Thanks for joining us on our best third adventures!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton

The Tasting House – Los Gatos, California

When excellence fuels experience to deliver joy.

Janelle and I are epicurean world travelers and we had heard of the Tasting House through business relationships.

Last Sunday while traveling in south bay, we live in Mill Valley, we took that opportunity to go and experience the Tasting House. 

It was just fabulous. On every level. The service, the ambiance, the wine and food. Truly everything. 

Let’s unpack. First the setting is decorated with great taste and comfort in mind. The “Zinc” countertop give that special French wine bar atmosphere, should you just want to mix with others. 

Live jazz music was coloring the air, providing with complementary beauty of the place.

The diversity of food and wines is second to none and the magic is the quality of their wine paring. For context, it was Sunday 4pm and we just had a Swiss raclette lunch earlier to celebrate Swiss national day,  so we decided to go for a light sharing tasting journey. 

We started with fried chicken & Belgian waffles maple syrup, dill pickle, paired with NV Monthuys Brut Champagne from France. The chicken was moist, cooked to perfection and the waffle base was a delightful marriage of consistency and taste elevated by the delicate note from the maple syrup and dill pickle.

Then onto grilled Spanish octopus with citrus vinaigrette, baby arugula, caramelized lemon paired with a 2021 Bodegas Albamar, Albarino from Spain.

The key result in octopus preparation and cooking is to deliver a non-chewy product. For those of you who have seen “Jiro Dream of Sushi”, it can be obtained by massaging the octopus. Whatever was the method used, it was tender and tasty to joy.

To continue that delightful journey, we had the lobster & cheese ravioli immersed on a tomato cream lobster sauce, arugula Parmigiano Reggiano with a touch of saffron crème fraiche, paired with a 2021 Domaine Frantz, Chardonnay, Burgundy, France, “du grand bonheur”.

We ended that gastronomic journey with a platter  of cow, goat and sheep cheeses from Netherlands, Switzerland, Australia, Italy and France.

Accompaniment was peach & chamomile jam, pump street dark chocolate, Dada Miele Honey, seasonal dried Fruits.  We paired it with a 2021 Patrick Prize Bourgogne “Tonnerre”.

We were tempted by the house made beignets & berries, but that would have been too much in one day…

So whenever you’ll be in the south bay, treat yourself to pure joy because you can travel the whole world and not find this level of quality, hospitality and joy.

Janelle and Jean-Claude