New Menu at Baleen Kitchen (Redondo Beach, CA)

With the coming of winter, it's time for new menus. Such is the case with Baleen Kitchen at the Portofino Hotel in Redondo Beach. Here's what you can look forward to on the new menu:

You can start with a light grain salad like the Baleen Garden (baby beets, farro, tomato, quinoa, avocado, pea shoots, almonds, lime vinaigrette)

Or for a more substantial salad, there's the Dungeness and soft shell crab salad with avocado, haricot vert, and lollo rossa

Lollo rossa is a particular type of lettuce and it works nicely with the sweet dungeness crab hidden at the bottom. 

Our first entree is a nicely roasted black sea bass, roasted mushrooms, sweet potatoes, aromatic broth

The texture was great, tender and moist. The winters in Redondo Beach is pretty mild and this is an appropriately light but still comforting dish with the flavorful broth.

The main attraction is one that sometimes was on the specials, the Tommy Hawk Rib Eye. Yes, that's a tomahawk, which is the bone-in rib steak, which is usually over 30oz.

It's huge and will feed way more than two people, but, hey, you can't have too much steak! It's both an eye catching piece and a crowd-pleaser.

Sides to get with the steak: Lobster Mac & Cheese

We also had one of their mainstay signature items, which I had last time: duck carnitas. Instead of tortillas they're served with small crepes!

For dessert: Key Lime Pie, passion fruit and raspberry sauce

I'm usually not a big fan of key lime pies but this could well be one of my favorite versions, one of the key point was that it was not overly tart.

Baleen Kitchen
260 Portofino Way
Redondo Beach, CA 90277
(310) 379-8481
http://www.hotelportofino.com/portofino_dining.aspx