Restaurant: Rustic Canyon [1, 2, 3, 4]

Location: 1119 Wilshire Blvd. Santa Monica, Ca 90401. 310-393-7050

Date: February 25, 2011

Cuisine: Farmer’s Market Californian

Summary: Excellent Seasonal New American

As a seasonal market driven California restaurant Rustic canyon can be counted on to mix up the menu a bit fairly frequently. It’s a friday night favorite for us, and we return every two months or so. Many of the specific dishes change, but the overall types and categories stay consistant. If you are interested in the previous meals at Rustic Canyon, meal 1 here, meal 2 here.

The current menu.

Spanish style – olives on the table.

The current wines by the glass.

I had two wines tonight. The “2008 Yves Bruessin, Vouvray, Loire.” and the “2009 Domaine des Escaravailles ‘Les Antimagnes’ Cotes du Rhone.” The white was pretty much as expected, the red was a little rough around the edges.

“Local sardines, Crostone, Olivada.” Grilled sardines on the crunchy bread, with a sort of olive tapanade. I had hoped these would be a bit more marinated, like typical Spanish Boquerones-anchovies. It was tasty, but not for land-lubbers — Sardines always have a bit of the… sardine taste.

“Prawn and pork belly Spiedino, Garlic, Rosemary, Lemon, Chilis.” A lemon butter sauce with a strong garlic-rosemary thing going on. The pork was very soft. Essentially a variant of bacon wrapped shrimp!

“Roasted beets & farro, roasted beets, feta, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, red onion, fennel, yogurt.”

“Crispy white polenta, wild mushrooms, sunny side farm egg, parmigiano-reggiano.” Interesting mix of textures, crunchy soft. Very cheesy.

“Ricotta Gnocchi, braised duck ragu, parmigiano-reggiano.” Incredibly soft gnocchi, very nice cheesy/meaty ragu. Classic Bolognese type taste, but with the soft pillowy texture of the risotto.

The dessert menu.

“Lemon cornmeal sundae, meyer lemon sherbet, toasted cornbread, whipped cream.” The cornmeal was a bit like cornflakes, giving me this Japanese vibe. The sherbet had a great soft lemon flavor, enhanced by the whipped cream, which had an almost creme fraiche vibe. This all gave it the overall flavor profile of a lemon cheesecake. Refreshing.