My follow-up review for this restaurant. Read my previous review for this restaurant here

Update 08/28: Had another good experience tonight. The waitress was better than my last waiter and the food was about on par. We got the filet mignon ($25) with crab cakes, asparagus, and spinach in a pepper. I really enjoyed the taste of the filet, though admittedly it reminded me somewhat of ground beef. It was in a thick buttery sauce (slightly gravy like, but much better). It was a little on the small side, though there was a lot more going on on the plate. The crab cakes were good, though I’ve had better. They were a little starchy. The rest of the additions were nice enough and added value to the dish. We also got the ahi tuna poke ($11). Its a combination of seasoned ahi with cucumber and mango in a cocktail glass. The tuna tasted great as did the mango. A little on the sweet side, but an appetizer I’d highly recommend.

If you are looking for an 11-course meal consisting of the best dishes you’ve ever had, look elsewhere. For a hefty price, Coi provides an 11-course meal of the some of the best dishes you’ve never had. Almost nothing on this menu felt familiar and everything that I loved was tremendous because it reminded me of almost no other dish I’ve tasted. While this avant-garde culinary art doesn’t meet its lofty goals with every dish, most of the dishes were very memorable and totally made up for the dishes that didn’t succeed.

The experience is designed around the full tasting menu. To miss out on this meticulously ordered experience by going with the 4-course a la carte option is to miss out on the whole reason to go to Coi. Each dish is very small (and often served in pointlessly large ceramic dishes that dwarf the food) and contains a world of flavor condensed into a small package.

I loved my experience here, though if you have trepidation about spending over $300 for dinner for two and aren’t looking branch out your tasting experiences too far, the other ultra-fancy restaurants in the city (Michael Mina, Gary Danko, etc) might be safer bets. But if you are interested in food that is like no other, not just food that is better than others, Coi provides this in spades.

The service was very impressive. The wait staff was affable and familiar without being too casual and very helpful in helping us navigate a menu filled with entirely unfamiliar options and ingredients. It has a quite interior with very comfortable seats, even if the chairs have a strangely austere grey fabric.

A few dishes had flavors that required some acclimation, and with portions this small you don’t get the opportunity to acclimate your palate, but most new flavors tasted terrific on first bite. And two dishes in the middle were pretty disappointing, but a few dishes that don’t work is a small price to pay for all the successful risks amidst the rest. And if you are interested in food for thought, almost every dish serves as perfect think piece.

Bent Spoon Marshmallow – with avocado and kumquat (4 stars)

What a way to start. These potent little suckers introduce you to how much Coi can do with so little. The marshmallows are about the size of a thimble and come with two bent spoons with avocado and kumquat. The marshmallows are enrobed in a tart and herbaceous spice mix that makes eat small bite (all two of them) a powerful experience.

Valencia Orange – with green olive sorbet (5 stars)

This dish kept me very excited about the meal to come. The litsea scented foam that surrounded the green olive sorbet was delicate and strong at once. Like many of their best dishes, its flavor came in waves and was a treat on its own. The olive sorbet potently packed all the flavor of what I assume are grand olives into a creamy little package.

California Osetra Caviar – slow-cooked farm egg yolk, crème fraiche, chives (5 stars)

The caviar was another winner, though I found its accompaniments more exciting than the caviar itself. The egg yolk was beaten to a soft succulent texture that made each bite of fatty luxury. While the idea of crème fraiche and chives might seem too similar to a potato chip dip, this combination offered much more. It was too bad the gritty bowls made it hard to get every last drop of it with my spoon. Gazpacho Parfait – ella bella early girl tomatoes, cumin, mint

Gazpacho Parfait (3 stars) The gazpacho parfait was really enjoyable in the context of the meal, though out of context you might think it’s just the freshest salsa you’ve ever tasted. It comes in a parfait glass filled one third of the way and shows off the tomatoes well, though they are a little overwhelmed by the onion.

Full Bellied Heirloom Potatoes – with olive oil (1 star)

For anyone who comes here for the four course meal, I pray you don’t make the mistake of ordering this dish. While it really did nothing for me, I would have laughed then cried if this were a significant part of the meal, instead of just one of fifteen dishes. Its four soft disks of yellow potatoes that taste like, well, potatoes (I’m sure they were grown in the garden of kings, or something) with an earthy olive oil. And a small side of radicchio fennel salad with some olive oil and lemon (or red wine vinegar) on it as a dressing. Yep, that’s it. If you get the tasting menu you just paid $5 per 1” potato disk. Maybe connoisseurs of olive oil will tell me I missed the boat, but a dish like this seems almost like a little joke.

