Madera

Recommends

Patrick Heig

Joined 5 years ago

Market driven fine-dining in a stunning South Bay location.. Both the setting and the food at this restaurant, the centerpiece of the gorgeous Rosewood Sand Hill Hotel--itself the new preferred schmoozing grounds of the Peninsula tech sector--are good enough to justify its popularity. Past the showcase kitchen, where cords of oak sit waiting to be fed into the massive wood-burning oven, a young and moneyed crowd fills a grand, Craftsman-style dining room and a terrace overlooking the hotel's pool and the Santa Cruz mountains. Chef Peter Rudolph, formerly the exec chef at Campton Place, scours farmers markets at the crack of dawn for fresh ingredients (and usually gets first pick) for rustic but inventive dishes like the pork belly and stone fruit salad with red Russian kale, Point Reyes blue cheese and Banyuls vinaigrette. Award-winning sommelier Paul Mekis is on hand and happy to pair your meal with wines from the 700-bottle, international list, while the connected open-air bar overlooking Madera's resort-like grounds is the perfect place to enjoy a summer nightcap.