The Red Currant

The Red Currant is so awesome. You can literally see the garden where they get their fresh fruits, vegetables, and spices from. Very delicious. The environment is so beautiful. But everyone should know that it is closing!!! I was so sad to hear this. They are closing at the end of August. The Allied Arts Guild wants something they can make a greater profit from. Last week I went and someone said that they want not as fresh, easier to make (aka saran wrapped cookie style), and a restaurants that will make a greater profit. Go while you can! I highly recommend it!

Went there for breakfast with my wife. We were alone and enjoyed it very much.
Setting is great — nice inside and out, from the great patio and little shops surrounding the restaurant, to the plates and silverware (and decorated teapot).
Food is also great — nicely seasoned salad, I had scrambled eggs, but they were better than any scrambled eggs I’ve eaten lately (I know, sounds weird, but true). Oh, and the bread (sigh), freshly baked with rosemary, top that with the two homemade preserves (orange peel and apricot) — great!
If you are looking for a good breakfast with a meditteranean twist in a great location — go!

I’ve heard a lot about this place and had fairly high expectations. Yes, the environment was very nice. The restaurant is located as part of a complex of gardens and art galleries so you can take a stroll prior or after the meal and relax. They even have a gift shop there. We came as a group of 10 so had to order the day prior.
When we got there, the place was not packed but busy. They were obviously understaffed. There were MANY errors or gaffes that took away from the overall experience and left us really disappointed. I’ll list these out:
1) About 5 of us ordered the pan seared Banzino or Sea Bass. When we got our food, they gave us Salmon and told us that the Sea Bass was not available. — Big disappointment. This wasn’t disclosed on the menu that if a fish isn’t available, they would choose another one. They should just only show what’s available or at least told us PRIOR to eating there rather give us an option that we were not prepared for OR at least informed us the day prior so we could have changed our order instead of forcing upon us another option.
2) Service was SLOW: We had to remind them to fill our water, remind them to take our order, we stepped into the kitchen to get an update because we waited over an hour for the food, we had to remind them to bring the dessert menu, remind them to bring us the check, remind them to take the check, remind them to bring us coffee, and remind them to clear the table. Service was so slow that the whole experience took over 2.5 HOURS!!!
3) Service was sooo slow that we had to help them clear the table because it was a mess so we all pitched in to bring the plates to the front of the table for them to easily take away.
4) A group of Ladies sitting next to us was also so disappointed with the service that the turned to us as if they wanted to confirm that their service was excruciatingly SLOW. And we did confirm as we all shook our heads in disbelief.
5) Half of the dessert menu was not available. It’s unbelievalbe to me that if we order in advanced, they should be able to plan better. They knew how many people were coming. Yet another disappointment.
Overall, the food was good even though we didn’t receive what we wanted. The salmon was perfectly cooked and flavorful. The salad was fresh and flavorful. However, the good food doesn’t warrant going there because the rest of the dining experience was so terrible. They need to get their act together. I won’t be back, cause the food is not worth the «experience» or the nice gounds to walk about. I had to give this place an F because though the food was good, the overall experience left such a bad taste in my mouth with the frustration .
Bottom line, if you don’t care for service and have 2 – 3 hours to kill, go ahead and try it. But if you are like me and rate based on both food and service, stay away until they get their act together. You’ll just be as disappointed as I was.

Yum. The chef /​owners grow a lot of their own herbs and veggies, so everything looked gorgeous and tasted really fresh. Prices are only a tad on the high side, and totally worth it…
**The restaurant benefits Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford (as does the rest of Allied Arts Guild). **
In addition to weekday lunch, the restaurant is also open for afternoon tea on a couple of weekdays and for brunch/​lunch on Saturdays. The surrounding gardens are also beautiful and whatever is blooming right now smells amazing. Also a lot of fun holiday browsing in the shops. A great way to spend an afternoon.

The food is a little bit on the pricier side of the spectrum, but the quality justifies the cost.
We got the Mediterranean plate and the falafel — I’ll admit it, I’m usually NOT a fan of these things — were perfection. The $ 10.75 tuna sandwich was very yummy-​in-​the-​tummy as well.
A very nice spot to enjoy some beautiful outdoor seating. Great for a mother’s day brunch.

I like the red current. It is a great place to have lunch with the girls or tea with my mom. It is located within the Allied Arts Guild, which is a great place to browse galleries or shop for knickknacks.
Good salads, egg dishes and Mediterranean Cuisine. There are also cute platters for sale within the restaurant.

My husband and I returned to the Allied Arts Guild with my parents this weekend to celebrate our 5-​week anniversary! We were married there and everyone raved about the food (provided by the chef of the Red Currant and her staff) so thought we’d try out their lunch menu.
The food was delicious. We ate outside and enjoyed the beautiful garden.

Nestled in inner circles of west Menlo Park’s most suburban of enclaves lies this charming restaurant amidst a block-​long art center and garden called the Allied Arts Guild. I came here for lunch hoping for a charming brunch with quality fare, but experienced a not-​so-​little gem unlike anything I could have expected after years in the area.
The restaurant sits in a fountain-​laden garden with stunning flowers, shrubbery, and Spanish architecture which makes it tempting to just walk around for an hour, missing your meal entirely. But we did finally make it to the Red Currant, and enjoyed our lunch for much more than it’s surroundings.
The three of us ordered the gnocchi ($ 14.75), the tuna nicoise sandwich ($ 10.75), and the Mediterranean platter ($ 11.75). The most striking part of the meal was the tabbouleh salad which was more thickly cut than any I’d had before and had a fruity sweetness that wowed me more than I could have imagined. The soft bread that accompanied the platter along with the bread we ate while ordering was some of the best herbed bread I’ve had. The sweet potato falafel was very tasty and slightly sweet, though not like most other falafel I’ve had, but the hummus was too thick and pasty for my taste. My girlfriend’s gnocchi was tender with a nutmeggy cream sauce that was very enjoyable, though I was pretty disappointed by my own tuna nicoise salad, despite great bread. The tuna was cooked and more like canned, unlike the ahi tuna I had imagined.
We finished with the meringue, which was too much of a mess of whipped cream to be that enjoyable.
I didn’t see alcohol on their menu, so I assume they are BYOB, which is always great for people looking to enjoy good wine without expensive per-​glass prices. The place is a little pricey, but it’s clear that they can make food that’s well worth it. But for the unique surroundings and charming experience, it’s well worth the price.

Yes, this is mostly a «ladies» lunch place in a spacious and architecturally lovely spot. The service is top-​notch and the food good, if not exciting. These folks mean to please (the chef came out to chat with us after our meal). One benefit is that the dining rooms are spacious, allowing plenty of room between tables; one can talk easily without the usual noise of most restaurants. Outdoor seating in pleasant weather. Red Currant is opened only for breakfast and lunch, through 4:00. I didn’t know about the BYO — glad to read that in the other review (for future reference).

A place for ladies who lunch. And lunch they do.
This is a charming Spanish colonial café /​restaurant in the middle of the Allied Arts Guild which gives you an opportunity to walk around before and/​or after your meal to look at artwork and crafts by local artists.
It’s the perfect place to bring your mother for a leisurely lunch.
And it’s BYO (but call ahead to make sure that hasn’t changed) which naturally means I can’t remember much from the meal except that I had a hanger steak with a very strong sauce and a pretty good dessert.
I would go back.