other weekend eats

On Friday, we went to dinner at Spruce with some friends. When I was in high school, I used to park my car at the UCSF Laurel Heights campus, so it was kind of nostalgic walking around that area before dinner.

Anyway, onto the food...

The meal started with some gougeres. They were tasty enough but I think I've had better recently. Either that or I just like cheesier gougeres:


For appetizers, we split some charcuterie, a couple plates of sweet corn and squash ravioli, and some duck fat potatoes:



The potatoes are not pictured, but they looked like fried potatoes, and were good, but I'm not sure I could tell that they were fried in duck fat, just from eating them. The ravioli was fine but I liked the charcuterie best, especially the thin sliced meats and the rabbit pate.

For my entree I ordered the "charred Berkshire pork tenderloin, crispy pork belly, shelling beans":


Surprisingly, I liked the tenderloin better than the pork belly. The tenderloin was delicately flavorful and tender, whereas the pork belly was almost too fatty for me. The crispy skin was good, though. The beans were fine but unremarkable.

D had the "honey lacquered duck breast, cinnamon spiced foie gras, radicchio & orange":


The duck breast was yummy and all of our friends thought the foie gras was amazing (just slightly crunchy on the outside) but I still liked my pork better.

One of our friends had invited us for dessert and coffee at their loft afterwards, so we skipped having dessert at the restaurant, but did have some petit fours:


I liked the raspberry gelee much more than the coconut meringues, but others at the table preferred the coconut, so we easily polished off the plate.

Overall, I liked the decor (modern and understated) and the service (subtle but attentive). The food was fairly good and I would go back if I were in the area, but I wouldn't fight traffic on a Friday night to eat there on purpose.

On Saturday, some friends and I hosted a brunch for a couple who is expecting their second baby. We thought it would be fun to do something low-key rather than a full-blown "shower" type event. We chose the Three Degrees Restaurant, inside of the Toll House Hotel in Los Gatos.

Three Degrees has a really good weekend brunch deal; $21 for three courses (breakfast pastries, appetizer, entree, and chocolate fountain for dessert), including unlimited champagne. We chose that option for the group, but substituted the cake-cutting fee for dessert. We also booked their private dining room; they have a nice one in the back of the restaurant that can probably fit up to about 25 people.

Each person could choose one of two appetizers, the "antipasto platter" or the "seafood plank":



Both were good, but I was more impressed with the serving size of the antipasto. I'd also eaten two pastries so at this point I was starting to worry I'd be too full for dessert.

There were lots of great entree choices, including: smoked salmon bruschetta, flank steak and eggs, cajun chicken omelette, corned beef hash, breakfast tacos, and more. I myself saw the first item: "blueberry white chocolate pancakes", and stopped there. The pancakes were yummy and all but I was disappointed the white chocolate wasn't in chunks; I think they had melted it and incorporated it into the batter.

D ordered the crab benedict, and those were very good indeed, with plenty of crab meat:


Another interesting dish which several people ordered was a sampler, with quail eggs benedict, toast brioche, seared pork belly, and fried potatoes:


I thought the food was quite good and the portions were extremely generous; I took home a non-trivial amount of food, even after D had some. I think if I have occasion to be in Los Gatos on a weekend morning, I will be tempted to stop by again, especially for the $21 price.

I ordered the chocolate and raspberry cake from the nearby Icing on the Cake:


The cake itself was moist and delicious, and I liked it very much, although the frosting was on the sweet side. Afterwards we stopped by the bakery again and I bought a piece of almond poppyseed loaf (okay, slightly too almond extract-y) and a piece of banana walnut loaf (delicious!), as well as a "pecan brownie chunker" cookie (also good).

Afterwards, several of us walked around downtown Los Gatos for a few hours. We browsed some high-end home & garden shops, got some gelato at Dolce Spazio (mango raspberry sorbetto, very good), watched people at the wine festival, and I bought some chocolate from Fleur de Cocoa (which I've yet to eat, but it smells delicious).