California Food and Wine Blog

Sweet hazelnut flavor is very nice on top of the already nutty brown ale flavors. However the sweetness is overpowering of the malt and hops. I’d say pass on this beer unless your a real fan of hazelnut.

For lunch in Paso stopped by Downtown Brew for the buy 2 get one 1/2 off entre. (with 2 beverages). We each ordered a wrap. I got the Club wrap and unfortunately my tortilla tasted a bit old and hard, but otherwise was good and came with a very refreshing salad.

I also got their blueberry ale that I’ve heard differing things about, but whatever they’ve done to their new recipe is awesome. It was pretty entertaining just to watch the blueberries float up and down, but the taste was also just the slightest bit fruity but overall very light and tasty.

Good lunch and very affordable.

For our date night we visited the restaurant that has won Best of SLO several years in a row.

We made a reservation and headed to the patio where we were seated at a lovely table right alongside the creek. It was moderately slow that night but it was also a weekday.

We spent a while discussing why they would offer both Tappas and Appetizers on the menu and what the difference was. And then finally we had our waiter clear it up by basically saying they think their customers are too dumb to realize they’re the same thing so they just have both and overprice the Tapas. We ordered potato samosas as an appetizer and it was pretty unique. The texture was a bit off but flavor was spot on.

Our cocktails were strong and full of spice, definitely a drink you sip slowly throughout the dinner which worked out well.

I had been advised to get the mole and Nathan had wanted the spicy chicken something, but the waitor informed us both those items had been discountinued possibly permanently despite being a local favorite. A bit odd but we’ll see if it comes back after the season.I ordered the thai red curry and Nathan got the Chow Novo. Both had great spice though I definitely think the Thai Red Curry was the better way to go.

We finished off the evening with a dual icecream platter of coffee and chocolate. It was very good and couldn’t snag a picture before it was all gone. Sorry. But good.

Early April we had family visiting and all wanted to go to lunch somewhere that allowed dogs. Dorns has always been very accomodating and out on the patio brings water and sometimes treats for the dogs.

That afternoon the service wasn’t as great as usual but the food was quite good with my Cobb/Avocado salad filling and refreshing on a sunny day.

http://www.dornscafe.com/