Cafe Lucia, Healdsburg

Sonoma County Restaurant Week started on Monday. This was the 5th annual event where restaurants in Sonoma County offered special lunches and dinners. Lunches were $10, $15 or $20 and 3-course dinners were $19, $29 or $39.

We started the week at Café Lucia, located at 235 Healdsburg Avenue. It specializes in Portuguese cuisine. They offered a 3-course dinner for $29 and it was delicious.

Amuse bouche of linguica, cheese and olives. Nice blend of flavors--a little spice from the linguica, a little tart from the olive and creamy cheese.

 

 

Chourico Crusted Day Boat Scallop pan seared, Japanese sweet potato puree, leek confit, molho cru. The scallop was perfectly cooked and the chourico added a nice, slightly spicy flavor without overpowering the scallop.

 

 

Bolinho de Bacalhau cod cake, cilantro aioli, Moroccan black olive coulis. As expected, the cod cake was salty, nicely crisp on the outside and the cilantro aioli was delicious.

 

 

Pacific Wild Caught Blue Nose Sea Bass Fillet oven roasted, grilled yellow corn, sautéed collard greens, molho cru. The sea bass had a firm flesh and if it was cooked 30 seconds more, it would have been overcooked. I liked the corn and collard greens that accompanied the dish.

 

 

Pork Tenderloin "Recheado" with olive, fig and almond stuffing Sao Jorge cheese potato croquettes, port wine sauce. The pork was a tad dry but the potato croquettes were delicious and the wine sauce was rich and flavorful.

 

 

The desserts were the most amazing part of the meal. You had a choice of "Traditional" with arroz doce with Madeira braised figs, malassadinhas (baby fried dough) with "vos moles," and almond ice cream sandwich with fig cake. I'm not a rice pudding fan but this was delicious and the ice cream sandwich was amazing. The other option was "Chocolate"--chocolate mousse with almond tuile, chocolate soufflé with ruby port gelee, mint chocolate ice cream with caramelized banana. The mousse was light, the soufflé was rich and the caramelized banana had a nice sugar crust. This is a pastry chef in training for a Michelin-star restaurant.

 

 

We even got a mignardise of chocolate truffle. They called it an "obrigado something." Didn't quite catch the 2nd part.

Overall, we were quite impressed and will be back to try out the rest of the menu. I saw the table next to us eating blood sausage from their tasca tasting plates menu. Also on the menu were octopus, pig's ears and tripe. Can't wait to try those!



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