Harbor House Restaurant is a favorite of ours, if you haven’t guessed due to the frequency of its write-ups.  It’s a bit of an effort to get to but with a direct flight from Dallas to Santa Rosa, CA airport (named for Charles Schultz and decorated with Peanuts characters), then pick up a rental car and it’s a 2 hour drive filled with wonderful scenery including forests, grape vines, grazing animals, coastal vistas and lots of fun twisty roads.  When you go, try and arrange to stay at the Harbor House Inn.  A lovely historic place, the building sits on the coastline and overlooks the water and some of the restaurant’s gardens.  The staff at the Inn and the restaurant are all first-rate and will make you feel like VIPs.  The accommodations have great linens and a superb breakfast is included with your stay.  Chef Matthew Kammerer has recruited wonderful people to be a part of your experience and the wine list is growing under the tutelage of Wine Director Kelly Eckel (beverage pairings are optional).   It’s not inexpensive ($285/pp) but it’s worth every penny to be able to enjoy a 2 Michelin-star meal filled with fresh fabulous flavors without the stuffy atmosphere that so often is part of it.  The room is small (just 20 people) so book now.  (No, I’m not on the payroll but when I find some magical, I want everyone else to enjoy it too.)

Set-Up

 

Tasting

The tasting meal started with a moist cloth for you to refresh your hands.  The first course was a Savory infusion of sea vegetables.  The warm golden liquid prepares you for what’s to come.

 

Cured rockfish was arranged with Jimmy Nardello peppers and radish slices.  The peppers are sweet, not hot and come in yellow and red – the color difference being a part of their ripening.  The colors made a lovely contrast with the multicolored watermelon radish. Paired with the totally fresh rockfish it made a terrific display of colors and a delightful textural play in your mouth.  A great start.

 

Smoked oysters from Humboldt Bay were paired with toasted dulse (red seaweed) and soybeans on chawanmushi (custard). The oysters were smoked over oak.  The soybeans added some texture to the otherwise smooth ones of the custard and oysters.  This was a taste of the coast in a bowl.  Clean and delicious.

 

Maitake Mushrooms were fried and topped with red sea urchin with lace lichen in broth on the side.  Some mushroom infusion, made from the trim was on the side.  The sea urchin was from Ft. Bragg and fantastic paired with the tempura battered mushroom.  The lace lichen was further seasoned with some dandelion flowers and had a slightly spicier broth.  It was lovely but the mushroom broth had that depth of flavor that makes you swoon.  They often have a variation on this course and this was the best one yet.

 

Abalone steamed in ash dough is presented first and then taken back to the kitchen to be plated with rice with offal sauce, cauliflower and shishito peppers and some side pickles.  The abalone was from Monterrey Bay and presented with some kohlrabi and turnip stems.  It was tender and delicious.  I really liked having the offal sauce combined with the rice – it gave it a very savory goodness that you could punctuate with the tart pickled vegetables.

 

Seaweed sourdough bread was served with cultured butter seasoned with sea lettuce.  The bread had a fantastic texture and a crisp crust that made enough mess it kept the staff busy.  The yummy texture makes me want to eat it without adornment but the butter adds another layer of richness that’s fun too.

 

Black cod smoked over bay laurel was served with shishito peppers and pea tendrils and their shoots.  I love the silkiness of properly prepared black cod and this was.  The large flakes just slid down your throat and were tasty with the fresh pea flavors and texture they provided.

 

Barbecued kohlrabi and kalettes (hybrid plant which is a cross between kale and Brussels sprout) topped with fried chestnuts was a new dish.  Some raw kohlrabi was thinly sliced on the left of the plate and the kalettes were in the middle.  The barbecue portion was very tasty, especially with the sauce.  The smoked piece was sweeter than the milder raw pieces but both were good with the nicely seasoned greens in between.

 

Knight’s Valley wagyu was with chanterelles and jus.   The beef was a NY Strip cut that was smoked over cypress and sat next to some of the raw meat wrapped in a nasturtium leaf.  There were turnips and chanterelles all in the jus rendered from the beef.  Both of the beef variations had terrific flavor and I almost think I preferred the raw.  The jus was so well flavored it made everything on the plate great.

 

Amazake  (means sweet sake and made from rice)  custard was in a passionfruit shell and seasoned with lemon verbena ice.  It was lovely.

 

Black Mochi Corn was made into ice cream presented on rosemary and sesame topped with a sesame twill and some crisp corn silk.  This was very good.  I almost licked the bowl out.

 

An infusion of Douglas fir with grilled honey and sweet herbs was brought with the final sweets.  It was mild and warm.  Last treats were an Umeboshi caramel, Chous with apple cider and grilled miso, Alpine strawberries, Candy Cap mushrooms macaron and Mugwort jelly.  The strawberries were both white and red but as usual the caramels were my favorite.