April 20, 2006

beard papa san francisco opening May 12

woo hoo -- the corporate website for Beard Papa's (here) now shows a grand opening date for the San Francisco location. I posted about this previously.

Posted by spoof747 at 10:50 AM | Comments (0)

February 23, 2006

restaurant review: sea salt

We took advantage of the holiday on Monday to wander around Berkeley. While trying to figure out where to go for lunch, we realized we were in the neighborhood and went to go visit Sea Salt. It is part of a family-owned group of restaurants that includes Lalime's, Fonda, Jimmy Bean, and T-Rex. Fonda is one of our favorites, so when I saw Sea Salt written up in the Chronicle, its been on my list of places to check out. As the name indicates, this is a seafood resturant, pure and simple.

With Naomi in tow, its really caused us to be careful about where we go eat, if only to make sure that the place is accomodating for her as well as to be considerate to the diners around us. Luckily, the hostess pointed us to a booth in the corner which gave plenty of room for Naomi to sit between us and play. The overall feel we got from lunch here is a very open atmosphere. Casual, but not too noisy.

We ordered tuna tartare as an appetizer. It came with housemade potato chips, which served as a good contrast in texture when the tartare was spread on them. However, the flavoring seemed a bit light to us, which is to say it might have been too subtle for our palates.

For the main course, Jenn got the fish and chips, which is a house specialty. It is cod coated in buttermilk, then fried. It also is served with a creamy tartar sauce. This was very delicious. The cod was flaky and flavorful. The fried coating was crispy but did not drip oil, as you might expect fish and chips to do. The fries were excellent, medium-cut, with a crisp exterior and a still soft interior.

I ordered the grilled tuna, which was served with roasted potatoes, and a tapenade. The grilled tuna was actually seared, which was done nicely. The tapenade worked well in combination, but was on the strong side, in that it overpowered the taste of the tuna itself. The potatoes did not work as well, as they tasted as if they absorbed too much of the olive oil that was at the bottom of this dish.

No dessert, which I suspect will be the way things go most meals with Naomi in tow.

The price was on the high side, with us running a $60 tab for the items ordered above.

To sum up, the meal was very tasty with a few minor quibbles. We don't know if we'll go back, because aside from the dishes we ordered, there wasn't really anything else on the menu which caught our eye. However, I hear that the menu does change regularly, so we'll probably check back every now and then to see.

Report Card:
Ambiance - A
Food - B
Presentation - B
Baby-Friendly - A
Price - B-
Return Visit - maybe
Overall Grade - B
Satisfying, but high price puts a damper on this.

Posted by spoof747 at 01:53 PM | Comments (0)