Manresa: a Birthday Dinner

I finally made the trip down to Los Gatos, about an hour out of San Francisco, to eat at Manresa, David's Kinch's well-regarded and much written about restaurant. Now I'm finally getting around to writing about it. The occasion was Lou's birthday, and I was able to talk Amy and Frank into joining us for the evening.

The restaurant setting is nothing particularly spectacular. The space is elegant, but not striking. Even though our table was not ready when we arrived exactly on time for our 8 pm Saturday night reservation, none of us minded much having to wait.

Once seated we perused the menu and discussed how to order. Kinch has designed the menu so that diners can order either four courses from an a la carte menu or a spontaneous tasting menu which he requires the entire table to order. We debated ordering the tasting, but decided, instead, to order a la carte from the menu and order one of almost every dish so that we could try a bite of most of the dishes on the menu. The menu was divided into four sections, which roughly break down into starter courses, fish courses, meat courses and desserts.

After ordering, the chef sent out several amuse bouches--at least five--the best of which were a mango smoothie (above) and little crispy ravioli (below). All of them were delicious. The most memorable amuse bouche, however, was the oyster on the half shell still in its juices and sea water. The brilliant catch was that Kinch had added agar agar (gelatin) to the sea water and juices to set the oyster in its juices and sea water. The dish was topped with a crispy piece of nori. They called it a taste of the sea, and it was incredible and ingenious.

For starters, we tried Amberjack, prepared shashimi style with olive oil and chives, "In the Garden," a preparation of vegetables arranged on a plate like a mini garden, and Celery Root Veloute with Sunchoke ice cream. The assortment of vegetables was both cute and tasty, right down to the "dirt." I thought the soup was the real standout of the starters, however. The combination of hot soup and cold ice cream was a palate pleaser, especially from two strong root vegetables. We tried one other starter, a Monterey Bay spot prawn with exotic spices and citrus. The prawn was magnificent and rich, and surprisingly, it turned out to have been a pregnant prawn, so we all tried prawn roe for the first time.

For fish, we tried the John Dory, San Bream and Abalone with a slow egg. As best I can remember, the John Dory tasted good, though the baked abalone and egg was the stand out of the fish courses.

For meats, we ordered farm poularde (young hen) poached and then roasted with sunchokes and black trumpets, Suckling pig with blood sausage, braised kale, and potatoes and apples, and venison roasted with huckleberries. I had been most excited about the suckling pig, in part because I love roasted pork and because Kinch's blood sausage is well known, but the dish did not quite meet my expectations. It was not as rich and flavorful as I had expected, and the meat was not as tender and moist as I had hoped. Instead, the dish that had appealed to me the least ended up as my favorite--the venison. The meat itself was tender, delicate and roasted perfectly rare. With the spices and huckleberries, the dish perfectly fused together the gamey, wild flavors of the venison and the sweetness of the cooked huckleberries. It was a brilliant and pleasing dish.

For dessert, we ordered a selection of cheeses, a chocolate napoleon with tobacco ice cream and a goat cheese bavarois. The napoleon and the tobacco ice cream was the best dessert, and the tobacco ice cream in particular was amazing. The flavor was not so much like a cigarette or an ash tray, but more like the flavor of tobacco in red wine. Subtle notes of the sharpness of tobacco, which paired well with chocolate. It was a very innovative treat, on par with the Foi Gras ice cream at Coi.

We chose the premium wine pairings, and unfortunately I left without asking for a copy of all the wines they served us. I do remember that they served us nearly ten different wines, including several Spanish wines which were unfamiliar to me and at least one Santa Cruz Chardonnay (Manresa is located at the base of the Santa Cruz Mountains, an up and coming wine producing region). Best of all, for dessert they served us a sherry from the 1960s to pair with the cheese, along with an equally old Madiera to pair with the napoleon and tobacco ice cream. Both of those wines were outstanding and memorable.