Marlowe - New American, San Francisco

500 Brannan St, San Francisco CA 94107
(415) 777-1413
Parking: street parking
https://marlowesf.com/

Last Visited: November 29, 2017

Food: 3 stars
Atmosphere: 2 to 3 stars
Service: 1 to 3 stars
Price: $$ to $$$$

Walk in and see wreaths in the window and other items wrapped in a Holstein cowhide pattern.  I came here with a party of ten for a business dinner and when we arrived early, we found a waiting list for the bar and every table was full.  The restaurant was extremely packed, noisy, and dark (so dark that we had to turn on the flashlight app to read the menu).

After a quick aperitif at the bar next door, we returned at our reservation time, and after more than an additional thirty minutes of waiting to be seated and having our bar order lost, someone came to apologize and put the bar drinks on the house for that order.  It was a rough start for the evening and the hostess had told us that our table was being set, but a quick look around the restaurant indicated that every table was occupied - what table was being set?  This blatant excuse was disappointing.  To speed the process along, we started to order appetizers so that everything would be ready when we sat down and warm deviled eggs arrived while we were still standing and waiting.  Finally, after a total of forty minutes of waiting after our reservation, we were seated.

The dinner itself went reasonably well.  We ordered a number of appetizers and the food came in a reasonable amount of time.  Everyone was given lots of utensils (oyster forks, large knives, etc) and plates were changed twice during our appetizer courses. Clean bowls were placed in the center of the tables to help take away shells, bones, and other discards from our dishes, but some dishes sat in the area too long after they had been emptied which left a cluttered table.  Between the appetizers and mains, the entire table was cleared of plates and utensils, the table was cleaned, and they began setting the table with appropriate dinnerware for what we ordered.

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Since it was a business dinner, I didn't take photos with the flash.  As you can see from the photos, the restaurant is very dark.

- Warm deviled egg - The egg was topped with aged provolone, pickled jalapeno, and bacon - It was a good egg, but rich with the bacon.  There was a combination of sweetness and savory to the bite. Just okay. $3 each

- Crispy brussel sprout chips - Lemon and sea salt season the chips.  The brussel sprout leaves are separated and some were very crispy while others were not crispy at all.  The little buckets used to hold the chips are cute, but you could also make this dish easily at home.  Okay.  $9.50

- Okra, baby artichoke, and shallot fritto misto with Sichuan peppercorn and habanero aioli.  The batter on the fritto misto was excellent - crunchy, golden brown, and not too heavy.  The vegetables were fresh, but the favorite part of the dish was the habanero aioli with its bit of spice.  Good. $10

- Half Dozen Oysters - smoked mignonette and scallion - These oysters were pretty small, but the mignonette with pieces of shallots was nice.  I didn't taste the smokiness, but at least it was fresh. Okay.  Market price.

- Spiced jumbo gulf shrimp with hot and boozy cocktail sauce - Two sticks of celery protrude from the cocktail sauce that is presented in a glass jar and the shrimp (four or five) are lined up with their heads pointed towards the sauce.  Unfortunately, I missed the sauce, but the shrimp was cooked right and the presentation with the heads was good (but maybe not desirable for everyone).  Good.  $18

- Duck liver mousse - Citrus marmalade, micro basil, and chives -  Crostini are served with the mousse in a glass jar.  I missed the marmalade, but the mousse was fine.  Standard.  $14

- Little Gem Salad - Mashed avocado is spread on fresh romaine hearts which serve as a base to lots of shaved red carrots, shaved beets, and other market vegetables dressed in a citrus vinaigrette.  The portion is sizable and it's a colorful dish.  It's fresh looking and tasting. Good. $14

- Charred Octopus salad - Smoked frisee, mizuna, crispy sunchokes, blood orange vinaigrette, and mojo picon (Spanish red pepper sauce).  I really liked this dish because the slices of octopus were tender and the acid from the blood orange gave this dish a lot of brightness.  Again, I couldn't taste the smokiness of the frisee, but the octopus reminded me of some of the great octopus dishes of Portland - it makes you want to go back for another bite.  $16

- Roasted Bone Marrow - Crostini, salsa verde and fines herbes  accompany the two halves.  The bone marrow is nicely done, but it shrank into the bone so that there wasn't a whole lot of it.  I liked the freshness of the salsa verde that contrasted the richness of the bone marrow.  Good, but I wish there was more. $17

