CAFETERIA 15L

Last night we decided to try Cafeteria 15L. I have been wanting to try this restaurant after it's metamorphosis. It used to the be upscale Mason's but last year or so it changed into a restaurant that is more $$ friendly and more comfort food oriented.
This week is Dining Downtown Week and the participating restaurants offer three course meals for $30.00 per person. I thought the Cafeteria 15L had the best choice for their menu and they also offered a complimentary glass of house wine.
The menu for 15L is: 1st course butternut Squash soup with pumpkin seed pesto orRoasted Beet salad with bosc pears, arugula, goat cheese and spiced pecans.
2nd course: New York steak with garlic mashed potatoes, wild mushrooms and whiskey peppercorn sauce or Seared Ahi tuna with kabocha squash, shitake mushrooms, baby bok choy, and caramel ginger sauce or Roasted half chicken breast, butternut squash, swiss chard,mushroom jus.
3rd course - Warm chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream or Cranberry bread pudding with pumpkin ice cream.
Complementary glass of either the house Malbec or Chardonay. I chose the Malbec and since Charlie was having a Margarita I was able to have his wine also.
We started with an appetizer off the regular menu of Cheesy Crab Beignets with a spicy aoli. Which were light crab puffs..I would have been happy with another basket of those and wine.
The beet salad was good, a pretty typical beet salad. I really liked my Ahi entree. The Ahi was just seared on the outside and was raw inside. The mushroom and the bok choy were good but my only complaint was the kabocha squash. It hadn't been seasoned and it was too sweet and didn't match the Asian flavors of the rest of the dish. I wish it had been cooked with some dashi and a little soy sauce, that would have brought everything all together.
Charlie said the steak was OK, but then he's a steak junkie. This steak wasn't up to his standards. The mashed potatoes were excellent. I ended up finishing the rest of his potatoes.
Desert was OK, it was warm chocolate cake..nothing too exciting.
All in all I think the dinner was pretty good and it makes it worth while for $30.00. per person.
Sorry, there are no pictures. I forgot my camera and my phone pictures turned out blurry probably from the lack of good lighting.

DINE DOWNTOWN WEEK- ELLA RESTAURANT

There were six of us dining this evening at Ella's with the Meet up group. We went to Ella for the $30.00 3 course Dine Downtown Week special. I've been to different restaurants through the years during this week and normally it's not the restaurant putting their best food out there. Most of the restaurants put out the normal meat,poultry,fish. Ella's menu was very interesting. To start with Sue and I and Catherine and Ryan ordered the Marrow bone (appetizers are extra)or bone marrow which ever you want to call it.. it was delicious..to die for delicious. A large gone cut in half seasoned and and roasted, topped with cilantro, celery leaves and capers and served with toast points. Really, all the herbs were not necessary. You then scoop out the marrow and spread it on the toast and your in heaven. Sue and I also ordered the Hazelnut Gnocchi, with sugar pumpkin, maitake mushrooms and sage browned butter.. YUM. From the dining week special menu( and you have to ask for it) I chose the Nantes carrot soup with creme fraiche, the pan roasted Skate wings with a mustard burre blanc, spinach and potatoes, desert was a trio of sorbets.. pomegranate, blood orange and meyer lemon. Also they had a special wine pairing, $15.00 extra for 3 wines paired with your dishes. I have no idea what the wines were, the waiter went over them but by the time I got them I had forgotten what was what. That was probably my only complaint, I wish they would have said what each wine was as they presented them with each course. Back to the menu..
The soup was delicious very rich and creamy, I had to stop myself from not finishing the bowl or I would have been too full to enjoy the rest of the meal. I'd never had Skate before so I was really interested in this. Our waiter told us it was cooked with the cartilige so if that bothered anyone you shouldn't order this dish. It gives the fish more flavor and it's the same as deboneing a fish but easier. The flesh just slides off the cartilage and is a nice white flaky flesh, very mild in flavor. I loved it..would have really liked to have another serving. If I ever see Skate on a menu I would definitely order it again. All of us except Robert and Casey had the Skate, they had the duck confit which both said was good but the duck was dry. The sorbets were excellent both the blood orange and the meyer lemon really had strong flavors and woke you up and cleansed the pallet. The other desert was the pear tart, which looked good but I'm not a big pear fan.

I have to say I was very very pleased with my dinner as were all of us there. It was so much better than I was expecting. Of course all of Selland's restaurants are excellent and I'd been to Ella's before but I think this meal was one of the best that I've had there. It seems they just keep getting better and better. If your looking for a great place to go for the Dine Out week this is it. I would encourage everyone to go! Bone Marrow

hazelnut gnocchi

Nantes carrot soup

Skate Wing

duck confit

pear tart

trio of sorbets

Catherine of Munchie Musings was also taking pictures so go check out her blog and see her take on last nights dinner.