. So please, if you're looking for a night out on the town, considering dressing up and heading for Qin's instead of going over the hill to the 'Creek.

Review: Risotto

OK, I know it's been a while. I was sick right after New Year's and we had Rugrat's birthday to deal with. But honestly, I just haven't been cooking much, and what I have cooked has been pretty basic, run-of-the-mill stuff (or stuff I've already posted about; Mr Wonderful is asking about the Yum Yum Chicken Enchilada casserole again, so I'll have to throw that together one of these days). However, Mr Wonderful and I did go out to dinner at a "new" (to us, anyway) restaurant here in Antioch, called Risotto.

The restaurant has actually been around for about a year, and I was surprised to hear that because I would have thought they'd have improved after being in business for so long. From the top:

We both ordered the prix fixe meal, as we were there on a Thursday night at around 6:15 PM. It's four courses for about $22, if you're there Sun-Thurs before 7 PM. We both got different dishes for each course, so I think we got a pretty good overview of their menu.

First up was soup: I had butternut squash/apple soup and he had the roasted portobello mushroom soup. They were both fantastic; the only quibble we had is that the mushroom soup had no garnish whatsoever and it looked like a bowl of mud. It could have used a little swirl of creme fraiche or sour cream, and maybe a bit of parsley. But the flavor of both soups was outstanding.

Next came the salad course. My salad was a wine country standard, with candied walnuts, bleu cheese crumbles, baby greens and a balsamic vinaigrette. Nice, but standard. Nothing to write home about. His salad was Greek-style, with olives, feta, tomatoes and a slightly lemony dressing (with maybe a little dill or oregano in it). Again, perfectly serviceable but nothing outstanding.

Third course was our pasta, and this is where things started to fall apart. My tortellini with prosciutto and peas was quite nice, except that the tortellini was overcooked a little. I did appreciate that they didn't drown the pasta in the alfredo sauce; there was just enough sauce without it being overwhelming. Mr Wonderful's pasta was pretty bad, though. His mostaccioli (large tube-shaped pasta) was undercooked, but the chicken in his dish was quite overcooked, to the point that it was dry and almost tough. The sauce was horribly underseasoned as well; it didn't taste like much of anything, which is pretty difficult to do with a tomato-based sauce. The sauce desperately needed salt, onions, garlic, sausage...something! It was completely bland. On the plus side, the dishes were nicely presented. We would have preferred that they grated the parmesan over our dishes at the table, instead of sprinkling pre-grated cheese with a spoon, but that was a minor quibble overall.

To wrap things up, I opted for the apple galette while he stuck with his favorite - tiramisu. My apple tart was nearly inedible. The apples were bland beyond measure, unpeeled and again, horribly underseasoned, with a nearly rubbery bit of pastry on top. Mr Wonderful's tiramisu was a disappointment as well: the plating was disastrous, with little chunks of the tiramisu scattered around the main portion, and the texture was all wrong; the ladyfingers were soggy and had no body whatsoever.

All in all, it was an uneven meal. We'll keep it in our rotation, but probably just order soup to go rather than risk another pasta dish. And the desserts should be taken off their menu altogether; if you can't do the pastry right, just serve ice cream.

Review: Lone Tree Thai

D and I decided to try a new restaurant the other night: Lone Tree Thai Cuisine. Not a very exciting name, considering the street it's on is (you guessed it) Lone Tree. But I was hoping it would end up being a great hole-in-the-wall Thai place less than five minutes from my house. Unfortunately, it didn't exactly measure up.

We ordered a TON of food. Pad thai (the standard by which every Thai restaurant must be judged), mixed seafood green curry, laarb (a "salad" with beef in it) and, as an appetizer, "fish cake." Which was actually fish cakes, plural: there were five of them. The texture of the fish cakes was odd - kind of rubbery and flabby, but the flavor was decent, especially when you put the cucumber-relish stuff on top of it. Next the laarb arrived, and it was....kind of frightening, actually. A huge mound of ground beef with a little lettuce thrown in, a dab of mint, and (supposedly) some cilantro. But the oddest thing about it was the sauce or grease that they cooked it in; at one point, D said "Movie popcorn!" and then that was all we could think of. It was pretty awful. The pad thai was ok, except that they overcooked the prawns - WAY overcooked them. And the green curry was mild (we specified extra-spicy everything, because that's just how we roll) with - again - seriously overcooked seafood. The salmon was cooked well, but all of the shellfish was horribly overcooked.

D and I agreed that we would not be returning.

Coming up soon: Greek(ish) salad. Gotta use up that seedless cucumber and the feta!