in honor of spring coming… it’s time i told you about my favorite restaurant. i witheld from you for so long (not really because i post about them on my instagram allllll the time) because they switched up their menu for the winter time and we didn’t align much so a hiatus was necessary. although i will say if you’re into creamier food and mushrooms, you would probably LOVE their winter menu.
of course i found this place through amy because amy knows best and all but 3 of my tutu dining experiences have been with her.
the first time i ever went to tutu’s was a warm and sunny tuesday morning; august 15, 2023 at 11:30am if you wanna be exact. one could even say that the day was…. perfect?? it was after a window install (before aritzia decided they hated us and started to make us do shipment after window installs… AND make the window installs super complicated) so after starting a shift at 6am and leaving work to a clear sky and glowing sun WHAT OTHER OPTIONS DID WE HAVE except go sit outside at one of my favorite outdoor patios and have brekky?!?!?!?!
this is not at all a flattering picture but i needed you guys to see how clear it was that morning. so warm at 11am i was out and about in a bra top? like actually it’s a year and a half later and im STILL thinking about that day. some days i thank god for my ability to remember my days so well because there are so many days worth looking back on that make me giggle to myself ALL the time. people must think i’m crazy the way i cackle randomly when i’m by myself. so blessing and a curse? also i went to texas that year in september i think and never saw those sunglasses again. where oh where did my babies go? i got them in kentucky and i loved them so much.
so i’m not sure if i’ve told you guys before but, i’m not huge on breakfast. more often than not i only really eat breakfast when i’m on vacation. i type that as if i don’t eat my lunch everyday as soon as i walk into work or ask jorge if we’re gonna get chick fil a breakfast or dim sum. so maybe i’m a liar.. i’m an eater now. but i can ALWAYS be persuaded by two things: french toast and pasta. so obviously when amy tells me there’s BAGUETTE french toast, my bag was packed and i was in her passenger seat within SECONDS. going into this i was definetely a little bit nervous but this was i think the very first time amy and i went out to eat together just her and i???? but it was after this day that i let amy take the reigns of our dining dates. ANYWAYS! every time i go to tutu’s we’re sat really really quickly even if there is a crowd in there and 95% of the time (i’m only saying 95 because one time we sat inside) we’re able to be sat in a primo spot outside, but no spot will beat the first spot because now those spots are always reserved :(.
at the time of this tutu’s trip i was the ripe age of 20 so i wasn’t able to indulge in their fine world of cocktails. BUT their fresh squeezed juices are amazing!! there’s only ever been one thing that i didn’t love from tutu’s and that was the raspberry lemonade because the fizziness threw me off but that was literally the only reason and the ONLY thing i’ve tried and didn’t like. their housemade sodas though…. gasssssss.
okokok food time. at this time amy and i were still skinny so i guess we only ordered 2 plates. strange for us but we all gotta start somewhere. obviously we start with the baguette french toast which they serve everyday til 4pm, which is pretty damn sick if you ask me. you get about 5-6 slices of baguette (what kind, i’m not sure) lightly dusted with powdered sugar and accompanied with a berry jam and marscapone. now me personally i’m a simple french toast and syrup kind of girl but when in tutu’s, right? LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING!!!!! that marscapone could end wars and the jam i would drink by the bottle. i usually hate any sort of cream/cheese but the way everything paired together blended so beautifully. the baguette was kinda on the drier side flavor wise but it still had a little bit of softness too it but it really allowed the jam flavors and sweetness to come through and obviously the marscapone added the creamy, fluffiness it needed. i dream of this french toast.
and now one of my top 2 tutu dishes: creamy pesto pasta. you see before this i hadn’t had pesto more than a handful of times and this pasta…. oh this pasta, made me realize what a world i was missing out on. it’s so simple but it has such a grip on my taste buds. I CAN’T LET IT GO. i’m a big fan of pasta with a little bit of spice and the chili pasta they put with this bad boy is AMAZING. i’ve never shopped in the market that they have there but now that i’m thinking about it and typing it out, i hope they sell it there because I NEED a stash and then backstock for that stash. you all know that the protein:pasta ratio if very important to me and tutu’s does it well. there’s not much to explain about pesto pasta except it’s damn good and tutu’s has th best one. i use it as my baseline to compare other pestos.
safe to say this day changed my life.
