We made reservations through Opentable.com to celebrate my birthday. I had been there before but my hubby hadn't.
We got there and were seated promptly. We were handed menus and a wine list. Our server came over to introduce himself and for whatever reason, he took the wine list away. We asked if the chef was able to prepare a tasting menu but the server said they didn't have that available but he could do a sampler of sorts. We just needed to choose 3 pastas and 3 salads and he would "make it happen." We decided against the sampler and instead chose 4 courses that we were going to share.
1st course: Beef carpaccio - yummy - served with the traditional capers but they served them with these green olives that were salty and delicious!
2nd course: Risotto with squid ink and calamari - funky but delicious! - I'd been on a kick where I wanted to try food cooked with squid ink after seeing it on Richard Zimmern's show. The garlic and inky blackness of the risotto was so yummy.
3rd course: Linguine frutti di mare - the pasta was perfectly al dente and the sauce was great...not too acidic...just right! The seafood was also fairly fresh.
4th course: Osso Bucco - OMG...the meat was fall off the bone tender and the polenta was a fantastic complement. Creamy and delicious.
5th course: Tiramisu - the perfect end to our meal...not too sweet and deliciously creamy and light! Our server gave us complementary glasses of moscati di asti which was perfect with the tiramisu.
Only complaint of the evening was that they took the wine list away and our 1st course was served before they served us our wine choice...Caymus 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon. Not only that but our server was rather sloppy when serving the wine since he splashed some of it and spilled it down the side of the glass. So did not expect this from an establishment like this.
Overall though, we will be back to Tanino...
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Captain Crab (San Gabriel)
I have to say that this place is an almost exact copy of Boiling Crab. Even the laminated menus are the same except this place offers a few other things on their menu and the wait was not nearly as long as BC.
We walked in (party of 5) around 7:15ish on a Saturday night and there was no wait. We were seated promptly and given menus. After that it was all downhill. They came to take our order but we weren't ready so we asked for a minute to decide...they never came back. We also had questions about the menu. My sister wanted to know what type of fish they used in their fish and fries basket...the waitress did not know. We also asked what type of oysters they served on their regular menu since they had a special menu which had 3 types listed and the prices were not the same as on their regular menu...the waitress didn't know. Also, another con is that the prices are all higher than BC...50 cents to $1.00 more per item.We finally had to raise our hands to get a waitress' attention to place our order. We ordered shrimp, fish and fries, fried scallops and fries, clams, oysters and a couple of beers. The shrimp was good...not as oily as BC's and had a hint of coconut in the sauce. The fish, which turned out to be halibut, was fairly fresh and we had asked that they substitute the regular french fries for sweet potato fries...they couldn't get this request correct so we had to send the order back. The scallops and fries were ok. The clams were pretty good. The oysters were Kumamoto and very yummy although they didn't serve them with a sauce the way BC does.We had also ordered corn to be cooked in the same bag as our shrimp but it never arrived. We weren't able to flag our waitress down until our meal was almost done so when we were finally able to get ahold of her, we asked her to cancel the corn. She said that the corn was coming and it would be ready in a minute. We said no, thank you, and wanted to cancel it but she couldn't understand that we really wanted to cancel the order. She said that if we'd wanted it in the shrimp bag she would bring the corn and mix it in the sauce for us...WTF?...we're not invalids...we're able to do that ourselves.Needless to say, we're not going to be returning to Capt. Crab anytime soon!
We walked in (party of 5) around 7:15ish on a Saturday night and there was no wait. We were seated promptly and given menus. After that it was all downhill. They came to take our order but we weren't ready so we asked for a minute to decide...they never came back. We also had questions about the menu. My sister wanted to know what type of fish they used in their fish and fries basket...the waitress did not know. We also asked what type of oysters they served on their regular menu since they had a special menu which had 3 types listed and the prices were not the same as on their regular menu...the waitress didn't know. Also, another con is that the prices are all higher than BC...50 cents to $1.00 more per item.We finally had to raise our hands to get a waitress' attention to place our order. We ordered shrimp, fish and fries, fried scallops and fries, clams, oysters and a couple of beers. The shrimp was good...not as oily as BC's and had a hint of coconut in the sauce. The fish, which turned out to be halibut, was fairly fresh and we had asked that they substitute the regular french fries for sweet potato fries...they couldn't get this request correct so we had to send the order back. The scallops and fries were ok. The clams were pretty good. The oysters were Kumamoto and very yummy although they didn't serve them with a sauce the way BC does.We had also ordered corn to be cooked in the same bag as our shrimp but it never arrived. We weren't able to flag our waitress down until our meal was almost done so when we were finally able to get ahold of her, we asked her to cancel the corn. She said that the corn was coming and it would be ready in a minute. We said no, thank you, and wanted to cancel it but she couldn't understand that we really wanted to cancel the order. She said that if we'd wanted it in the shrimp bag she would bring the corn and mix it in the sauce for us...WTF?...we're not invalids...we're able to do that ourselves.Needless to say, we're not going to be returning to Capt. Crab anytime soon!
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