I first set foot in Sly’s when I joined some friends on a quest of good cocktails, and not only did we find them, but we also stayed for the food.
Sly’s pedigree includes Lucky’s for upper-end steak and seafood, but that should not turn off an average diner with an average sized pocketbook from exploring what’s there…as long as you are fine with trekking over to Carpinteria.
The back room does have a feel of a finer dining experience, with its linen cloths, quiet atmosphere and patient yet attentive wait staff. But the front bar and bistro area is casual and comfortable. I really enjoyed sitting at the bar, even for eating.
And I mentioned that my first reason for coming here was for the cocktails. Sly’s cocktails are among my favorite in this area, especially for the classics, like a Manhattan, Gimlet, Negroni, gin and tonic?or Moscow Mule. The Manhattans are made with real Marasca cherries; they make their own tonic water for the G&Ts, and the Moscow Mule comes in its traditional copper mug. And the prices are good for this level of quality. The Moscow Mule I had on this night was $7. Ted got a shot of the exquisite Maker’s 46.
 
The real special I want to focus on, though, are their prix fixe dinners. The menu changes about every three weeks to a region of France, and I recently got a chance to sample it.
For my meal, the prix fixe was based on the regional cuisine of the Brittany coast, known for savory buckwheat crepes, cream, and salted butter.
The price for each is $35, for a starter, a main, and a dessert. For wine pairings, the price is $55. I had the meal only. I was in a group that enjoys trying as much as possible, so we managed to order almost everything off the menu.
Starter choices:
 
* Bisque of cepes (mushrooms)
* Oysters on the half shell (not pictured)
* Cassoulette of scallops and bay shrimp
Main dishes:
 
* Moules frites - mussels and french fries
* Sea Bass in green cabbage, with pilaf rice
* Rack of lamb, “Cocos.” Three lamb chops with white beans
Dessert choices:
* Special gateau Breton
* Crepes au caramel sale (crepes with salted caramel)
* Bittersweet chocolate mousse
* Ripe Camembert (not pictured)
  
I had the cassoulette, which came in a cream and white wine sauce, and drizzled with lobster sauce. A good-sized portion, and the sauce was great for dipping with their fresh baked crusty bread.
My rack of lamb was prepared medium rare, and the diner specifies its doneness. It comes with a little wood toothpick labeled with the correct doneness. They’ll prepare it, or steak, well done if you desire, and not give you grief on that choice. But if you ask for their recommendation, the suggestion is medium, to medium rare. The dish came with the white beans, as listed. They were tender cooked flageolets. Also, fresh crisp-tender green beans with a light cream sauce.
I selected the special Breton cake for dessert, as I’d never heard of it before and didn’t expect to see anything like it elsewhere around town. The dough is rolled and folded, in a style similar to puff pastry, and layered in between with sugar and butter. If you can imagine a cake made mostly of butter and sugar, held successfully together by a little flour and egg, this is it. Baked as a pancake, the bottom was quite dense and needed a knife at times to cut it into bite size pieces and tastes sweet, slightly salty with a buttery chewy texture.
The salt in the caramel had one friend enjoying her crepes, saying it was very flavorful and not cloyingly sweet. And the bittersweet chocolate mousse was so rich and dense that it went a long way, even shared between several people.
The Brittany menu is wrapping up soon, and may have already completed. That is okay, because the next prix fixe is going to specialize in the cuisine of Provence!
 
Past visits.
Sly’s
686 Linden Ave
Carpinteria, CA 93013
www.slysonline.com
Lunch downtown during the workweek is now a rare occurrence. But given the opportunity, I’ll take it! This time we went to Elements, a restaurant and bar I have little experience with. The last time I dined at that location, it was a little bakery, and a chocolate croissant was a real treat after spending an afternoon in book bliss at the library.
The first thing I noticed at Elements was a prix fixe lunch special; three courses for $20. It sounded expensive at first, but most lunch sandwiches or burritos can easily cost $10, so adding in a soup or salad and a dessert, the price becomes reasonable. Then I started reading the food descriptions. Greens from Shepherd Farm, almonds from Fat Uncle Farms…these are all local companies I see at the farmers market. Sold.
I started with a simple green salad with avocado and vinaigrette. The other option was tomato soup. No complaints - the avocado was perfect and the salad was dressed nicely.
  
For my main course, I selected the fish and chips. It’s quite different from the typical fish and chips. The fish has a corn meal crust; the tangy coleslaw uses jalapeno and no mayonnaise. The tartar sauce is spicy and looks house made. Pots of ketchup and malt vinegar are also provided. It’s a lot of food! The fish pieces were sometimes a little crumbly, because the corn meal doesn’t bind together as well as traditional batter. Rather than dip the fish, it was sometimes easier to spread on condiments.
Other options were a grilled chicken sandwich or a vegetarian sandwich.
My dessert was a 50/50 of citrus fruit granita and ice cream, topped with whipped cream and crushed roasted almonds from Fat Uncle Farms - very enjoyable when the weather took a break from the June gloom.
My dining companion had a cup of French onion soup, and the Elements burger, “Santa Barbara style” with grilled onions, bacon, tomato and avocado. These were a la carte items from the menu, not part of the prix fixe options. Mmm, burgers.
 
