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Dinner and a Movie Teri Bayus

Food Adventures at the Sea Venture—By Teri Bayus

teri useA day of wine tasting inspires your taste buds to rejoice. And when celebrating yet another trip around the sun — my birthday — it calls for a great meal to go with newly purchased wine.
This celebration calls for an excellent chef in a stunning restaurant with an attentive wait staff and a delectable menu. The Sea Venture in Pismo Beach was our culinary destination for my birthday this year.
-1In the past, many of my after-work hours were spent sitting at the Sea Venture watching the waves roll in, surfers floating and the sunset. My girlfriends and I meet here for Mai Tai’s, Sunday brunches or just to impress an out-of-town guest. While the bar boasts one of the most seasoned tapa’s cook (Craig) and an amazing bartender (Krista), the restaurant has at its helm one of the best and brightest chefs in the area, Casey Walcott.
The entire staff here is one of seasoned professionals that truly enjoy their jobs and provide an unsurpassed dining experience. Simon Kovesdi (the restaurant manager) has always been the perfect host and has turned a blind eye when our celebratory mood was an octave louder than the rest of the diners. I am a fan.
I told Casey to surprise me and bring me what he thought I would enjoy and he was spot-on with each and every dish. Because Gary had stopped at the Apple Farm to consume a dozen Christmas cookies on the way to the Sea Venture, we both started with an appetizer — large, seared bacon-wrapped scallops, sitting atop fried -2Brussels sprouts with a delectable lemon aioli and goat cheese spread around the plate for visual stimulation, as well as palate pleasing.
The scallops were bigger than a silver dollar and perfectly cooked with the essence of the sea shining through the crispiness of the bacon. We paired the dish with a bottle of crisp Barton Label Blanc y Blanc, a white blend that is a new and delicious offering from Joe Barton of Grey Wolf Winery.
Next was beef Carpaccio, cut thin and spectacularly prepared resting on mustard vinaigrette with capers dotting the top, adding a perfect blending of flavor.
Resting beside this Heavenly dish were baby arugula leaves with shaved Parmesan and a sprinkling of Black Sea salt to enhance the flavor. This deconstructed dish was pleasing from every perspective and we launched it into our mouths.
The next dish was a subtlety delectable, lobster Vol-en-Vent (French for everything is better between puff pastry). This amazing shell shaped and multi-layered tartlet was swollen with sautéed lobster, grilled asparagus and cubes of fingerling potatoes, it sat upon a cloud of lobster cream sauce and green onions. Every bite was a perfect and rich creating a harmonious experience. We deemed it “50 shades of lobster,” likening the cream sauce to bisque and the meat inside tasty morsels of the tail of kings. It was absolute flawlessness.
Our next main course was a large confit of Pork Osso Bucco — a succulent meat shank from the thighbone cooked for hours in its own fat that is a favorite of any food-obsessed creature.
Add to it sheared, fried beets and carrots all resting on a puree of cauliflower, oven roasted tomatoes, caramelized onions, spinach, and thyme, can make for a very quiet table.
The amalgamation of flavors, textures and sauces made this a most memorable indulgence. We paired this with a Turley Zinfandel and both the wine and the meat were so impressive, we were not sure if we should or could go on eating.
Dessert was a light apple Crostada tart with Sea Canyon apples baked to a sweetness only known to apple connoisseurs, with a buttermilk vanilla bean ice cream and a drizzle of caramel sauce.
Gazing out onto the Christmas tree at the end of the Pismo Pier, I was convinced I remain the luckiest girl around.
I surprised everyone and went for a second dessert. It was my birthday after all, and there was all this hearty zinfandel wine left. Nothing goes better with that than a chocolate torte. The Sea Ventures version is a dense torte with a scoop of Doc Burnstein’s Chocolate Motor Oil ice cream, chocolate sauce and chocolate shavings. With the wine, “obsession” is too soft a word to describe my fascination with this dessert.
I was so impressed with this meal, I floated all the way home and booked our tickets to celebrate New Year’s Eve at this very spot (dinner has two seating’s one beginning at 5 p.m. and one at 7:30). You can call for reservations at (805) 773-3463.
I love the Sea Venture, as it is paradise and we are lucky enough to call this kind of Heaven our home.
The Sea Venture Resort Restaurant is open Mondays-Thursdays from 4-9 p.m., Fridays-Saturdays from 4-9:30 and Sundays 5-9. They are located at 100 Ocean View Ave., in Pismo Beach just three blocks from the Pismo Pier. All the restaurant specials and room information is online at: www.seaventure.com.

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