Dinner at Aria

In search of somewhere new (to us, anyway) to try last night, we stettled on Aria in the Fairmont.

The room was very contemporary and attractive. The staff was appropriately attentive without being intrusive. The dining room was, at best, 2/3 full during prime time on Saturday night.

The menu / atmosphere was a slightly odd mix of styles - Indian meets Asian meets American is about the best way I can describe it. Somewhat seafood heavy on the entrees.

The meal started w/ naan that was made in full view of the dining room. It was at least as good as any I've had in any number of Indian restaurants. It was served w/ 4 sauces, the best of which was a yogurt/corriander sauce.

I started w/ a caprese salad, looking forward to some flavorful tomatoes and good, fresh mozzarella. I wasn't disappointed. There were two varieties of tomato (red and yellow) which had a wonderful flavor to them. The fresh mozzarella was a little softer than I might have liked (almost the consistency of ricotta), but tasted great. They finished the dish w/ watercress in some sort of mayo-based dressing. It all worked, sort of, but I would have been much happier w/ some basil and a drizzle of good olive oil. My companion started w/ seared scallops with foie gras. The interplay of flavor and texture was excellent.

As a main course, I had salmon w/ white beans and a sorrel paste. The dish looked good on the plate, and tasted ok. They must have been using farm raised Atlantic salmon, as there was just a lack of any distinctive flavor that one gets from wild salmon. This was the general problem w/ the whole dish - it was well executed, but nothing about it made you say "wow." My companion went for the cod w/ mushrooms and a mirin-based sauce. She had the same issue - it all tasted ok and looked good on the plate, but there just wasn't anything to get excited about.

We finished the meal by sharing a "bittersweet peanut-butter cup" Based on the description, I was expecting something like an upscale take on Reese's. Instead, we got something that looked sort of like tartufo, but with a peanut-butter center (that was so mild tasting, I wouldn't have known it was peanut butter but for the name of the dish).

The wine list was mostly populated w/ higher end CA wines. There was a limited selection of French and Italian. The white side of the list was dominated by Chardonnay, the red side dominated by cab-based bordeaux style wines. In spite of this, we found a nice Oregon Pinot that worked well w/ the meal. Prices were better than I've seen elsewhere, but there wasn't much under $50.

Overall, the meal was acceptable, but certainly not extraordinary. The only notable dish of the evening was the scallops and foie gras. At close to $100/person with a moderately priced bottle of wine - we could have done much better. I doubt we'll be back.