The atmosphere of Elements is mellow and elegant. It’s perfect for business lunches, or a book club meet up. I hear there are good cocktails here, although I’ve never jived with the trend of calling drinks whatever-tini. I like a martini, or a vodka martini. Going into Bellini-tinis, Melon-tini, Pearfect-tini…maybe I’m just not trendy. But I do like innovative cocktails, why not put in another minute of creative thinking and come up with a better name. Anyway, if you’re happy hour inclined, their signature cocktail is usually just $5 for the first drink. That’s a great deal for being downtown with a view of our lovely courthouse and sunken gardens.
My final note: the lunch menu has gyros! Casual word on the street is that the gyro meat is also house made. I wasn’t able to try this for my lunch, but I’m very curious to learn more. The problem is that I probably won’t be in the area for a workweek lunch for a while. Anyone give them a try?
Elements
129 East Anapamu Street
Santa Barbara CA 93101
www.elementsrestaurantandbar.com
Some friends who are #1 fans of food brought us here for dinner on a Saturday night. We also got the prix fixe with assorted supplements.
Damn. It was my best meal in Portland. Tabla brought out the subtle purity of its ingredients and the wines paired well.
On the chalkboard near the front door is a list of all the local source companies that contributed to the menu. The chef went to the main farmers market that morning to pick up fresh items.
The 3 course dinner is a deal almost too good to be true. $24?? Even with maximum supplements (worth it), the food hardly goes higher than $35 and the smaller plates by no means left us hungry. In fact, I needed a small box to take a good portion of the 3rd course home.
But first! An amuse buche. Er, I don’t remember what it was! But trust me, we ate it happily.
I started with the trio of fish. Fresh crab, black cod and mackerel. It’s hard to say which was best, they were all standouts. The group did enjoy the combination of the mackerel with fresh apple slices, though. This dish had a $5 supplement, two at our table got it and everyone loved it.
2nd was the paglie e fieno. Paperthin, nearly transparent pasta with steamed manilla clams, shallot, white wine, house cured guanciale. The clams were sliced thin, allowing me to get a bit of the shellfish in every bite. The guanciale added some smokey umami. I liked it a lot, but it was essential to stir up the dish quickly upon the dish being set down because pasta was so thin it would stick together without constant lubrication of the sauce. A must for clam lovers. I actually enjoyed the black pepper fettuccini with cauliflower cream and aged balsamic that someone else at the table ordered, but that is because I am a bigger fan of balsamic and cauliflower than I am of clams.
 
My main was grilled coulotte steak with garlic cream, beluga lentils, sylvetta arugula, and horseradish salt. With a $3 supplement. The beef was cooked exactly to my specifications, somewhere between medium and medium rare. Loved the lentils, which were dainty and creamy. I was told they have hard cooked egg yolk mixed in to attain that creamy texture.
 
Elsewhere on the table: baby octopus (above), two kinds of pasta (below), and duck confit (far below).
 
I don’t recall the wines we had, but it was two bottles on Tabla’s recommendations. The first was a wine that was delicious with the table olives. And btw, the olives were great, too. Three distinct flavors for the green, purple and black olives. Yum. I should have dipped the bread from Pearl Bakery into the olive bowl, but completely forgot - there was enough food on the table to keep me occupied.
The second wine was a red for the meal.
 
For dessert, I wanted to skip. I was too full. But our group of four decided to share one dish. The one with chevre in a cheesecake, and we picked it because we did not want something overly sweet. For that, we had a small glass of dessert wine, I was told it was local and prepared to the effect of eiswein. Sweet, but not cloying. A favorite beverage of the night!
With all the alcohol consumed (LOTS), the tab did add up. But the prix fixe with moderate supplement and a good glass of wine for under $50 is outstanding value for the quality of food that you can either study and discuss with the staff or simply stuff in your gob.
Tabla (NE)
200 NE 28th Ave
Portland, OR 97232
www.tabla-restaurant.com
Much disappointment. 2.5 stars, if I could give halves.
Red Square was the perfect example of the facade that is Las Vegas. Beautiful themed ambiance, with little substance to back it up.
The menu has pages upon pages of cocktails, and on the surface it appears impressive. But read the descriptions, and it reveals cheap ingredients.
Moskovskaya vodka is listed in several drinks. Sounds impressive? It’s that $8 bottle from Trader Joe’s. You can have a shot of it in a cocktail here for $13. Worth it? Depends on how much you value the cocktail over the 10 seconds of the guy pouring it with great flourish into a pyramid of glasses.
I lost count of the number of cocktails using Sierra Mist.
We got the tasting menu, at $65 each +$10 for foie gras. The food was good, but overshadowed (pun intended) by such a dark interior we could hardly see it. Dark restaurants don’t do service to the dishes, it makes me think there’s something to hide about the food.
The most our server could offer up by way of describing the dishes and highlighting its best qualities was to say the plating was “really cool, huh.”
 
