Selby's — Restaurant in North Fair Oaks

TL;DR: Selby's is awesome.

The long version:

Came here with my wife to celebrate a big life event. We were pleased with the ambiance and decor of the restaurant--it's nicely appointed but not overly stuffy/fancy. The layout is nice with a downstairs and upstairs dining room, and a separate bar.

All the restaurant staff we encountered were friendly and pleasant. Over the course of the evening, we chatted with our server, two sommeliers, the host, and a member of the kitchen team. They all seemed happy and easy going, and it makes me think the staff is well treated. Our server's name was Jess, and she was particularly awesome. I always have questions about menus, and Jess was able to give me great answers to every question I asked (things like "how rare is rare here?" for steak and "is your chocolate cake fluffy or fudgey?"). The prix fixe menu had plenty of options without being overwhelming, and everything on the menu sounded amazing.

We started with the tuna tartar and the strawberry burrata salad. Both were delightful. The tartar was fresh with a light/delicate sauce, and wasn't overly salty as some tartars can be when they lean toward a poke-style flavor profile. Despite enjoying the tartar, I thought the salad was even better. There were multiple types of strawberries served alongside ripe avocado slices, crumbled almonds, and a healthy-sized clump of fresh burrata cheese. This combo of ingredients with balsamic dressing and whatever else was sprinkled on there created a really interesting flavor progression, from a rich creamy start to a light sweet/acidic finish--a really wonderfully composed dish.

I must also mention one small but important thing: the bread! As you know, it's customary in fine dining to receive some bread and butter as a snack, to keep you busy before the meal or between courses. Selby's bread should be a course by itself. Not sure how to describe it but it was like a buttery Hawaiian roll had a baby with a challah loaf that had a croissant as a recent ancestor. We had to really restrain ourselves from eating a ton of it to make sure we had room for everything else.

On to the mains: I had the dry-aged ribeye and my wife had the roasted striped bass. This was another spot where I think Jess was a particularly awesome server. In addition to helping me with the seemingly simple question of rare vs medium rare, she also helped me navigate the options for sauces/toppings for the steak. Off the top of my head, I think the options were a garlic/butter compound, a bordelaise sauce, and some third option that I don't remember. She opined that if she were eating this steak, she wouldn't put any of the sauces directly on it, as it is such a high quality perfectly cooked specimen that toppings can take away from that simple perfection. I agreed to just have the bordelaise sauce on the side. As she predicted, the steak was perfect by itself. Both my wife and I tried a piece with bordelaise sauce and, while it was good, we agreed the unadulterated version was even better. The steak was cooked perfectly (medium rare) and I was super impressed with the crust, which was crunchy and flavorful but not burnt or overly char-flavored. The striped bass was also delightful. It was flaky and moist, and the potato "scales", leeks, and wine reduction sauce it was served with turned out to be an excellent complement to the subtle flavor of the fish. If you're a fish fan, this will not disappoint.

Jess had been killing it all night long so, at her recommendation, we had the Midnight Chocolate Cake and the Limoncello Mousse. They were very different but both lusciously delicious. The cake was not overly sweet while still having an intensely chocolatey flavor. It was neither fluffy nor dense, but something in between that was quite a revelation. The mousse was also excellent with a perfect mix of sweetness and tartness, and the crunch of the crumbled pistachios added a fun texture to the dish.

In closing, I will say that we had a truly top-tier experience at Selby's, and that their Michelin star is...

Summary: a disappointing birthday treat.

We arrived on time, and waited a couple of minutes to be shown to our upstairs table. There were a few available, and they'd picked one in a slightly dark corner. The maitre'd seemed a bit startled when we asked to move to an obviously better, adjacent one that overlooked the floor below ("the best seat in the house" she called it), but acquiesced. That gave us a great view of the venue. Decor was brand new, although I found the style slightly stuffy for my taste, but it's well executed, and the sculptural lights are a highlight. The birthday card at the table was a nice touch.

The fixed price menu is $65 for three courses (good value); they make their money on the extras and the drinks: we declined the offered upgrades of truffles, foie gras, and caviar, each of which would have been more than the cost of the meal. We elected to have wine pairings, which were the highlight of the evening: four fantastic wines - as they should be, at an average of about $28/glass.

The amuse bouche was a rather jarring shared plate of pickled vegetables, which arrived at the same time as warm, fluffy, and slightly over-sweetened brioche rolls.

The starters were great: cheesy, lemony ravioli and tasty tuna tartare paired with (slightly under-salted) restaurant-made potato chips.

Things went downhill with the entrees: although the meats were amazing, the accompaniments were underwhelming, or, rather, overwhelming. The duck breast was smothered in an unsubtle, over-rich huckleberry sauce; the beef wellington (a $20 upgrade) was surrounded by rather unpuffy pastry, and carved as a slab from a longer steak - which is not wrong, but I'm used to individually wrapped ones in phyllo dough, and was expecting a bit better from a place with a Michelin star. Our waiter tried to have us get it with the butter sauce melting over the top (on phylo?), and seemed a bit put out when we asked for the butter on the side Later, about the duck, he asked: "do you like it?" me: "The Barolo is great, but it's rather overpowered by the sauces." Waiter: "but do you like it?" My bad: I should probably have said no, more explicitly.

The desserts were generously sized: a lemony limoncello mouse, and a very large slab of rich chocolate cake, which we were unable to finish. Another nice touch was a small birthday cake with a candle.

Service was friendly, and mostly smooth: a small army of people kept dropping by, but weren't intrusive. A 20% service charge is automatically added, which we were reminded of about three times, just to be sure. Nonetheless, $360 for two three-course meals and four glasses of wine was overpriced for the pleasure. (Looking back, I see that this isn't the only review with that response.) I doubt...

Selby's seems to be owned by a conglomerate that owns another Michelin starred restaurant in Woodside. Like the other, Selby's manages the cost more than other starred restaurants in the area, so in that sense, it's pretty efficient cost wise, though it's not a pure, artisan menu or quality. The menu at Selby's is particularly sedate in offerings, though what we had was quite good. The waiter clearly sized us up and steered us clear of the offerings that were for, let's say, a previous generation. A wedge salad at a Michelin starred restaurant? I poked around the appetizers, and he never suggested that one. He also steered me away from the chicken parmesan. So you get the idea that there are some real comfort food options on the menu. There even was a burger. We instead, to start, took his recommendation of the ravioli, and the gazpacho. They were both quite good. The ravioli was a 3 cheese which included fontina, if I recall correctly, but it was really good. My gazpacho was also very nice. Just enough harissa to make it interesting but tangy, but allowed the tomatoes to shine. For main, my partner went for the Halibut, which was really nice, though again quite small. The sides were nice, roasted veggies, but not too interesting. I did the beef wellington for a supplement. The filet in the middle was really excellent, but the pastry was not. So I'd guess there was something better there. My sides were just a little bland spinach, and potato coulis (mashed potatoes, I think this was for another generation, too). The desserts. I had read bout the chocolate cake, and the waiter was pointing it out. So I did that. My partner did a custard thing with a watermelon glaze that was excellent. Truly bold maneuver to try to elevate watermelon, one of the most commodity of fruit. So kudos for them on that. The chocolate cake was good. But boy it's hard to make a special chocolate cake and I should have known better. Overall, solid meal across the board. (the bread was really a throwback to another time, and he recognized that and had a bar -b-qued sourdough sent that was really good). Less expensive than other starred restaurants, and leans on the comfort food a bit too much, but pretty well done. One other oddity was the extremely dark atmosphere. Not horrible, but with really dark walls, then little light, it was...