Glen Ellen Star

Glen Ellen Star opened just a little over a month ago and had been getting good reviews. Chef Ari Weiswasser trained at the French Laundry and his wife and co-owner is Erin Benziger (Benziger wines). The restaurant is small--only 8 tables and a bar area, but there is outdoor seating when the weather is good. It's casual and lively.

We arrived 10 minutes early for our reservation and were greeted with a bowl of fresh strawberries and mini pluots. The host apologized for the delay in seating us but we were early! We were led to 2 benches to wait and by the time we finished reading the menu and wine list, we were seated--at the time we had reserved.

 

The menu is small but we found plenty to tempt us. There were 4 of us and we decided to share the dinner family-style. Corkage is $15 but it is waived with the purchase of a bottle of wine.

 

Corn Soup with Gnudi (type of gnocchi--made with ricotta cheese)--$10

Very creamy and flavorful, one of our favorites. Wished it was a larger bowl.

 

Golden Beets, Harissa Crumble, Blood Orange Oil--$8

Beets were well cooked and sweet. I'm not sure I tasted the blood orange but still a tasty dish.

 

Padron Peppers--$8

The peppers were on the large side and slightly mushy. They also had a little bit of heat, more than we expected from padron peppers. Made sense since these were larger than usual. We were disappointed that they didn't have more of a crunch when biting into them.

Whole Roasted Cauliflower, Salsa Verde--$8

The salsa was excellent. We weren't able to dissect it but there was probably a hint of mint. 

 

Brick Chicken, Creamy Cauliflower, Lemon-Caper Vinaigrette--$21

The chicken was delicious--moist with a crisp, crisp skin. I loved the chicken so much, I didn't even notice the vinaigrette.

 

Wood Oven Roasted Lamb Meatballs, Couscous, Sofrito--$18

The meatballs were moist and had received good reviews but I liked the chicken dish better.

 

Margherita Pizza--$12

At first, the crust looked too thick for a true Napoli pizza but it actually worked well. The sauce was very flavorful and the mozzarella was creamy.

 

Dessert was ice cream, ice cream and sorbet--$5 each.

The ice cream is home churned and served in a take-out container. We chose the Salted Peanut Butter--our favorite, Taylor Maid Farms Espresso--needed a stronger espresso flavor and Strawberry Sorbet--very good strawberry flavor but too airy.

 



Overall, we enjoyed our dinner and will be back! Hope they have the corn soup, brick chicken and salted peanut butter ice cream on the menu then.

2012 07 03