Reviewer: Foodnut.com Cetrella 845 Main Street (At Monte Vista Lane) Half Moon Bay, CA 94019 650-728-4090 |
Cetrella is located in Half Moon Bay and serves Mediterranean cuisine with local ingredients from named sources. The restaurant closed for a winter hibernation, then reopened in May, 2009 with a new chef, Sylvain Montassier (Boulevard, Alinea). We were fans of the previous chef and hoped the food would live up to our expectations. It was great to find a solid place for food after a day at the beach. Tourist places like Half Moon Bay are always difficult places to find good food. They have live Jazz on Friday & Saturday nights. Menu changes all the time, plus you can order off the bar menu.
Decor, Vibe – Loft like high ceilings with lots of exposed wood. Large clean open kitchen. Bar area in a separate room up front. Mostly older folks in their 40’s to 60’s were dining.
Menu Pictures (Click to zoom into any picture)
Picks:
Cream of Sweet Yellow Corn Soup ($9) – roasted corn, cheddar cheese biscuit was a highly recommended soup. Very sweet corn and soup, and not too much cream. A nice balance.
Mind Blowing Heirloom Tomato Salad ($14) – Ginger Balakian Farm, Reedy, California pastorino farms organic basil pistou, fig caviar, harley farms feta cheese snow did not blow our minds. It was a good salad with two kinds of tasty fresh tomatoes. It could have used more cheese.
Elysian Fields Holistic Lamb Duo ($32) – Mr. Keith Martin, Waynesburg, PA – wood oven roasted loin, different cauliflowers, curry, frog hollow farm bing cherry chutney, shoulder “pot pie”, heirloom organics garden baby carrots, frisee & house made lamb bacon. This was an excellent signature dish. The tender lamb loin was cooked to a beautiful medium rare and was delicious. The lamb shoulder was braised and served in gravy, in a little cup with some vegetables. Very nice. The accents like the tart cherries, and the 2 colors of cauliflower, were fun. Lamb bacon was superb, but had lots of fat.
Cod ($22) was the special of the day. It came with two kinds of beans, cooked quail eggs, pesto toast, and some radishes. We were surprised that it was cooked perfectly. It was also not oily like some other cods we have had. Order it if it is available.
OK:
Kids Margherita Pizza ($6) italian mozzarella, was cooked in a wood oven and had a very nice crust, with no soggyness. Top has lots of tall blisters. Ingredient quality could have been better. Surely will satisfy the kids.
Pans:
None
Cetrella had good service with our glasses filled, bread refilled, requests handled fine. We were really surprised by how good our food was. Even the bread they serve was hot and fresh. Our expectations were fairly low but can heartily recommend this place for people visiting Half Moon Bay or as an excuse to come this way. If you are on a budget, come for the live Jazz, a cocktail, and a snack. Extensive wine list with glasses from $8, bottles from $28, corkage $20.
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