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Commis, Oakland CA

Since early 2010, you would be hard-pressed not to notice Commis's rise to popularity in Bay Area restaurant scene. As for myself, I heard about the restaurant from a foodie coworker. The reservation was about one month prior the visit.

The minimalist approach on decoration.

We opted for the wine pairings which included wines from France (2 courses), Italy, Croatia and limited edition one from Monterey. Most of them were white wines. I'm still in the middle of tracing back the wines we had.

Amuse bouche. poached hen egg with creme and onion purée. Perfection that leaves no room for improvement.

House baked roll with house-churned butter. Bread was not warm. Why bother with the filler?

Dry farmed tomato, dried bread. Heirloom pepper with lime peel yogurt. I can never have enough of Early girl tomatoes.

Brined lettuce and dandelion salad. Twice cooked potato with dill and terragon, radish. Potatoes were tasty. Good but not a big fan of salad. Dandelion leaves were quite bitter.

Poached mussels with young fennel. Fresh butterbean, spiced carotene broth. Mussels and broth was spectacular. I skipped the beans.

Grilled bolinas black cod. Pine mushroom bisque, caramelized sunchoke with sea kelp. Fish by itself was perfectly cooked. So flaky and well-seasoned. The kelp however masked other ingredients by quite a bit.

Roast pigeon on the bone. French sugar plum, braised raddicchino with vinegar and ginger. Trying to be discerning among duck, squab and pigeon here. Pigeon was more chewy. The bird was well-cooked off the bone. The flavor of plum sauce stood out more than other ingredients.

Melon soda with lime. Sweet, sparkling and refreshing.

Beef sirloin slowly cooked. Veal cheek, eggplant with ash of the skins, chervil and capers.

Chilled muskmelon cream. Frozen crème fraiche mousse, marinated honeydew, niable grape. Very well balanced with great harmony. The melon flavor was very pronounced thus hard to taste the grape. The frozen crème fraiche was well-thought of.

Smoke & apples. Apple & huckleberry tart with thyme, smoked buttermilk ice cream. Oh my, did the pastry chef fool me? I thought this had bacon. Pâte Brisée was bit dry.

Mignardise was absinthe gelée. Loved the chewiness and subtle flavor.

Note to self: Restaurant was small and quite loud due to the echo. It was a bit hard to hear what server was saying about each course. Not a good idea to sit by the end either. Silverware being washed at the back was discordant. The best seating is probably the kitchen counter.

Create Date : 04 ตุลาคม 2553

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Last Update : 6 มกราคม 2554 7:23:23 น.

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