I wonder when Dada will set up a food blog. I enjoy her food reviews!
Red Lantern
808 Winslow St
Redwood City, CA 94063
(650) 369-5483
www.RedLanternRWC.com
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November 18, 2007
Last Wednesday, my family and I wanted to check out this newly opened Asian fusion restaurant in Redwood City. The former government building has been transformed into a beautiful restaurant with high ceiling. It’s owned by a Filipino Chef Jeffrey San Diego and his team, Indonesian Executive Chef Daniel Sudar and General Manager Daniel Burns. The two chefs have graduated from the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco. They are all still young in their thirties and have worked for some of the finest restaurants in San Francisco and the bay area. Being a Filipina with an Indonesian husband made it even more appealing to try out the flavors of our countries. It’s an upscale restaurant and I knew the interior designs were gonna be contemporary. I was right but it was more of an exotic Oriental ambiance with some Asian wood statues and decorations, Indonesian wood carvings, bamboos, huge red silk lanterns, Oriental chairs and some contemporary upholstered booths and palm trees. Tables are bare with modern red lined black square plates. There have cylindrical bamboo holders with green chopsticks on every table. They have a full bar seating lounge by the main dining area. There is also a second story lounge but more simple with a flat-panel screen tv.
The restaurant was packed on a Wednesday night. It’s a good thing we made reservations. The male waiters were dressed in an elegant black Chinese costume top with black pants. My daughter ordered for us a bottle of white wine which she thought was German. It was actually an Austrian wine called Gruner Veltliner, Hiedler ($32) which was reasonable and good. For appetizers we had Lapis Kraton which is a seared foie gras on toasted coconut rice. It was good but very expensive ($12) for a two inch high, two inch wide diameter on a large plate with a little bit of sauce. Another appetizer we had was Poke ($10), a raw tuna with scallions and cashew nuts which was okay. We got to meet Jeffery San Diego who is also the brother of my friend. We asked for some suggestions for the entrees. He recommended the Indonesian Lamb curry shanks called Gulai Kambing ($18+) and the Rangoon Clay Pot Chilean Sea Bass Fillet ($22) which is oven roasted with mushrooms and leeks. Both were flavorful and delicious. We had the Chicken Rendang ($14) which is a spicy braised chicken with coconut milk and spices. It was good and a little bit too spicy for us. We ordered a bowl of Crab Fried Rice which lacked some flavor and too expensive at $9. We also had a couple of tiny bowls of Jasmine rice at $2 each. For desserts ($8 each) we tried Putri Nanas, a pineapple upside-down cake with vanilla gelato and pineapple cinnamon rum sauce. It was more kind of like a tart but just okay. At first our waiter gave us the wrong dessert which we thought was the cake. It turned out to be the fried bananas with gelato but since we tasted it already, our waiter just gave it complimentary. That was good though. One other dessert which my husband wanted to try was the Tapioca with Strawberry glaze. It was not a good combination and we all did not care for it.
It was a real nice experience to try a new restaurant. We love the interior designs. Oh, I always like to check out the ladies room to see if it looks as good with the interiors. It sure was nice with a small arrangement of fresh flowers on the sink with nice tiles. The bathrooms doors have a nice design.
My ratings – 4 stars (excellent), 3 stars (very good), 2 stars (good) 1 star (okay)
Ambiance – 4 stars
Food – 2 1/2 stars
Service – 4 stars
Parking lot across street. Reservations needed.
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