- Joined
- Jul 14, 2002
- Messages
- 337
We dined at bluezoo last night. It was me, DH, DS3 and DD1. We all felt welcome at the restaurant, there were clean highchairs and nice kids' menus available. That said, if you've read any of my other reviews, you know that my kids mostly eat adult food anyway so we only ordered their dessert off the kids' menu.
We started with drinks -- 1 Cable Car (12) and 1 Raspberry Sour (10.5). These were small -- served in martini glasses -- but the cable car had a unique and very complimenary cinnamon rim, and the raspberry sour had probably 4 or 5 raspberries' worth of fresh pulp in it. Expensive but good! (Kids had water -- we certainly don't serve them adult beverages
).
For apps, we had Yellowfin Tuna Tartare - from the "Olive's" table, twisted cucumber salad, crispy rock shrimp, orange glaze, scallion cream (11). It was delicious, original and beautiful. Also, "Olive's" Classico Flatbread - roasted tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, torn basil (9); this was the only "OK" offering of the evening. It was not as good as CG's or Jiko's flatbreads but certainly edible and extremely kid-friendly too. The best app was the Garlic Roasted Jumbo Shrimp - creamy polenta, fennel butter (13), which was highly recommended by the waiter and outstanding. My son ate most of this -- it was only 3 shrimp, but they were very large (probably in the 7-11/lb. range). The saucy polenta underneath the shrimp was lick-the-plate good and we used the breads to do exactly that.
The bread basket was -- and I do not say this lightly -- the best composed bread basket I have ever had in my life. There were crispbreads, which must have been 95% olive oil and 5% flour, ethereal with sesame and thyme. There were also huge hunks of roasted onion foccacia, which were the best for getting that polenta, and biscotti-shaped pieces of soft sunflower-seed bread. All the breads were warm, and there were four entire servings of each bread. This made me very happy because that meant everybody got to try everything, and we didn't even finish the bread so didn't have to ask for more. The presentation was also beautiful. The bread was served with a very cold fennel butter, which was completely unnecessary anyway for us because all the breads were high in oil.
OK, onto entrees. DH had the Bacon butter buccatini with crab and shrimp "meatballs" (25?). I don't eat bacon, but that bacon butter was presented so beautifully, in a pitcher on the side, and they poured it over his very large dish of pasta. He didn't finish this, buccatini is very filling pasta IMO. I tried the "meatballs" and they were about what you'd think. This dish was good, not amazing. I ordered the Miso Glazed Chilean Sea Bass, warm sesame spinach, pea tendril salad (32). This was presented as three separate portions of food on a long rectangular plate. The spinach was to-die-for delicious and I don't usually care for spinach. The sea bass was amazing -- the best misoyaki preparation I've had, served very hot and beautifully wrapped in banana leaf. My son was literally begging me for more. The pea tendril salad was the perfect accompaniment because it was not rich, but rather a bit salty and just nice.
Desserts were the kids' cookie sandwich trio for my son (4.5) -- very creative but I don't know what child could ever finish this -- and the 5d for me (15). The 5d is literally 5 desserts, each in small espresso cups served on a wood plank, with three different sandwich cookies at the end of the plank on a spool. Beautiful and seriously -- a bargain. A family could share this. Plus, each of the 5 desserts would have had to be made in advance, because of the way they were in the cups, and would not last overnight, so they must really work hard to predict how many of these will sell each night. The 5 desserts were sorbet of the day (pear) -- very bright and yummy, a key lime pie topped with tapioca -- amazing, a chocolate pot de creme with orange slices on top -- very good, a vanilla creme brulee -- thick and fabulous, and a warm chocolate-raspberry cake that made me drool. The cookie sandwiches: one was peanut butter cookies with jelly in the middle, one was a shortbread of some sort and one was a thick chewy chocolate macaroon that was my favorite. This dessert would take me literally 12 hours to make. Now I know they are making lots of them for each night, but this was one of the most labor-intensive desserts I have ever had in my life. Also beautiful, tasty, balanced and delicious.
Our service was pretty good -- I would say great but my husband's water glass went dry a couple times and they served the water oddly at first. When we sat down, there were water glasses on the table, but for some reason they took them all away, filled them elsewhere, and then brought them back. This took maybe 10 minutes, during which we were pretty thirsty, so this was annoying. Everything else was great. Very attentive service (both water problems were the busser's). The food there, if more than two plates are being brought to the table, is wheeled out on long narrow carts, something akin to cheese carts at fine restaurants. This was just maybe a little over the top but I didn't mind.
The atmosphere here is gorgeous, with bubbles in the air, waves on the wall, drips in the carpet, stunning color-changing wine racks, etc. Modern music, real towels in the bathroom, etc., a very classy place and yet somehow welcoming.
Value-wise I'd say, comparable to CG or Jiko, but they don't take DDE, so a little more. They do validate valet parking so that was included.
Overall, we had a fabulous evening at bluezoo and I would recommend it to anyone who likes seafood and is looking for an upscale dinner. (They also have many non-seafood options but we didn't really try them so I can't speak for those.)
