Tag: Napa

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Bouchon

We tried this restaurant after visiting Artesa winery in Napa. Note that it took a friend one month to get a reservation! (Also it’s a Michelin star restaurant.

For drinks, got the brut rose and a lemon drop. Both drinks were good (what not amazingly special).

For appetizers, we got the pate, tartare, escargot and deviled eggs. I actually liked all of it.

For the main, got the salmon. Probably shouldn’t have asked for it to be super well done, but still I enjoyed it (also like the cous cous it came with). I did try the steak from someone else. I thought it was too salty.

Bouchon also has a bakery beside it. I got the chocolate macaron, and gotta say, it was the best macaron I’ve ever had! The brownie from there is also good.

In short, I would definitely go back to the bakery. The restaurant I would eat again at, but wouldn’t go out of my way to make a reservation a month in advance.

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Castello do Amorosa

I’ve been to the winary several times, and it’s a great place to bring people who are visiting San Francisco.

This time around I did not do the tour, but the tour is pretty interesting if you have not done it before.

For the wines, everything listed below is what I drank, except for the moscato. Instead, it was recommended that I try the La Fantasia. And I will admit, it was a good choice (and I actually grabbed a bottle. Also, the last chocolate (the red heart shaped one) goes really well with it since it is the sweetest chocolate. (As an aside, the free chocolates on the top left of the picture tasted really bad compared to the paid ones).

Also, an interesting piece of info is that if you don’t want to do the tasting, but you want to enter, you can pay $20 (instead of $30) if you “forget” your ID.

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V. Sattui

I’ve gotta say this winery is pretty interesting. You can go and picnic (of course you can only eat the food you buy there), and the wine tasting is only $20 (plus 5 if you’re doing the chocolate pairing).

So for food, I got the Alejandro pizza. This pizza was very cheesy (and didn’t have tomato sauce). I liked it, but really could only eat half of it because it was so cheesy.

For the wines, I got two white and 3 reds (I basically tried to choose the most expensive ones). For white, it got the Sauvignon bland and the Chardonnay from Carsi vineyard. For the reds, I got the Zin from Black-sears, the Cab from Morisoli vineyard, and the either the Merlot or Syrah. The only thing I can recall that was interesting is that the Sauvignon blanc was sweeter than others I’ve had (which I enjoyed).

For the chocolate pairing, they only go with the red wines.

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Gotta Roadside

We stopped by this place for dinner on the way back from Napa.

Overall, food was good. I got the cheeseburger with cheese fries. It was a great combo.

Also, I liked the vibe since it was outside, and they had space heaters (and they do serve wine and beer).

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Seiya

First restaurant I’ve eaten at in San Carlos, and it was good (but not cheap).

To start, I got the Apprentice sake sampler. To be honest, I don’t think I actually noticed any difference between the three sakes (and I still like the cloudier ones better. These ones were all clear). I do like how it was presented, and the wooden cups did add to the experience (they were surprisingly light and added to the taste).

We got the sashimi salad, which is a great deal (since you get like 8 pieces of sashimi for $17, compared to an order of 8 pieces of sashimi, which costs $32).

We also tried the soft shell crab and chicken karaage (which was actually cooked just right – not too crispy. Perhaps its the batter they used that was good).

For the rolls, we got the Jalapeño Hamachi (it’s pretty simple, and probably a California roll is even more complex), and the Great balls of fire (this one was really good. It was temperature hot and spicy. It had panko crusted spicy tuna roll with spicy mayo, unagi sauce scallions & tobiko).

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Peju

The Sauvignon blanc was ok, but not as good as the Rutherford Ranch Proprietor’s Selection Sauvignon Blanc. The Province, a mix of 3 reds and 2 whites, was really good.

The Carnival is a “French colombard”, which is a sweet white wine (although it’s not super sweet). It’s alright, but a bit light (and not as thick as the Sauvignon blanc).

The merlot is pretty thick, but a bit of a “darker” taste. Cyrene says it’s very “peppery”.

The Cabernet Sauvignon, although the most expensive in the tasting, was not actually my favorite. It was the thickest, and “darkest”.

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Rutherford Ranch

From the menu below, we got the Reserve and Chocolate tasting.

From the 4 wines, the first one was really good (Rutherford Ranch Proprietor’s Selection Sauvignon Blanc). It was sweeter than the usually Sauvignon blanc, but not too sweet.

In terms of the pairing, the second wine on the list was really good with the white strawberry chocolate.

The last wine was my least favorite (tasted very standard with other red wines).