- Pan roasted cod, pork belly, littleneck clams, salsify, fennel, and tarragon beurre meuniere - First, this is a very rich dish - while you may think cod is going to be light, the pork belly and the sauce in this dish make the overall dish quite rich. The pork belly was a little overdone, adding a strong flavor, but the meat itself was a bit tough. There was only one littleneck clam which didn't add a whole lot to the dish - I would not have missed it at all if it had not been there.  The two caper berry halves are a bit of a shock in terms of their tartness contrasting the heavy flavors on the plate.  If it held up, I would cut it into quarters instead.  The fish itself was cooked just right, and I liked the salsify and fennel that offset the richness. $29

When the main dishes arrived, there was only one error in providing the right dish to the right person, so there are opportunities to improve.  Throughout the evening, I felt that the service was not steady, but more of a feeling of concentrated attention and then seemingly nobody.  Servers that we interacted with were friendly and fairly accommodating though, paying attention to empty glasses and taking drink orders.

Considering our long wait time and abundance of appetizers, we skipped dessert, but saw items such as fresh baked cookies, an apple crisp, and gingerbread cake as options.

Overall, the food was flavorful and good, and the service at the table was ok, but the experience of waiting at the start of the evening was deflating and a bit disturbing - my take is that if you explain the situation or own up to your mistake, it's much better than telling us that a table is being set when there was none.  Alternatively, make an exception and let the group jump the waiting list for the bar.

Lastly,  the noise level was so high that I wouldn't recommend it for a business dinner unless you want to shout for most of the conversation.

Tartine Manufactory - American/California, San Francisco

595 Alabama St, San Francisco CA 94110
(415) 757-0007
Parking: street parking
Hours: Mon-Fri 7:30am - 5pm, Sat-Sun 8am-5pm; Dinner Daily 5:30pm-10pm
http://www.tartinemanufactory.com/

Last Visited: May 28, 2017

Food: 4 stars
Atmosphere: 3 to 4 stars
Service: 3 stars

Price: $$$ to $$$$

Tartine Manufactory was well marketed even before it opened up.  With the closing of Bar Tartine, along with its somewhat unusual (maybe too creative) menu, Tartine Manufactory offers a more reasonably priced alternative that more people can understand.  Originally open only for breakfast and lunch, the Manufactory has expanded its offerings to include dinner service. The spacious warehouse space is decorated simply with wood tables and chairs and white lantern lights reminiscent of balloons, creating an airy and light feel.

We arrived about half an hour before dinner started and easily got a table even though the reservation system was full.  Those whom came later without a reservation was seated at the bar.  Service was friendly, but there is still room for improvement as described below.

Our server asked if we had been to the Manufactory before and when we told her it was our first visit, she patiently explained how the menu is designed for sharing small plates family style and was happy to give guidance about our choices.  As we got there early, a fellow patron in line whom had visited several times gave us some recommendations - ribs, bone marrow, and prime rib.  He suggested we ask for the swordfish rare if we chose to get it and to avoid the chicken.  We listened to his suggestions and ordered a variety of dishes, ending with the special of the day - aged prime rib.

- Warm Bread & seaweed butter  - The bread was great - lots of holes in the bread and a crusty outside.  It was served warm with fluffy seaweed butter which is essentially butter with nori mixed in.  The seaweed butter could use more salt and didn't have enough seaweed for my taste, but there was no salt on the table.  I would suggest buying the country loaf for double the price and you'll get a lot more slices. Okay to skip this one. $5

- Halibut Ceviche - Rayna recommended this dish.  Lime and cilantro are used to prepare the halibut.  Although the menu said there were chili's, the flavor was extremely mild.  The tender ceviche is topped with greens, a dollop of avocado based sauce, and chopped quicos (think corn nuts, but without the frying).   On the side were two young, tender, red lettuce cups. The serving style was less like a regular ceviche and more like a salad with a very refreshing lime dressing.  The quicos give the dish the needed texture difference by adding crunch. Good flavor, but more impressive than the taste is the artistic presentation of the dish with its greens (even though some of the greens had some browning at the bottom of the stem).   $17