now on this day tutu’s wasn’t even on the agenda but the pull it has on me is crazy. now what had happened was amy, jorge, and i were gonna go through amy’s entire closet and switch out what’s in/out of season and basically just reorganize cause a sister was running out of space. and you know we did that for the first maybe 20 minutes. but then my life changed again and i was introduced to flavor flav and his flavors of love. season 1 is the only season that matters and i could watch it for the rest of my life. anyways we were watching watching watching and then amy and jorge fell asleep on the FLOOR and i slept in amy’s bed.. we wake up maybe like an hour later, hungry as hell. and i was ready to just call it a day and go home but then amy brought up going to tutu’s and i couldn’t let her experience jorge’s first time without me. so to tutu’s we went.
luckily at this time in my life i was 21! and you know 21 made me the girl i am today. my 22nd birthday was 22 days ago.
now if i remember correctly i got the positonic which is lavender/thyme syrup in a gin and tonic. very simple, very good, and stronger than other gin and tonics that i’ve had before. but i never had it again. also if you look in the background why is amy sticking her fork in her drink?
anyways not pictured in this collection is the corn incident. (the picture of the pizza is from another day but i’m not sure when i just wanted to show you guys the lasagna). anytime we go out to eat with jorge the servers always call him old and just kinda make fun of him for whatever reason. so we were just keke-ing with the guy giggling having a good time and then it comes time to order and we ask to order the summer corn pizza (gas btw when they do extra corn and pesto, i would change the tomatoes to sundried tomatoes tho) for the table. and then we’re waiting waiting waiting and our man comes back around with 3 corn on the cobs for us and we’re sitting there thinking “oh my god he likes us so much he gave us free corn” and all that mumbo jumbo. but then the pizza never came. and we didn’t even know that there was corn on the menu until we checked again.. after the pizza didn’t come. just a funny miscommunication but i will say. 15/10 corn on the cob. whatever cheese they put with that bad boy is phenomenal. i wanna eat that corn everyday of the summer.
and obviously i love lasagna so there’s not much to say there. i think it may also be top 2 or if not that, top 3. the thing about me is i like i lasagna with a lot of layers and that’s exactly what this one is. it’s not super meaty but it is really saucy and that’s what mama like. you can NEVER go wrong with lasagna. and whoever bakes their bread… you’re doing an amazing job keep doing you; i love you.
this tutu’s trip was when i first discovered what cioppino was and had my first bloody mary. i used to be an adventerous girl. now i’m scared of cucumbers again.
let’s talk about bevingtons first. is it just me or does a bloody mary kind of taste like a hot dog? i like hot dogs but not so much bloody marys. but i also am not a tomato fan so. this was also the day that i discovered that i don’t like their raspberry lemonade. which like i said earlier was fizzy and that’s why it was weird. the tutu’s house chardonnay supposedly isn’t oaked but i’m not too sure about that. just looking at it i expected it to have a deeper flavor profile, but it was light and soft. i like it more with food than by itself.
time for the star: cioppino. if you don’t know cioppino is a seafood dish created in the bay area with fish, scallops, mussels, octopi, you know… the works in a tomato/wine broth usually served with bread. never in my life as someone born and raised in the bay area have i heard about it or seen it before probably because i’m a wuss and i only like fish and crab. i used to like shrimp until i thought about it too much. oh god have i been depriving myself. i only really had a bite of the fish but it was very reminiscent of crab curry. and i LOVE crab curry it’s the fiji that runs in my blood. it was so good that andy rated it an 8.7/10 which apparently is a hard score to get in his book so yay tutu’s.
i also forgot to mention earler that the pesto pasta has asparagus and PEAS. two of my top 5 green vegetables for SURE.
look at me lying earlier and saying i never got the positonic again when here is is next to one of my favorite drinks. this beautiful orange fella is the brown derby. i haven’t been the same since they took it off the menu this winter. bourbon, grapefruit, lemon, and honey all goes into this beautifully crafted cocktail. all of the citrus in it kind of remind me of a simpler version of a paper plane which is one of my go to cocktails, thank you kramer. man i love a good bourbon cocktail.
and here are even more of the dishes i’ve told you about and how well amy and i can tear it up. tutu’s i love you for always having outdoor seating with heaters for those chilly summer evenings, great cocktails, funny servers, fantabulous food, and great vibes. this is my love letter to you. now please bring back the spring/summer menu because even though it rained yesterday the sun is out now and i miss your pesto and corn.
if you’re interested in their other dishes, amy has had the steak frites + andy and arturo have had the mac and cheese and enchiladas and i haven’t heard any complaints there. but me personally i remember the mac and cheese being mid compared to what else they have to offer.
in conclusion, lafayette is a honestly one of the best places to go out and eat. so many hidden gems and not a lot of people. but sometimes parking sucks so. and before i forget to say it… you have to pay to park there.
this has nothing to do with the tasting but i love how well amy’s nails matched her hair. and you can see how clear it was out that day.
❋tastingwithtata❋ 
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