Dear readers and fellow foodies,
Welcome to the first restaurant review on Just One Cookbook. Nami has asked me to contribute to her blog from time to time with reviews on restaurants that we feel strongly about. As Nami mentioned in the previous post, we went on a stay-cation in Half Moon Bay this past weekend and we chose to dine at mostly local restaurants during our short trip. When we go on trips, I tend to seek and support local restaurants for several reasons. The most important reason is to truly taste the local flavor and understand why the spot is popular, and secondly to avoid tourists. On this particular trip, we had two very satisfying meals at a few local restaurants but today I will talk about our Sunday brunch at Navio Ritz Carlton. I spent a few days prior to the trip studying the menu before committing to making a reservation for the brunch.
We actually debated on the brunch since it was $88 per person, and if you include tip and CA tax it’s over $100 per person. For comparison, a full course dinner at Wakuriya (Michelin 1 star Japanese restaurant that we’ve been eyeing on) is $90. Navio typically only do two seatings for their Sunday brunch, one at 11 AM and the second at 1:30 pm. Reservation is required. We made a reservation for the 11 AM spot. We got to the restaurant at 10:50 AM and there were at least 70 people waiting in line in front of us. And before 11 AM there were at already another 20 people behind us. The seating preference is first-come, first-served and we were lucky enough to get a window seat. As we passed the dessert section walking through the restaurant to our seats, it caught my eye how each individual dessert plate is perfectly placed.
Navigating my way through the different food stations, I realized that the food layout is extremely well done, brilliant actually. There was almost no wait at any of the food line except for the raw bar, and even that was only 15 – 20 seconds at most. The food were presented in multiple sections, and they are: pastries, sushi/sashimi, cheese, raw bar, cold cuts, dim sum, salad, single serving, traditional brunch, and desserts. Instead of going into details on what is served in each section, I will briefly describe the highlights of the each section.
For my children’s, most of their food came from the American brunch section, eggs, bacon, and mini pancakes waffles. For the pancakes and waffles, I topped them with fruit compote instead of syrup. Very delicious! The presentation of the food was done quite nicely. Instead of serving all the food in large dish, Navio offered several delicate dish in their own mini serving dish. The seared scallop not only looked great, each piece was seared to perfection and the taste was very elegant.
From the sushi/sashimi section, the Mrs. loves salmon so I got some salmon sushi as well as slices of salmon sashimi for her. For us it’s the true test of quality by tasting the raw food and it passed with flying colors. We were both surprised by how fresh the salmon was. Since Nami and I both don’t eat wasabi, the sushi chef was able to make the sushi without wasabi for us on the spot.
For me personally, the highlight was the raw bar. Navio served raw oyster, littleneck clams, and caviar. All the seafood from raw bar were spectacular and I am getting hungry again while writing up this post and looking at pictures.
Last but not least, the desserts section. The attention to detail was amazing, from the silver cappuccino bean on top of tiramisu to delicate strawberry and banana chocolate truffles, we were in sugar heaven. In addition to the individual dessert offering, there were also 4 flavors of artisan ice cream, 8 types of cookies and truffles each.
We managed to taste 75% of the food choices with multiple runs to the raw bar. As far as the food goes, it’s definitely not your average Sunday brunch quality. Starting from the sushi which Nami and I absolutely agree are top grade to the gold flakes on lychee shots, we agreed that Navio strived to achieve perfection on each and every dish that was served. The service was amazing (I think they replaced my silverware 6 times during my meal) and the atmosphere is fantastic. We had a perfect view of the ocean and the golf course. Despite it’s very expensive price tag, I believe it was reasonable for the quality of service and food that was provided. Will I go back there anytime soon, probably not, but it’s definitely somewhere I would want to go at least once a year to celebrate special occasions. Next time when you visit San Francisco and want that amazing brunch experience, don’t forget Navio on your list.