- Pork Ribs - Five pork ribs are braised in an sauce that has some Asian seasonings (I thought of hoisin sauce when I had my first bite).  It's served with a pumpkin seed salsa (pepitos blended fine with olive oil and some herbs) and a thick,  savory yogurt.  A small serving of sliced pickled rhubarb accompany the plate.  The meat from these ribs fell off the bone and the sauce is just a little thick to evenly coat the meat.  Very good - must try.  If you have a salad or other appetizer, this could easily be a main dish for small eaters. $18

- Prime Rib - Our last entree was the 21 day dry aged wood roasted prime rib served with fried potatoes, horseradish, and jus.  This serves two if you are enjoying other dishes.  When you ask for medium rare, you'll definitely get a medium rare steak here. While the crust of the prime rib has developed a bark quality and is quite salty, the center is tender.  I have to admit that the aging was not as noticeable on this particular prime rib.  The star of this dish is actually the fried potatoes that are served on the side.  Garlic, rosemary, and cheese are used to season well-fried whole small yukon gold potatoes until they are a dark brown.  Inside the potatoes, the texture is creamy and rich - if I could, I would just get the potatoes!  Prime rib is good, but the potatoes are wonderful. $45
Several dessert options are available including an affogato, ice cream, chocolate tart, and lemon posset.  We opted for the popular gateau basque.

- Warm Apricot Gateau Basque  - Served with a scoop of toasted almond ice cream and topped with raspberry compote.  It's a moist cake with apricot and custard in the center.  The crust is lightly sugared and crunchy.  While it was good, I may have had too high of expectations just because it's Tartine.  Good balance of flavor, but the ice cream could be creamier.  The nuts in the ice cream were still crunchy, so it held up well to the freezing process. $10

The Manufactory has  a surcharge for employee benefits.  All in all, it was a good experience, and while I would go again, next time I would go for lunch/brunch instead to try more pastries or the porchetta.

Where the Manufactory failed me was with my order of a Country Loaf ($9.50) to take home.  For that, I dropped them a star for service.  When I came in, I asked my hostess about how to go about ordering a loaf and she said she would set one aside for me.  When my server took our order, I let her know I had asked the hostess about the loaf and she assured me that she would bring it over at the end of the meal.  When my leftovers were packaged before dessert, the boxes arrived without a loaf, so I thought perhaps the loaf would come when my check arrived.  After dessert, still no loaf, but when the bill came, I was clearly charged for it.  As I was leaving, I asked the hostess near the door if I picked up my loaf then, and she said she would be happy to get me one.  Then she asked whether or not I had paid for it - so disappointing considering how they seemed so good about attention to detail (refilling water, cleaning the table, giving me the right leftover boxes).  

In any case, I recommend that everyone busy a loaf to take home - I was so inspired by the experience that I made my own toast - Chinese roast pork with arugula topped with shaved parmigiano reggiano and a goat cheese with fresh peaches drizzled with honey.  I also sought out smashed potato recipes with the goal of remaking those potatoes and came close.

Overall, it was a positive experience even if the place was very full at the end of the day and I had to keep asking about my bread, but the pork ribs and potatoes are amazing.

The Progress - New American, San Francisco

1525 Fillmore St, San Francisco CA 94115
Parking: street parking
Hours: Sun-Thurs 5:30pm-10pm, Fri-Sat 5:30pm-11pm
http://theprogress-sf.com/

Last Visited: April 6, 2016

Food: 3 to 4 stars
Atmosphere: 4 stars in the private area
Service: 3 to 4 stars
Price: $$$

While the dining experience may be significantly different in the main dining room, this review is focused on a prix fixe banquet meal that I enjoyed when we reserved the Balcony.

If you arrive early, the full bar offers options to enjoy some drinks and appetizers.
Just like in the main dining area, you are offered a few things for the table and all items are shared family style for $62 each person.  From a business plan standpoint, The Progress has done something unique in making small spaces like the Balcony (round table for up to 10 people) and Mezzanine (long table for up to 12 people) special by offering them as reservation only with a minimum headcount.  A Chinese restaurant would just use it for storage, but here, it's an exclusive spot which is perfect for larger dinner parties that want a bit of privacy.  We held a business dinner here and it enabled us to hear each other's conversation better and have our own space for the evening.

Another benefit of sitting in the balcony is that you get a birds-eye view of the kitchen and all that is happening during the plating.