We both received an amuse buche of caviar and creme fraiche in a cookie. It was fine. The breads we got with our food, honestly, was the best part of the meal. Wish we’d taken home the leftovers.
 
My foie gras appetizer was not photogenic. Instead you get T’s fried calamari. How Russian is that, I wonder. We both received a good salad plate. No complaints about that.
 
For our main courses we had the beef stroganoff, not easily identifiable under the crunchy sticks, and a steak with blue cheese and mash potatoes. Lots of blue cheese. Too much! I had to scrape most of it off.
 
 
We were both given a small glass containing sorbet and vodka, to cleanse the palate. It was good.
Dessert was strawberries and cream, with a very fancy looking cookie, and creme brulee with very non-crunchy burnt sugar. Sigh.
We shared a cocktail, supposedly Russian, but not memorable. I can’t even remember what it was.
My feeling is that Red Square doesn’t appreciate its own food. And we walked out, $200 poorer, feeling the same.
The house won this time.
ps. no restrooms. There are hotel restrooms outside, around the corner, by a fountain.
Photos by Ted Mills.
Red Square
Mandalay Bay Hotel
3950 Las Vegas Blvd S
Las Vegas, NV 89119
www.mandalaybay.com
 
My visits here have petered out some, once I started working in the sticks of Goleta and PV stopped serving lunch on weekends, but there have been some occasions in the evenings that I’ve found myself in the area and hankering for a nibble. PV does not disappoint.
Like one night, my friend and I were cold and rather than walk to the car for a jacket, we ran into PV, sat at the bar, and shared a drink and a small plate of smoked salmon, red onions and capers. Better than a jacket! Until we got back outside, but, well, happy tummies.
Or recently we stopped in for the Sunday supper. The weekend had been full of gluttonous dining, but there was KOBE HANGER STEAK on the prix fixe menu. My father was raised on hanger steak and still pines away for it. It’s not commonly available and boy is it good when cooked just right. The price I’ve paid for the raw material isn’t much different to the full price of the whole four course dinner here, so are we going to turn down this opportunity? HELL NO.
1st Course: Two prawns cooked in shellfish broth, served with lobster oil and black tea. I’ve had this before, it has a decadent smokey flavor with a little spice in the oil.
2nd Course: Salad of shaved fennel, mushrooms and parmesan. I’m really enjoying fennel this season, so this was yet another good dish with a delicate licorice crunch.
 
3rd Course: three options were available, and we selected the Kobe hanger steak, medium rare. And the duck confit, with a dark cherry sauce. Was it good? YES. Was it more than we could eat? YES. Am I still thinking about it? YES.
 
4th Course: Dessert of vanilla ice cream, espresso and whipped cream, each in its own container. The ice cream had a plump blackberry on it, too. It was a playground of dessert and I could dabble in each, or dump it all together.
Price: $23.50 plus tax and tip.
Really fabulous recession special.
I also love that the staff do not rush the courses. I am dining, not gobbling. I like to talk to my dining companions and I like to ask questions about the food. My service is never slow.
One problem: Y’ALL aren’t eating there. Lately, I’ve noticed an older crowd. With age comes experience - they know a good deal when they see one.
Past musings:
1 July 2009
4 June 2009
21 January 2009
4 November, 2007
Petit Valentien
1114 State St
Santa Barbara, CA 93190
Passing through Little Italy, and wasn’t in the mood to eat at a place heaving with people. This seemed as good as any.
The prix fixe lunch was $12.95, I got a penne with mozz, basil and eggplant to start. Moved onto the basa, a white fish in white wine sauce, and vegetables. Very filling, totally decent.
My dining companion got the cold antipasti, $15, and two glasses of wine. No complaints.
 
 
Top: Cynthia’s wine, on left. Penne with mozzarella, basil and eggplant, on left.
Bottom: Basa fish, and veg, on left. Antipasti and cleavage, on right.
Service was attentive and friendly, they went out of their way to seat me at the outdoor table I wanted. It was worth the 20% service charge they added on, and it was good I saw it on the bill, so there was no need to add another tip on the credit card slip.
Bonus: maybe they didn’t see me waiting for the restroom down in the lower floor. But I got a preview of my waiter preparing to strip out of his work clothes. We made eye contact, which stopped him mid belt-buckle, but since it made me laugh, he laughed it off and did a little dance. Didn’t have a dollar on me to tuck into his skivvies - consider it added to the service charge.
Grotta Azzurra Restaurant
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