Patty U. makes a return trip to 20-plus-year-old restaurant Acquerello, six years after she last ate there and following a recent reconfiguring of their dining rooms. She says the place “feels complete now” with its enlarged formal dining room and new, eight-person private dining room near the restaurant’s entrance. She mentions a dish with “cloud-like potato gnocchi, magically made without eggs or flour, …bathed in a guinea fowl ragu” (something we also loved when we were there on our recent pasta tour), as well as a classic Acquerello favorite, the parmesan custard. She also calls a duck breast dish a “tour de force,” despite the fact that she doesn’t usually care for sous vide meat. [Examiner]
Livermore got a rare shout-out in yesterday’s Food section of the Chron, with Nicholas Boer getting sent out there to check out the new India Clay Oven, across from the city’s new performing arts center and movie theater. He loves the “consistently crisp” naan, and says on a whole, “The menu is a couple of dollars more and a cut above what Livermore has seen.” He recommends the bangan pakora, the vegetarian samosas, and says his “favorite discoveries” were all vegetarian entrées, like the “wonderfully textured aloo gobi,” the bengan bhartha (“a rich eggplant ragout”), and the chana masala. All told: two stars. [Chron]