A Few Things for the Table
These are super bite sized appetizers - one piece per person.

- Roasted kumquats with cardamom cream is sprinkled with black sesame, salt, and pepper.  This one came by so quickly that I completely missed the photo.

- Roasted baby carrots are served with curried yogurt and sprinkled with white sesame.  The carrots were nice and sweet.  It would be great to have more to enjoy the yogurt.

- Buttermilk biscuits with apple bourbon black butter - The buttermilk flavor could definitely be tasted in these rich little biscuits.  Large pieces of salt top the biscuits.  The apple bourbon black butter tasted like applesauce to me.  I wouldn't have minded a second helping of this.

- Lamb merguez is decorated with meyer lemon and scallion - While the lemon juice helped to brighten up these little sausage slices, the texture was too dense for me.

- Little gem hearts are served with green goddess dressing - The lettuce was really fresh, but I could have used a lot more dressing.  It was a bit dry for my taste - remember that the dressing shown in this photos is supposed to accommodate eight people. We needed more dressing on the side in a little pitcher.

Dinner

- Super Fresh Ricotta - Local citrus, hearts of palm, and rosemary almonds - The ricotta, located at the bottom of the plate, was creamy, fluffy, and needed to be scooped from the plate. The white slices shown in the photo are hearts of palm which gave a nice contrast in texture against the salad greens and creamy ricotta.  Considering the ricotta is supposed to be the star, it was strange that it was buried by all of the other items.

- Ceviche of Half Moon Bay Hirame - Avocado wedges, roasted yellow beets, and spicy serrano crema mexicana.  Mache decorates the dish and the tender leaves fit well with the fish.  If you like poke, you'll like this dish.  The fish tasted really fresh and the hint of spice from the crema was a nice addition. I also enjoyed the creaminess of the avocado.


- Grilled Spring Asparagus - Breakfast radish, smoked-cured egg and creamy pumpkin seed dressing. The egg made the asparagus taste even more meaty and I really liked this.  However, see my comment below about serving sizes.  More than one person took two pieces of asparagus, and that meant the last person served didn't get any asparagus.

- SoCal Swordfish - Pistachio 'crema' with fennel-blood orange relish and flowering kale.  This was an interesting concept with nuts being referred to as crema.  The flowering kale gave the dish a nice color and added extra flare.  The fennel relish had a good amount of salt and reminded me of olives.  I also appreciated how the swordfish was nicely done - not overcooked and still very juicy. The slices of blood orange made this dish taste more like a salad.

- BN Ranch Beef - Lightly smoked slightly smashed potatoes, anchovy butter, and seaweed salsa verde.  The meat was cooked until rare, pretty much perfect.  Mushrooms were lightly fried in a tempura batter which was a good accompaniment.

Dessert

- Rhubarb Sorbet Floating Island - elderflower gelatina, sheep's milk yogurt, bee pollen - I only tried one of the two desserts. Dessert comes out so that each person can try only one of the two options unless you share.  The rhubarb sorbet was light and this was a very refreshing dessert - not too sweet.

- Deluxe Vanilla Bean Ice Cream - chocolate ganache roasted dates, trufflebert hazelnuts, nocino.  People seemed to like each of the components - no complaints.

Service was non-intrusive, attentive, and friendly.  They changed plates, refilled water and drinks, and answered a lot of questions. There was a lot of plate changes and while we had people attending to us throughout the evening, they didn't stay the entire time, so we also felt that the area was sufficiently private.

Overall, I thought the food was flavorful, well-seasoned, and fun, but the limited number of bites per dish (one bite for the appetizers and two bites for things like the asparagus) made it difficult to try everything.  Not everyone knew how much they could take, and as a result, those whom were near the end of the lazy susan line up didn't always get to try everything.  Since some of our dining companions didn't like fish, there was a sufficient amount of meat, but otherwise, this was something I wish they would change just by communicating a little more.  If the intention is that there is a limit to what you can have, the server could be a better guide by just mentioning that there is one bite per person (more obvious for the appetizers) or two asparagus per person (completely not obvious).

The Progress was given one Michelin star in 2016 and the chefs won the James Beard Award in 2015. With those kind of credits, you can expect to continue to see delicious combinations here with lots of fresh ingredients.  I would definitely recommend booking the Balcony for groups.