To quote the A-Team (more specifically Hannibal), “I love it when a plan comes together.” Sometimes though, the plan just doesn’t end up working out, which was the case on a Saturday night in Sonoma. My first choice for dinner, The Girl and the Fig, was fully booked at reasonable dining hours, so I had to start scouring the internet for an alternate dinner location. I ran across LaSalette, a Portuguese restaurant, and my husband was sold on the extensive Port menu and Port flights that were available to try. They had a booking at 8 pm for dinner, so I snatched it up, and proceeded to take a dip in the pool at the hotel as we happened to end up in Sonoma one weekend when the weather was in excess of 100 degrees. So after cooling off, we headed out to give this Portuguese restaurant a try.
We were given the choice of inside or outside, and thankfully dining outside in California is nothing like dining outside in Europe as cigarettes in outdoor dining areas are not allowed, so we could enjoy sitting outside on a warm evening without an incessant amount of smoke being blown in our faces from adjacent tables. We took a browse of the menu, and we decided that the starters looked overwhelmingly more interesting than the mains, so we chose to split five of them, and try some of the Portuguese wine flights that were available. They have both white and red flights, and as we are huge fans of Portuguese wines, we were excited to see that we had that option on the menu. (I do enjoy Californian wines, but variety is definitely a bonus for me when it comes to wine.) Given the ordering kerfuffle that happened at the table next to us when the two dishes they wanted to share came out at the same time instead of in succession (mostly due to the fact that everyone at the table ordered one dish, so how would the server know that was how they wanted them), we made sure to ask to get them spaced out. The server was eager to do it, as there was no way everything would fit on the table at once, so we had them spaced out in three sets.
First up was the scallop dish and the octopus dish. I’m a huge fan of both, and I always want to order octopus when I see it on a menu even though 90% of the time the octopus is overcooked and rubbery. But when it’s not, it’s heavenly, so I always hope that will be the case. And it definitely wasn’t with this dish. There was a nice char on the outside that gave it a nice bite, but the inside was soft and perfectly done. It was an impressive dish, and it really gave us hope for the rest of the meal. The scallops were also well cooked, and tasted good. I would be happy ordering either dish again, but for me the octopus really stole the show for our first two dishes.
Next up was Matança de Porco which was a trio of pork: Pork Belly with linguica and morcella sausages. The dish was very tasty, and I’m always a huge fan of blood sausages, so it was a great surprise to see that on the plate. Interestingly, Matança de Porco translates into “Pig Slaughter” (at least according to Googles), which was an apt, but morbid, name for the dish. We also had foie gras with madeira, and the Foie Gras was seared to perfection and the dish was a delight to eat.
Last up we had smoked rabbit with potato salad. This, sadly, was an uninteresting dish for us compared to the previous four. It just lacked the excitement and flavors (and was served cold, so that was just a bit offputting). Four out of five stellar dishes is a good sign though, so I was eager to look at the dessert menu to see what would be available to have with one of the Port flights available on the menu.
We opted for the cheese plate (because who doesn’t love a bit of cheese with their port) and the Atypical Couvert. It was the most intriguing sounding dessert on the menu which seemed to be a mix of sweet and savory (which I love). It consisted of an olive oil cake, a fresh cheese ice cream and a candied piece of sausage. Atypical was definitely a fantastic word to describe it, and in my opinion the dessert was brilliant. We did end up with a bit of analysis paralysis when deciding on the port flights, so we went a bit crazy and ordered three different flights to share. And they were all fantastic. It’s nice to be able to go somewhere and get some older, Vintage ports that are not typically seen on a dessert wine list menu.
Things weren’t perfect though, the drinks seemed to take awhile to come out, and when they did, the red wine flights were in two different sized glasses. (The waitress insisted we both got two ounce pours, but there seemed to be less wine in the smaller glasses.) However, the blips in the service weren’t bad enough to keep us from returning. And given the meal we had at The Girl and the Fig the next day for brunch, my dinner plans not coming together led to an amazing meal. If you’ve only got one meal to eat in Sonoma, this is definitely a better choice, as the food is interesting and current with an amazing selection of Portuguese and Californian wines.
Food: ★★★★☆
Service: ★★★★☆
Atmosphere: ★★★★★
Value: ★★★☆☆
Overall: ★★★★☆
LaSalette
452 First Street East, Suite H
Sonoma, California 95476
Wow, everything sounds amazing (though I definitely agree that cold rabbit seems off-putting). That Atypical Couvert, Holy Cow!!!
I would go back for that dessert definitely!