Aurora Ristorante

Wow! An authentic Italian restaurant complete with authentic Italian wait staff & chefs! We have been wanting to try Aurora's in Novato for quite some time now, so last night we finally decided to check it out. After reading a few reviews, we were a bit apprehensive and I kept saying, "I hope its really good because I'm starving!". Well, it was fabulous!!! We cannot wait to go back.

We were greeted immediately & seated at a large booth right by the front door. Next time I wouldn't mind getting a bit more into the dining room, but we were content. The decor was nice and warm, the walls were adorned with artwork by local artists, and the place was packed! And a bit loud. I think it would also be nice to sit outside on the lovely patio on a nice day. Our waiter, Luca, was so sweet and attentive! We loved Luca. His Italian accent was adorable.

For starters, we ordered my favorites: Beef Carpaccio & Caprese salad. They were delicious! The beef was thinly sliced and had capers and a slight drizzle of dijon mustard, and the Caprese had thick slices of tomato topped with thick slices of fresh mozzarella cheese, strips of basil, and a drizzle of olive oil. My daughter had a Caesar salad and it was light and devoid of anchovies, which we appreciated!

On to the entrees. My daughter had the Mushroom & Sausage Pizza, without the mushrooms. She liked it alot. My husband and I decided to share two dishes: the Tortellini with Proscuitto & Peas in a creamy white sauce and the Chicken Saltimbocca, which was served with some steamed veggies & what appeared to be scalloped potato slices. Both dishes were excellent!!!

We even decided to order dessert, which is rare. I had the tiramisu (lady fingers, rum, espresso, & marscarpone) my daughter had the affogato al caffe (vanilla ice cream with whipped cream and espresso), and my husband had proffiterol (tiny cream puffs, chocolate sauce, & ice cream). Again, they were all absolutely delicious and made in house by their passionate pastry chef!

Aurora & Carlo Scatena also own Arrivederci and are co-owners of Caccicucco Cucina Toscana here in Marin. We've been to both places a few years back, but those visits were not as memorable as this visit was. Aurora rocked our socks!

Branching Out

I'm getting bored of doing only restaurant reviews. I think I'm going to start writing about other stuff, too. Like running and recipes. My primary blog (at extrapounds.com) is about weight loss and I have a "following", if you will. Here, I never get any hits at all, no one reads it, so I can maybe be more open. And talk about more than just weight loss, food, & exercise--or lack thereof.

So, I'm a runner. It took me a long time to get here, but I do love to run and I've already done a half marathon, a 10K, and a 5K. I've been shopping around for another 10K and I think its gonna be either the Golden Gate Presidio Trail 10K or the Embarcadero 10K-they are both on November 9th. I wanted to do the Napa Valley Stomp 10K on September 27th, but we have tickets to the Giants/Dodgers game on the 26th. And there will be beer involved. My husband I are planning on staying over so we don't have to drive home. We usually take the ferry, but its a night game, and I don't think it will be running that late. It doesn't matter because I won't fee like running the next morning anyway. I'm excited about seeing my beloved Dodgers! I hope they win again like they did when we went to the game on July 6th. I'm from Los Angeles, what can I say? I like the Giants, too. After all, my favorite color is orange.

Anyway, the problem is that I've been slacking off on the running. Big time. I've only run a little over 6 miles this month!!! I have 2 more days, so I could probably get in another 4-6 miles, but still. On average, I like to run 3-4 miles a day, preferably 4-5 days a week. My goal is to get back to that. Which is why a race is in order....I need something to train for!!! I have had all kinds of excuses not to run: its too windy, its too hot, too humid, etc. But the real reason is I'm just too lazy. Sometimes the gear is just too much of a hassle! Those sports bras are torture chambers, the lycra sticks to my skin when I sweat, and every time I put my running shoes on the dogs start barking and jumping because they know that I will be walking them as my warm up. You know, just writing this makes me realize that those are such lame ass excuses! LOL Just lace up my shoes and go running already!

Ok, so I enjoy running and love the Dodgers. I also love the Rolling Stones. I love the beach and love to shop. Oh, and I'm on a womens doubles tennis league that I enjoy. I also love to cook and have been obsessed with some really great food blogs that I've found. I've been adding them randomly-without permission. Oops. I think thats ok, though, isn't it? I mean, when I see my name on someones friends list I get a little smile on my face. I love all my friends over at extrapounds.com. I've lost 44 pounds with the help of that website and all the friends I've made. But I've been blogging there for over 2 years now and I am feeling like I've worn out my welcome. I still need to lose about 10 pounds, but its not happening. I'm eating ok but I am not exercising as much as I should. That needs to change.

I'm excited that I have a new place to write! I still need to review Jason's new restaurant in Greenbrae. The food is fantastic! Next time!

