Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Martini House - Cellar Menu
Martini House is a rustic, stone restaurant that has the appearance of a house deep in the forest. Run by Pat Kuleto and Todd Humphries, the Martini House was orginally built in 1923 as the home of Walter Martini and his wife Dionisia. During the 20's Martini bootlegged whisky and wine, which he ran out of his cellar.
The cellar has it's own menu, much like a bar menu. In addition to small and medium bites, you can also order the family meal downstairs. Family meal occurs every Sunday-Thursday from 5-7pm.
On the particular day we went, I ordered off of the cellars regular menu. I ordered the mushroom soup and beef carpaccio. Both equally delicious.
The beef carpaccio is something that I probably would not have tried if I had not moved to Napa, something about raw beef in the desert and all. But I am so happy to have experianced the deliciousness of this dish. It is crunchy in all the right ways and comes topped with a bit of crushed Himalayan truffles.
The mushroom soup rivals the one made at a great family style meal at a friends house not to long ago. The soup is creamy and velvety, while not leaving you feeling like you're eating baby food. And the bread that they provide at your table is great to have that bit of crunch.
I can't wait to go back to Martini House, especially to try the Pho soup that they have on their family meal menu. Hopefully I can make it there before they switch it out!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
The cellar has it's own menu, much like a bar menu. In addition to small and medium bites, you can also order the family meal downstairs. Family meal occurs every Sunday-Thursday from 5-7pm.
On the particular day we went, I ordered off of the cellars regular menu. I ordered the mushroom soup and beef carpaccio. Both equally delicious.
The beef carpaccio is something that I probably would not have tried if I had not moved to Napa, something about raw beef in the desert and all. But I am so happy to have experianced the deliciousness of this dish. It is crunchy in all the right ways and comes topped with a bit of crushed Himalayan truffles.
The mushroom soup rivals the one made at a great family style meal at a friends house not to long ago. The soup is creamy and velvety, while not leaving you feeling like you're eating baby food. And the bread that they provide at your table is great to have that bit of crunch.
I can't wait to go back to Martini House, especially to try the Pho soup that they have on their family meal menu. Hopefully I can make it there before they switch it out!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Mini Mango Thai
About a week ago, a brand new Thai place opened up in downtown Napa. Since our last Napa Thai misadventure, Eric and I have not ventured into the land of deliciousness. But we divided to give this place a chance. The first time we tried to eat here we were told to "forget about it", and to thier defence we were a party of 8 on a Saturday night. So on Tuesday night, Eric and I gave it a second shot.
The resturant itself is small and clean, but has an overwhelming smell of peanut oil when you first walk in. The smell quickly goes away, although some customers chose to dwell on it and raised a fuss. Which was comical because this led to a door being opened and letting cold air in that made customers on the other end of the restaurant to freeze.
The menu is small and to the point. We started our meal with potstickers.
The postickers were good but not great. They were cooked well but the accompanying sauce was not flavorful enough nor was the serving very big. It made me wish for some chili oil.
Much like our last Thai meal, we ordered the same items. Eric got the curry and I got the pad thai.
This time our orders were like night and day from the previous restaurant. Eric's curry was flavorful and made well. I wished that they had chosen a different type of potato, the one they used was too grainy and didn't flow well with the silkyness of the curry itself. My pad thai was actaully flavorful. The eggs were not too overbearing and the prawn was cooked very well and pealed all the way down to the tail. If I could change anything it would be to add a bit more citrus/lemongrass to really make it stand out.
All in all, I think we will be back again. I'm really interested in trying out some of their other dishes, and hopefully they continue to expand on the basics that are already in place.
Ps- they cook with canola oil, not peanut. I think the smell comes from the peanuts that they cook with the food.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
The resturant itself is small and clean, but has an overwhelming smell of peanut oil when you first walk in. The smell quickly goes away, although some customers chose to dwell on it and raised a fuss. Which was comical because this led to a door being opened and letting cold air in that made customers on the other end of the restaurant to freeze.
The menu is small and to the point. We started our meal with potstickers.
The postickers were good but not great. They were cooked well but the accompanying sauce was not flavorful enough nor was the serving very big. It made me wish for some chili oil.
Much like our last Thai meal, we ordered the same items. Eric got the curry and I got the pad thai.
This time our orders were like night and day from the previous restaurant. Eric's curry was flavorful and made well. I wished that they had chosen a different type of potato, the one they used was too grainy and didn't flow well with the silkyness of the curry itself. My pad thai was actaully flavorful. The eggs were not too overbearing and the prawn was cooked very well and pealed all the way down to the tail. If I could change anything it would be to add a bit more citrus/lemongrass to really make it stand out.
All in all, I think we will be back again. I'm really interested in trying out some of their other dishes, and hopefully they continue to expand on the basics that are already in place.
Ps- they cook with canola oil, not peanut. I think the smell comes from the peanuts that they cook with the food.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
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