Also just to add a note here, I thought that this experience at bluezoo topped either of our last experiences at CG or Jiko, so value-wise I was fine with that 20%. I'd say all three restaurants are very comparable in food, service, atmosphere and value, however we've eaten at CG and Jiko probably 20 times each, and this was our first visit to bluezoo. It won't be our last.
We started with drinks -- 1 Cable Car (12) and 1 Raspberry Sour (10.5). These were small -- served in martini glasses -- but the cable car had a unique and very complimenary cinnamon rim, and the raspberry sour had probably 4 or 5 raspberries' worth of fresh pulp in it. Expensive but good! (Kids had water -- we certainly don't serve them adult beverages
).For apps, we had Yellowfin Tuna Tartare - from the "Olive's" table, twisted cucumber salad, crispy rock shrimp, orange glaze, scallion cream (11). It was delicious, original and beautiful. Also, "Olive's" Classico Flatbread - roasted tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, torn basil (9); this was the only "OK" offering of the evening. It was not as good as CG's or Jiko's flatbreads but certainly edible and extremely kid-friendly too. The best app was the Garlic Roasted Jumbo Shrimp - creamy polenta, fennel butter (13), which was highly recommended by the waiter and outstanding. My son ate most of this -- it was only 3 shrimp, but they were very large (probably in the 7-11/lb. range). The saucy polenta underneath the shrimp was lick-the-plate good and we used the breads to do exactly that.
The bread basket was -- and I do not say this lightly -- the best composed bread basket I have ever had in my life. There were crispbreads, which must have been 95% olive oil and 5% flour, ethereal with sesame and thyme. There were also huge hunks of roasted onion foccacia, which were the best for getting that polenta, and biscotti-shaped pieces of soft sunflower-seed bread. All the breads were warm, and there were four entire servings of each bread. This made me very happy because that meant everybody got to try everything, and we didn't even finish the bread so didn't have to ask for more. The presentation was also beautiful. The bread was served with a very cold fennel butter, which was completely unnecessary anyway for us because all the breads were high in oil.
OK, onto entrees. DH had the Bacon butter buccatini with crab and shrimp "meatballs" (25?). I don't eat bacon, but that bacon butter was presented so beautifully, in a pitcher on the side, and they poured it over his very large dish of pasta. He didn't finish this, buccatini is very filling pasta IMO. I tried the "meatballs" and they were about what you'd think. This dish was good, not amazing. I ordered the Miso Glazed Chilean Sea Bass, warm sesame spinach, pea tendril salad (32). This was presented as three separate portions of food on a long rectangular plate. The spinach was to-die-for delicious and I don't usually care for spinach. The sea bass was amazing -- the best misoyaki preparation I've had, served very hot and beautifully wrapped in banana leaf. My son was literally begging me for more. The pea tendril salad was the perfect accompaniment because it was not rich, but rather a bit salty and just nice.
Desserts were the kids' cookie sandwich trio for my son (4.5) -- very creative but I don't know what child could ever finish this -- and the 5d for me (15). The 5d is literally 5 desserts, each in small espresso cups served on a wood plank, with three different sandwich cookies at the end of the plank on a spool. Beautiful and seriously -- a bargain. A family could share this. Plus, each of the 5 desserts would have had to be made in advance, because of the way they were in the cups, and would not last overnight, so they must really work hard to predict how many of these will sell each night. The 5 desserts were sorbet of the day (pear) -- very bright and yummy, a key lime pie topped with tapioca -- amazing, a chocolate pot de creme with orange slices on top -- very good, a vanilla creme brulee -- thick and fabulous, and a warm chocolate-raspberry cake that made me drool. The cookie sandwiches: one was peanut butter cookies with jelly in the middle, one was a shortbread of some sort and one was a thick chewy chocolate macaroon that was my favorite. This dessert would take me literally 12 hours to make. Now I know they are making lots of them for each night, but this was one of the most labor-intensive desserts I have ever had in my life. Also beautiful, tasty, balanced and delicious.
Our service was pretty good -- I would say great but my husband's water glass went dry a couple times and they served the water oddly at first. When we sat down, there were water glasses on the table, but for some reason they took them all away, filled them elsewhere, and then brought them back. This took maybe 10 minutes, during which we were pretty thirsty, so this was annoying. Everything else was great. Very attentive service (both water problems were the busser's). The food there, if more than two plates are being brought to the table, is wheeled out on long narrow carts, something akin to cheese carts at fine restaurants. This was just maybe a little over the top but I didn't mind
.The atmosphere here is gorgeous, with bubbles in the air, waves on the wall, drips in the carpet, stunning color-changing wine racks, etc. Modern music, real towels in the bathroom, etc., a very classy place and yet somehow welcoming.
Value-wise I'd say, comparable to CG or Jiko, but they don't take DDE, so a little more. They do validate valet parking so that was included.
Overall, we had a fabulous evening at bluezoo and I would recommend it to anyone who likes seafood and is looking for an upscale dinner. (They also have many non-seafood options but we didn't really try them so I can't speak for those.)
Also just to add a note here, I thought that this experience at bluezoo topped either of our last experiences at CG or Jiko, so value-wise I was fine with that 20%. I'd say all three restaurants are very comparable in food, service, atmosphere and value, however we've eaten at CG and Jiko probably 20 times each, and this was our first visit to bluezoo. It won't be our last
.
