Mulvaney’s Building & Loan

Mulvaney’s Building & Loan

1215 19th Street, Suite 100

Sacramento, CA 95814

916.441.6022

http://www.culinaryspecialists.com/mulvaneyBL.htm

This is the second time that I ate dinner at Mulvaney’s and was one of the best meals that I have had in awhile. Mulvaney's has become my new favorite restaurant, it is that good.

Here are a few shots of the all elusive menu. Since Patrick Mulvaney shops the local food markets everyday, the menu changes frequently. I usually like to see a menu ahead of time to see if the flavors sound like a good match, but I do not think I will have to worry about it the next time I eat here.

Bread, the stuff of life. The bread is from the Grateful Bread Company, a great local purveyor. It's serve with butter with some bacon bits. mmmm....bacon.

The amuse bouche

(I love free stuff, who doesn't?). Two bite sized medium rare lamb ribs with a tomato (or pepper) sauce that provided a nice contrast and addition of a little acid.

Grilled Durst Farms Asparagus Prosciutto ~ Grana Padano ~ Poached Egg
This had nice balance; the crunch and earthiness of the asparagus, the saltiness of the cheese and prosciutto and richness of the egg yolk.

Local Artisan Foie Gras Chunk pear gastrique ~ Crispy Toast ~ Del Rio Greens
Foie gras, I think it is one of those dishes that people love or hate. I have not had it awhile, so I thought I would give it a try. It's your classic foie on toast with the gastrique's sweetness complementing the foie and toast.

Double Cut Adobo Niman Ranch Pork Chop Bacon and Green Chili Mash ~ Arugula Rapini ~ Pickled Red Onion.

I do not superlatives too much, but this was the best pork chop that I have ever eaten. That includes the Mongolian Pork Chop at Mustard's. It was cooked to a perfect medium rare, moist, tender, the red onion providing some nice sweetness and crunch and seasoned properly. The mash with chili was just a little spicy and was nice and creamy.

Dixon Lam Three Ways ~ Leg ~ Sweetbread ~ Bacon Del Rio Braising Greens ~ Spring Onion Polenta ~ Natural Jus

This was good overall and not too gamy. All three components had a distinct texture to them. After talking to the server, the bacon is more of a carnita, from the the shoulder because lambs do not have much of a belly. What really surprised me was the polenta. I hate polenta, at least I though I did. The polenta was nice and creamy and had an overall subtle flavor to cut some of the lamb and was perfect with the jus.

Valhrona Ding Dong Devil’s Food Cake ~ Mousee ~ Granache.

A nice dense chocolate cake, that was moist and gooey. A nice end to the meal.

The food was excellent and the only real nit picky thing that I was not enthralled with were the wines by the glass. We had four different wines and they were all OK. C'est la vie, I'll bring a bottle the next few times I go.