sempregelato's Friday June 22nd, 2012

Now that we're back in San Jose, and closing up the trip's posts, we wanted to end on a high note. While perusing the many galleries of Canyon Road (some 125+), we came across The Teahouse.

It's a quaint, friendly, pleasant place to be. They offer nice shade and seating for the art seeking tourist and local cyclist alike. We enjoyed Iced Matcha Green Teas - Jenny's sweetened with Ginger.

A worthwhile stop for sure, even if not visiting the galleries.

Thank you all for following. This has been fun and we hope you've enjoyed our reviews. Cheers!
The Honeymooners

Let me start with the best parts of La Casa Sena. They have a lovely outdoor patio, occupying a large courtyard. With white christmas lights up tree trunks, running fountains, birds chirping and rustling leaves, it's a lovely place to spend time. They also have a nice art collection decorating the interior of the restaurant including original Gustave Baumann prints.

That said, it goes downhill from there. Most good food follows certain norms: not too salty, good texture, proper ingredient proportions and highlighting the main ingredients. Conceptually La Casa Sena got things right, like with the idea of a wild mushroom tamale, but they missed out by making a corn meal which was flat and uninteresting. Then with the hanger steak, which was good, they served flat vegetable strips, which were really more like peelings. They were so thin as to be without hunger abating merit. They were just too thin to be useful in the meal.

The halved quail was nicely cooked, but the savory strawberry sauce was bitter from over cooking. The blue corn muffin was very nice on its own while making no sense with the quail and its sauce.

It's at this point that the wife insists I mention that the mashed, cheesed potatoes in the chile, that went with her hanger steak, were very good and did help redeem the meal.

But to dessert...the green tea panna cotta was more like half plain yogurt, half panna cotta. It did come with a good cookie, but the cookie didn't complement or contrast with the panna cotta - it was just a mismatched pairing. And lastly the white peach and basil cheesecake. It was so sugary that even Jenny admitted it was too sweet. It was marginally saved by the basil which would go well with a proper cheesecake.

On the whole, visit Geronimo instead. For almost the same cost, La Casa Sena is an epicurean flop. It's the Windows Vista of Santa Fe restaurants, over priced and underwhelming.

Appear here in the last part of the Geronimo Dinner, Mango and Vanilla Creme Brulee, with Crispy Almond Cookies topped with fresh mint. The creme brulee was a bit thicker than I expected but the flavor was delicious sitting atop a tasty mango reduced puree. Both the creme brulee and the mango puree were neither over nor under flavored. The mango's sweetness was a nice counter balance against the rich creme brulee. Even the crispy almond cookie sticks were delicious. And the presentation was beautiful.

Two mornings I had these pancakes and both were very good. The brand bacon varied though, the first time being a wide, thick style and the second time narrow and flat. The fresh fruit was good both times - a really nice breakfast. Both times with Whole Milk - which seemed to help with dehydration more than water or juice with breakfast.