Father's Day dinner

Both my dad and I were out of town for Father's Day (me in Vegas, Dad in Orlando), so we did a make-up dinner last night at 231 Ellsworth, in downtown San Mateo. I'd never been before, but they recently started doing a $44 three-course prix fixe, which sounded like a good opportunity to check it out.

We got off to a good start, with cute muffin-shaped bread, served with butter that had black sea salt on top:


Next we were given two amuse bouches: a salmon tartare with avocado sauce (okay but not that exciting) and a basil soup fried in a breadcrumb shell. The basil soup was quite good; it was very flavorful (obviously made from fresh basil) and when I bit into the shell it "popped" and the soup came oozing out, nice and hot:



For the appetizer course, I chose the crab cake (not bad, with generous chunks of crab) and D chose the gazpacho (fairly good, but I preferred the yellow tomato soup last weekend at Mon Ami Gabi):



There were three entree choices: chicken, beef, and salmon. We managed to cover all the bases among the five of us:




I myself had the chicken, which was tender and juicy but not all that flavorful. I was actually more impressed with the mushroom bread pudding which accompanied it.

There were also three dessert options: chocolate pudding cake, strawberry souffle, and coffee creme brulee. We all ordered either the cake or the creme brulee, so I can't comment on the souffle, but I thought both desserts were mediocre. I expected the pudding cake to be more "pudding-y" and the creme brulee to be more "coffee-y":



The petit fours were strawberry biscuits, tiny brownies, and madeleines. I liked the madeleines best:


As we enjoyed our desserts, we were treated to complimentary champagne, since I had informed the maitre d' that we were belatedly celebrating Father's Day. That was a nice surprise to end to the evening, and I tipped accordingly.