Sharon received a gift certificate to Castagna for her birthday in August so we decided to go there for dinner last night on date night. There are two kitchens, one Cafe Castagna which is more of a bistro and then the formal kitchen that has received rave reviews and many awards. We didn't know this when we made the reservation so we ended up on the formal side. What an experience, I felt like I was in Japan again, eating all sorts of weird food. It also felt a little like Iron Chef. Here is what we ate:
First it started with three snacks:
1. Buttermilk puff with herbed essence paste (not the greatest);
2. Squid tentacles and body served in pork fat (really good);
3. Duck chip - duck roo cooked down (basically burnt duck broth) served on a rock with a leaf (chewy and crispy).
4. Rye seed bread rolls with pork fat or brown butter (really good).
After that we went on to our courses. On the menu there were 4 categories to choose one item in each.
Amanda's order off the menu:
1. Dungeness crab with raw sunchoke, brown butter, sea essence and anise oil. (this was really good, I even ate the roe).
2. Squash consomme with roasted spaghetti squash and fresh uni (not a great choice- uni is sea urchin roe which I knew when I ordered it. Sea urchin roe has a very strong flavor and while I did eat all of them, I would never eat them again).
3. Sole with onion skins and hearts, elephant garlic and hazelnuts (Excellent choice).
4. Pear poached in mead with pear sorbet, twigs and meringue (pretty good).
Sharon's order off the menu:
1. Cardoons cooked in tea with smoked sturgeon, spinach and walnuts (the smoke sturgeon description, per Sharon, is sturgeon ash. It was powdered sturgeon. Sharon liked it, I didn't like it).
2. Black truffles with wild apple, cress and celery root cooked in ash (this wasn't too bad).
3. Lamb with grilled chickory, groats, grasses, dill weed and yogurt (lamb was very yummy, groats were like seeds).
4. Chocolate in different textures with crystalized sunchokes and coconut sorbet (the chocolate pieces had a black licorice taste that Sharon didn't care for, the coconut sorbet was great).
All said and done we would probably never go to this side of the restaurant again mainly because of cost. Each dinner was $65, I guess you can order ala carte but we would have missed the whole experience. We did enjoy ourselves and reminicsed to our B.C. (before Cooper) days when we would go out to fancy dinners. It was great to spend quality time with my mate and we have a funny dinner story to tell now.
