A warm, elegant atmosphere awaits you at Insalata’s—from its polished wood furnishings and open-beamed ceiling to its picture windows at the front, full bar in the center and open kitchen at the rear. Its banquet room seats up to 40 and is perfect for private parties. Can’t stick around? Chef/owner Heidi Krahling (author of Insalata’s Mediterranean Table) also offers a take-out counter that has ready-made selections and a separate menu for to-go orders (excluding Sundays). The restaurant also offers offsite catering for parties of 30 to 600 people.
But do eat in if you have the time. The service is friendly, the atmosphere is attractive and lively and the food, well, it speaks for itself. There are plenty of vegetarian choices, top-notch meat and fish and a focus on local, fresh ingredients.
We first ordered a couple items off the specialty cocktail list (Love Potion #9 and Tibetan Thunderbolt—both delicious), then dove straight in to the crispy spanakopita “cigars” appetizer. Made with philo dough, they were filled with spinach, potato, lemon zest, pine nuts and feta cheese, fried to a perfectly golden crisp and sliced into halves. The accompanying cilantro yogurt sauce had a lovely, building heat to it.
The Syrian Fattoush salad had chopped romaine lettuce, cherry tomatoes, olives, feta cheese, red onion slices, cucumber and fresh chopped cilantro and mint, lightly dressed in a lemon vinaigrette. Topped with pita chips (a great alternative to croutons), it had plenty of crunch and flavor.
Anticipating our entrées, it was clearly time to switch to wine. We went for the Franciscan Chardonnay (rounded, buttery) and an earthy, dark Tempranillo from Spain.
The pan-seared ahi was served rare with a fresh fennel, onion and red pepper confit, circled with a white bean puree (which also had some heat to it). It was an absolutely fresh, light and very flavorful, guilt-free dish.
Next was the roasted honey pomegranate glazed duck breast (very tender), which was cooked medium and lightly glazed, served with sautéed spinach, golden raisins, couscous pilaf, pistachios and Moroccan tomato jam. An earthy dish with subtle sweet elements, it went perfectly with the Tempranillo (thanks to our server, Eirene, for suggesting that).
For dessert, the rich, creamy panna cotta came in an espresso cup and had big, fresh summer berries and a couple of polenta zeppole bites (think doughnut holes but made with cornmeal). The fruit crisp came out hot and had delicious, whole cherries and big chunks of peaches underneath a scoop of thick vanilla ice cream.
