5 stars for service.
3-4 stars for food.
This is going to be a bit of a long review, so bear with me because I really want to document my experience at Hestia. I've had Hestia in my Yelp bookmarks for a while. I honestly didn't think much of it when I added it to my collection. It looked like a nice restaurant, and it had pretty good reviews. When my boyfriend told me he wanted to take me out as a way to celebrate the end of our summer internships, I didn't think much about it either. I saw "Hestia" on a sign next to the door, and I exclaimed to my boyfriend that this restaurant was in my Yelp bookmarks, to which he responded, "I know." I was really excited. When we were seated, I noticed our server didn't bring us a food menu, and I even wondered aloud why we had not gotten one. My boyfriend then told me it was a 12-course tasting menu. "Oh." I was shocked. I knew from that moment on that we were in for an interesting food experience.
Firstly, I will say that Hestia does an excellent job of training its servers. Every single person who visited our table that night was incredibly polite, attentive, and could explain each dish with nuanced detail. Our server had asked us if we were visiting for a special occasion, and when we told him, he gave us complimentary champagne at the end of the night to pair with our desserts.
I wish that I could rate Hestia higher in terms of food because it was such a special and unique food experience, but I was unimpressed with quite a few of the dishes. They bring out little postcards of an oil painting and the name of the dish that is to follow, and I thought that was a really cool touch. Our server even gave me the little postcards in a nice envelope for me to take home, so it'll be a souvenir for me to remember my time here.
1. "snacks" - I really enjoyed this one. Each little snack was interesting and well done. My favorite was the oyster.
2. "nopales" - not a fan. It was pretty underwhelming, and it sat in a lot of oil.
3. "beef" - my boyfriend's and my favorite. I wanted to eat this one again and again. It was a perfect bite, and the meat was so tender and fatty.
4. "crab" - I loved this one. It was so unique, and I like how when they bring it out to you, you can see the solid gelatin shape. As you're eating, you'll see the gelatin melt into the broth that coats each piece of alaskan king crab so well.
5. "skewers" - immaculate. This was one of my favorites. The pork belly was incredible, fatty, and melted in your mouth. The mushroom was also delicious, and I am not even a fan of mushrooms. The fig was my least favorite. I don't like certain cheeses that taste almost rancid, and this one had a bit of preserved cheese that left a bad taste in my mouth.
5. "scallop" - my boyfriend didn't like this one. He thought it reminded him of the taste of string cheese, but I couldn't see it. I also think it was just okay, and the sauce was a bit strange to me.
6. "sourdough" - best. bread. ever. It's freshly baked, so you can taste how the interior of the bread is slightly sticky when you bite into it. The butter is awesome, and I wish I could have this bread every single day.
7. "halibut" - I thought it was just okay. Each bite of fish is really flaky and buttery, but I have never been a huge fish person, so it definitely wasn't my favorite.
8. I can't remember what this was called, but it was a little cracker with slightly seared beef. It was awesome. I loved it.
9. "purslane"
10. "steak" - My boyfriend LOVED this one. I liked it, but I have always felt that steak gets tiring after a while. However, it was cooked perfectly and was really tender. I didn't like the truffle mushroom that came with it.
12. "bubble & smoke" - really cool concept for a dessert. I love, love, love panna cotta, and this one was amazing. It was so creamy, light, and the tart blueberries was a perfect balance to the sweet panna cotta.
12. "sorbet" - this was really good, but there were way too many rice puffers. I wish that I didn't have to eat so many in every bite. read more