On our first Valentine's, Steve took me to Jer-Ne Restaurant inside the Ritz Carlton Marina Del Rey. We had spent two days before poring over Valentine's Day's Fixed Menu's and settled on some Californian food. It was also one of the few restaurants still taking Valentine's reservations on such late notice. :P
The restaurant itself had a hotel bar/lounge feel until you look over to the large bay windows overlooking the Marina. The food was slightly Asian-influenced and surprisingly "gourmet" for a hotel lobby restaurant.
Our Meal:
Started with a mini Baked Potato Soup and Kobe Beef Tartare Burgers. The soup really tasted like a blended baked potato and the beef sliders were interesting because they were cold. Then we were served a Chilled Asparagus Soup with Lobster and Truffles. It took me a while to figure out the taste to this... the chilled soup really plays a number on your senses. The lobster was tasty and a great balance to the chilled crispness of the asparagus. Our 3rd course was a Roasted Beet Salad. Maybe they were grilled. In any case, they were whole mini-beets with long ends, so the salad itself looked very Dr. Seuss-y. They were really yummy though. For the main course, Steve had the Beef Tenderloins (very tender I must add) and I had a pan-fried Turbot (whitefish) served over Sweet Corn Ravioli. Yum. For dessert we had a triple chocolate sampler: White Chocolate Sorbet, Caramel & Chocolate Panna Cotta and a crunchy Passion-fruit/Chocolate Cake.
The ambience was very "hotel" and not at all Valentine's-y (except for the single rose that came with our check) but the food was very impressive. Not at all something you would expect in a hotel lobby. It was a lot of food but a lot of it was refreshing and not heavy at all.
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