Birthday Dinner at Delius

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Took a a friend to dinner at Delius, www.deliusrestaurant.com, for his birthday. I have known Joe for at least 35 years. We have been taking each other out for lunch or dinner for our birthday's ever since we met. Last year I took him to Delius and he enjoyed it so much that is where he wanted to go back. Since the Prix Fixe room was fully booked with a big pharmaceutical company dinner we were seated in the cellar room. This room is usually reserved for the 10 course wine dinner but we had the Prix Fixe room menu . Nice thing about this small dining area is that it is private and quite. A window looks into the kitchen are that is preparing the Prix Fixe dinners.

We started out with a glass of Rotari Brut (sparkling) and this was paired with a Octopus Ceviche. The ceviche was made into a round and had micro thin slices of cucumber wrapped around the outside. Made a very nice presentation and it was a good pairing.

Second course was a Spicy Sea Bean Salad with pickled radish and onion. Nice clean dish with good flavor. The menu listed a Sauvignon Blanc as the wine. Sau Blanc is not me so I asked if we could substitute another wine . I was even willing to pay the price difference. I asked for the 2013 Tercero Grenache Blanc and it was a perfect wine with the pickly salad.

Third course listed was Duck Confit, roasted summer squash and caramelized peaches. Nice dish although I do prefer duck breast because it is moister. The peaches added a perfect touch. A good dish with good flavors. Again a wine was listed that was not my thing. I have never been able to really get into Monterey wines. Matt the wine manager substituted a 2009 Mourchon Seguret, Cotes du Rhone. Matt said that this was the wine he originally was going to have on the menu for this course.

With the fourth course the wine that was listed I had several weeks ago and knew what it was like. decent but not me.  Dave the owners had told Matt that I probably would not like this wine. Obviously my reputation was known. So we substituted an Alma Rosa La Encanata Pinot Noir. This wine paired perfectly with the Braised Pork Cheek, served with a tomatillo sauce, crispy plantain and creamy polenta. Pork was extremely tender and had excellent flavor.

Dessert was a  White Chocolate Biscotti with stone fruit compote and house made cherry ice cream. A nice light dessert. excellent flavors and a good end to a nice evening.

It is not a normal occurrence to substitute the wines listed on the Prix Fixe menu. The restaurant does a good job of matching food and wine. But sometimes they bend a little if you are a regular customer and don't try to get the substituted wines out of the higher priced category.  I was willing to pay extra to do this.