Let’s just start at the beginning, with the Duck Confit Flatbread. It’s what my husband and I ordered as an appetizer to begin what became a taste-bud tantalizing evening of food, wine and sweets at Andrei’s Conscious Cuisine and Cocktails in Irvine. It’s simply too hard to focus on just one thing when everything was so darn good (credit goes to Chef Yves Fournier for that). So I’m choosing to approach my review in chronological order.
So the flatbread: I spotted it on the menu right away. Bite-size morsels of duck top a crispy crust of bread, along with goat cheese, spinach, Parmesan and Italian white truffle oil. In a word: divine. To elaborate: With each bite came a burst of flavors. The tang of the goat cheese. The rich, savory balance of the duck. The ever-so-subtle hint of pungency from the truffle oil.
For my entrée, I ordered the Alaskan Halibut wrapped with basil and pancetta, and served alongside the best hummus I’ve ever tasted, with a sprinkling of fava beans on top. A little dollop of mint yogurt dresses the fillet, a pomegranate glaze circles the entrée and a few crystals of cumin-infused Fleur de Sel dusts the rim of the plate. Beautiful, complex, delicious, and it took me to another place. (The Mediterranean, perhaps?)
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Let’s just start at the beginning, with the Duck Confit Flatbread. It’s what my husband and I ordered as an appetizer to begin what became a taste-bud tantalizing evening of food, wine and sweets at Andrei’s Conscious Cuisine and Cocktails in Irvine. It’s simply too hard to focus on just one thing when everything was so darn good (credit goes to Chef Yves Fournier for that). So I’m choosing to approach my review in chronological order.