Corn-Brioche Custard – huitlachoche foam (3 stars)

I really expected to love this dish having recently discovered how much flavor some great chefs can extract from corn. But this one was merely just pleasant, like many corn chowders are pleasant. It was slightly sweet but not an unexpected flavor and the large kernels of corn tasted like just that. The custard wasn’t too sweet but it wasn’t too interesting either. The foam was somewhat interesting on its own, but got lost in the flavor of the custard and wasn’t enough to make the dish.

Yuba ‘Papardelle’ – English peas, fava leaves, basil (4 stars)

This dish of soy skin noodles was one that I acquired a taste for halfway through. My first thought was the pungent fermented broth reminded me of those cup o’ noodle flavor packets. A harsh and unwarranted comparison, but I think my mouth just needed a little time to adjust. Afterwards, I really enjoyed the flavor of the broth and appreciated how it was like few things I’d ever tasted. It reminded me of the fermented tea leaves that make Burma Superstar’s tea leaf salad such a hit and just required an open mind.

Aji and Japanese Turnip – with roman fermented anchovy sauce (2 stars)

This dish reminded me of the review that said Coi is way too salty. The aji is a mackerel like fish pan-seared with an enjoyably chewy flesh. But the sauce was hard to swallow, literally. The anchovy flavor was overwhelming. I guess like mussels or mustard, this could be an acquired taste that when done perfectly enraptures anchovy lovers and turns off foes of these fish, but being in the latter category, I wish I hadn’t gotten this dish. It came with a side of turnips that were somewhat like the potatoes and a small mix of cilantro and some green.

Poached And Seared Guinea Hen – vadouvan, fresh and shelling beans (4 stars)

The guinea hen on this dish was extremely tasty. It was two cylinders of soft slightly fatty meat infused with a savory broth. I really enjoyed each bite of this hen. The beans in broth were a little less interesting and I was less excited about getting every last morsel their broth.

Fizzy Casaba Melon Soda (4 stars)

This fizzy little glass of heaven was a wonderful little treat to start our six mini-courses of dessert. It was slightly creamy, slightly fizzy, and filled with a sweet and tangy flavor of melon. While it’s hard to capture what made this so wonderful, it was one of the tastiest drinks I’ve ever had.

Poached Fig – with lavender honey and cheese (4 stars) While not the complex culinary concoction that defines most of Coi’s dishes, this small plate of delicious figs infused with honey accompanied by cheese was a very nice addition to the meal. It basically consisted of the three items mentioned, but of the highest quality and freshness. The large fig was wet and gooey and the was just slightly sharp.

Chilled Strawberry-Watermelon Soup – rose geranium, long pepper ice cream (5+ stars)

My god. My lordy lordy lord. There are few things I have put in my mouth that have filled it with this much excitement. This soup is like biting into the world’s most perfect strawberry for someone who’s gone their entire life without eating fruit. It’s like going to a symphony when you’ve only listened to music on a portable radio. This is probably what gaining colored sight would be like to the color-blind. The “broth” was bursting with fruity flavor in a way that in no way approached too sweet, yet somehow seemed almost sweeter than anything I’ve ever eaten. The long pepper ice cream was a stunning mix of sweet vanilla and spicy long pepper. We exclaimed our joy audibly after every bite.

Olive Oil Milkshake – with Caramelized Cookie, cocoa nibs (5 stars)

I’ve been on a big ice cream kick recently, making all too many visits to Mitchell’s and Bi-Rite and they have expanded my view of how great ice cream can be. But having this after the black pepper takes my appreciation of ice cream to the next level. The base is like a stunning cookies and cream, but unlike the heirloom potatoes, just the addition of terrific olive adds so much to this dish. The savory oil adds great character to the ice cream and the first bites which contained more oil were the most enjoyable.

Warm Chocolate Cake – with avocado ganache, lemon grass coconut foam (4 stars)

The avocado ganache was a wonderful mix of the fatty flavor avocado with cocoa butter. I’ve tried making a similar dessert with evaporated milk and avocado, but I could not pull off the balance that makes this ganache so tasty while mine was a rich and sweet treacle of fat. The chocolate sponge cake had a great soft texture, but could have benefited from the richer more chocolaty flavor of denser chocolate cakes. The cocoa nibs improved the flavor, but the whole cake could benefit from tasting more like the bites dense in nibs. The creamy foamy lemongrass sauce was great on its own and perfectly combined with the chocolate and avocado.

Plum Pate de Fruit – with mini pistachio cakes (4 stars)

With our bill we each got a small pate de fruit and a mini cake. Despite their size and simplicity, they managed to still be knockouts. The pate de fruit was like other ones I’ve had, except it was dipped in a highly acidic sauce that almost made me feel like it had better on it. Definitely better than any pate de fruit I’ve had. The almost cookies were also knockouts. They had a fresh huckleberry center and a taste that managed to transcend their status as a simple cookie.

