Allen F.
Yelp
On April 11, my wife and I along with dear friends went to Talavera in the Four Seasons hotel. TL;DR, it was fabulously adequate.
I debated about writing this review because I have refrained from writing any negative reviews of restaurants in light of their suffering during the pandemic. That said, the Four Seasons is a 'big boy' and should be able to handle my basically irrelevant critique.
Let's start with the restaurant itself. Its singular claim to fame is the view. It is absolutely lovely and as they say, location is everything. Unfortunately, while the view is spectacular the rest of the restaurant is stuck somewhere in the mid nineties. It badly needs a facelift. Heavy wood everywhere, uncomfortable seating. Even the bathrooms felt dated. There are too many cool restaurant concepts in town to justify this decor.
Service, as with everything else was adequate. The waiter seemed to know the menu but was quite aloof. His assistant however was quite pleasant and the food arrived in a timely manner. Again, absolutely nothing wrong with the service but nothing special either, particularly for a quiet Monday night where they had been advised that we were celebrating a 30th anniversary (yeah, wife is a saint).
So let's talk food. I really like it no matter the level of dining. I love the pizza at Yo Pauly, a joint. I love the gyros at Gyros Plus, a Greek joint and a perfectly prepared baked potato with some bacon bits, cheddar cheese and sour cream is a slice of heaven. I'm not a snob.
But ... if I'm going to spend the kind of money required to eat at Talavera, I expect a truly special experience.
For appetizers, we ordered the Lobster Tostadas. What could be bad about lobster on a cracker? Apparently nothing but the chef decided to smother the star ingredient pretty much hiding it from the palate. I should have read the menu more carefully and noticed the number of ingredients which included aji amarillo, mango, avocado, salmon egg and pickled red onion. Talk about burying the lead. This seemed like an amateur mistake but apparently its been on the menu for a while.
Next, we had the grilled octopus. I'm not a huge octopus fan but my wife loves the stuff. Her comments were that the octopus was nicely cooked but that's all she tasted. Kind of the opposite of the lobster tostada.
For my entree, I had the special, a braised lamb shank. Braising just about any meat is my favorite preparation and I simply adore lamb. While I wasn't disappointed in the dish, I've had better versions in several restaurants at far lower price points. The lamb was tender and the braising liquid was reasonably flavorful although I thought the portion a bit small.
Now here's where I get cranky. My wife ordered the Talavera Paella. While not a general food snob, when it comes to certain dishes, I am seriously picky, especially regarding a dish that I've spent years perfecting at home.
In Spanish, paella means frying pan. When you make paella, one of the most important techniques is ensuring that where the pan meets the rice and other ingredients, a crispy caramelized crust forms. It's called the socarrat (usually pronounced either socret or sofret). Note that I said caramelized, not burnt.
While the seafood in the dish was pleasant, the socarrat was simply burnt rice and it was pretty unpleasant. What I couldn't understand was why the rest of the rice in the dish seemed fine.
After doing a bit of research, I suspect that the rice is precooked and then stored in the refrigerator. When they need to make a paella, they take the cold rice and put it in the pan. In order to bring the rest of the dish up to temperature, they end up burning the rice on the bottom.
The bottom line is that Talavera is trading on its location, in the Four Seasons and at the base of Pinnacle Peak, for its pricing. As I started this review, it is fabulously adequate and that simply doesn't justify the pricing. If I return, it would be after dinner elsewhere for drinks at the neighboring bar that has a similar view.