Ma Maison-Fine French dining in Aptos, CA

  Ma Maison is the type of restaurant that Eating out Cheap lives for. Its a high end place that consistently gets great reviews for its food, and a place that is normally out of our price range and not on our radar. Well, that changed radically tonight! We were tipped off that the restaurant had some coupons on their website and one intrigued us immensily.  It offers any entree on the menu and adds salad and dessert all for 19.95.  Its a time limited offer, the coupon has an expiration date and you need to use it between 5:30pm and 6:30pm. The nice part was you could use it any day except Saturday. We figured what a great deal for a Sunday night out.
  The building the restaurant lives in is back from the road nestled among the redwoods and backed up to a creek, a very cozy setting. Its an old house with a nice warm fireplace for this winter evening. Its comfy, yet elegant, formal but not stuffy, you definitely have the feeling that you've been transported to a French country inn.
  One thing we'll admit is we're not coupon people and its an experience that always makes us a little uncomfortable, but we had nothing to worry about here.  The staff is friendly and gracious, I left the coupon on the edge of the table and when our waiter saw it he immediately made sure we knew that any entree including the daily specials were available to us and was very helpful in explaining various dishes and any discomfort we came in with was soon dissipated.
   Bread and herbed butter arrived quickly along with a very good glass of house Merlot ($6). Making my dinner choice was easy, I wanted steak and tonight they had a NY cut which was Flambéd with brandy and finished with a black peppercorn cream sauce, served with French Fries and asparagus.

 Irina had the Filet du Canard, which is Duck filet, roasted and sliced, with blueberry-aged balsamic vinegar sauce, mashed potatoes and asparagus.
  The salads were a nice mix of greens with a basalmic vinegrette topped with some shredded carrots, a nice way to start off the meal.
  When our main course arrived two things were immediatly apparent, the portions were ample and the presentation was beautiful.
 My steak was a large thick cut piece of meat, cooked to a perfect medium, something a lot of restaurants have trouble doing. I'm not a big fan of sauce on steak and I usually ask to have the meat cooked plain, but tonight I didn't and I was glad I didn't. The black peppercorn cream sauce, was the simply to die for. At first I felt the fries were a little underwhelming until I realized when you used them to sop up the cream sauce they became heavenly and by the time I was done my plate was pretty clean.  The best thing was the steak didn't let the sauce overpower it, it was flavorful and very, very, tender.  The asparagus was firm yet tender all the way down to the bottom of the stalk.

  Irina's duck was a hit too.  She was glad she ordered it and said it basically melted in her mouth. I only got a small bite, she was being very protective of her portion, but I'd agree it was the best duck I've tasted and its sauce added a lot of flavor without overpowering the duck meat. Again her asparagus was excellent and the mashed potatoes were first rate. Irina had arrived craving mashed potatoes and she said they did a great job of satisfying that craving. We were full and happy and we weren't done yet.
  Dessert was two incredibly fresh Tiramisus. Creamy and light and again ample portions. We complimented them with tea and coffee and were ready to roll home, two happy campers.
 Now here's the good part all that came to $50.00 excluding tax and tip. We figured that at full prices the bill should have been around $90.00, actually very reasonable for the quality and size of the meals along with the great atmosphere, but for a 40% savings it was incredible.
 At the end of the meal the chef/owner, Lionel Morvan came around to each table to chat with us and ask how we liked things, very impressive.  Well Ma Maison has two new converts and we will be back, with or without coupons.  In fact this is the great thing about these kind of deals, there are places you might not experiment with because of price, but with this kind of savings its worth taking the chance and if like our experience at Ma Maison you love the place, everyone wins. You have a new place you like and the restaurant has new regulars.  This is one of the main reasons we started eating out cheap and one of the driving forces that keeps us going.

 

Ma Maison
9051 Soquel Drive
Aptos, CA

Gordon Biersch-San Francisco

After a long day at Macworld in San Francisco, we decided we needed to clear our heads with some fresh air, so we cruised down to the Embarcadero to walk along the bay and enjoy the view. Wasn't long before hunger started creeping up on us and being as it was around 5 we figured there must be a happy hour somewhere nearby. Sure enough on the corner of Harrison and The Embarcadero in a picturesque brick building sits Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant. A quick check with the hostess confirmed that happy hour was in progress and the plates passing by were making us hungrier by the minute.
If you like beer, this is your place. They serve five types of Gordon Biersch beer, all brewed onsite. In fact along one wall you can see the big tanks they use in the brewing process. The decor is dark wood and brick and one wall is all glass which gives a nice view of the bay.

