I had a vendor dinner tonight with two people I happen to really like. After our meeting, we popped online to OpenTable to see what was available.
Of course, since it was a Wednesday night, we had quite a few choices, and JH said he'd like to try Ponzu. I hadn't been there for anything but drinks, so off we went.
Ponzu has an "Asian-inspired" menu with most items tipping their hats to Vietnamese, Japanese and even Indian cuisines. Because of that, we ordered a bottle of Praxis Lodi Viognier '02 ($35). The Praxis is a great example of this grape which can so often be cloying and offensive. It's loaded with honeysuckle and stone fruit on the nose, crisp acidity and the faintest hint of spice on the palate, and a long, clean finish.
We were brought a small basket of shrimp chips and poori, which were fine. To start, we ordered the Garlic Naan Bread ($7) and Chicken Spring Rolls ($9) to share.
The naan was well-flavored, but too pasty inside with not enough tasty burned bits (I don't think they used a wood-burning oven). The accompanying spiced pear chutney was very good, however, and I kept that for our next course. The spring rolls were crisp and not greasy, but bland. There was no seasoning on the filling (which appeared to be 100% shredded chicken), but when wrapped in the butter lettuce, basil and mint, and dipped in the sweet chile sauce, the rolls came to life.
