Golden Gate Park
(415) 876-6121
Parking: in parking lot
Hours: 11am-3pm Daily
http://themossroom.com
Last Visited: May 7, 2012
Food: 3 stars
Atmosphere: 4 stars
Service: 2 to 3 stars
Price: $$ to $$$$
Located in the California Academy of Sciences, you can enter the restaurant either through the Academy Cafe or take the elevator down. Enter the Moss Room and you sense the peaceful environment as the lights are dimmed and the room temperature is cool. I was pleasantly surprised.
This afternoon, the menu was selected for us except for the entree, so we had a chance to try a wide variety of food. The first impression of the restaurant was really positive and their menu offer enough choices without being overwhelming.
Warm milk bread was served in a skillet when we arrived. It tasted a little fishy, but not in a bad way - we had just come from the aquarium, so it kind of fit our experience. It's like Hawaiian bread, without the sweetness. We asked about the fishy flavor and were told that it was just a sprinkle of sea salt. 
- Vegetarian Imperial Rolls - Tree ear mushroom, glass noodles, carrots, and tofu are put into a rice wrapper and deep fried. Red leaf lettuce leaves and rice noodles are served on the side so you can wrap the roll inside the lettuce. The golden rolls have a great texture from the crispy skin. The flavor is light, but I enjoyed the cool lettuce against the temperature of the hot roll. Good. $11
- Spring Vegetable Stir fry - The menus says that crispy shallots are included, but I didn't notice their presence. Carrots, snap peas, and asparagus made up the stir fry. A little too overcooked for my tastes, and the sauce was too sweet. I can usually eat a large quantity of vegetables without any problems, but it was so sweet that I stopped before finishing a serving. $11
- Hamaichi Crudo - Placed on top of a slice of pickled fingerling potato, the hamaichi, along with a little avocado, was fresh and lightly dressed with a thai basil aioli. Four pieces to a plate. I thought it would have been better without the potato since the potato texture, while cooked well, seemed to muddy the texture of the fish as you ate it. I would have enjoyed the succulent texture of the fish by itself which was already accented by the smooth avocado. $14
- Pan seared Halibut - The halibut was very delicious and the red curry sauce was pleasant, but a bit sweet. The vegetables - snap peas - were fine, but the rice was very undercooked, so much so that I didn't eat it - it was crunching in my mouth. Worse yet, when we told the manager about the hardness of the rice, he told us he would check the batch in the kitchen. When he came back, he told us it was supposed to be a little hard. It was not until the end of the meal when we again told him that 6 of 8 people didn't eat the rice because of how hard it was that he mentioned that he should have offered us a replacement side dish. The manager seemed to be a seasoned manager, and this suggestion was definitely too late as we had already finished our meals. I was greatly disappointed by this response. $23
- Strawberry Napoleon - Crispy wafers are filled with whipped cream. Strawberry slices are placed on the side and drizzled with a caramel sauce. Good. $7
- Lemon Meringue Tart - The lemon curd was tart and with the flaky crust, it tasted good, but the mounds of meringue were a little too sweet for my taste. $7
- Elderflower Spritzer - Refreshing, but not a lot of it. $3.50
The food could have gotten a higher food rating of 3 to 4 stars, but the wild rice pilaf itself and the manager's response to our comments kept them from having an opportunity to increase their rating. This also dropped their service rating too. There was so much potential to make this a good experience, but it was completely disappointing to receive the response that we did about the rice pilaf. We made every effort to be pleasant about our experience, but since we had pre-ordered, they must not have felt compelled to make the experience better. Too bad - the halibut was actually really good and dessert was quite nice, but I won't return on my own.
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