At happy hour all GB beers are $1.00 off, wine is $2.00 off and they have $5.00 Martinis, Margaritas and Mojitos. On the food side they have a selection of appetizers all for $4.95 each. These include: Tapas, glazed chicken wings, deep fried artichokes, garlic fries, southwest egg rolls, house made chips and mini pizzas.
There were seven of us so we basically tried the whole appetizer menu, with the exception of the house made chips. This was a mountain of food. Not was everything beautfully presented, but the portions were ample enough for us to have some leftovers. We tried a variety of beers and they were all very well received. I was especially impressed with the freshness of the flavors, very bright and distinct, makes the bottled beer I usually drink pale by comparison.
Where to start with the food? The chicken wings were awesome, honey glazed, the way I like them and meaty, so tasty. Their garlic fries are world famous, and for good reason, I could have eaten a whole portion by myself. Tapas are really cool. They take their pizza dough and bathe it in an olive oil marinade and cook it in the wood fired oven and then serve it with a variety of toppings on the side.

These include, hummus, garlic, olive tapenade and fresh salsa. Yum! We all loved the deep fried artichokes which had a parmesan coating. Light, tender and tasty. Gordon Biersch prides themselves on making everything from scratch and it certainly shows in the quality of everything we tried. BTW, the staff is extremely friendly and helpful, they helped make the experience memorable.

Gordon Biersch
2 Harrison St
San Francisco, CA

Shadowbrook-HIgh End Happy Hour

The Shadowbrook in Capitola by the Sea, is one of our favorite restaurants, we love it for special occasions and when we want to impress family or friends. Its also one of the pricier restaurants we go to, so we can't usually afford it as much as we'd to. Not only is the food top notch, but the grounds are among the most beautiful of any restaurant we know of and people come from afar just to enjoy it. The restaurant itself is nestled at the bottom of a hill among lush gardens and is reached by a rail tram. All these elements have made it one of the premier places for marriage proposals, amazing.
Well the Shadowbrook is also the grandaddy of establishments in the Eating out Cheap Hall of Fame. While they work hard to cater to a clientle that will drop some serious cash, they also have some awesome deals that allow people on more modest budgets to enjoy the food and surroundings on a regualr basis. Its obviously a win win situation since the place is full on any night of the week and any time of the year, that's a real feat in a town that usually survives on the tourist trade.
They do this two ways, one by having daily specials in the dining room, see their website for the latest specials and the second is by their happy hour. We been here a couple of times and what I've noticed is a lot of people are basically having an inexpensive dinner and drinks during this time. This is not an everyday happy hour, it only occurs on Tues. and Friday. Friday is half off happy hour and Tuesday is "two for one" happy hour. We went on Tuesday, when the happy hour runs from 3:30-6:00. Beer, wine and well drinks are $3.50 ea and appetizers including the pizzas are two for one, which means you pay for the most expensive one of the two.
We started with two vodka/cranberry drinks ($3.50 ea) and then ordered a Pizza Margherita and Memela's Oaxacan "pizza". The pizza consisted of fresh mozarella cheese, vine ripened tomatoes and fresh basil. Wow! The toppings were extremely flavorful and were nicely complimented by the thin crust which was lightly toasted on the bottom and edges. Turns out they're cooked in a woodfired brick oven, and it really makes a difference.
The Oaxcacan "pizza" is something out of this world. Its definitely not a pizza, its also not Nachos and its not a tostada. What it is a melange of incredible flavors sittin on top of two "corn tortillas" and I put the "" there because these are more than tortilla, they're a little thicker and have been lightly fried, crisp but not "chips" crunchy. The topping is a mix of 18 hour smoked pork, black beans, queso fresco, fire roasted tomato salsa and what appeared to be a whole sliced fresh avocado. Its the sum of the ingrediants that makes this the most heavenly concotion I've every had. This was a lot of food too. We had about half the pizza left and were about to pack it up and go home, but we couldn't resist nibbling and managed to finish it all. The best part is that in the end our bill was around $18.00 for two people!
We'll be coming back so for happy hour, but we're also going to try a dinner special. Thursdays all seafood items on the menu are $15.99.
Four thumbs up on this place.


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The Shadowbrook
Capitola and Wharf Roads
Capitola by the Sea, CA