Ravenous Dinner – Healdsburg, CA

After wrapping up our *sniff* last wine tasting of the day at Rosenblum Cellars , we were seriously ready to get our eat on and headed back to Ravenous (Trentadue’s dinner recommendation) to see if they were open yet! It was Saturday night, sure to be a busy night for the restaurant, so we were lucky we got there early at around 5:15pm.

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The restaurant was located in what looked to be a renovated house. I loved the interior – it was so cottage-y-cozy! I love these local-type restaurants – they are so fun to visit!

The place was empty when we got there, which was good because we beat the crowd. Ravenous had quite a few reservations booked up and I watched them have to turn away a couple groups. If you want to hit up this spot, I suggest reservations ahead of time or get there early! The bar area filled out since most of the tables seemed to be saved for reservations.

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We grabbed a table with a half booth along the wall where my friend and I could both fit on the cushy booth-side and were promptly greeted by our waiter…

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…and 2 copies of a hand-written menu, presumably by the chef. The selections all sounded so good, so my foodie friend and I happily split a few courses so we could try out more flavors.

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The table had pitchers of water with lemon and (I think) cucumber slices.

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The table also had a lovely loaf of bread – I think it was wheat sourdough.

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We started with a mixed green salad – can you believe this is “half”?! The salad was really good – the dressing was so light that I hardly noticed there was any on the salad at all.

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We also got an appetizer of crab cakes to share. These came with another little salad. My friend absolutely loved the crab cakes, but I couldn’t help but think the ones from Eclipse were better. Comparatively, these tasted almost a bit more “fishy“. Don’t get me wrong, they were delicious, as confirmed by my friend’s look of pure crab-cake-enjoyment I noticed as she munched on hers…I just thought the other ones were better.

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Now, the entree was another story. We got the bravette steak – from the menu: “Creekstone grilled spice-rubbed bravette steak lime chipotle sauce peppers + onions…roasted potatoes.” The steak was a little cool (heat-wise) when it came out, but the flavor more than made up for it. The spice rub was subtle but delicious and paired well with the cilantro lime sauce that lightly flavored the meat. The roasted potatoes were nice, hot, and tender, but not too soft. The carrot and asparagus were good, too, as was the roasted red onion quarter. The steak was by far the star of this meal!

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After our main meal was over, we received another hand-written menu for desserts. We looked it over but remembered another recommendation by Trentadue to try Hotel Healdsburg for dessert, so we got ready for some sweets (even though we were pretty stuffed!).

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Before leaving Ravenous, I snapped a couple shots of the fireplace that added extra coziness to the atmosphere.

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As we left, the restaurant was just picking up steam. The place was really filling up and must be popular with the locals.

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We headed over the Hotel Healdsburg . The greenery above the sign were too cool, so I snapped a couple photos.

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Look at those colors!

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Pretty little flowers.

Once past the sign, we walked to the back door, only to learn *gasp* the entire hotel and the restaurant were closed for a private event! Bummer! We checked the other restaurants in Healdsburg to find a nice spot for coffee and dessert, but again, it was Saturday night and they were all swamped. My friend called her sweet-tooth-roomie and got a recc for a spot back in San Fran, so we hit the road in search of the perfect dessert-meal to end our most amazing day of wine-tasting, good food, and great friends.

More on dessert next time!

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