We went to a good place in Mountain View on Saturday — Chez TJ. The menu was slightly different than what’s on the web site. I guess they come up with a menu for each month then change it as the month goes on.

We started with their complementary soup samples. Janet had the carrot with ginger, and I had the cauliflower with nutmeg. She liked mine better, and I liked her soup better.

I started out with the cold avocado soup with shrimp, and Janet had the beets with goat cheese. Mine was good but I thought the shrimp asserted itself a bit too much. Janet’s beets with goat cheese was a surprise. I normally think of beets as overpowering but these were really good with a citrus (orange?) flavor. I definitely liked it.

Next we both had the cinnamon crusted scallops. I NEVER would have thought to put cinnamon with scallops, but it was great. Huge scallops cooked perfectly. Cooking scallops is really hard to do. If you think that they’re close to being done, you’ve over cooked them. We were commenting on this dish throughout the meal.

Next I had the venison with huckleberries and Janet had the duck. Both were really good, but we decided that the venison was better. I had never tasted huckleberries before and don’t know how to describe them, but they were good.

After the cheese course came the dessert. Janet had an apricot thing that was good, but my chocolate item with the pistachio ice cream was great. It tasted like the chocolate cake part had come straight from the oven.

Overall, Chez TJ is French that pushes the envelope. It looks like they’ll experiment with new combinations of flavors. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. But when it works you get something new and wonderful like the cinnamon crusted scallops.

I’d rate Chez TJ just below Le Papillon, but about the same as Bella Vista (minus the views). Of course Bella Vista had the incredible abalone with citrus cream sauce and toasted almonds which was truly memorable.