Manresa

Reviews 3

AN

Annie Lin

Since I have a foodie friend who speaks highly of Manresa, I decided to make reservations here for me and my parents for my 23rd birthday. The restaurant is a little harder to find because it is in the alley way of a bank and looks like a small cottage, not a restaurant. I do love the ambience of the restaurant when you walk in as it has a classy, but homey feel- not to mention that the service is impeccable. However, the food was not as expected for the price. We ended up getting the October Manresa tasting menu w/ my friends recommendation. I personally prefer seasonal tasting menus since the menu consists of special ingredients - this time- it included on of my favorites, yuzu! I do like how the our waiter took his time to explain each of the ingredients to us - he was also very patient in answering questions for noobie foodies like my family and I. He had quite a sense of humor too, which definitely made our entire dining experience a lot more enjoyable :) After we ordered, the waiter brought out Manresa bread for us. For those of you that dont know, Manresa has a booth at the farmers market that sells their bread. I hadnt had the chance to try it out beforehand so I was excited - it definitely did not disappoint. I cant remember what they had... wheat bread, brioche, white bread, baguette.. all quite yummy and I love carbs! Who doesnt!! Hahah. I would normally go through every course of the meal, but its been a couple months so I wouldnt be able to describe each dish in detail. I do remember the meal starting out strong and ending weak. My favorite course of the meal was the oyster dish. It was an Alaskan oyster (I believe) served with meyer lemon and shiso leaf w/ yuzu. The oyster was perfectly shaped and placed on a big oyster-looking dish, haha! There was crushed ice on the oyster that chilled the oyster to a perfect temperature and slid into my mouth with ease. This was probably the highest point of the meal, and then everything went downhill/not as expected. I was most disappointed in the dessert, actually. It was thoughtful of Manresa to bring out a surprise small (more like tiny) chocolate cake w/ a candle for my birthday - thank you! However, each of the dessert plates that we tried - all were too sweet! The last dish was a Gouda ice cream w/ a chocolate cake w/ huckleberries - Manresa could have done a much better job with this but the flavors together were too sweet and too sour, nothing balanced out! However, I would like to mention that the wine pairings were perfect for each dish, and made each dish seem better in comparison to what it would have been without the pairings, the dessert wine especially :) Overall, I did enjoy my experience at Manresa but not primarily because of the food. I do believe the service and of course company made up the great experience. I wouldnt highly recommend it to others and probably wouldnt come again due to the high price but I do recommend that everyone try this place at least once! Rounding up to 4 stars.

DA

David Liang

Food: 4 Decor: 5 Service: 5 Michelin: ** My gf made a reservation here to celebrate my early birthday and anniversary. She requested my napkin be made into a dinosaur (stolen from Reddit), and lo and behold, there was a dinosaur napkin waiting for me when we were seated Since we had a large lunch in LA, we opted for the prix fixe (125 pp, ~8 courses) instead of the tasting (175 pp, ~10-12 courses). Sadly, I didnt see their famous egg or into the garden dishes on either :( 1. Garden beignets and crispy leaves ~Pretty good. 2. Tomatoes, barely cooked, flowering coriander ice ~Very good. Coriander ice worked surprisingly well with the tomatoes. 3. Summer clams, lightly smoked, tomato and lemon ice, savory granola ~Delicious. I have a sweet tooth, and the lemon worked beautifully with the tomato and clams. 4. Abalone and roasted sunchokes, seaweed persillade ~Pretty good, although I was surprised by the persillade texture. 5. Salmon marinated with herbs and citrus, beets ~Pretty good, although a bit of the salmon got stuck in my teeth. 6. Duck roasted in salt crust, fig, and wild fennel confit ~Pretty good. Duck was a bit too fatty for my taste, but I liked the fig component. 7. Chamomile and mint tea ~Pretty good. Decent palate cleanser after main courses. 8. Reine claude plums with buckwheat and Crescenza, saba ~Delicious. Loved the plums, and it went surprisingly well with the Crescenza cows milk-cheese. 9. Chocolate cake with caramel ganache for birthday and anniversary ~Pretty good. Thought it was funny that they gave us this dessert, since we received an identical one at another restaurant a day earlier in SD. 10. Raspberries and yellow peach curd, basil and peach leaves, old-fashioned vanilla ice cream ~Pretty good, although I think it would have been better with some fresh peach slices. 11. Chocolate and lemon verbena macarons ~Pretty good. Nice finish to meal. Loved how they had continuous bread service throughout meal until you said you were done. The baguettes were so good I had at least 4 of them Service was excellent and was reminiscent of Alineas in terms of attention, although I did find the multiple servers rather unusual. To top it off, they also give everyone a muffin to take home, as well as a handful of caramels. I had both the day after, and they were both very good.

AD

Adam Lasnik

[from April 2008] Ive always thought of myself as a foodie. But perhaps I need to rethink that; maybe Im just a guy who loves delicious food AND loves enjoying lingering meals with good friends and good wine. Given this, Manresa was indeed an enjoyable experience for me, but I would never pay full-price to eat here again. Stepping back for a moment, let me help relay the context. A group of about 8 of us won a prize that entitled us to a dinner anywhere in the Bay Area of our choice, with a $150 per person limit (with us having to pay any overages). When we got to Manresa, we were all intrigued and tempted by the tasting menu ($159/person, if I remember correctly), and so went with that. THUMBS UP: - Service. Our main server was friendly, knowledgeable, helpful, and just all round a pleasure to interact with. Additionally, it was stunning and delightful just how attentive our servers were... filling water glasses, placing down plates practically in unison, etc., without being obnoxious or obtrusive. - Creativity of the food. We kept wondering, what will they think of next? Presentation, texture, flavors... all quite quirky, interesting, different. - Patience. This should probably go under service, but I loved how we were not rushed... how we felt comfortable spending nearly 4 hours lingering and chatting and tasting. More meals should be like that in America! THUMBS DOWN: - Some things seemed to be "different" just for the sake of being weird or different. At times, I was craving something more familiar, comfortable, "normal." - My lord, the prices! Maybe I still need to expunge some more of my college-student-discount mentality, but... with just a glass or two of their (less expensive!) wine + tasting menu + tip + tax, it came to around $225 a person. For one meal. Holy cost insanity, Batman! I think Im also a bit spoiled, too, because I get a lot of outstandingly delicious food at Google for free. Maybe if I were hugely wealthy, Id enjoy going to Manresa occasionally... primarily for the attentive service and classy atmosphere. But as it stands now, Im glad I went once, but dont plan to be back again. Id rather spend $225 on a plane ticket to go see visit a friend :)