syrah girl

Any opinions on Custom House in Avila?

Maybe we'll lunch at Gardens of Avila, where would you recommend in Avila Beach for dinner?

We are considering taking a drive to SLO to the Sycamore Springs Resort for a soak in one of their mineral water hot tubs. Dinner at the resort's restaurant sounds nice, is it good and what do they do best for those who have been here? If everything looks good, we are considering giving a stay here to our son and his wife for a Christmas gift. All opinions welcome!

The Wine Cask is very nice, we celebrated an anniversary there. Ambiance,food, service, wine list were all excellent.

We have the Studio at Montage booked for our 25th anniversary dinner, so I'll report back on how it goes. Ocean 1500 at the Del where we are staying previously to Montage is also on the list as well as George's at the Cove in La Jolla. We're looking forward to our culinary trip in Southern CA!

We enjoyed Tina's and Joel Palmer House this past summer. I'll second the suggestion for the Dundee Bistro, very nice ambiance and great food. While we were tasting at Domaine Serene, the staff there was raving about Painted Lady. It's #1 on our list of new places to try in the area.

Another place you may want to consider is Carlyle. Bluehour in the Portland Pearl District is also one of our favorites.

There are several great places we have enjoyed in Portland. Fenouil in the Pearl District is great, Paley's Place, Wildwood, Park Kitchen, clarklewis, Heathman, Higgins, Park Kitchen and the Heatheman are all excellent choices. Hurley's is also very, very good. If you want some really fresh seafood there is the Harborside, located down by the waterfront. We like to dine on the third tier, it is a very pretty restaurant. Jake's Crawfish is also very good for substantial seafood.

After a fantastic day of touring 10 Paso Robles wineries, we hit Villa Creek for a 5:30 dinner reservation. The majoirty of the wineries and tasting rooms we visited had really yummy snacks and munchies set out. Dover Canyon had some really great Grilled Lamb that we loved and Bianchi had some killer Spicy Meatballs in a really Smokey BBQ sauce that we devoured! All started out well at Villa Creek. We were promptly seated, I had made ressies on OpenTable. We were first served some really good warm, housemade tortillas with a Salsa that was fresh and full of flavor. We then shared a bowl of the Sweet Corn Chowder with Applewood Bacon that was very good. Next we shared the Baked Goat Cheese with Organic Greens Salad that was perfect. Then we kind of hit a slump in the service and quality of the food from there. It took 30 minutes for our entrees to arrive, we decided on the Quail that our waitress recommended from the nightly specials. Big mistake, the entree arrived and did not look that great. Quail on a bed of rice, one fig on the side and cauliflower. No presentation whatsoever. The quail was tasteless and everything was just very uneventful. We did not care for our entree at all. When we complained to the waitress, she didn't really seem to care. The place was VERY busy and there was a large group in the adjacent room. Dessert was the Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Mousse. The cake tasted very stale, also but the Chocolate Mousse was perfectly prepared. Then we were over-charged by $10 for our entrees. My husband said he will not return here ever again. The Squash Enchiladas with Creme Fraiche looked very good coming out from the kitchen and the Tenderloin also looked good. Our dinner here was a little over 2 hours long. Service was not that great, either. Next time we will try Bistro Laurent which is across the street from Villa Creek. Cheers!

That was our first choice, but they will be closed on the day we will be there. I thought their menu online sounded really great, also.

Thanks so much for the replies, sounds like good, solid choice. I have added 4 Vines to our list. We are mainly interested in tasting Zins and Merlots this trip. Paso is a prime region for these wines. Cheers and keep the comments on Villa Creek coming!

We are excited about attending this fun event in Paso Robles this weekend. Justin, Dover Creek, Zenaida, Tablas Creek, Hunt Cellars and Doce Robles are a few places we hope to get to. We've been to Buena Tavola in Paso and enjoyed it, I was wondering if anyone has been to Villa Creek lately? McPhee's in Templeton is another consideration, but we want something a little formal. We spent 2 hours at a local vineyard yesterday picking grapes for our Alicante Bouschet and did our "crush" last night. It put us in the mood for this great event in Paso!

