Chef Bill Mitchell

























 

Have you ever read a review on a restaurant before? Than you know that the reviewer rates on some sort of system, being stars or dollar signs. The one thing I really don’t agree with is that they lump every restaurant in the same category, they serve food and have a roof over their head. In my opinion you can’t give a restaurant that is classy, what we call white tablecloth restaurants with a Ma & Pa restaurant. If you rated them the Ma & Pa would probably get ½ star and the fine dining would get four stars. But they really are two different food establishments. So what I would like to do in a series of restaurant reviews once a month is have categories. White Table Cloth (fine dining) Corporate (Applebee’s) and Ma & Pa (single owner casual dining). The rating system will be one to four stars, one star being the lowest and four-dollar signs telling what to expect to pay for a meal.  Now, because I’m not rating white tablecloth with the Ma & P’s, a four star rating on a Ma & Pa might be one star on the White table Cloth restaurant. So, now that we have a plan let’s start reviewing, and oh by the way if you know anybody that owns a restaurant in Mariposa County, I just might visit them someday.

But I’m going to start out with a restaurant in downtown Placerville called Café Luna. Tucked away in a long breezeway in the back, you wouldn’t think much about going in, no fan fair, no excitement, unless your from there and you know their reputation. It was around 5:30 pm and we didn’t want the local hangout so my wife and I decided to take a look at what they had to offer. Although the menu was posted street side, I didn’t even look to see what type of food they served let-alone what the price was. To our surprise as soon as we walked in I noticed it was a 10 top (tables) seating around 24 people, all white tablecloth with wine and water glasses, nice paintings, mood lighting and wall colors. This is one sure sign the food has got to be great. We were greeted with a smile and asked if we had reservations, answering “no” the hostess sat us anyway with a smile and handed us our menus and a wine list. It is always customary to look at the wine list first (if your going to have some) and order before you even look at the menu, which we did. Now, another way you can tell if the food is good, is the price of the wines. I think there wasn’t a bottle lower than $29.00, they went up as far as $79.00. We ordered their house Cabernet at $6.00 a glass.

We than started to determine what we wanted for dinner. The choices were varied, with fish, pasta, and steaks, there was plenty to choose from. The food server was very pleasant with an Italian accent that made this experience more delightful. I ordered the fresh Sea Bass with Panko breadcrumbs and topped with a light lemon sauce and sliced almonds at $24.00. My wife had Panko crusted Halibut at $22.00. The salad with mixed greens, some vegetables and their house vinaigrette was just wonderful. Than came our entrée, the presentation was picturesque. Cooked to perfection along with all the flavor and satisfaction. We ordered some coffee after our dinner and sat and enjoyed the atmosphere. I rate Cafe Luna as a White Tablecloth with **** and $$$$. I highly recommend this restaurant if your taste and dollar mindset wants some adventure. 

We’ll visit some other restaurants in the near future, but in the meantime remember I do Private Dinners Parties in you own home. For more information drop me a line chefbillmitchell@yahoo.co or 209-852-2728, thanx Chef Bill!

 
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Thanx, Chef Bill!