Latifa S.
Yelp
Beautiful experience!!
There are restaurant meals and there are experiences. Both of which involve food, amazing food even made from quality products, beautiful settings, skillsets in making intricate dishes using variety of tasty morsels. Be it a fine dining restaurant with beautiful white linens all around or that one tiny hut on the dirt road you found in the middle of Thira that uses fire pit to cook everything. Or maybe that one place on sukumvit in Thailand because they make the best seafood meals past wee hours using one pot while you save your feet from getting run over by the tuks tuks. Memorable meals always consist of unique experiences. And this place: this place definitely made my top twenty.
Everything was beautiful from start to finish. The charm of this wonderful secluded town , amazing people at the front desk or the beautiful, charming inn itself and locally source food and wine pairing all came together in making that one perfect evening. Getting here was a hassle with the ferry being overbooked and sold out but once I reached here, I was at complete ease. Made it right on time for our seven pm dinner. Even had enough time to explore and take pictures around the inn.
Reception: champagne reception in the front garden was charming and set the tone of the evening. A beautiful one at that. Once you are inside: dinner start promptly at 7 pm. We were seated by the entrance and windows overlooking the garden. Dinning room was right next to the open kitchen. One can see, smell, feel and be part of the unique meal! They have two different wine pairings: chef pairing is $95 extra but comes with 5 tastings and an option to revisit any wine you chose. Or the $55 for three tastings. You can also choose to do bottles of red, white, champagne or rose from their extensive list of wine. I wanted something light, pink and French but dry. My maître de brought me exactly what I want in a beautiful bottle. it was a perfectly dry rose!
On to the dinner portion: we started with many beautiful things. There were beet salad and goat cheese made into magical little bites. Manhattan ~ the drink injected into a cherry. French onion soup in a bite size dough like ball, raviolo in edible film. All so beautiful!
My favorite~ artichoke custard with fresh caught Dungeness crab and chicken skin. Made to perfection. It is sweet, savory, crunchy, soft, crispy, rich and all kinds of amazing.
Had over 9 courses of beautiful things. I ooh and ahh to most of them. Chef came out and explained to us what we were eating. He even brought the wine bottles and such. It was a four person run dinner for 18 lucky guests. Attention to details feel that much more intensified. One can taste the love in these dishes!! And yet, its word of mouth only place. And cutting off the decorative balls to serve as the dessert? Magic.
All in all, it definitely was a beautiful experience for me. Everything from the little name cards t tiny radish, clams, lamb loins, trio of fun and grandmas purse were perfect. Food is important part of our lives. I'm a little more obsessive in the sense that I can not share a meal with people I don't enjoy. I also will skip a meal that I am not thrill about and drink coffee instead. Because, it is better to feel hungry and be full on mediocre food. This place however gave me the most beautiful food, amazing service and one incredible evening. So much so that I ate every bite!! Never thought it could happens. But it did :) Thanks Chef, staff and everyone! Thanks for a beautiful evening!!! Can't wait to return.