Had a really lovely dinner at Postrio last night... but it wasn't what I expected. I suppose for the price, and for all the hype, I expected something really superior. Anyway, here's the rundown:
Wine was a '99 Merlot (!) from BR Cohn. I like this winery a lot, but am not really a Merlot drinker. However, my dining companion was, so I was looking for a nice Meritage or Bordeaux in the wine bible (yes, it WAS a wine bible - must have weighed 3 lbs - and that's BEFORE they put the copper cover on it!).
Anyway, our server (who was phenomenal, btw - more on that later) steered us towards the BR Cohn. I hesitated but, fine... when he brought it, I was blown away at how beautifully mature it was. It didn't even need to breathe, it was so ready.
Lovely tannins, rounded out and softened by the time spent in the bottle, with a richness and complexity not characteristic of Merlot. Fairly fruit forward, but not cloyingly so - long finish that was fairly straightforward. Lovely.
So, more about the waiter. This guy, he LOVES what he does. He's passionate about the food, and the wine, and the creative artistry of the chef. Either that, or he's a damn good actor. He was gesticulating wildly while describing the specials, his eyes half-closed as if he was recalling his own sampling of the special. At the end, he said, "the chef has outdone himself tonight"... without a hint of falseness. I suppose that to a certain degree, HE is part of what you pay for at a place like Postrio.
Our Amuse Bouche might have been the best part of the meal... sweet corn soup with crab-essence oil. Holy cow. I wanted a whole bowl of the stuff. The corn flavor was SO perfect - God love summer - and the slight drizzle of oil served as a lovely counterpoint to the creaminess of the soup. At a restaurant of this caliber, I do NOT generally sop up the juices with bread, but with this soup, how could I NOT?
We shared an appetizer of ahi tuna tartare - not so adventurous, but always nice to see how a restaurant handles the staples. This was beautiful ahi, served with a tomato confiture, lovely ciabatta-style toasts brushed with a green oil - was it cilantro? I can't remember. a demi-tasse spoon of an aioli was served in the tuna to add as one wished.
This dish was really wonderful. The complexity of flavors in the tomato confiture (can I get this for my morning TOAST? Yes, it was THAT sweet) were amazing. The tartare itself was really lovely, well-balanced flavors, etc. The toast points were great - so often, bread overwhelms the "star" of the dish, or otherwise doesn't compliment it. They got these VERY right.
For mains, I had the lamb chop, my colleagues had the rib-eye.
Lamb was good - not great. It was great lamb, and it was cooked beautifully. But the feta/kalamata brine/fava thing didn't seem to work so well. It was too many tart/salty tastes together, and the delicate fava beans were completely overwhelmed.
The rib-eye was, well, as good as any properly cooked niman ranch ribeye I've had. It came with a rosemary compound butter, which seemed rather pedestrian to me. the grilled zebra (I think) tom was good, but I've had better tomatoes at the farmer's market in the past week. I didn't get to try the veggies on the plate, but colleagues seemed to like them.
Finally, dessert was VERY good. I had the chocolate brioche french toast, which was really rich and wonderful. I didn't care for the maple-cinnamon ice cream it came with since I couldn't taste the maple... I actually asked for a small scoop of the ricotta ice cream that was being served with another dessert, and that, my friends, was heavenly. Must have been 80% butterfat, delightful lemony tang... nummy.
Colleague's peach & cherry crisp/cobbler thing was also very good - though I only got one stab at a cherry.
By my estimation, dinner before tax and tip would have been around $170 or so. Not egregiously expensive, but still, for the money, I would have expected the entrees to shine.
