Fat Kid Adventure #118: Manresa (Los Gatos)

So I've been putting yall onto the dive game for a minute, but a while back when life wasn't so broke we were chillin' at some pretty fancy-with-a-side-of-schmancy joints. Back in December, for our 17th monthliversary, we dined at Manresa in Los Gatos. It holds a 2-star Michelin rating (it's out of 3) for its American and Spanish basque-inspired fusion style, and its executive chef, David Kinch, recently beat Bobby Flay on Iron Chef. That right there should say something about this joint.

Located in the heart of Los Gatos, but off the main strip, Manresa is tucked away on a tiny, quiet street. We went at night, so I didn't take note of the outermost architecture, but the inside is very elegant and prim-n-proper. Our host brought us to our table, and sitting there was a welcome card - how nice!

If you do visit Manresa, keep in mind that you are going for an experience and not for a meal, because if you are looking to get stuffed you may be disappointed. What's this experience? Well, it involves the sight, smell, and taste - the art of the plating and the story that it tells, the smell of the dish and the ingredients being used, and the taste of the small, exquisite concoctions. Since the servings are very small and unique, one should really take time to taste slowly so as to really appreciate the taste and possibly the painstaking creation of each course. And of course, you're paying big bucks for this experience - half a grand for dinner can make anyone sad.

One special feature about Manresa is its seasonal menu, which means what I'm about to describe may not apply to your experience. Each seasonal menu has a theme, and every dish is created with that theme in mind.

Onto the food! So we decided on the tasting menu, which is a ginormous 16 courses. They are as follows:

Appetizers
1. petit fours "red pepper - black olive"
2. garden beignets, vinegar powder
3. horchata and lightly toasted parsnips
4. oyster with sea urchin, nori croustillant
5. arpege farm egg

Entrees
1. Japanese sea bream sashimi with olive oil and chives
2. butternut squash veloute, naturtium ice cream
3. "into the vegetable garden"
4. autumn tidal pool
5. roasted black rod, clam vinaigrette and a brown butter emulsion
6. roast squab with chestnuts, artichoke
7. beef bavette in its own fat, parsley roots and yellow foot mushrooms

Desserts
1. red beet cloud cake with mandarin sorbet, coconut granite
2. meyer lemon vacherin with almond biscuit, dried apricot
3. moscavado sugar custard, salted butter ice cream, banana
4. petit fours "strawberry - chocolate"

Look at that crazy ass menu - there are so many vocabs... The meal lasted over 3 hours, and it opened and ended with the petit fours. They are gummy candy-esque tasties which whet the appetite and also refreshens the pallette.

This note is long enough, so I will just mention one of each category that is most memorable.

For the appetizers, the oyster with sea urchin was a very unexpected dish. The sea urchin sat as a orange paste atop the raw oyster which sat on a bed of sea salt. It reminded us of roe on sushi, but it tasted more moist and compact. The oyster was a very cold and jelly sensation, in perfect contrast with the texture of the sea urchin but at the same time in seafoody harmony.

For the entree, the "into the vegetable garden" was the most unique. As a matter of fact, this is almost like the star dish at the restaurant at the time. I do not remember the ingredients that well, but the plating essentially brought out the essence of the Manresa garden (also in Los Gatos), which is where the restaurant grows and harvests its own fresh ingredients for every meal. The plate included leaves, flowers, fruits, vegetables, and dirt. Of course the dirt is not literal; it is based on roasted chicory root and dried potatoes. It presents a very interesting semi-dry and particular texture, that makes you think wow this is some good tasting... dirt. Sounds weird to say, but the recreation of dirt is unexpected and difficult. However, the point is driven home - every component of the dish was from the garden and portrays an aspect of the garden.

Now to be fair to the rest of entrees, every single one was very special in both presentation as well as serving style. For example, the butternut squash veloute with nasturtium ice cream involved the ice cream being brought out first and then the butternut squash soup was pour gently on and then around the ice cream to semi-melt it to create a very nice soup with great temporal and textural contrast. The rest were just great on the taste buds and pleasing to the eyes. Moving on!

Finally for the dessert, we enjoyed the vacherin (a type of cow's milk cheese). Its presentation was quite special as it was kind of busy. The color contrast between the dried apricots, the cheese, the lemon slices, and the almond biscuit was pretty wild and interesting, not to mention the shapes that these things came in. Anyway - definitely worth looking forward to!

The service was fantastic overall - very attentive staff that really knows how to take care of you. For example, we had a questiona bout how the top of the egg shell for the arpege farm egg dish was so nicely take off, our host actually went back to the kitchen and brought out the tool and explained it in detail. It was apparently a custom-made tool inspired from some random trip the chef went on. Anyway, I thought that was pretty cool.

At the end of the night, we asked for a copy of the menu for keepsake, the host returned with two envelopes containing the tasting menu, personally signed by the chef, the great David Kinch, himself. Awesome! :D

In summary, go with an open heart and lots of money, and don't treat this place like a restaurant but rather an adventure. You will have a wonderful time!

If you want some visuals, visit this blog entry (http://tangbro1.blogspot.com/2008/11/manresa-11222008.html) - this guy had a similar experience there!

http://www.yelp.com/biz/manresa-restaurant-los-gatos
http://www.manresarestaurant.com/