Restaurant: RN74
Location: 301 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94105 Tel: 415.543.7474
Date: February 10, 2012
Cuisine: American
Rating: Good, but not spectacular
I really wanted to go to Michael Mina‘s front line restaurant but given the presence of my three year-old son his more casual bistro seemed a wiser choice.
The decor is casual, chic, and modern. This is part of the new wave of post recession more “pubby” fine dining.
Le menu.
“Cauliflower and sea urchin soup. Crispy-poached egg, fava beans, parsley root, tarragon.”
In French style, in soup is poured in table-side.
“Ahi Tuna Cru. Fallot mustard, french pickle relish, breakfast radishes, watercress.”
“Roasted beets. Hawaiian hearts of palm, winter citrus, savory almond brittle.”
“Cascade mountain artic char. Spatzle, black trumpet mushrooms, brussels sprouts, whole grain mustard.”
“brussels sprouts.”
“Grilled mediterranean sea bass. Steamed mussels, prawns, chickpea panisse, lobster-blood orange bouillabaisse.”
The sauce is added after. This is really a form of deconstructed bouillabaisse, not being a proper soup. Personally, I prefer le classique. This was fine but it tasted rather of “grill” and I prefer tomato and garlic!
Some pleasant complementary cookies. Almond cakey things.
Overall, this was a solid meal, but nothing blew me away. Execution was fine, and call me jaded (a word coming from the Norse for a broken-down old nag), but I was a little bored.