Every time I visit Christy Hill I am always delighted. With an amazing lake view, cozy ambiance and excellent food, this is dining experience to be savored. My dining companion, Judy Friedman of The Paper Trail, joined me for a magical evening of elegant tastes and good conversation.
This restaurant holds a special charm. Everyone on the staff clearly loves what they are doing and has exceptional regard for the restaurant itself as well as Chef Andrew Shimer’s inventive menu. This makes dining at Christy Hill more than a cut above. David and Karyn, our servers, make the evening even more pleasurable.
We are started off with a special amuse bouche of salmon, halibut and scallop with a lemon-lime granita. Sweet, cool and tart it wakes up our palate for the meal ahead. For appetizers we chose the Country Pate (pork shoulder, chicken liver, house smoked bacon, pistachio housemade pickles, mustards and crostini). The delicate flavors make this a great starter and the pate is sublime. We also have the Hamachi Tartare (apple, radish, cucumber, pinenuts, chilis, avocado, cilantro, wakame and ginger-ponzu vinaigrette). This was smooth and the avocado paired with the hamachi was heavenly.
We segued to another special taste, a duck pastille with caramelized onions and apple purée — at tasty little turnover followed by salads. We tried both the Bibb Lettuce (asiago cheese, herbed avocado dressing and candied almonds) and Asparagus (with poached egg, pork belly and lemon aioli). Both are delicious with the Bibb being very floral, light and fragrant while the Asparagus is a heartier offering.
For the main course we went exotic, ordering the Duck Duet (slow roasted breast and duck leg confit with lentils and Bing cherry gastrique) and the Braised Short Rib of Bison (horseradish potato purée, Bloomsdale spinach and red wine shallot jus). The duck melts in your mouth with buttery abandon and it was a definite favorite of mine. The bison short rib is less fatty than beef, but has all the tenderness that short rib lovers like me yearn for.
For dessert we finished with a trio of sorbets from Jibboom Street Sorbet. A personal favorite, this versatile and light threesome included strawberry champagne, coconut and blueberry. It would be hard to pick a number one, as all their sorbets are extraordinary. We also sampled a house favorite, the Chocolate Croissant Bread Pudding with crème Chantilly. Truly decadent, this really took it to a new and wonderful level. It is easy to understand why it’s so popular.
Christy Hill offers the whole package plus and, judging from the packed house on a Tuesday night, many concur with my opinion.
Christy Hill is located at 115 Grove St. in TahoeCity. They serve dinner nightly from 5 p.m. For more information, call (530) 583-8551 or visit christyhill.com.
