La Fondue - Fork Feeding Frenzy in Saratoga, CA
Written: May 23 '00 (Updated Dec 05 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Knowledgeable waitstaff, ice tea included in the meal at no charge, chocolate fondue!!!
Cons: Dimly lit interior, long long waits, pricey menu
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| zzJulia's Full Review: La Fondue |
Things to know:
• This place is very trendy and exclusive, expect to make reservations way in advance unless you want to eat at 5:45pm on a Monday (which is what we did).
• The food is expensive and mediocre.
• The waitstaff is knowledgeable and friendly.
• Expect to dine for 2.5 hours, unless you're simply going for dessert.
• Bring a flashlight to read the menu since it's as dark as a cave inside the restaurant!
• If you are a vegetarian, you can order ala carte and have grilled vegetables, in addition to the cheese fondue.
SETTING
With a fou-fou French name like "La Fondue", and the upscale locale of oh-so-exclusive Saratoga, you might expect a very classy, posh interior. Au contraire. Instead, when you walk inside, you will be entering into the dark belly of an ultra-trendy dining beast. If you arrive after 6pm, you will see veritable hordes of forlorn diners scattered around the front entrance. These hungry individuals have either neglected to make reservations or have been abused by the greeting dominatrix..er, hostess, I mean. If watching these these people plead pathetically for a table from the heartless hostess whets your appetite, you have come to the right place!
Have I mentioned that it's dark inside? Maybe that's to hide the tacky decor. The place is festooned with ridiculous swathes of bright red, orange, yellow, blue and purple cloth. Further silly touches include the garish gold spray-painted suns everywhere. I mean, if the place were named Sol, or Sole or New Age Sun Foods, then I might buy it. To further complicate matters, the music playing in the background is some bizarre mix of club, reggae, hip hop and blues.
MENU
Instead of really ordering dishes, this menu is set up for dining plans. If you order the "La Fondue", it includes a house salad or spinach salad, a cheese fondue appetizer, a meat platter and a chocolate fondue for dessert. All this, for a barely palatable $60 per couple.
Last night, we really splurged and had the "Fondue Feast", which had a larger selection of meats for the entree. ($72 per couple) We started off the meal with a bland spinach salad, and then the cheese fondue. There are many choices of cheese for the fondue, such as cheddar w/beer, blue cheese, or swiss, or swiss w/garlic. We settled on the swiss, which is a lovely bechamel blend of swiss gruyere and edmonthal (sorry if I spelled that wrong). Our waiter was very charming and walked us through the ingredients and prepared the fondue at our table. My favorite part...he topped the swiss fondue with a sprinkling of nutmeg, just like Martha Stewart recommends!
We had little platters of bread, fruit and veggies to dip into the cheese. I have to say, the best dips were the bread and surprisingly, the pickle!
The meats we selected were Chicken (with a honey tarragon marinade), filet mignon, tuna, teriyake sirloin, shrimp and calamari. We then opted to grill the food, as opposed to boiling it in oil or broth. They plop a grill on your table and stick a little pot of garlic butter on it. They then instruct you to cook your stuff yourself and make sure not to touch the raw stuff with the cooked stuff.
This was tedious and eventually, all the meat simply tastes like garlic butter (which worked out great for the shrimp!). Ken hates working so hard to eat and I think that Korean BBQ or Hot Pot City ($15 a head) is far superior to the offering at La Fondue.
Into the weird?
You can have exotic meats like alligator, buffalo, ostrich and venison.
DESSERT!
Always my favorite part of the meal and this was no exception. We selected a bittersweet chocolate and they brought out little platters of fruits, pound cake, pirouline cookies, cheesecake balls, and rice crispy balls. Other chocolate choices included milk chocolate or white chocolate. They also offered flavorings like amarretto, which we decided against. I'm a chocolate purist!
The strawberries and bananas went quickly, and I especially loved the pound cake. The Snickers bits were a mistake that I would avoid in the future.
The Bottom Line
Our meal took 2.5 hours (last time, it took 4!). Our bill totaled $200 for 4 people. Since it was a Monday night, we didn't have any wine, so I'd imagine your bit would be quite hefty if you factored in wine. Overall, it was a pleasant dining experience, but an overpriced one I wouldn't be likely to repeat. You can go for just dessert after 10:30pm.
Recommended:
No
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zzJulia
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Member: Juls W.
Location: Sunny California
Reviews written: 130
Trusted by: 229 members
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Silicon Valley Girl.
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