Bumble: THE PERFECT place for a weekend brunch with kids

Ever found yourself googl-ing “kid friendly restaurants around XYZ area”? I find myself doing that quite often. Too often actually!!! Most of the times, we just end up going to regular restaurants that really aren’t catered to babies or toddlers, but at least it keeps the foodies in us alive. When N turned about a year old, we started a family brunch/lunch outing almost every weekend. I can tell he really enjoys it and we try not to miss it. So one fine day while I was going crazy filtering the baby friendly restaurant search list to find a place for our weekend brunches, I stumbled upon a restaurant called “Bumble” in Los Altos. And what a find it was 🙂

Bumble is a kid-friendly farm-to-table restaurant in beautiful Los Altos downtown that features a playroom which the parents can use to check their kids in while they have a meal. Parents can have food for kids delivered inside the playroom and the staff helps them wash their hands and cut up food. Really the first of a kind restaurant that I have come across in the bay area.

I made reservations for our usual weekend brunch for a Saturday for the 3 of us. We also planned on checking him into the playroom for sometime so we could sit and enjoy our cups of coffee. When we entered there was a huge sand play area where plenty of kids were playing. Once inside, we asked if we could check out the play area. We took N inside and he had just woken up from his nap and refused to leave us and go to the play area. We thought we’ll have food and then check him in so we went back to our table and decided to order.

Outside sand play area at Bumble

I did feel that the choice on the menu is limited, but with all the other perks that this place has to offer, it really doesn’t matter. We ordered a bowl of banana and honey nut steel cut oats, Huevos rancheros and the vanilla bean crepes for us and a grilled cheese sandwich for N. Food was good, very fresh. A special mention for their vanilla bean crepes with blueberry compote and mascarpone cream. M & N relished the very last bite of it 🙂

After a fabulous brunch, we took N back to the playroom and checked him in. He ran to hug the huge teddy bear that was lying on the floor. We were skeptical if he would stay there for even 10 minutes, but he soon started moving around. The staff was sweet enough to carry him around and give him a few toys to play with. We were watching him from outside while we sat and chat. We only used the playroom for half an hour, but I guess it was a good start. The next time we go back, we’ll try for a longer duration. Upon checkout I requested the staff if I could take a few pictures of the playroom and they were kind enough to let me do so. On our way out, N played for a few minutes in the sand box and then we headed home.

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 The team at Bumble have really thought out and made the place conducive to parents as well as non-parents. There is a separate adult-only patio where kids are not allowed for folks who wish for that and enjoy Bumble’s fabulous food. The restrooms have a supply of diapers and there are stepping stools for the little ones near the basin.

We’ll definitely be returning to Bumble soon – with a bunch of our friends and their lovely kids.

Manresa: A celebratory farm-to-table dinner feast

Manresa in Los Gatos is by far the most amazing farm-to-table restaurants I have been to. We had Manresa on our list of restaurants to go to for quite some time. A few months back we managed to get a reservation to celebrate our wedding anniversary by trying out Chef David Kinch’s tasting menu. Manresa and Chef Kinch are famous for using fresh, local, and seasonal ingredients and converting them to dishes that explode with flavor and leave you asking for more. Manresa gets its produce from Love Apple Farms near Santa Cruz.

Expectations were sky-high ever since I found out that Manresa had made it to the list of World’s 50 Best Restaurants in 2012. We were seated promptly upon arrival. The ambiance makes you feel warm, cozy and welcoming. We were served warm freshly baked bread soon after we were seated. As usual, I opted for the vegetarian tasting menu, but when our server found out that my hubster (M) does not eat red meat, but is fine with other forms of meat, they offered to create a pescatarian menu for him. We’ve been to quite a few fancy places, but no restaurant had offered such an option to us earlier. It was a first and M was delighted to get a chance to try out his first pescatarian tasting menu. I have to state that the staff at Manresa make it a point to make your experience personable and pleasant.

Amuse Bouche was black olive madeleine and roasted bell pepper jello cube. I liked how it was served on a slab of stone. Following the amuse bouche we were served garden beignets with crispy kale. The garden beignets were made with goat cheese and the kale leaves went well with that. Next on the table was chilled lavender lemonade with mint – super refreshing. I slowly sipped on it feeling like a child trying to save her favorite part of the meal so that it wouldn’t get over fast. But I knew there were plenty more of such plates coming up 😀

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M was served smoked salmon with wasabi and green apple while I was served braised chestnut with avocado paste. The chestnut dish was my favorite of the entire meal. Next on the list were nantucket Bay Scallops in brown butter with chestnuts and a dish made out of green tomatoes. They used a specific name for it, but I forgot since I was busy relishing the chestnuts from my earlier course :). All I remember is that it was tangy and had crispy bites to cut off the tangy-ness. Next pescatarian item on the list were clams with sesame seeds and shiitake mushrooms while the vegetarian item on the list was sunchoke soup with yolk. The soup was my second favorite item on the menu. The flavors blended extremely well with each other.

