In celebration of buying a new house we decided to head to one of our favorite restaurants, so this week we hit up Bonterra.
The first time we went to Bonterra we opted for the valet parking… which we then found out was a waste of money. So needless to say, on our second trip we decided to park our car on the street.
We made reservations earlier in the day so we could avoid waiting around for an empty table and upon arrival we were seated promptly. First out was the basket of fresh baked white and wheat sliced bread with olive oil. Nothing much to report on this.. pretty much just a few slices of bread to hold us over until the real food arrived.
We started the meal off with the wild boar ravioli with a spring vegetable fricassée and pomegranate molasses. The dish as a whole was light and refreshing. The ravioli was pretty good and it was nice to try something different, but there was way too much pasta and not nearly enough wild boar.
After the ravioli’s we tried the bbq duck spring roll with a smoked duck confit and crème fraîche. They were crispy, chewy, and a little dry but had a really nice smoked flavor.
Ella ordered the Australian lamb rack roasted with fingerling potatoes, spring peas, mint, cucumber & melon salsa.
The sweet melon went perfectly with the gamey lamb, the potatoes weren’t anything special, but the addition of the spring peas really brought the dish together.
Curtis ordered the Fire-roasted certified angus beef filet mignon – 8oz oven-dried tomato risotto, watercress and a bleu cheese mousse.
For my palate… the bleu cheese mousse was way too strong. The risotto was good but overpowered the flavor of the filet mignon, and the filet mignon was dry and boring.
I ended up not being all that thrilled with my dish and quickly began having plate envy. Ella’s lamp rack and melon salsa was love at first bite so after some subtle hints.. we both realized we liked each others plate more than we like our own. We ended up switching plates about half way through and loved each and every bite.
We couldn’t finish our celebratory dinner without hitting up the dessert menu.
Ella ordered the Chocolate torte with a raspberry coulis for dessert. Chocolate and raspberry is one of our favorite flavor combinations, and even though all of the desserts are made in house the torte was a little boring and lacked flavor.
I went with the vanilla bean creme brûlée with caramelized apples topped with sweet whipped cream. The presentation was definitely on point and the flavor was memorable, but I would suggest an extra couple slices of apples.
This was our second trip to Bonterra and despite sounding like we were disappointed, we would easily go for a third trip. We had an amazing dinner on our first trip and after swapping plates our second trip to Bonterra was worth recommending.
