Rhox introduced me to this place, which is only a couple min from where Stereo and I live right now.
But before I talk about it, I wanted to point out that probably my favorite restaurant in the world is a place called
Bistro Jeanty (careful clicking on this b/c annoying music spools up upon loading) in the Napa valley. It's this French restaurant that serves excellent yet still unpretentious comfort foods. They've got stuff like coq au vin, duck cassoulet, steak au poivre, etc.
I've tried a couple different dishes there, but after numerous visits, I pretty much order the same thing now every time -- tomato puff pastry soup and daube de boeuf, which is a simple beef stew over mashed potatoes, peas and carrots. You don't normally think about beef stew and get overly excited but damn it's the best beef stew in the entire world. I would rather eat that beef stew than pretty much any steak, and I've been to places like craftSteak, Delmonico's, Donovan's in La Jolla, Ruth's Chris, etc.
I never thought I'd find a place that has a beef stew to rival Bistro Jeanty's, but srsly,
Cafe Hiro's kobe beef osso bucco is DAMN close. The meat just falls apart when you poke it with a fork, and it's drenched in an awesome demi-glace over a bed of veggies. Plus you get rice to soak up all that sauce.
Now, this restaurant isn't overall better than Bistro Jeanty or anything. I wasn't particularly enthralled with either of the desserts I tried (pot de creme chocolat / green tea blanc mange), for example, and the free soup/salad you get with an entree are pretty pedestrian. But the "Jidori" chicken (basically...japanese style special fried chicken) appetizer was quite good, and for something that's basically a hidden neighborhood gem, this place is pretty great.
Message Edited by Kevorkian on
02-18-2007 11:01 AM
