1494 Halford Ave, Santa Clara, CA 95051
Items ordered:
- Mushroom Confit Salad (Mushroom confit-portobello, shiitake, broccolini, mini asparagus, spinach, arugula, green plum syrup, sesame dressing, bean tapenade)
- Creamy Uni Pasta (Blend of fresh sea urchin and white wine folded into Uni cream sauce, garnished with crispy nori)
- Add-on of Grilled Hokkaido Scallops (3 pieces)
- Oven Baked Chicken & Truffle Doria (Baked rice gratin with tender chicken and seasonal mushrooms in a mushroom bechamel, topped with preserved truffle)
- GIWA Prime Long Rib (15-hour sous vide ribs grilled on the bone – rich, smoky, and tender)
- Black Sesame Latte
This was a nice pleasant surprise. I think this restaurant is mostly known for being a brunch spot, but they opened up a dinner menu recently as well. The cuisine style seems to be a mixture of Korean, Japanese, and Italian influences.
I usually don’t comment on the ambience of a restaurant, but this place felt weird. It seemed to be half very fine and upscale, and half either undone or just very low end. It was just generally a very weird vibe. I think this persists to the menu also. It was very pricey, especially given how “homey” many of the dishes are.
The service was just ok. They gave us an iPad to order on, and we did, but that seemed to have resulted in all of our dishes being first sent to the wrong table, before making its way back to us. You’d think that after the first or second time, the service staff would realize this, but it somehow persisted all the way to our last dish.
The food was…actually quite good. We started with a simple mushroom salad, but it was very well done. It was really full of all types of different mushrooms, and there was a really good light and fresh dressing that pulled it all together.
For the kids, we ordered the Uni Pasta and a Chicken Doria. We’d first tried Doria just recently on our Japan trip. It’s really good, but really homey. The Chicken Doria was good. Definitely not as good as what we had in Japan, but perfectly fine.
The Uni Pasta, on the other hand, was a total revelation. It had so much Uni and briny flavor in the sauce. I think they must’ve used a lot of clam juice. Still, it’s one of the best sauces I’ve had in a while. Unfortunately, we also ordered an add-on of three grilled scallops, and they were some of the most overcooked and flavorless scallops I’ve ever had.
The main entree was their Prime rib. It was really well executed. Very tender and flavorful. My only nitpick is that it was very sweet, but that’s to be expected for Korean beef ribs.
One minor nitpick is that they had 3-4 draft beers on their menu, but not a single one was actually available on the night we went. And their alcohol prices were high. It was $11 for a can of Korean beer.
I think we would go again. The Uni Pasta and mushroom salad by themselves are good enough to justify another visit. They have a few other interesting items on the menu to try as well.
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