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Parcel 104 (American cuisine) $$$$

2700 Mission College Blvd, Santa Clara, 95054 (Directions)

408)970-6104

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Creative American dishes using seasonal and local foods, daily menu changes
Reviewer: Jason Total Reviews: 1020 Reviewed: 3/26/2007 Rating: 8.5 My photo gallery	Parcel 104 is one of the heavy hitters in the gourmet restaurant scene. Known for the ever changing daily menus in American cuisine and use of local/seasonal ingredients. They have an impressive wine selection that rivals many places in San Francisco. The atmosphere is on the high end of things and would recommend wearing a decent shirt and pants. Our waiter greeted us with the specials of the day and made solid suggestions. He spoke highly of squeezed lemonade ($4, image 6). I took up his suggestion and waited over 15 minutes. He must have gone to the a lemon orchard, picked up some ice in Tahoe, and grinded the ice with a toothpick. FOREVER. I had no idea he was going to bring out a lemon slushee. No complaints about sipping this girlie looking drink, heck, it tasted super good. Just a shot or two of vodka, you'd have a 10-Rated lemon drop. There was odd mixup with my soup. I ordered the $9 broccoli (lemon-pepper creme fraiche) and another server brought me this dark brown soup with sliced onions. I thought to myself, I must be out of the whole gourmet scene because I'm positive broccoli is green. I took a quick taste and it was onion soup. I flagged the server and he said they ran out of broccoli. Now why the heck would you still try to serve me onion soup without asking me? For my main course, I went with the Hardwood Grilled Pork Tenderloin ($19.95). Accompanied with my dish was butter-sage polenta and baby spinach (images 9 and 10). Polenta was canary yellow with coarse texture that melted in your mouth. Amazing stuff and mixed well with the bitter spinach. The vegetables tasted as if they were picked up at the farmers markets that morning. The pork was cooked to medium-pink with a drizzling of port syrup. The grilling caramelized the syrup along with the subtile pepper spices. Meat is definitely a higher quality than the supermarket stuff. I'd rate this dish 8.5-9. To finish off the rich meal was a petite serving of strawberry shortcake ($3.50, image 11). It was a creative dessert served in a glass filled with red syrup, scone-like cake, whipped cream, and fresh strawberries. I'm convinced there's little sugar in this dish besides the strawberries. The syrup wasn't sweet, nor was the whipped cream. I can't believe I'm saying this, but my dessert wasn't sweet enough. Rated 8. The lunch had mixed results. Service for our drinks took way too long. The mixup with the soup, mistake on the bill, and waiting for the check. Our server was nice but just too busy to attend to us. Luckily the fine food makes up the majority of my score. Parcel 104 is fancy yet reasonable on the wallet. Although I spent $37, which is nearly 4 times more than what I normally spend for lunch, I'd easily recommend visiting for an epicurean experience.


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