El Dorado Kitchen Is Muy Delicioso!

On the rainy eve of my wife's birthday in December, the comfort food of El Dorado Kitchen helped warm our stomachs. While we waited for the restaurant to open its seating at 5:30pm, we sat on a leather couch in the fireplace room warming ourselves.

The open kitchen permitted our senses to hear the flash frying of the french fries doused with truffle oil. Our noses smelled the truffle oil as the staff whizzed by with pomme frites dish in hand. We could almost hear the wood crackling in the 750F oven baking our pizza topped with sopressetta and egg. The duck pastrami was interesting and tasty. The lamb shank simmered in its pot so tender that when put the fork to the meat, it fell off the bone. We finished with the crepes dessert with vanilla ice cream and passion-fruit sauce . For wine, our Jayson Pinot Noir 2006 went well with our dinner. It was fruit forward, a long finish to the tongue with spice. The service was timely and helpful with our questions. We will go back and bring friends. They passed our "napkin test" when we returned to the table with our napkin folded.

Americano at Hotel Vitale

The Americano offers Italian food. Chef Paul Arenstam got the mushroom pizza with fontina cheese and truffle oil right! The thin crust is crunchy, and the mushroom and truffle oil make a tasty combination. It's surely the taste of Autumn.

For the main dishes, my wife had the butternut squash ravioli. The texture of the the butternut squash was smooth and soft. The ravioli was fresh. The dish was sweet and savory.

I had the duck breast special that night. The breast slices were seared nicely, but I prefer the inside to be a bit more rare. It was served medium-well and I preferred it to be medium-rare. The serving portion was good- about eight slices. The potatoes were cooked just right topped with watercress. Next time, I will order the rib-eye because I know it's more flavorful and could get it medium-rare.

For dessert, the fried creme brulee caught our eye on the menu. It sound interesting and tasted interesting. Usually creme brulee is soft and jiggly in a ramekin, but the interesting characteristic of this dessert was that it was fried. The cream was firmer and drier. What makes the dish is the passion fruit-caramel sauce. It added sweetness to the otherwise flavorless cream. The portion had two triangular pieces.

The Cabernet Sauvignon was very nice. We chose a half bottle of 2005 Opus One. It's a wine collaboration of Mondavi and Rothchild. It had a nice aroma and dark ruby color. There were hints of blackberries and currant. There was a spicy finish. It really matched well with all our dishes. It was surprisingly smooth for an young Cab.

The service was a bit lacking, though our server was very friendly. It was hard to get his attention behind the see through curtain. The dining area can get loud from the patrons at the bar.

We would go back for the pizza if we were in the area.