tommers "The deliciousness is in the details"

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.

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

I think I’m going to try and become a regular here. This time I got the chicken udon, the kobe beef skewers, and the fish cakes.

Like that episode of Seinfeld where George steals all of Elaine’s good luck, I feel like Sushitomi is stealing my good love from formerly beloved Kappo NamiNami. Every time I come here I love it more and every time I go to Kappo NamiNami I feel more mixed about it.

The unadventurous and un-initiated could find a good, but not great sushi experience at Sushitomi. But once you get the menu down, the food can be terrific and a much better value that similar Japanese restaurants.

The beef sukiyaki (half of a $15 combo meal) was really just amazing. The broth was wonderfully potent with a slightly sweet edge that made my friend want to pour it into a large glass and just drink it up. The beef is great, the translucent noodles very tasty, and the tofu has a very enjoyable texture, though you could choke a horse with some of the large pieces. We got this for $15 with miso, salad, rice, and a wonderful mackerel. The mackerel was a large hunk of fish with crispy edges that are buttery and burned. The fish itself was very enjoyable, but if you’re with friends and feeling selfish, dig into the crispy edges first.

As far as sushi goes, its definitely better than most places, but not as distinct as other options. The clam, eel, and white tuna were by far the best and beat most similar sushi I’ve had hands down.

The menu includes a very extensive list of interesting small plate options as well. The beef tongue skewer ($5.40) is salty and tough, but really great. The eggplant ($4.90) and julienned yam ($5.90) options were both very tasty, while the codfish liver with ponzu sauce was not that enjoyable since the liver was not that flavorful and felt like spam melting on the tongue. And for someone who doesn’t like tempura, I certainly did enjoy the vegetable tempura I tried.

On the negative side, I couldn’t get more than a few sips of the mushroom red miso soup. It was undrinkable. It was musky and earthy and tasted like Campbell’s tomato soup. Stick to the basic miso soup.

If you like finishing a meal with something sweet, they have gummi bears next to the cash register on the way out. A nice touch.

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

Another great experience at Mandaloun. Everything new was quality and made me want to go for a fourth time.

I started with the heirloom tomato salad ($12) which was one of the best salads I’ve ever had. The tomatoes were amazing and full of flavor. They had a smoky yet sweet quality and were ample in size and freshness. The cress was a very interesting green a little reminiscent of mint. The smokiness of the cheese worked really well with the tomatoes and was on a really interesting tomato based sauce.

For an entree, I got the pork prime rib special ($18). It was a large portion of tender and slightly fatty pork. It was well wonderful meat on a bed of butter beans an a balsamic sauce. For anyone who complains about the portion sizes here, they should definitely get this dish. While not a very novel dish, it was really good through and through.

I tried my friend’s salmon and thought it was a letdown. It was too dry and didn’t taste very fresh.

The caramel balsamic gelato ($7) was ok ice cream, but it was not nearly as interesting as the description made me expect. It seemed like the sort of ice cream you could get at any store and tasted almost entirely of caramel and with barely a hint of balsamic. The fortune cookie like cup was very enjoyable though.

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

Had yet another great experience at Mandaloun. Most of the food I had was great, we were seated next to the fireplace which was very nice, and the wines were both tasty and generous. The pheasant (the night’s special) was a great choice and I enjoyed the lettuce salad. The churro and chocolate mousse were good, but they definitely could have been better.

Maybe it was too much Syrah, but my dinner at Mandaloun tasted surprisingly sensual. Most of the dishes I had were very tasty, but their was a certain sense of luxuriousness to everything that struck me as different from many other restaurants that I equally enjoyed.

The meal starts with a very small complimentary taste of something interesting. This was a nice introduction to the restaurant. On my first visit, I decided to explore the tasting of three small plates ($18). The dates wrapped in pancetta were packed with flavor and the sweetness of dates combined with the savory pancetta made for a great combination. Similarly, the prosciutto wrapped asparagus with aoili got most of its great flavor from the meat. The best small plate though was the mushroom bruschetta which had a potent oily flavor that struck me most as sensual, since usually dishes rich in oil flavor feel too heavy for me.

My friend got the skirt steak ($22) which was very tender, but I thought the steak itself didn’t have much flavor. It seemed like it could be called beef sashimi. You get a good number of slices and it comes with a small salad and a tasty dipping sauce. The log cabin plated fries tasted like eating a baked potato cut into rectangles and nothing more. She had previously had the halibut which she thought was terrific.

