Pavilion at Newport Beach’s Four Seasons Hotel has earned a reputation as a grande dame for fine dining.
Although it’s taken on a higher degree of friendliness and a softening appearance through the years, it hasn’t caved in to the too-casual, pseudo shabby chic that has permeated America’s dining atmosphere.
There’s a very refined beauty about Pavilion. Count this as an oasis where a pretty dress for ladies and a jacket for gentlemen are quite at home. Still, decent casual attire also is at home here.
The Four Seasons has strong social ties to the community, thanks to general managers who interact with customers and charities. Tom Gurtner came back as general manager and regional vice president last year. He returns after a 14-year absence from his prior stint in Newport Beach as the hotel’s general manager.
Tom has a particular passion for fine food and good wine to complement the Four Seasons style. From the outset, he’s had his finger on the pulse of Pavilion and that has served us well.
And chef Jerome Tremoulet, who hails from the French gastronomic stronghold of Toulouse, has launched a winter menu at Pavilion with some items that border on nostalgic seasonal eating.
This is one of the great places to begin a day, since Pavilion serves three meals as the hotel’s primary restaurant. The beautiful surroundings are perfect for some mixed fresh berries, accoutrements such as Devonshire cream, fresh fruit compote and pure Vermont maple syrup for your oatmeal br & #369;l & #233;e, homemade granola, waffles and such.
Fresh breakfast pastries, croissants in many guises and an impressive array of traditional breakfast dishes entice us to truly enjoy the early meal. A traditional Japanese breakfast including soup, seafood, rice, vegetables and egg is very popular.
On the new lunch menu, soups are big sellers.
Chicken noodle and traditional tortilla soup are a couple of classics, while the Newport clam chowder with sweet potato and avocado is really an upscale treat. At dinner, don’t think of missing the spiced corn chowder with smoked shrimp.
Entree salads at lunch include Norwegian smoked salmon on baby spinach, and the crab cake and grilled shrimp salad with watercress are top-notch. Cobb, Caesar and a chic version of Oriental chicken salad chime in, too. Dinner salads are geared to appetizer portions to complement the rest of your evening meal.
Sandwiches are popular lunch fare. Try the grilled panini sandwich of garden vegetables, mozzarella and Tuscan basil spread on seven-grain bread. Chicken breast with caramelized onions, guacamole and pepper jack cheese also makes a tasty combo filling.
On the swimmer’s section of the lunch menu, grilled swordfish with avocado couscous, New Zealand grouper, a very uptown version of sea bass (saut & #233;ed with roasted yam puree, eggplant and zucchini carpaccio garnished with saffron cream) and cioppino state their case well.
At dinner, the same shellfish-studded cioppino is offered, but the other selections increase slightly with the added grilled tuna and braised baby fennel, saut & #233;ed Maine lobster and pan-seared wild salmon.
Entree specialties at lunch range from grilled beef filet, 12-ounce veal osso buco with risotto and a N.Y. steak burger to comforting macaroni and cheese with grilled artichoke and, finally, a vegetarian teriyaki-flavored winter vegetable m & #233;lange.
Appetizers are taken seriously by evening diners. There’s foie gras, of course; this one freshly flown in from Hudson Valley and adorned with a “purse” of wild mushrooms. Jumbo prawns with mascarpone polenta, Peekytoe crab cakes, Napoleon of Scottish salmon, marinated and crisply crusted Deer Island scallops and a peppered beef tenderloin carpaccio make for serious choices.
Naturally, the dinner menu features a meat and fowl section in addition to the seafood dishes. However, there’s also a prix fixe market menu that is a real bargain.
In the a la carte listings, several steaks are on hand. Roasted loin of venison is a delight with caramelized quince spritzing up the dish. There’s a hefty grilled veal chop with a trio of braised winter vegetables. I recently had the confit of Muscovy duck (with a portion of foie gras and thyme jus) and the dinner before that the pepper-crusted rack of Colorado lamb.
The market menu is priced at $39 and includes three courses. It begins with a choice of warm asparagus with truffled mascarpone or homemade cured salmon with appropriate accompaniments. Segue to the confit of duck with foie gras or crispy New Zealand snapper with baby artichoke risotto.
The third course takes you to the charms of a dark chocolate mousse timbale, mango and orange pain de gene or exotic fruit sorbet.
The dessert menu includes 27 after-dinner wines, ports, cognacs and armagnacs. Share if you must, but order under any circumstances the strawberry and rhubarb cobbler with cream cheese ice cream, the crisp chocolate fondant with poached pears and champagne ganache or the warm caramelized apple financier with rosemary ice cream.
AT A GLANCE: PAVILION
Address: Four Seasons Hotel, 690 Newport Center Drive, Newport Beach
Phone: (949) 760-4920
Cost: breakfast entrees $12.25-$22.50; lunch entrees $13-$23; dinner entrees $20-$38