My follow-up review for this restaurant. Read my previous review for this restaurant here

Update 08/17: Maybe I’ll feel differently if I pay for a meal here, but Mantra is my new hotness in Palo Alto. The dishes I have eaten and tried so far have been some of the most enjoyable I’ve had in the area in a while and there are a bunch that I’m really looking forward to trying on my next visit.

I came here again with work today and got the lamb chops, which were bursting with all the juicy saucy flavors of the lamb shank. Its pricey, but you get a lot of lamb as well as a couple of sides mixed in. The meat is very soft but charred along the bone and it was enjoyable enough that I resorted to breaking it apart with my hands to get every piece. The sauce tasted like a wine reduction (not sure if it was) and deserved to be sopped up with naan. It also had a polenta base that was creamy and just as enjoyable. The meat sat on top of a flaky phyllo biscuit with a diced mushroom sauce and the whole thing was accompanied by asparus and carrots wrapped in prosciutto. Its like they worry that you won’t love the lamb so they insecurely need to make four more things on your plate awesome just in case. I was very happy with all five.

I tried the flank steak and was not as impressed but only had one bite. Next time I’m going to try the waiter recommended sea bass. Three cheers for expensed lunches.

I don’t give two stars much and I’m surprised to be giving it to a restaurant that I’ve wanted to eat at for so long and even got to dine at on someone else’s tab, but I was really let down by the three tiffin’s I tried on my lunch visit. Service was very slow even though it wasn’t that crowded and dessert was the only saving grace.

I came here with a group of six co-workers and we all got different tiffin plates ($18). I got the halibut on the waiters recommendation and would have been hard pressed to be more disappointed. The tiffin’s are described as an entree, an appetizer, and a salad, a seemingly good value for $18 at a restaurant like Junnoon. But the salad was just a handful of mixed greens with a vinaigrette, the halibut was a couple small chunks without any sauce and not much flavor, and the accompanying chickpea stew was decent, but something I would expect to taste at leas this good just about anywhere. The halibut was cooked in a tandoor and dry like poorly make tandoori chicken. It really didn’t offer much to be enjoyed. It came with two dipping sauces that were slightly interesting, but nothing that could save the dish. The chickpeas were more flavorful in a curry sauce, but nothing to write home about.

A co-worker got the lamb which sounded really interesting. It was a small tin of rice and a few lamb chunks cooked with a bread cover top. But the dish consisted of mostly rice which was smoky, but unremarkable like the lamb. It wasn’t small since it was mostly rice, but it was still left unfinished. The only dish we all liked somewhat was the chicken which was in a creamy coconut sauce. Again, nothing that lived up to my expectations, but much better than the other two.

The roti was pretty good, but not as doughy or flavorful as I prefer.

For dessert I tried the ginger molten chocolate cake. I’ve had a lot of these and this was definitely up there with some of the better ones. A lot of these desserts are pretty similar, so the ginger twist was a nice change, but I liked the ginger aspect more during the first half than the second.

While we weren’t in a big hurry, the whole meal took around 90 minutes, which is a pretty long time for two courses. The desserts took a while, which is probably required for the cake, but it would have been nice to know that in advance when your there on business and not likely to have as much time to sit around as couples in the evening.

After going to Mantra a week earlier and feeling like their options were really interesting, yet slightly overpriced, I have know doubt which restaurant I’d recommend to anyone looking for a great pricey Indian experience in Palo Alto. Considering this place has gotten a good number of awards, I’m assuming the dinner must be better than the tiffins. I certainly hope so.

Yellow Ginger is a solid entry in the ever growing list of south east Asian restaurants in the Mountain View area. While I haven’t tried any dishes yet that are out of this world, I was impressed with the quality and value of my first visit.

Despite the strip-mall locale, its a very attractive restaurant with great lighting, mood, and color. The waitstaff wasn’t terribly polished compared to most similar restaurants, but these things are always incidental to the food for me.

On my first visit I tried the roti prata ($5), Hainan Chicken Rice ($9), Roasted Game Hen ($15), and Papaya Salad ($7). The roti prata was a great start. It was doughy and soft and had a slightly buttery quality. The food came out too fast for us to finish it while it was still warm, which is too bad because its much better when its still warm. It comes with a oily chili sauce that didn’t add much to the dish. Next we got the Papaya Salad which had a good amount of flavor. It was thinly slightly white papaya shards with a tangy light vinaigrette and tomatoes. While it was tasty, its a little too large and consistent to finish once better options come along. The roasted game hen was the best dish offered. It was roasted to the point of being crispy and filled with chili sauce that tasted slightly like berries. There were many pieces and they were each worthy eating down to the bone. It came with an all too large side of rice that doesn’t really fit the dish. The Hainan Chicken Rice is a dish only a mother could love. It looks like boiled chicken breast, but not string. There’s a thin layer of almost uncooked fat which taste very similar to the chicken. Its in a sauce without much flavor and comes with a big side of rice. But mostly I’d just say this dish is useless. Glad everything else was much better.

