Dad's Crab Dinner Report

Hi Caroline:

Mom, Elaina and I had a very enjoyable repast at Pleasant Hill's Left Bank restaurant this evening. I was very appreciative to have read the musings of Paul and Heather prior to going. I read Heather's account of the Muscadet and the oysters. When I sat down and picked up the menu the first thing I noticed was that they very appropriately had Muscadet as one of their offerings by glass, carafe or full bottle, which of course put me in the right frame of mind immediately! The second thing my eye caught was oysters on the half-shell. So before even looking at the rest of the menu I ordered the oysters and a carafe of Muscadet to be brought immediately. One of the benefits of going with Mom and Elaina is that neither one drinks wine nor likes oysters on the half shell ..... thus they were mine alone! So Heather's writing got me off to a good start.

I must give Paul a big A+ for his endeavor in holding nothing back in quest of what hopefully would have been (should have been) the best crab offering possible in the supposed dungenesss crab capital of San Francisco, but after reading his dilemma I had to give Left Bank a pretty good report.

When I made the reservation eight days ago I first called the restaurant and told the host that answered, "Before I book my reservation with Open Table please confirm that you are taking part in the SF Dungeness Crab Celebration". He gave me a resounding affirmative. I further asked, "And you will have the cookbook also"? I again got an affirmative. So not only was the staff aware, but in fact they were enthusiastic. So off I went tonight, utilized the services of the valet parking (why engage in the stress of looking for a parking place?), and entered the restaurant. The first thing I noticed in the lobby was a floor stand announcing the crab event, and the sign was totally encircled with cutouts of crabs while the opposite side of the lobby had some other display calling attention to the special. So they did a decent job of playing it up.

The two special dishes that they offered were both in the appetizer category, and neither was a staple of their regular menu. One item was crab cakes and the other item was a crab salad. Both were superb. The first dish consisted of two fairly large crab cakes that were very pronounced in their flavor. They were not the seemingly 100% solid crab meat that we had previously experienced at Ruth Chris, but the amount of dungeness crab in the recipe was substantial and the flavor really came through. It was accompanied by a tartar sauce that was obviously prepared fresh in the kitchen; it was very good and complimented the crab cake very well. Also on the dish was a freshly made cole slaw that was also quite good. Mom is not a cole slaw fan, but she cleaned her plate of this one!

I must say though that the crabcakes that Paul made at the previous crabfest (the one that I actually could partake of!) are still Number One!

The crab salad consisted of a very mild (but flavorful!) red pepper flan in the center of the plate dressed on each side with slightly crunchy french green beans that were split lengthwise in half. On each side of the base of the flan was a very thin line of a green creamy substance which Mom thinks was an extremely mild wasabi which gave the flan just a very slight tang. Then one-half of the dish just to one side of the flan and slightly overlapping it was a generous pile of fresh crab which in turn was covered by frisee. The Musdcadet paired beautifully with both dishes.
The other food items that we ordered were also excellent and the service at our table was flawless, so we had a great night. For her entree Elaina ventured to have a marinated venison that was in a red wine reduction sauce and accompanied by walnuts and miniature chestnuts. She was very pleased with it. Prior to the arrival of the bill the Maitre D came to the table and personally presented me with my cookbook, so I didn't even have to ask for it.
Retrospectively, however, I would say that if I hadn't already been aware of Paul's critique I would have come away disappointed that more crab selections were not offered. Such a potentially great food event with such a great food item as its "star" should have featured at least one main entree offering and additionally an offering of pure crab such as some chilled, cracked crab or possibly a fresh crab meat cocktail.

Obviously each restaurant selects their own offerings. In response to my inquiry the two offerings that we had would be the same two each night for the duration of the promotion. Thus you could not go back another night and experience a different daily special dish.
Like Paul, I think that the cookbook they provided looks very good and has a lot of promising future recipes. I like all the color pictures that they have in the book, although I do not like their choice of print color. I find a lot of it to be difficult to read, but that is probably due to my eyes not being real sharp and requiring a lot of bold contrast. I was hoping that the food served at the restaurant would be chosen from among the items within the cookbook, but that does not seem to be the case. The two we had tonight I did not notice in the book, and also did not notice the dish that Paul described as being in the book either.

One thing is abundantly clear.......

The greatest restaurants and chefs in the San Francisco bay area.....

DO NOT TOP THE GREAT MARTINEZ CRABFEST AND CERTAINLY DO NOT EXCEED THE ENTHUSIASM AND EXPERTISE OF THE MARTINEZ CRABFEST CHEFS !

Looking forward to next year !!!

The Dad