Expensive Dinner/Cheap View

Once a year some of the more expensive restaurants in San Francisco participate in “Dine-Around Week,” when they offer fixed price three-course meals for a lot less than their regular prices. I’ve taken advantage of this on many occasions to try the food at restaurants that I would not normally go to.

Last week I saw that some of the restaurants in Los Gatos were doing a similar program, so I thought it would be fun to take Mom to a place we would not usually try. We went to Crimson which I have looked at before but thought their prices were just too high. It’s located in a strip mall on Los Gatos Blvd., near a Trader Joe’s, a pet food store, and a Carl’s Jr., and this brings up an interesting point: Crimson is pretty inside, with red draperies and little twinkly red lights around the windows, but your view is of people strolling by in shorts and flip-flops. It’s a romantic place, but the sight of Joe & Josephine Six-Pack in their tank tops kind of spoils the ambiance.

Crimson’s special menu had three fixed-price dinners, at $25, $35, and $45. Clever marketing: the starter on the $45 menu was “Fondue for 2,” which forces both people to order the most expensive plan. But we were hooked by the idea of truffled cheese fondue, so we went for the top of the line. It was worth it: I saw the truffles in the lovely, winey fondue, but I’m not sure they added anything. Our fillets mignon were rare as requested, tender and buttery, with fresh veggies and mashed potatoes.

The waiter recommended we order one of each of the two $45 menu desserts – crème brulee and chocolate lava cake with a center that oozed hot fudge. We had to wait quite a while for dessert because, as the waiter explained, the first lava cake had burned – each is made to order. Worth the wait. The crème brulee was made in a wide, shallow dish, which maximizes the brulee in relation to the crème.

Delicious, but I don’t think I’ll go back. Too expensive – on the regular menu the fillet mignon is $44.00 a la carte! (No charge for the view of baggy cargo shorts and AC/DC t-shirts.) And Mom didn’t like the white butcher paper over the tablecloths. I tried to explain that it was bistro style and that it kept the tablecloths from getting dirty, but she thought it was “impolite.”

Crimson
15466 Los Gatos Blvd.
Los Gatos, CA 95032
408-358-0175
www.crimsonrestaurant.com