Georgian Hotel and Chef's Inc

Georgian Hotel: My second meal here, 1pm on a Sunday. A great time because there were a few other diners, but plenty of spaces available on the patio. Wonderful view of water, hills, sun, etc. Almost overshadowed by the food. Deep, slightly sweet French Onion soup...the gruyere was great. Mango and brie quesadilla appetizer with candied pecans and excellent guacamole with a touch of jalepeno. For a main course the salmon was recommended, with a salty crust, served over mashed potatoes asparagus and carrots. The potatoes and asparagus were fine (if a bit tasteless), and the carrots may have been slightly toothy at the core, but those are really just nitpicks so I have something to say...and the fish was so good. A bit of salmon flavor, extremely moist, perfect texture (especially when biting through the thin "crust"). A wonderful dish.

Also tried the Cobb sandwich. Like my previous visit (French toast/bread pudding), this is a reconstruction of another dish...so just imagine a Cobb salad on bread, minus the egg and much of the lettuce. The layering of flavors in a Cobb is key, and was pulled of extremely well (especially with the excellent bacon and avocado they used). I was excited to try it and very appreciative, but discovered that I really like the lettuce in a Cobb salad...it's the base that ties the flavors together and keeps it from being too heavy. On a sandwich without that bed of lettuce it's a different beast.

Oh, and the cappuccino hit the spot. It was a bit cool, perhaps, but had just that "edge" of coffee that you feel on the sides of your tongue, without being bitter.

Minor issue with soapy water glasses, but that was cleared up instantly and politely.

Chef's Inc: Took my first class of Beginner chef 101 at Chef's Inc. We made vegetable spring rolls with peanut sauce, chicken noodle soup (including the stock), rosemary chicken breast, herb roasted potatoes, caesar salad with pancetta, and apple crisp. An absolutely wonderful experience. Lots of fun in the kitchen. There were 17 students and four instructors. The food was excellent and easy. I learned several small things, including a different way to hold a chef's knife, a different honing technique, how to tell if meat is done by touching it, and that I need to get a non-slip pad to put my cutting board on. My highlight of the evening was being credited with saying that the peanut sauce would be better with more soy sauce, though really the whole time was entertaining and enlightening.

The Counter and Mariscos Chente

Mariscos Chente is still good, though it's really not in a good location, and the decor is really poor (compared with the quality of the food). Unfortunately they didn't have a 1 kilo of the snook so instead of going with the 1.5 kilo we got a grilled filet that was ok, but not as good...I don't recall the spices used but they didn't work for me. If they'd let us know they didn't have what we ordered soon after we ordered it I wouldn't be so miffed about it, but we didn't find out about the fish until after we'd already eaten the two shrimp dishes we ordered.

The Counter was excellent food as always. love their shakes and burgers. I wish they'd turn the lights up a bit and put in some sound dampening materials so it isn't so loud, but that's because I'm not hip like their main clientele. A very good experience regardless.

Broadway Deli

Broadway Deli: Good location (end of the promenade), fine food (patty melt on rye...reuben was good too), but the service was really bad...our drinks only got refilled if we flagged down the waiter from across the room. It also took a while to get the check. So not bad, not great. I'd go again if I had time to kill and wanted ok food.

The good news is that after you leave you can hop into Pinkberry across the street.

We were actually trying to get into La Serenata de Garibaldi for the second time this holiday but it was still closed with no info on when it will reopen.

Locanda del Lago and Mimi's Cafe

Locanda del Lago: Scurrying about the promenade around noon on January 1st we were disappointed by the number of closed restaurants. By process of eliminating all the closed restaurants and those without seating and those too far away, we ended up at this pasta/pizza place. Not recommended. Good location, but the bruschetta was cool, did not appear to be drizzled with olive oil, but was drizzled with flavorless lukewarm mozzarella. The pizza was pretty good, thin crust. The lasagna was unavailable so I had the carbonara...slightly mooshy linguine combined with a sauce that had the requisite ham, but lacked in that "gotta have more" quality. Too pricey to be enjoyed.

Mimi's Cafe: This is the second time I've been to a Mimi's Cafe. Spinach and artichoke appetizer, chicken brie dijon entree. Not bad, not truly noteworthy, except their carrot cake is quite good. I was expecting a strong dijon sauce (and doubting that it would work) so I was surprised by the not-so-intense creamy dijon sauce that didn't clash with the brie. Last time I think I enjoyed the French Onion soup and fish and chips. I heard that their blackened fish might be preferable.