Coco500, a Californian Delight

Sometimes a second trip to a restaurant disappoints, but Coco500 remains in my mind a delightful lunch spot. Having now tried most of the items on the lunch menu, I may have to return to sample the dinner fare. Coco500 says it serves California French fare, but to my palate it seems more like they do a California twist on various world cuisines: Japanese, Latin, French, and more. We had three appetizers, three entrees, a salad, and a dessert. That was plenty of food for four people. We basically lined up the food and ate family style, which is very easy to do at Coco500. The staff brought out all the appetizers together, and all the entrees along with the salad.

Started with one of the restaurant's more popular small plates: fried green beans. We couldn't figure out what was in the sauce, but the batter on these were hot, crispy, and not at all greasy. The beans themselves were cooked through but still had a little crunch in them. It's really hard for me as a home cook to get the squeakiness out of green beans, but these were perfect.

Duck liver terrine. This is a dish that's wowed first time pate eaters two times in a row now. The pate here isn't the extremely smooth kind, but it has a nice duck flavor and doesn't taste very liver-y. The pickled onions and carrots, pickles, and mustard on the side were a nice complement.

Coco mole "tacos," another thing I've heard a lot about. I'd hoped to try the beef cheeks, but they weren't on the lunch menu. Our waitress said the "tacos" would be the closest approximation of how the tender beef cheeks are cooked. The mole on this was wonderfully dark, dense, and full of spices. Or maybe I've just been starved for good mole.

I don't know if it was a service lapse or just their habit, but bread came out after appetizers. I didn't really mind; I was glad I didn't fill up on these little nuggets of dough. They were fine, but the rest of the food was much better.

Duck confit here was very different from more traditional French versions I've had. It was baked until crispy, and served dry with a few tropical accoutrements. Grilled mangos and toasted macadamia nuts were served along with a frisee to round out the meal.

The butter sage ravioli was my least favorite dish of the day. The sage flavor was not very prominent, and the ravioli was a bit heavy on the dough and light on the filling. I like the idea of ravioli, but I think I'm slowly cluing in to the fact that it's not a dish I generally love.

Coco burger: a very nice burger with house made potato chips. The chips are not as thin and melt in your mouth as Canteen's, but definitely good. The burger would be a great lunch if you didn't want to spend too much and were very hungry, but it wouldn't be indicative of the style of cooking for which Coco500 is known.

The little gems salad was great, as was the butter lettuce salad I had earlier this year. Crispy apples, juicy grapes, and slivers of poached chicken with romaine lettuce, blue cheese, and walnuts. A light vinaigrette was all that was needed to bring out the fresh flavors of the great ingredients.

We were plenty full, but had to try Loretta Keller's famous vacherin. Puddles of creme anglaise and dark El Rey chocolate floated on the plate. The base of the dessert is a little cup of baked meringue, which holds a giant scoop of coffee ice cream. More dark chocolate sauce is drizzled on top, and a few handfuls of slivered Spanish almonds are thrown in for good measure. I wavered a little between this relatively heavy dessert and a light-sounding mango panna cotta, but I'm so glad i decided to go with a classic.

I might change my mind if something on the menu really strikes a chord with me, but overall I think sticking to small plates and salads is the best game plan for me at Coco500. Those are the dishes that I thought really stood out, and the ones I ate the most of. The entrees are lovely, but if I'm going to eat Californian cuisine I want my cute little small plates and amazing salads.

Coco500 website