Sunday, May 9: Mother's Day at Geoffrey's

We're going to venture into new territory today, by posting our very first restaurant review!

We took Laura's mom to the Mother's Day Brunch at Geoffrey's - Malibu. Geoffrey's as what we refer to as a "special occasion restaurant" as the food is delicious, but pricey. Laura had secured reservations a few weeks ago on opentable.com, which was a good move since the restaurant was packed. Located about 4 miles north of Malibu Canyon, Geoffrey's is mostly outdoors, with tables on the patio overlooking the ocean. It's the ultimate California fine dining experience. At night, it's quite romantic with the lights in the trees surrounding the patio. We would eat here once a month if our bank accounts could take it. But even brunch is a $68 pre-fix for 3 courses. Once you throw in a drink, tax and the valet parking charge, you're easily looking at $100 per person. The tip takes it north of that. For brunch. But the food is worth it. And our server Dee Dee was friendly and solicitous. She even tried to steer Laura away from ordering a watermelon mojito (but it sounded delicious!!) It wasn't. It was cloyingly sweet and medicinal tasting. Like an alcoholic jolly rancher. Instead of doing a condescending "I told you so," Dee Dee easily took the drink back and replaced it with a perfect Mimosa. Mike ordered his brunch standard, the Bloody Mary, which he deemed "good, but nothing special." Sandy went for a glass of chardonnay. There were 3 choices on the menu for chards, all between $10-$14 per glass, and she went with the Solaire chardonnay from the Santa Lucia Highlands, which was the oakiest & butteriest of the bunch. We looked the wine up and it only goes for about $13 a bottle, but it was quite good.

The brunch menu split the courses into a choice of an appetizer, an entree and a dessert. Geoffrey's largely specializes in steak and fish (California style) and the portions are large enough where you will not leave still feeling hungry. Here is what we ordered:

Mike: Porcini mushroom soup

Laura: Mixed green salad with pear, candied figs & blue cheese

Sandy: Crab cake

 

For our entrees, Mike ordered the crab cake benedict, Laura ordered the lobster quiche, and Sandy ordered the sea bass on a bed of pesto whipped potatoes, which is pictured to the right. We would have taken a picture of Laura's lobster quiche, if she hadn't torn in and eaten 1/4 of it before either Mike or Sandy took one bite of theirs....

Dessert was a choice of a berry tart, a lemon cheesecake and a chocolate hazelnut crunch tart, so of course we ordered one of each! Our collective vote went to the berry tart, which was light enough to be the perfect end to the meal. The chocolate hazelnut torte was extremely rich and fudgy, and nothing tastes better than just plain New York City cheesecake, so this one paled by comparison.