Last Friday we drove a little out of our local dessert zone to hit Madera at 280/Sand Hill Road. Madera is a new restaurant in a new hotel complex called Rosewood Sand Hill.

The restaurant looks very nice, there is a large open kitchen as you walk in. We were greeted and seated immediately and the fact that we had a two year old didn’t seem to faze anyone, they brough Maya a cup with a lid and a straw which was nice. The major downside was that the place was very very dark, it was hard to read the menus. I think it was because we were placed in the back of the restaurant (which we didn’t mind, we just wish it was a little lighter).

I ordered the chocolate mousse ($10.00) and Susan ordered the pear tart ($10.00) which came almond ice cream.

Susan devoured the pear tart and declared it delicious. We thought the almond ice cream was very good but the pieces of almond were much too big for the small scoop of ice cream.

I enjoyed (as did Maya) the chocolate mousse. Underneath there were large crystals of salt which were a pleasant surprise but there were too many of them and after the first couple bites with the salt I found myself trying to get bites of the mousse without the salt.

(sorry for the bad pic, we decided using the flash would be too disturbing to the other people in the restaurant)