busy busy bees at geoffrey's

Once upon a time, a long long time ago, I was about 12 or 13 years old and relegated to my older sister's definition of what it meant to celebrated mother's day. We had to dress up, my mother, the most extravagent wore something in either pink or white, with very big shoulder pads and probably fluffy sleeves. Being that it was the early 90's, the previous decade had left some bad habits among middle class women's styles, including white pantyhose (oh yes, you rocked them, just own up to it.), High high hair (thanks to the advent of aerosol cans that doused god-knows-what into your hair), and chiffon/lace sleeves on business-structured jackets. its like lingerie meets the boardroom. A jacket for all occasions. Feminist? probably not. Practical? Bet your cruxifixes on it.

But I've digressed. One such occasion of celebrating mother's day, we piled into my mom's 3 series BMW, an event that NEVER happened, as we had the buick park avenue as our daily driver, the Beemer was our "special occasion car." My father was not present, he was at work-- this was a recurring theme in my life that bears no significance now, but perhaps I'll re-visit it in another time and space. So my sister, brother, mother and I squeezed into the itty bitty bmw. My sister decidedly took the wheel and drove us north. And north. And north. I wasn't sure where we were going, but I sure was hungry, and I wanted to eat something like chicken fingers or Korean stews (Sadly my palette hasn't shifted much from childhood).

After a relentless drive that lasted about 1.4 hours, we finally were escorted out of the car and faced a beautiful restaurant overlooking the ocean in Malibu, CA. I don't remember much from that meal, but I do remember how expensive everything was, and how my sister told me to order iced tea because they would charge you for refills if you ordered anything else. My brother and I had 7 iced teas each. My sister was appalled. She was even more apalled when I told her the lobster bisque tasted "weird" and I didn't like it.

Speed forward about 2 decades later, after I've been around the block a bit (the restaurant block that is), and have come to learn a lot about fine dining and have, hopefully expanded my tastebud horizon. Jae and I put this to the test over the weekend when we checked out Geoffrey's in Malibu, in commemoration of my mother's day brunch nearly 2 decades ago. (Also, we wanted to go for a drive through the canyons after). Luckily we had the foresight to call in earlier to see if they had a good spot for us to sit at, and the server found us a lovely ocean-view seat behind a plexiglass fence.

Much to my delight, our brunch was excellent. I had a bloody mary (actually 2), and the crab cake benedict. He had some mojito of sorts and french toast. We shared the tuna tartare. The tuna tartare was perfectly seasoned, a nice blend of heat, fresh fish , black sesame seeds, and mayonaise, Additionally beneath the tuna were nice large chunks of avacado, which complemented the tuna and the heat-- and not to mention my bloody maries, which were perfectly seasoned with a variety of peppers, a nice generous portion of olives (3!), lemon and a healthy splash (if hurricane katrina had a splash, it was probably in the same range as that) of Goose.

The entrees were also very lovely. My crab cake benedict was nice and meaty, and I thought the texture of it went quite nicely with the softness of the eggs and creamy ness of the hollandaise sauce. My meal was fantastic.

Jae's meal, on the other hand left something to be desired. He ordered French toast for some reason, which looked ok, but it wasn't anything special. And with his french toast came these "cumin sausages," which indeed, tasted like a taco sausage. It was not my favorite.

Would I go back? Of course!

Geoffrey's Malibu
www.geoffreysmalibu.com

27400 Pacific Coast Hwy

Malibu, CA 90265

(310) 457-1519