Shelley

Fujiyama

We got a last minute invite to go out to dinner with another couple who lives in our neighborhood. We've socialized with them before, but never one on one...or two on two. ;) It was a lot of fun getting to know W & C a little bit better.

Anyway, we headed to downtown San Rafael and stopped for a beer at the Broken Drum Brewery. Its been there for several years now...I remember when they first opened. Boy does time fly! We each ordered a different beer, and they were all good. I had the pale ale and it was lighter than your average pale ale. We also shared an order of onion rings, which were light and airy and yummy! Not greasy and the crust was very smooth. It was served with Ranch dressing....I'm not sure what else I would have preferred instead. I guess usually I just eat those plain.

Next we headed down the road a bit to Fujiyama, where we had reservations, unnecessarily. There was only one or tables seated, and we were greeted right away by one of the owners. Apparently, its husband and wife owned and operated. I saw no other employees, in fact. We sat down and were served a small bowl of steamed soybeans...we had no clue where to put the shells, though. Then she brought us a small bowl of a spinach salad that was really delicious! It had a sesame seed dressing and a tan/brown-ish curly little vegetable that I have no clue what it was. It was kind of nutty tasting. I could have eaten the whole bowl myself. 2 orders of seaweed salad were ordered, too, but one taste and I was done.

Next came the sashimi: yellow tail tuna and albacore tuna. I preferred the albacore. We had to wait quite a while before I finally got up and asked for some plates.

We all sort of agreed to order some large rolls: the Marin Roll, the California roll with real crab (ordered by me), and the Rainbow roll. The problem was that we forgot to order all of them with real crab. That put a huge damper on things for me. So, I ended up going home hungry since all I had was a few soybeans, a few bites of the spinach salad, 3 pieces of sashimi, and about 3 pieces of the roll. I didn't want to be assertive or offensive by ordering something more to my liking. Also, I would have tried more if they hadn't used imitation crab in the rolls. And clearly, there just wasn't enough to go around, anyway. I mean, I didn't want to eat all 6 (only 6!!) pieces of California roll.

Although the service was for the most part very attentive, I felt that the sushi was just average. I don't think we will return. The owners were most gracious, though.

Picante

We were going to try the new Bobby's Cafe in San Rafael today, but at the last minute we decided on Picante. Its tucked way back in a residential area, so you really have to know about it otherwise, you probably would never know it was there.

There were several patrons there, and many of them were Latin, so I took that as a good sign! :) The overhead fans were loud and windy and the music was also very loud, but other than that, it was a fun atmosphere.

Rory had a cheese quesadilla, which was really, really cheesy, to the point of being super greasy. Bella had a rice, bean, & cheese burrito. They don't have a kids menu, so it was a huge burrito and she wasn't able to finish it. She said it was perfect. My husband had a "super" carne asada burrito and he loved it. It had steak, rice, beans, salsa, sour cream, and guacamole. I chose the regular carnitas burrito, but I didn't "love" mine. It would have been delicious if the pork had not been so dry and hard. It had good potential, though. It was stuffed with tasty Spanish rice, salsa, and pinto beans. Their homemade bottled hot sauce was really good with a nice kick to it.

Maybe it was just a bad "pork" day at Picante. I'm sure we will go back again some day; maybe I'll try the fish tacos next time.

I'm dying to try the new Jason's in Greenbrae so I can review it. I never had the opportunity to visit his old location in San Rafael, and I'm glad to see he got better "digs" in the old Giorgio's spot by the water. And we will have to give Bobby's a try sometime, too.

Amici's Pizza

With this heat wave we've been having, I decided ordering pizza to be delivered sounded like a good idea. Amici's has this really great new york style reduced carb extra thin crust that the kids love, so Amici's it is. Kind of weird doing a review on pizza, but I guess I haven't gone out since we went to Sams! Unless you count the fair (I had a deluxe burrito from Noel's. Delicious! Ground beef, beans, cheese, tons of lettuce, tomato, & sour cream. Huge!) or the Giants game (I had a Hebrew National all Beef hot dog with sauerkraut, relish, & mustard. It was big, messy, and kind of soggy, so I couldn't eat it all).

I ordered a mini cheese pizza on the NY thin crust for Rory and a mini cheese pizza w/black olives and mild Italian sausage (regular crust) for Bella. They raved about it. I also got them some Minestrone soup, which is always good, even if it is 100 degrees out. The soup was more on the warm side, but full of huge chunks of veggies (cabbage, carrots, green beans, etc), pasta, & kidney beans.

I ordered the Amici's Combo for us. It has pepperoni, bacon, sauteed mushrooms, & black olives. Since theres so much stuff, it isn't wise to go with the thin crust, so I went with the regular. I also ordered an antipasto salad with salami, mozzarella, pepperoncini's, red onion, kalamata onions, & mustard Italian vinaigrette. Yum. At first the guy said he left it at the restaurant, but thankfully, he left it in the car and I got my salad!

