|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Springtime has arrived on the Peninsula, which means Easter is on its way.
Whether you celebrate the Christian traditions the holiday is associated with or simply appreciate Peeps and a good egg hunt, Easter provides a good excuse to gather for brunch. Here are 10 spots pulling out all the stops for their Easter brunch festivities. Reservations are required or encouraged for most.
Dinah’s Poolside Restaurant, Palo Alto
Dinah’s Poolside Restaurant will have hot and cold food offerings plus a carving station with honey pineapple ham and a roasted New York strip steak with peppercorn sauce. At $70 per adult and $30 per child between the ages of 4 and 12 (the 3-and-under crowd eat free), the restaurant will have breakfast favorites like sourdough French toast, bacon, homemade breakfast sausages, eggs Benedict and potatoes, as well as lunch items like clam chowder, roasted salmon, spinach and ricotta ravioli and chicken marsala, deviled eggs, croissants and more. The buffet-style meal will be served from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Dinah’s Poolside Restaurant, Dinah’s Garden Hotel, 4261 El Camino Real, Palo Alto; 650-493-2844, Instagram: @dinahs_poolside_restaurant.
Quattro, East Palo Alto
Between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. on Easter Sunday, April 9, Quattro, the high-end restaurant at Four Seasons Silicon Valley in East Palo Alto, will host an Easter brunch featuring a seafood station, a carving station and a mimosa and cocktail station. A dessert buffet offers carrot cake with passionfruit ganache and cream cheese mousse, Easter bonbons, a caramelized honey cake and chocolate Earl Grey tea crémeux. Main courses include citrus confit duck leg and beef Wellington. There will also be an egg hunt for children. Prices are $190 per adult or $280 with cocktails and wine; children are $70 each.
Quattro at Four Seasons Silicon Valley, 2050 University Ave., East Palo Alto; 650-566-1200, Instagram: @fspaloalto.
Navio, Half Moon Bay
For $249 per person, Navio, the restaurant at the Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay, is offering a seven-course Easter weekend tasting menu by chef de cuisine Francisco Simon, as well as an a la carte Easter brunch. Easter dinners will be held on April 7 and 8 from 5 to 9 p.m. and Easter brunches will run April 8 and 9 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Offerings include “fresh seafood, farmer’s market inspired salads, traditional brunch favorites with a seasonal spin, prime cuts, and a wide array of desserts,” according to the restaurant’s website.
Navio at the Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay, 1 Miramontes Point Road, Half Moon Bay; 650-712-7000, Instagram: @navio_hmb.
The Mountain Winery, Saratoga
Saratoga’s Mountain Winery will host an Easter brunch April 9 starting at 10:30 a.m. The event features food and dessert stations, multiple Easter egg hunts, a visit with the Easter Bunny and crafts. Tickets are $85 to $105 (depending on table location) for people 12 and up, $55 to $65 for children 3 to 12 and free for children under 3.
The Mountain Winery, 14831 Pierce Road, Saratoga; 408-741-2822, Instagram: @mountainwinery.
The Village Pub, Woodside
Easter diners will start out their meal with hot-cross buns and sweet butter for the table before one of several first courses on offer, including shellfish velouté with butter-poached Saint Simon oysters, potatoes and caviar; citrus-cured Hokkaido scallops with green and red strawberries, pickled Fresno chilis and radishes; or a buckwheat crêpe with Meyer lemon ricotta, lingonberries and a pine nut crumble. For the entree, diners can choose among a Maine lobster frittata, olive oil-poached Alaskan halibut, grilled beef tournedos and soft-poached eggs, brioche pain perdu or a soft-rolled French omelet. And for dessert, options include a 12-layer carrot cake served with black currant ice cream or strawberry pavlova made with rose water meringue. The cost is $118 per person and available time slots begin at 10 a.m.
The Village Pub, 2967 Woodside Road, Woodside; 650-851-9888, Instagram: @thevillagepubwoodside.