Wonderful post Shen! I love that you and Nami work as a team on this blog and the content speaks volumes! The buffets sounds like a foodie’s paradise, the photos are beautifully done. I need to make sure to visit Navio one day with my family (maybe skip dinner the night before to make sure we have enough space in our tummies)!
Hi Cindy, our kids went swimming right before so they were super hungry by the time we sat down. 🙂 I skipped the heavy food this time (prime rib, leg of lamb, etc) so we can try more varieties. Next time I’ll definitely go for the heavier food.
Excellent review, Shen! You made me want to visit Navio this very moment! (^.^)
Thanks Tina 🙂 We just went a few days ago and I am already ready to go back.
I love that your husband did this guest post Nami! The website is truly a family affair =)
And you definitely made me jealous with all those delicious brunch goodies!
Thanks Peggy! It’s really fun to have a common hobby that we are both passionate about.
The setting, the food, the view… everything looks perfect & delicious !
Thanks Allie! We weren’t sure if we are allowed to take pictures so I was ready to have someone tap on my shoulder and tell me to stop. 🙂
This is a good spread of yummy foods, great review and nice shots.
Thanks Sonia!
It’s so far away from here, but this brunch (here in Italy brunch is a stranger) looks really amazing… I’d eat everything 😀
Hi Giulietta, we’ll swap places with you. 🙂 I’ll swap Navio with amazing pizza and chianti anyday!
WOW! What a fabulous spread! I think I need to hop on a plane so I can experience Navio’s brunch. Wonderful addition to your blog, Nami…great review and incredible photos 🙂
Thank you Liz. Your brownie recipes look amazing, especially the turtle brownie. YUM!
Great review and fantastic photos. You guys made me so hungry! I live quite far away, otherwise I’d go there to celebrate a special occasion. I’ll surely keep in mind if I get to come again in the area! Thank you Shenchen!!! 🙂
Hi Manu, you guys have amazing food in Australia as well. Nami’s been showing me different food blogs from Australia and we are always drooling looking at the pics.
This is a wonderful review. The pictures are great!
Thanks Maris!
I had to swallow at the cost…but as soon as I saw those photos – stunning!! What an incredible experience!
Hi Belinda, it was really expensive but I would say it’s definitely worth it for that special occasion once a year. I am already trying to convince Nami that we should go back to celebrate our birthdays.
What a fantastic spread! Very pricey, but worth experiencing at least once. It is good that they have a spread for children, too. We used to have a problem finding food for the children (when they were little) in restaurants with posh menus. We end up ordering other things aside from paying for the buffet which they hardly touch.
Hi Adora, Nami and I try pretty hard to introduce “adult” food to our children and always ask them to taste everything at least once. Their favorite food from brunch was actually the salmon sashimi!
You are right, this definitely does not look like the average Sunday brunch, even more so when I compare with my favourite brunch place!
Hi Three-Cookies, we also have our favorite brunch restaurant (Stack’s) and I always order crab panini when we go.
Very nice. The raw bar itself makes the cost of this brunch well worth it! Many times with brunches the quality of the food is sacrificed due to the quantity of food that needs to be made. But with soo many people already in line before your family and after yours just goes to show that Navio will not sacrifice anything and will only serve the freshest foods! Great post!
Hi Susan, I absolutely agree with you on the raw bar. I spent most of my time there and the oysters with mignonette, caviar, and a few drops of lemon were divine.
delicious review!
Thank you Kat. I’ll post more in the future as Nami and I continue our culinary adventure
This looks very tempting, in such an idyllic setting as well. Is there a children’s price? Did you see many other families there, and would you consider it “family-friendly”? Thank you for the detailed review!
Hi Sheri,
There were quite a few families there with young children besides us (8-12 that that I saw). I would consider the restaurant “family-friendly” and the waiter/waitress were just as attentive to our children as they were to us. I didn’t mention in my post but the restaurant did not charge for my children who are under 4.
Cheers!
Thank you for the additional info. We should definitely put it on our list for a special occasion. Look forward to more restaurant reviews!