Overall, a really good experience that I’m going to come back for. And not just because its the only restaurant I’ve really liked in Redwood City downtown.

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

Came back a second time and was a little less impressed.

Spasso is an exciting new addition to the slowly growing cadre of upscale restaurants in downtown San Carlos and one I’m excited about revisiting. Like its neighbors La Tosca and Piacere, it offers a very nice interior with an Italian/Mediterranean menu and an extensive wine list. While the food would not get points for innovation in a crowded market like San Francisco, for the Peninsula it has a good selection of dishes that are more interesting that the prior two restaurants mentioned.

As for the food itself, it was often very good and very promising, especially given its only the fourth day. The mushroom soup was up there with some of the best butter-filled ones I’ve had and the lamb sirloin ($21.50) was very tasty (albeit a bit dry) and was atop a terrific soft bed of eggplant. The appetizer sampler ($16) has some really good options (the crab cakes and the ahi tuna) while the bruschetta and the calamari left something to be desired. The bread pudding with maple brandy sauce was tremendous and worth coming back for on its own. The two wines we tried (cab and zinfandel) were both very good and both in the mid-range ($8).

The service was very good and there were no signs that this place had just opened. Definitely coming back and hoping to find this is a five star restaurant.

I’ve always had very good experiences at Xahn and despite their high prices, the food is always beautiful and tasty and the service charming.

The shrimp clouds were very tasty and quite different than I expected with a soft fluffy dough as the base. The Xanh Kobe salad was great. It was surprisingly large salad to be eaten with ones hands with ample beef on two large beds of some sort of rice cake. The noodle spring rolls didn’t add much to the meal and the long noodles didn’t compel me to finish them, but the eggplant was very tasty. The pineapple short ribs were really tasty, and the asparagus soup was oily, but also very enjoyable.

Xanh provided a very refreshing twist on the hazelnut torte and left me glad to get dessert despite feeling very full.

On one visit with six items, I had expected a larger bill, but it ended up adding up to $60. Much less than a comparable (but probably slightly tastier) meal at Tamarine.

If price were no object, Kappo NamiNami would definitely be one of the best restaurants around. Its an entirely fresh take on Japanese for Californians raised on Japanese-as-sushi-rolls The Kyoto-style small plates pack a potent punch of flavor that shocks and awes the taste buds and provides perfected culinary creations in small packages. The beef tongue stew ($18) everyone raves about is definitely as good as I heard and a must try dish. The stringy and soft meat makes for one of the most enjoyable meat dishes I’ve had of late and is rather hearty. The tiny eel soup ($8 I think, but I forgot the name) is very interesting, has a wonderful broth, and the translucent whole baby eels are fascinating, but you get only about two ounces of it. It only lets you down when you finish it in short order. The cabbage beef rolls were surprisingly lacking in flavor, but the seabass with monk fish liver and ponzu sauce was certainly not want for it. The liver might be a little strong for some, but the semi-sweet ponzu sauce was one of the best sauces I’ve tried and compelled me to lick small dish it came on clean. The waitress brought us tofu instead of black cod in miso sauce, and the tofu was just OK. With a beer and a large sake the total was $90 and we were hungry enough for ice cream afterwards. Still, I think I’ll be compelled to pay too much for a small meal here again.

UPDATE 06/03/2007:
I’ve been back twice since my first review, and am a little less awed. I’ve discovered some great new dishes, but also had a few too many disappointing ones. The beef tongue continues to astound, but a few of the white fishes have been a little too bland and leave me saying “hmm, interesting”, more than “mmm, terrific”. The mogwort tofu was an interesting green with a strange gooey texture, but also somewhat bland. The duck mango was very tasty, with a great sweet sauce and really tasty, though not tremendous duck. The green tea chicken was also tasty, though the chicken breast was a little dry and the green tea bread crumb crust was good, but not better than one might expect for a crust like this. The cod and daikon was very very good though. It was soft, fatty, and slightly sweet. Much better than some of the other white fishes.

I think if I can really nail down what I do/will like and not get many more “hmm” dishes, then Kappo NamiNami can be worth going back to for the price. But its disappointing that it might take a bunch more ho-hum dishes to get there.