Cyrus   CLOSED
421 Healdsburg Ave., Healdsburg, CA
http://www.cyrusrestaurant.com/pdf/menu_dinner.pdf
Review date:  October, 2010

My first visit to Cyrus was a family dinner that Carlos missed. The food was amazing, the service flawless. I've been trying to get the two of us into Cyrus but missed it on our May 2010 visit. I was successful in getting a reservation at the end of this current October driving trip.

All that build-up tends to make one eye the food and service more critically. Although some of the dishes we got were amazing, others were surprisingly a little off. One problem was that we are not overly fond of fusion, no matter whose cooking it is. Another was that both dessert courses were astonishingly inept. It’s a sad fact that if something ends as a ‘downer’, your whole view of the experience is biased.

In a tasting menu, every bite literally counts because there's no more than one or two mouthfuls of any one dish. So an error in seasoning or execution becomes magnified, and that's what happened here.

We did enjoy some of the dinner and think Cyrus is worth visiting for any first-timer. Any restaurant is going to miss on certain nights – our second dinner at Cafe Beaujolais was easily eclipsed by lunch there two days later – and so forewarned, here's the blow-by-blow.

The canapes and amuse-bouche are numerous, so much so it's hard to remember what it is you're eating unless it's something simple like clams. That said, the clams in gelee were wonderful, as was a grape-like construction of molecular gastronomy that neither of us could identify, but both enjoyed. I enjoyed the yellow jack sashimi with pickled carrots more than Carlos did; he thought it very slightly fishy.

Both of us chose the eight-course menu, each one of us choosing one of the suggested alternates so we could cover the widest range of choices. I will say here that although Cyrus' waitstaff training is very good, our waiter failed to tell us that we could swap one or two items from the vegetarian menu, meaning we missed the corn and black truffle risotto.

The Thai lobster was named because of the sauce, which was a terrific, very simple puree of basil, cilantro, lime juice and fish sauce. It's dynamite with the lobster, which was a small but whole tail, sliced into four pieces. The foie gras torchon with fig jam and buttermilk biscuit was amazing, the foie gras cured in salt rather than poached, which gave it a firm yet meltingly spreadable texture that was wonderful.

I should add right here that Cyrus' baked breads are alone worth the reservation hassle. There's a choice of six different small rolls every night. We tried four which were all wonderful, and they were made even more luscious by the generous application of a mild sweet goat butter that Carlos and I finished off with gusto, slathering it with abandon on every bite.

Carlos' dish was two thin slices of abalone over shavings of matsutake mushrooms in a too-salty kinoko-mushi broth. The abalone was ordinary, the size of the serving a disappointment after the lobster, but the matsutake was a subtly flavored delight, as always.

The halibut was spectacular. Served with sweet corn in a scallion-lemon verbena beurre blanc, Carlos said it tasted the way halibut should. He would have loved this as a full entree! The bourbon-glazed pork belly was like a juicy, properly cooked version of Chinese roasted pork – not the char siu that most are familiar with, but the whole sides of crusty-skinned roasted pork that only Chinese delis serve. The black-eyed peas, which I usually loathe, were amazing with the pork. The red chard and apples were good, but almost more a distraction to the overall tastes.

The fusion bent to the menu continued with the duck, which was served with some of the meat in a small Chinese steamed bun with black garlic confit and a garnish of poached Asian pears. It was good, and the three slices of a small duck breast included were tender and delicious.

The beef loin that I got was two slices of beef with a tomato-ginger relish, in a too-salty tomato consomme with a poached daikon slice. I've never been fond of daikon – I don't hate it, but it's not a taste I find interesting whether raw or cooked. The beef was good but not special, somewhat overwhelmed by the broth.

Cyrus likes to tout their cheese course but again, it's not quite as good as the one Madrona Manor does (which we reiterate, was one of the very few things Madrona did do well). Still, it was one of the better ones we've had, perked up by the amazing pear-ginger butter that was a stunning accompaniment to a wonderful double-cream Roquefort.

We were feeling good about the meal, but then the downslide began with the first dessert. A passionfruit gelato was great, but the salty peach slurry and fruity olive oil dribbled over the top ruined it for Carlos. We could hardly encounter passionfruit without thinking back to the sublime hot passionfruit souffle with passionfruit sorbet that Olivar in Seattle had served us two weeks ago, which was so far above this visually attractive but awkward combination, Carlos couldn't even finish his portion.

He chose the mint chocolate chip with hot chocolate as his dessert, while I settled for the red velvet cake. Both of these were presented after a too-long wait, elaborately plated and falling somewhat flatter than the traditional pancake.

Of the two, Carlos' dessert was better. The mint chocolate chip ice cream was sandwiched between two chocolate butter cake layers like a sandwich, cut into small triangles. A chocolate foam in the middle of the plate was tasty, if so ephemeral it couldn't be mixed with anything. The hot spiced chocolate, served in a small demitasse cup, had a nice foamy cap and was the best of all.

My red velvet cake was also deconstructed, with squares of cake, blobs of cream cheese frosting, and a broad river of freeze-dried, crispy chocolate cake crumbs that was more irritating than tasty. Each individual element was too sweet, and the crunchy texture of crumbs in each mouthful was unpleasant. A tiny cup of unsweetened raspberry puree with a few chunks of frozen creme fraiche was unrelated to anything else on the plate, and far better.

Coffee was excellent, and the tea was brought to the table already brewed to the right strength, served with dessert – the waiter asked if we wanted them with dessert or after dessert, a courtesy that was greatly appreciated as we're always forgetting to order them brought with the dessert instead of separately. Huge points to Cyrus for both these little details, which is critical at this level.

The 'mignardises', additional confections form that are offered from a cart, were more interesting and satisfying than the overwrought desserts. A dark chocolate caramel, a pistachio nougat, along with mango and passionfruit gelees, were a far better ending for the meal than the ill-conceived mish-mashes of cake and ice cream.

Cyrus didn't bat a home run, but if the desserts had matched the creativity of the preceding dishes, we would have easily handed them the crown of being worth the breathtaking price to dine here. But the sweets didn't, a real disappointment when the pastry geniuses at Aziza and Boulevard in San Francisco, Excelsior in Eugene OR and Olivar in Seattle WA show up in recent memories as far superior in the dessert category. 

As Carlos says, dining out so often and at a generally expensive level of restaurants gives us a viewpoint that usually only restaurant critics get to enjoy. We're comparing meals on what has been, during this first year of retirement, not just a weekly but often a nightly basis. This trip is over five weeks long and that's a lot of restaurant meals upon which to make comparisons.

We're glad we went to Cyrus and wouldn't object to returning. But there's so many other restaurants we haven't tried yet, and for the money we'd rather try some of those than return to Cyrus just for ourselves. Because of the tasting menu format, we can't return to Cyrus for just the fish, or only the foie gras, no matter how they're prepared, because Cyrus no longer offers a traditional menu. Our return visits to Andre's Bouchee for sweetbreads, or La Petit Rive for duck, can work because we know the preparations may differ but they'll always have it in some form of entree we can enjoy without the distraction of multiple mini-bite courses that we don’t really want. 

Cyrus, as a destination restaurant, is always going to be an exercise in serendipity. It might work out perfectly for you that evening...or it might not. But either way, it will be an interesting journey, something that shouldn't be overlooked for a first experience. Whether you'll want to return, however, isn't guaranteed.

Two eight-course dinners, with tip came to $342. Cyrus is entering its winter schedule, meaning it's closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Reservations are only taken by phone two months in advance to the day, but they offer a three-day window going forward for planning flexibility.