Travelling in California without a car is problematic. While San Francisco is exceedingly well served by public transport, heading out of the city is less flexible. Wanting to visit Manresa in the hamlet of Los Gatos (near San Jose) was an exercise in logistics.

Trip Advisor and other forums didn’t cast much light on simple ways to travel to Los Gatos (Spanish for ‘the cats’) without a car. Google maps estimated the public transport trip from downtown SF to Manresa would be a minimum of three hours. Luckily for us, gluttonous husband’s daughter La Reine Fille (don’t call her Princess) is a Santa Clara local. We managed to get on the express Caltrain from SF to San Jose (less than an hour’s travel) and La Reine Fille picked us up from the station – and we only had a small amount of rush hour freeway to navigate for the short car ride to Los Gatos.

Manresa is in a quiet, lush setting on one of the villagey shopping strips of Los Gatos. The dining room has two parts – we were in a smaller, quieter room on the other side of a central hallway. With the sun still beating down outside, we ordered a bottle of an old favourite, Pol Roger, and settled in to celebrate La Reine Fille’s first tasting menu.

The chef/owner at Manresa, which was #62 on this year’s San Pellegrino list of the world’s best restaurants, is David Kinch. The restaurant’s website says he’s inspired by the terroir of the California coast and there’s certainly evidence of local foraging and sourcing in his ‘Spring Garden’ menu. Kinch is clearly a talented chef and his menu is dominated by vegetables and fish – with just one meat dish, but more on that later.

First up were savoury ‘petits fours’. These were madeleines and ‘fruit jellies’. The madeleines were studded with black olives and the jellies were made of red peppers. A fun way to start.

Savoury petits fours

Savoury petits fours

Next up were a selection of light courses. First was a kohlrabi and meyer lemon croquette (pictured at the top of this blog). The waitress instructed us to pop this all into our mouths as the centre was liquid. Kohlrabi is somewhere between a cauliflower and cabbage in taste. The meyer lemon is a slightly sweeter version of a lemon and the contrast between the two flavours worked well.

We also had ‘olive oil and spring savory’. This was olive oil ice cream with various leaves, including crispy kale. It was cold, refreshing and interesting.

Olive oil and spring savory

Olive oil and spring savory

Next was sea urchin with fermented plum. The moment the little ‘mother of pearl’ spoon was placed on the table, Greedy Girl exclaimed ‘sea urchin’. La Reine Fille wondered how she knew and she explained sea urchin is always traditionally eaten with a special spoon. This dish had a very strong celery flavour to it as well which wasn’t entirely enjoyable. It was probably the least successful dish of the night in our estimation.

Sea urchin with fermented plum

Sea urchin with fermented plum

Next up was a strawberry picada with anchovies. Part of the chef’s inventiveness is presenting dishes that look like dessert but are savoury. Picada is a style of sauce, traditionally Catalan. It was served with a milk curd and tiny crispy capers. The combination of textures was very good.

Strawberry picada with anchovies

Strawberry picada with anchovies

Next was bonito. The last time Greedy Girl had seen bonito was on top of a Japanese pancake at Teppanyaki Ten in Tokyo and they moved and fluttered in a most eerie way. This was a seared piece of the fish which looked not unlike tuna. It had a strong taste (having been lightly smoked) but worked extremely well with a soy dressing, tomato verjus and garlic.

We then moved to morels, celtuce and nasturtium with levain. The morels grow wild locally and were much smaller than other varieties we’d seen. The ‘celtuce’ as its name implies, is a cross between celery and lettuce and the stem is often used in cooking, particularly in Asia. Levain is the ‘starter’ for sourdough and provided a nice counterpoint to the buckwheat puffs.

Morels and leaves

Morels and leaves

Next was economically titled ‘into the vegetable garden’. Served on a dramatic-looking plate, this was a very pretty collection of leaves and flowers atop an edible soil made of dehydrated parnsips and cocoa nibs.

Edible soil topped with leaves and flowers

Edible soil topped with leaves and flowers

Having finished our champagne, we asked what style of dishes were coming up so we could choose some wine. The recommendation was for a white wine, given two fish courses were about to arrive, but we opted for a delightful Hirsch Vineyards pinot noir from Sonoma. It was a true, light pinot noir and quite delicious.

Next was the first of the fish dishes. Black cod. This was served with carrots and flowering coriander. It was a dish where the fish by itself was very good and the accompaniments worked well together. In its entirety, Greedy Girl didn’t enjoy it (not being a huge coriander fan).

Black cod with carrots and coriander

Black cod with carrots and coriander

The next fish dish was abalone. This was described as a ‘tidal pool’; an onion broth was poured over the abalone, greens, crispy rice and pumpkin seeds at the table. The broth was delicious and the texture of the rice and seeds stayed crunchy. Greedy Girl has rarely understood what the fuss is about with abalone, which can be very chewy. This had a firmness to the bite but wasn’t as chewy as some she has experienced. It was a pleasant dish.

Abalone 'tidal pool'

Abalone ‘tidal pool’

We then moved to the only meat course of the evening, the spring lamb. It was presented with a mushroom consomme. The lamb was very soft and tender; it was served with a confit of squash and porcini mushrooms and slices of a summer truffle. Absolutely delicious and a great note on which to finish the savoury part of the meal.

Spring lamb

An amazing lamb dish, the only meat course of the evening

Mushroom consomme

Mushroom consomme

Given our ‘deadline’ to get back to San Jose for the train back to San Francisco was looming, we didn’t pause for breath. Desserts were presented. First up, for Greedy Girl and La Reine Fille was a goat’s milk caramel poured over a confection of berries and a green curry sorbet. It was light – the sorbet was intriguing, but there was no real ‘caramel’ hit.

Goat's milk caramel with berries

Goat’s milk caramel with berries

Gluttonous husband was presented with a most unusual-looking dessert featuring cucumber and shiso. The crisp you can see on top of the pool of liquid and yoghurt is made from green tea. It was cool, sweet and salty and very tasty.

Cucumber and shiso

Cucumber and shiso

Next, we all enjoyed peaches and cream. What looked like meringue on top of the local peaches (which had just come into season) was the lightest crisp Greedy Girl has ever eaten – it just dissolved in the mouth.

Peaches and cream

Peaches and cream

It was time then for some more petits fours. Cleverly, these looked identical to those presented at the start of the meal but this time were made with strawberry (the jellies) and chocolate (the madeleines).

Sweet petits fours

Hope the kitchen doesn’t mix these up

We were also offered macarons – orange, coffee and peanut and strawberry.

Macarons

Macarons

Lavender truffles with almond crunch

Lavender truffles with almond crunch

None of the desserts or petits fours tasted overly sweet and that, combined with the lightness of the menu throughout, meant we got up from the table feeling pleasantly full rather than bloated and heavy. Back into the night we went with, sadly, a much longer trip home (no express train was available) to San Francisco.

Manresa is not the easiest restaurant to get to for visitors without cars but it’s definitely worth exploring. A light and refreshing take on a tasting menu.


Manresa

320 Village Lane, Los Gatos, California

manresarestaurant.com

Manresa Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

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