Navio

Saturday, October 27, 2007
Birthday dinner with Lowell

Navio is the restaurant at the Ritz-Carlton at Half Moon Bay, super nice, wonderful views of the cliffs and ocean during the day, and I hear it's wonderful for drinks. But I was lucky enough to go for dinner.

We thought about the $105 tasting menu, which looked just fantastic. There were a few things on the tasting menu which weren't available on the regular menu, like the butter poached lobster. But there was enough to try on the regular. I started with a pumpkin soup over creme fraiche and chestnuts. Lowell had a prawn appetizer - some over a sauce and over fennel salad with the heads fried. I liked the fried shrimp heads, but Lowell said the prawns were just ok.

Lowell had beef short ribs, which looked quite holiday festive with dark green kale and pomagranate seeds. Really soft and good. I had a fantastic pork loin with globe artichokes and potato. The sides of brussel sprouts with bacon and exotic mushrooms were good.

We both thought that the food was good but we've had better, especially for the price. Then we got dessert, which made up for everything. First, the waiter brought us a plate with a small box of truffles with Happy Birthday written in chocolate and a candle because he had asked what the occasion was at the beginning of the meal. We split two desserts. The "biscuit au chocolat" was basically a souffle (had to order 25 m in advance) and just heavenly that you dip in this crystallized salt trail. The pumpkin-coconut mousse with candied fruit and salty sorbet was awesome. They did an amazing job of combining the sweet and salty.

One Miramontes Point Road, Half Moon Bay, CA 94019
(650) 712-7000