Author: jean komatsu
Last saved by: ENU

Bay 223 @Sofitel Hotel
223 Twin Dolphin Drive, Redwood City, CA
http://www.sofitelsfdining.com/cuisine/ 
Review date: June 2012

This upscale French hotel is across the way from Oracle's HQ, meaning it should be avoided at peak times; e.g., OracleWorld. We don't normally enjoy the classic Continental breakfast. We are breakfast lovers of the hearty American style. But when it comes to Bay 223, we can have both. The eggs and ham are decent, not the best, and priced as one would expect from a hotel restaurant. 

But we adore their croissants, and when you order coffee, you get a serious coffee-drinker's coffee. Being a French hotel, what else would they use except a French press?

This isn't the two-cups-and-out, individual sized press. This is the press every other restaurant uses for two people...only here, everyone gets one of their own. This is a full four cups of coffee, and Bay 223 uses extra-large coffecups.

To go along with all that coffee – their own blend, the regular is good but the decaf not quite as good as Illy – the Sofitel bakes their own croissants. The regular croissants are wonderful, as good or better (we think the latter) than anyone else's. 

Carlos picked the eggs Benedict, and ordered a regular croissant. I chose the corned beef hash/eggs, and asked for an almond croissant to be brought after I finished my hash – and if possible, to have it reheated. The waitress said she would ask the kitchen. 

In the meantime we ate our breakfast. The Benedict was okay; Carlos thought the Hollandaise was too weak on the lemon flavor (which he says about virtually all restaurants, however, except for Royal Café/Albany), and the muffins not toasted quite enough. The hash used ground corned beef with very good flavor, but it should really have been ground twice instead of just once, for more consistent texture. Bay 223 uses over-easy eggs instead of poached, which were well-executed although I much prefer poached eggs in this dish.

When our waitress came back, she said they had run out of the almond croissants, even in the gift shop (which sells not only postcards and gift items, but soft drinks and a full selection of the restaurant's bakery items, from ham-and-cheese croissants to cheesecake bites and chocolate mousse tarts). 

The pastry chef was in the process of baking more almond croissants, but it would be a 15-minute wait.  She asked if we were willing to wait or wanted to change to a plain croissant.

Wow, the chance to get a croissant hot out of the oven? Absolutely! 

Carlos changed his order to also have one of the almond croissants. We settled back into our comfortable booth seats and drank another cup of coffee. 15 minutes later, she brought two plates with almond croissants. 

We've never had almond croissants like these. They were heavily topped with toasted sliced almonds, and inside...a creamy butter/sugar filling that oozed like soft custard. They were still warm, crispy on the outside, buttery and meltingly soft inside.

Sublime!

The problem is that now I'll be disappointed in every other almond croissant. In fact, I'm going to want not just Sofitel's croissants, I'm going to want them hot out of the oven. 

That's the trouble with raising the bar to perfection. Once you've experienced it, it sure is hard to settle afterwards for everyday ordinary. 

Afterwards we stopped by the gift shop and bought four plain croissants (to make our own ham-and-egg breakfast sandwiches for the next two days), as well as some of their mini-pastries to try. The pastries were good, but they use sweet dark chocolate which I don't care for. A raspberry mini-tart had three ripe raspberries in a tender crust with a bit of raspberry puree underneath, and was a delicious biteful. Surprisingly the pecan tartlet, although honey-glazed, was less sweet, because they used a dark caramel for the filling (the darker the caramel, the less sweet it is). We thought both were preferable to the chocolate desserts: a mocha nut éclair, a chocolate glazed cream puff, and a chocolate mousse tartlet. The quality was good, but all three were too sweet for our tastes.

The croissants made a fabulous breakfast. I've decided the key is, they use a French butter. It's not Plugra, but there's a distinctive taste to it. Sofitel's croissants are still the best we've ever tried, even better than our beloved Parker-Lusseau Baker in Monterey.

Trouble is, it's a loooonng way from Oakland to Redwood City. So we don't get there as often as when we lived in SF. But when we're in the area at the right time, this is the Continental Breakfast to end all others. Heck, next time I'll just order a yoghurt and granola, so I can indulge in two croissants…yum!

Two people, breakfast: Two entrees, two beverages, two croissants, with generous tip, was $65.