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Tuesday, July 22, 2008

The French Laundry

Even though we decided to have a low budget trip, our friends C&K came up with an irresistible suggestion - to eat at Thomas Keller's restaurant - The French Laundry in the Napa Valley. We had a reservation for dinner on July 15th. It was still early when we arrived to the restaurant so we could explore the surroundings in daylight. They have a nice garden and the restaurant is very pleasant. Dagan was terrified the moment he found out he would have to wear a jacket and kept whining about it the whole evening(-: This was the tasting menu for the evening (click on image to enlarge it):First appetizer (not in the menu) were cones stuffed with cream cheese and minced salmon on top
Oysters and pearls, one of the best dishes on the menu
Beets salad
another choice was moulard duck foie gras
Dafi modeling the restaurant's trademark - clothes peg















and our polite waiter
Sashimi of atlantic fluke, lobster, quail and veal heart




















About half the courses were desserts: melon sorbet, chocolate mousse with popcorn ice cream, red berries cake, creme brulee




















Coffee cookies, chocolate covered macadamia nuts and other sweets










...and butter cookies to take home. Yummm...
After all that and 3 bottles of wine (not for Dafi...) we felt mellow, tired and satisfied!











The best part was finding out that the Relais e Chateaux vouchers we got as a goodbye present from our friends in Brazil were accepted at the restaurant and we didn't have to pay for the meal! It made everything even tastier(-: Thanks guys!

2 comments:

susi said...

What..? there was no mini grilled cheese sandwiches/chicken tikka ravioli?

Was it as spectacular as its reputation?

Dafi said...

It was definitely spectacular. It was a festival of colors, flavors and textures. Perfect presentation and service. I liked the more innovative courses, for example popcorn ice cream and there were more. Part of them were too obvious like salmon and cream cheese. With so many courses I guess part of them would always be less impressive. But nothing compares to salted doce de leite a-la-susi