I give Amici's a big thumbs up. Its not as good as Mulberry Street Pizza (they won the Food Network Mushroom Lovers award!!), bu they don't deliver. One of these days, when its not 100 degrees out, I'll drive down and pick it up. Its worth it.

Sam's Roadhouse

Sam's RoadHouse is right down the street and I've always wanted to try it. It used to the German House and we never did check that place out. This place was awesome! They just installed new cherry pergo flooring and it really complimented the red booths. We walked in to an empty diner, but were greeted immediately by Shelley! :)
The menu was pretty basic with some good surprises tossed in. I had a house salad, which was served with mixed greens, red onion rings, tomato, cucumber, and bleu cheese dressing. It was delish.
My entree was a hot pastrami sandwich served on light rye bread with swiss cheese, a generous portion of pastrami, pickles, mayo, and much to my surprise, avocado! It really wasn't the best pastrami sandwich, but I think the main problem was that the pastrami was kind of dry and a bit tough/fatty. I had my choice of side salad, potato salad or fries, and I chose the fries. They were a little greasy, but they were good. The service really couldn't have been friendlier or better, honestly. We weren't completely blown away by the food, but I think I just ordered badly. We've already decided that we will come back and give dinner a try.

Horizons

We went to dinner at Horizons for Mothers Day. We had a reservation. It turns out that it may not have been necessary but it did secure a window table for us!This place has a very cool, yet funky interior. Its very casual and we were a bit over dressed. It's been around for while, but in nearly 19 years of living here in Marin, I've never actually dined there before. I have eaten at Ondine, which is above Horizons and under the same ownership, but much more posh.

We were seating immediately at a table with a gorgeous view of Belvedere, Angel Island, and of San Francisco. We were greeted right away, our cocktails arrived in a timely manner, but they were not garnished and my husbands vodka tonic was lacking vodka and the tonic was flat. So he sent it back and ordered red wine instead. I was bummed that my dirty martini was lacking olives, and my daughter was equally upset about the lack of cherries in her Shirley Temple. No garnish? I ordered her another one and had to request cherries in this one

Our next disappointment was that they were out of steamed clams. However, they kept enough on hand for the paella & bouillabaisse. Hmmmm. We were all looking forward to some steamed clams, but instead, we ordered fried calamari & a Colossal prawn cocktail. I loved the presentation of the calamari. It was battered and breaded, fried a golden brown, and served in a newspaper printed paper cone inside metal spiral cone. It was served with cocktail sauce, a chipotle aioli, lemon remoulade, & cocktail sauce. It was good. The prawn cocktail was not very "colossal". There were only 4 prawns, 3 of which were decent sized, one of which was considerable smaller, and they were very tough. The cocktail sauce was described on the menu as "spicy", however, it was not spicy at all. We love spicy. The hotter, the better.

My girls ordered pasta: one with marinara, one with butter & parmesan. These portions were very tiny and the parmesan was absent. They were still hungry, so we knew dessert were in their future. My husband ordered the Seared Sea Scallops with ravioli and he was very happy with the flavors, but again, the portion was small. I ordered the Surf & Turf after much consideration. I wasn't sure how the quality would be based on our appetizers. But it actually had potential. It was an 11 oz New York steak which I ordered medium well, but came extremely well done, and about a 3 oz lobster tail. The flavor of the steak was good, but because it was so over cooked, it was a bit tough. If I order my steak medium, its always too rare, so its always hit or miss with my medium well preference. The lobster was also tough. The mashed potatoes were of good consistency, but rather salty. The green beans were perfectly cooked and delicious. My entree was a good size portion, and I took home more than half of my steak.

We rarely order dessert, but we did last night. My daughter chose the raspberry & mango sorbet duet, I ordered the Tiramisu, and my husband and other daughter shared a "Fishbowl hot fudge sundae". The desserts were all very good, but the word "fishbowl" implied a larger portion than what was actually served.

The service was slow and just plain bad. It was a holiday and our waiter was busy, but it just took longer than necessary. I know he was trying to be attentive, but he only did what he had to do and was just not overly helpful. I was content just enjoying my time with my family on Mothers Day, so I did not complain. I don't think we'd go back, though. Maybe if we just want a beer and some fish & chips after a long day of touristy sightseeing when in the area, but we won't have high expectations. We really should have gone to my absolute favorite, The Spinnaker. But we went there last year for Mothers Day and we wanted to try something new. One thing I've learned is to not try new places for special holidays. Go to somewhere tried and true.

I've been ignoring this blog for too long. Honestly, dining and writing reviews is a passion of mine, so I need to get here and blog more often.