Our next course was the super famous “Into the garden salad”. I felt like there were 20+ ingredients all from Manresa’s kitchen garden in this dish. I was overwhelmed by the amazing concept of the dish. After the salad, M was served North American fluke sashimi with chamomile while I was served a pumpkin dish with porcini mushroom and garlic emulsion. Next entree was a dish with smoked persimmon, cilantro and yogurt. I love persimmons but this was my least favorite dish of the meal. For our final savory entree, we had a plate of scallop and cod with potatoes for the hubby and a plate of cripy potatoes, foamy emulsions and nasturtium leaves. I did not know we nasturtium leaves are to be eaten. I have them in my patio garden and was surprised to see them on a plate and to find out that they are edible!

Our first dessert course was fromage blanc with strawberry sorbet and toasted pumpkin seeds. Rich, creamy and delicious. For our second dessert course, we had a parfait with almonds, pear sorbet and poached pear pieces. Our final dessert course was a chocolate madeleine with a cube of strawberry jelly served on a stone slab. I loved the fact that the first course (amuse bouche) and last course (final dessert course) of the menu were identical in looks but very different in taste – Creative and classy!

Post our remarkable celebratory meal, we were a given a pumpkin brioche for next day’s breakfast. I was expecting a goodie for breakfast next day since this is a tradition at most Michelin-star restaurants. When we were leaving through the door, they offered us fleur de sel caramels. I just took one but they saw me hesitating and told me that they were going to be closed for the next couple of days for Thanksgiving so we should take as many as we wanted. When I tasted the caramel candy the next day, I felt I should have taken many more of those :P. The meal at Manresa has been one of the best meals I have had this year and I guess the Chef deserves a big big thank you for making our day even more special and memorable. I would surely like to go back for another meal at Manresa 🙂

Plumed Horse – A dining experience at San Jose’s finest

Have you ever been asked the question of whether you eat to live or live to eat? I seldom think about this and I can’t decide for sure. The brain wants to choose eating to live while the taste buds definitely want me to opt for living to eat. But let’s keep the brain aside for now and talk about food. This post is for all those who live to eat! I’d like to share reviews of my dining experience at the Plumed Horse, one of Saratoga’s finest restaurants.

Recently for my birthday, the hubster took to me to the Plumed Horse in Saratoga. Thanks to M for the sweet surprise, and for topping it off with good food and even more wonderful memories :). The ambiance of the restaurant is very elegant and sophisticated. When you step in and walk towards the dining room, you know that you are in for a great fine dining experience. Decor is sleek and upscale. The restaurant is huge compared to few of the other fine dining spots I have been to around the bay area. Plumed Horse serves modern Californian cuisine and chef Peter Armellino manages to bring innovation to the dishes served.

We decided to opt for the tasting menu since none of us is a heavy eater and we love to be surprised by the chef’s creativity. Our server also suggested that would be the best bet for vegetarians. Before food was served, we were offered gourmet bread. I always look forward to the amuse bouche. Amuse Bouche at Plumed Horse was Australian truffles with oil cheese over a cracker. Feed me a good truffle dish and I am sold 🙂

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After relishing the amuse bouche, we were served basil bread and roasted garlic bread. For some reason, the impression that I have from a lot of “good” places is that you have to chew so hard on the bread that you feel like you are eating rocks. The side of bread at Plumed Horse was so soft that it almost melted in the mouth. Our first course was Portobello mushroom with truffle oil and cheese. I have to admit that this was my least favorite dish. Since the first course was just ordinary, I was skeptical about the entire meal, but what a ride it was for the taste buds after that first course. The salad course was a grilled local peach with smoked almond, goat milk yogurt, fricassee salad. I was hoping to not eat a beet salad and the chef surprised us with the peach salad. Our third course was corn bisque with corn flan. Now for those of you who don’t know me that well, I cherish almost anything and everything that is made out of corn. For me there has never been a bad tasting corn dish EVER! After some delishhhh salad and soup, our next course was mushroom risotto with truffles. This was the tastiest savory dish of the entire meal. Our final dish was lentil cakes with zucchini roles and mini peppers. This was the chef’s most innovative dish because the heat of the peppers blended really well with the lentil cakes. And the peppers were extremely tasty.

After finishing the savory round of dishes, our server asked whether we wanted to opt for a cheese tasting before moving on to the desserts. Both M and I are light eaters, so we decided to skip the cheese tasting because we wanted to save some room for dessert.

Course 2: Local Peach Salad with goat milk yogurt and fricasse salad

We knew it was going to be desserts galore as soon as our server placed 3 spoons on the table. The first dessert course was raspberry sorbet with tapioca. It was very refreshing. The next dish to be served was toasted coconut semifreddo vanilla salt with strawberry soup and micro basil. This was the yummiest dessert I have eaten in a long long time. It had a lot of flavor to it. After that was a familiar peanut butter jello combo with white chocolate mousse and marshmallow fluff crispy. I could eat those crispies all day long :D. We have tried enough of chef’s tasting menus to know that it never ends at the final course. Next to celebrate, there was a toast, and then some chocolate macaroons and then a strawberry ice cream popsicle dipped in dark chocolate and coated with nuts. Wowwww!!! This is one of the finest Michelin stars we have been to so far. I highly recommend it for a special someone!

Who doesn’t love being pampered! A day when I was supporting the motto of “Live to eat”. Indulgence at one more bay area’s finest restaurants and I am all smiles 🙂 🙂 🙂 This place is definitely worthy to make a special occasion memorable.