Too bad you'll miss the General's Daughter, I wish they would open for lunch. the girl and the fig in Sonoma has been a favorite of ours for lunch for many years. We have also enjoyed very good meals at Bistro Jeanty in Yountville. We have yet to try anything in Napa itself, always in a hurry to get to get to the St. Helena/Yountville places.

Looks like a great list. We have dined at the Six Seven at the Edgewater a few times for breakfast when we stayed at the hotel. The ambiance is just gorgeous and the views of Elliott Bay are panoramic and very pretty. The dining room is very contemporary with several fireplaces giving it a cozy feel at the same time. Dahlia Lounge is very good, the Pressed Duck appetizer pleased everyone at our table. The Flying Fish in Belltown has some great Softshell Crab and the ambiance is upbeat and fun there.

Correction to the previous post, we did have a chocolate lava cake when we had dinner here. It was excellent, no desserts for lunch yet tho, I'm assuming they may be different than ones offered on the dinner menu. It's all good here!

We ended up at Trelio for lunch yesterday, it's great having this place about 5 minutes from our home. We started with the Squash Soup, very similar to what Ron described, but we had some thin slices of bacon on our soup. It was excellent, my husband and daughter also shared this. Next was the Chopped Salad with Romaine, Avacado, Serrano Ham, Fennel, Parmesan and a nice Truffle Creme Fraiche dressing. The salad was quite large but very good, we took some home with us since the portions were so large. My entree was the Sloppy Joe, I had it with the Portabella Mushroom Fries and a nice Aioli Dipping Sauce and a couple of Pickled Okra. Very good but filing and very rich. I took half of this home to eat, also. My husband had the Croque Monsieur which he said was excellent. French Fries were the sides with this. We did not have wine or drinks, our billl was around $30 for 3. Next we will be back for the Crab Cakes and Field Greens and a nice glass of Viognier that I will ask Chris to hand-pick for us. We have yet to try desserts since Chris took over, but will make a special outing for coffee and desserts soon. This is a great lunch spot, not too crowded and service was very attentive and efficient.

It's actually a $24 value. Any more opinoins on Harris Ranch?

We be making about an hour drive just to dine here, no other reason. Worth it?

We have an Entertainment Coupon for $22 off a meal here we need to use before the end of next month. I would love opinoins on recent visits here. The online menu looks great and you get both soup and a salad with your entree which is quickly becoming a thing of the past. TIA

They have a website also for those interested, www.treliorestaurant.com!

Gorgeous photos! I have a mini review of our dinner under the Fresno Eats heading on Aug. 23. We also got to know Chris from Erna's when we took in some of our homemade Syrah for him to sample. We were very pleased that he was opening a restaurant in Clovis. We had been to Trelio's many, many times over the years with the previous owners, it remained stellar and wonderful through the changes over the years. We have not been for lunch but will soon, my husband also informed me that it's time for another dinner there soon. I also have a review on Tripadvisor titled "A Bit of the Elderberry in Clovis" under Clovis restaurants there with a couple of photos from our meal. Cheers!

Thanks! Sounds like a great place worthy of trying.

Thanks for the report, glad you enjoyed the General's Daughter. Great things are happening there!

How's the ambiance at Painted Lady? Joel Palmer House is very elegant and he is BIG on mushrooms there. I have some photos and a review posted on the Tripadvisor Forum under Dayton Restaurants if you're interested. We were wine tasting at Domaine Serene and the staff was buzzing about Painted Lady. I just had to get JPH our of my system, I had wanted to dine there for several years.

I'll second Bluehour, it's a cool ambiance, very upbeat with excellent food and service. Painted Lady is on our list for our next visit to the Oregon Wine Country. We wanted to try Joel Palmer House first and had a very nice experience there this summer.