Bernard’s San Ramon Valley Blog

Situated across from the KFC and just inside the San Ramon border, Incontro Ristorante is a relative newcomer to the San Ramon restaurant scene and located as it is, in premises that has seen a multitude of restaurants fail, it seemed that opening yet another Italian restaurant was a brave move.

But owners Gianni Bartoletti and Luigi Troccoli obviously knew what they were doing. Incontro was an immediate hit with San Ramon foodies and if you want to eat here at the weekend, you better call a couple of days ahead for a reservation. This place is popular.

Incontro has an ambience that equals the best in the area, very reminiscent of a quality restaurant in Europe. This, combined with authentic, well prepared Italian food and attentive but unobtrusive service is the secret of its success.

Sylvia and I recently visited Incontro on a Tuesday evening in June. On entering, we immediately got a feeling that this was a cut above the average San Ramon restaurant. The combination of attractive surrounding with wood paneling and subtle pale yellow walls and a quiet buzz, even though only a few tables were occupied, was very encouraging.

For an appetizer, we shared the house salad - baby spinach with bell pepper, goats cheese, toasted almonds and a balsamic vinaigrette. This was the perfect appetizer and one portion was just about right to share.

Moving on to our main courses, Sylvia had  a flatiron steak with a port wine sauce which came with sweet and sour onions. The texture was firm, rather than chewy and the flavor of everything was superb. I went for the pan seared duck breast which was served with an Italian grape must reduction. Possibly served a little too pink for some people, this is exactly how duck breast should be in my opinion and this is one of the best I have ever tasted. It was absolutely outstanding. We accompanied this with an excellent bottle of Verdicchio from their predominately Italian wine list.

Now as regular readers know, we don’t often do dessert but we made an exception in this case having spotted a Panna Cotta on the dessert menu. Italians seem to understand desserts better than most. For those who don’t know, Panna Cotta is an eggless Italian vanilla custard and in this instance it was served with a wild cherry preserve. This is not an overly sweet dessert but the flavors are just phenomenal. The perfect end to an excellent meal.

Try it and you’ll like it! We will be back. Find out more at their web site at www.IncontroSanRamon.com.

Caffé Delle Stelle used to be one of our regular haunts some years ago, when Sylvia and I lived in Pleasant Hill. Since moving to San Ramon, however, our dining experiences rarely take us to Walnut Creek. It was therefore with a little trepidation that we dined there recently. So many of the restaurants we used to know well have either gone downhill fast or just gone out of business due to increased competition. This is not an easy business in which to make a living. I am therefore very pleased to be able to say that Caffé Delle Stelle is just the same as we remembered it. They even have the same manager (!)

I should perhaps point out, for the benefit of regular readers, that this is a far cry from most of the restaurants I have reviewed. This is not a competitor for the likes of Forbes Mill or Postino, both of which should clearly be categorized as fine dining establishments. Caffé Delle Stelle is somewhat further down the scale than that, but frugality appears to be seen as an approach that many are embracing at the moment, so a more affordable dining experience appears well justified to me. That is not to say that this is in any way “down-market”. In fact it has the feel of a casual neighborhood café, an authentic Italian Trattoria. I find its survival a little surprising being situated, as it is, in what has to be a high rent area in Walnut Creek’s “restaurant row”. But perhaps that is the secret to its success. All around are restaurants with much higher prices while Delle Stelle clearly offers good value.

The ambience, in fact, is very appealing. The space was a restaurant well before Delle Stelle took it over and it is apparent that the budget was spent on the kitchen rather than the dining area. Closely packed tables with plain white tablecloths surround a simple central servery and the whole area has a painted concrete floor. Décor comprises, Italian wine bottles, boxes of dried pasta, giant cans of tomatoes, six-packs of Italian beer and similar items, all arranged in tasteful stacks. It sound strange but it works. There are usually plenty of customers and the restaurant has a definite Buzz, although I believe it is rarely full.

As far as the food goes, it is pretty authentic. There is a wide choice of appetizers including smoked salmon and carpaccio, neither of which would be typical menu items in a mid-price restaurant. There are also quite a few salads.

On being seated, a plate of bread with a bowl of a kind of tapenade, is brought to your table, together with a jug of slightly sparkling water with ice and a slice of orange. This is a nice touch and as is so often the case, I think it s the small things that make the difference.
On this occasion, keeping our fore-mentioned frugality in mind, Sylvia and I headed straight to the entrees, although we did select a bottle of Chardonnay as both an aperitif and to accompany our meal. You have to draw the line somewhere!

I ordered the grilled sole, which was always one of my favorite dishes here in the past. The quality was as good as ever. A generous filet of sole, cooked under the broiler with melted butter, dotted with capers and with a generous squeeze of lemon juice. Wonderful! This was accompanied by mixed squash and soft polenta. A very good well-rounded dish in the Italian tradition.

Sylvia chose another Italian dish, Chicken Saltimbocca. This was also very tasty, and a generous portion. The chicken breasts were smothered with the Saltimbocca sauce and this was accompanied by baby well-roasted potatoes. Neither of us had a dessert, and I don’t recall that their desserts were particularly exciting from when we were regular patrons but we were both well-pleased with our meal.
I should warn wine drinkers that the wine list is both short and predominately Italian. Not a problem if you know your Italian wines but I don’t. The chardonnay we had was Californian though (Salmon Creek, which is the house wine) and it was fine.  Service was a little slow, but we were not in a hurry and we will certainly return.

Regular readers will recall that it is not long since I reviewed this relative newcomer to the upscale dining scene in Danville, and that my review at that time was somewhat mixed. For some time now I was looking for an excuse to return to Forbes Mill. Every restaurant can have an off day and most of the reviews I have read of Forbes Mill, both in Danville and Los Gatos, have been extremely complimentary and so Sylvia and I found ourselves here last Friday evening with hopes of having an exemplary dining experience.I am glad to report that we were not disappointed. Prior to moving in to the dining room, we opted for a drink at the bar before dinner. Forbes Mill has quite a generously sized bar and as I know from previous visits, it is well supported by the after work crowd as well as those like us, enjoying a pre-dinner drink.My initial observation was that the bar appeared rather less crowded than on previous occasions (a sign of the economic times perhaps), and we actually got a couple of seats at the bar fairly quickly but it filled up quickly so perhaps I am over-analyzing.On our previous visit, our major criticism was with the steak that Sylvia had, a prime rib cut. Since the restaurant bases its reputation on steaks, this is a obviously significant. On this occasion, Sylvia ordered the Mixed Grill and I had the New York Strip Steak. We both had fries and I also had a side of creamed spinach.Sylvia’s Mixed Grill comprised Prime Filet Mignon, Australian Lamb Chop and Quail. Sylvia pronounced everything to be cooked to perfection. Forbes Mills’ New York Strip Steaks are center-cut Prime Certified Angus beef. This was very possibly the best New York steak I have ever tasted. I like my steaks medium and this came exactly as anticipated with a pink center and nicely browned on the outside. It was as tender as many filet mignons I have had elsewhere and the flavor was phenomenal.It may be worth noting that you won’t see fries on the dinner menu at Forbes Mill but they were very happy to comply with our request and even their fries are far superior to those found in many restaurants.The dining room was pretty full and with a very lively atmosphere. Booking is definitely recommended. This is probably not the place to come to for a romantic dinner for two, at least not at the weekend.The service, as before, was exemplary and I am pleased to say that I now consider Forbes Mill one of the very best restaurants in the area. See more at their web site: www.ForbesMillRestaurant.com