From the wines I was familiar with, the markup isn’t too bad and the selection is better than many Asian restaurants that just get the commodity bottles that fill the cheaper sections at Safeway.

The menu has many interesting options, you can get a good amount of food for a reasonable price, and its an all around nice experience. I’ll definitely be back.

My follow-up review for this restaurant. Read my previous review for this restaurant here

From the two dishes I tried, I’m super stoked about coming back to Aux Delices. The restaurant provided a much wider array of options than I had seen on most Vietnamese menus, whether they were hole-in-the-walls, middle range white table cloth Vietnamese, or fancy-dancy fusion. And the two fish dishes I had were really stellar, and at a much better price that I would have expected.

I came here with a friend who loves this place and I left totally in agreement. On my friend’s recommendation we got the Cha Ca ($12) “Grilled Filets of white fish over fresh dill & green onions with sake anchovy sauce” which was a bowl very tasty white fish with a sauce and herb mix that made every bite a delight. It was hard to pull myself away from it to try the caramel salmon ($11) while it was still piping hot. The salmon dish was a simply cooked salmon in a very hot caramel sauce. My sweet-adverse friend loved it too and didn’t think it was “too sweet” which is rare.

Our friends had one of the rolls and loved it, though their salad was “just salad” our third friend got the vegetarian chow-mein and loved it so much he got another plate of it. I tried a little and it didn’t change my dislike of chow-mein, but he seemed totally satisfied.

Their unfiltered sake ($4 / $6.5) was also great. It was milky white and slightly sweet, somewhat like coconut water, but it was so tasty that two other people ordered large bottles after trying mine.

I’m hoping to come back here enough to raise the stars to the roof.

There are a few restaurants that I would recommend highly, with the caveat its covered by an expense account. Mantra is definitely one of them. It has a wide array of very unexpected options many of which are very tasty, but its not as consistently great as its prices are high.

While my recent expensed lunch at Mantra had a lot of very tasty memories and was more enjoyable that most meals I’ve had recently, it wasn’t worth the tab and I’m sure I would have been more critical of the dishes I tried if it was on me.

I’d been here about a year earlier and it seemed to be more unsure of whether it was expensive so-so Indian turned upscale or upscale dining with an Indian flare. While there were some interesting dishes that I don’t remember vividly, I do remember feeling like neither goal was accomplished nearly well enough for the price. I’ve read they have been under new management since, so that probably accounts for the difference in my experiences.

This time, I felt like the menu was much more interesting, that they had decided to focus more on unique dishes whether or not they seemed Indian enough. But they still charged as much as they could get away with in downtown PA. My entree, the “coke” au vin ($26) was pretty great all around. It was a tender lamb shank with a good amount of meat and pretty fatty (not as soft as I’ve had, but not nearly as dry and stringy as many lamb shanks I’ve tried). Its name is a play on coq au vin, except this one includes coke in a wine reduction sauce instead of chicken in wine. The sauce was really tasty and luckily didn’t remind me of Coke, though the white buttery cream sauce that it was mixed with reminds you of how much butter they probably used to achieve something so tasty. It came with a side of crostini with a berry sauce for some reason. It was tasty, though seemed a strange addition.

Our table got an array of appetizers of varying appeal. The Paneer Cuboid ($9) was a light chunk of paneer cheese with a sweet edge and slightly fried. The cheese was a little too much like tofu, but the bites striped with a slightly sweet ribbon were very tasty. The Shrimp “Vinhaleaux” ($12 for 3) were very meaty, almost like chicken. They were marinated in chili and cinnamon and tasted better than the average shrimp, but definitely not worth four dollars each. We got another dish that included two chicken sausages on a tasty BBQ-like sauce along with two small spheres of paneer wrapped in a tough wheaty dough. Those weren’t that enjoyable though they were over two very enjoyable fruit sauces. The sauteed chicken look like the typical red spiced chicken you might get at many north Indian restaurants, though the meat and spicing was much better. But still, not nearly as good as the lamb dish.

If you’re looking to explore a menu filled with entirely unique combinations and don’t might spending too much for it, check out Mantra. But if you are looking for great food that is worth its price, look elsewhere.