Fleming’s Steakhouse, Palo Alto and Santa Clara
Fleming’s Steakhouse visitors can dine April 9 on a three-course meal with a salad, entrée and dessert. Salad offerings are the Fleming’s salad, made with walnuts, tomatoes, dried cranberries, red onion and lemon balsamic vinaigrette, or a Caesar salad with crispy prosciutto. For entrées, choose between a petite filet mignon, a crab-stuffed shrimp scampi or a lobster tail scampi. And for dessert, guests can choose between a chocolate gooey butter cake or New York cheesecake. Beverages include a blueberry lemon drop made with vodka, blueberries and candied lemon or wine. The restaurant opens at 11 a.m. and the meal is expected to cost around $80 to $90 per person.
Fleming’s Steakhouse, 180 El Camino Real G-2, Palo Alto, 650-329-8457; 2762 Augustine Drive Suite 110, Santa Clara, 408-346-4557; Instagram: @flemingssteakhouse.
Hobee’s, various locations
Throughout the month of April, Hobee’s has a tradition of offering carrot cake pancakes with a cream cheese drizzle in addition to its usual items like omelets, breakfast bowls and blueberry coffee cake.
Hobee’s, locations in Redwood Shores, Palo Alto, Mountain View and Sunnyvale; Instagram: @hobeesrestaurants.
Menlo Tavern, Menlo Park
Menlo Tavern is planning an Easter brunch from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on April 9 but was still finalizing its menu when contacted. Reservations will be required.
Menlo Tavern, 100 El Camino Real, Menlo Park; 650-330-2790, Instagram: @menlotavern.
Alexander’s Steakhouse, Palo Alto and Cupertino
From 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. April 9, The Sea by Alexander’s Steakhouse in Palo Alto will offer a $95 three-course, prix fixe menu (plus a $23 kids menu). Choose from mussels, grilled octopus, spring chopped salad or shrimp shots for the first course; wild Ora King salmon, eggs Benedict, sea scallops or scrambled eggs with the choice of New York steak or Maine lobster for the second course; and carrot cake, a butter waffle or an ice cream sundae for dessert. Sides and add-ons include lobster fried rice, Japanese A5 wagyu and caviar. Alexander’s Steakhouse in Cupertino, meanwhile, is offering a prime rib take and bake for $475. Serving six to eight people, it includes a large Caesar salad, a 7-pound prime rib and sides including mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese and creamed spinach. Orders close at noon April 6.
Alexander’s Steakhouse, 4269 El Camino Real, Palo Alto, 650-213-1111; 19379 Stevens Creek Blvd., Cupertino, 408-446-2222; Instagram: @alexanderssteakhousesv.
Donato Enoteca, Redwood City
The Easter Sunday menu at Donato Enoteca starts with an antipasto of torta pasqualini, a savory pie made with spinach ricotta, spring onion, Parmesan cheese, crescenza cheese sauce and a quail egg. The main course is a slow-roasted Colorado lamb shank with garlic and oil and sauteed green asparagus. And there’s a Neapolitan dessert made with homemade ricotta, candied orange peel, orange blossom water and cracked wheat served with lemon curd. Available all day.
Donato Enoteca, 1041 Middlefield Road, Redwood City; 650-701-1000, Instagram: @donatoenoteca.
The current economic climate can be seen on the plate of the $249 per person meal listed here, as juxtaposed against the 2012 announcement that Hobees at T&C was closing. At one time, Hobee’s at that location was where I spent nearly every Sunday morning. Published here, https://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/2012/09/27/hobees-at-town–country-to-close, had 94 comments. One comment that struck a chord in me was this: “Palo Alto is a city with a long local history. It was once a unique small city whose government and residents gracefully balanced money with manners with self-awareness. It no longer exudes these as primary characteristics, and is unlikely to regain it against the current of ostentatious wealth and calculated greed. If you wonder why people have written about their memories and sense of loss for Hobee’s, it is more than just one restaurant, it is for a string of pearls that have fallen from the strand that will never return.”
Not everything can be resurrected.
Christos Anesti!