lavanda

palo alto, ca

website

an extremely varied menu includes mediterranean, italian, and croatian dishes. i've never had croatian food, so i decided to try something from the croatian menu. "sarma" -- stuffed cabbage with minced beef, onions, rice, fresh herbs, served on mashed potatoes. basically - meatballs wrapped in cabbage and doused in tomato sauce. it tasted fine, but it wasn't anything special.

i love cake, so, for dessert i ordered the cake with passionfruit sauce. the cake itself was okay, but it was drenched in overly sweet sauce. the menu had other items that sounded appealing - pastas, steak, schnitzel, and fish. although i didn't have a lot of success with the two dishes that i ordered, lavanda is a nice spot to have a glass of wine with some bar snacks. probably won't be back for dinner, but maybe for wine.