Swifty's

In New York for a meeting this week and ate at Swifty's on the Upper East Side last night. It was an interesting lesson in the difference between New York neighborhood restaurants and San Francisco neighborhood restaurants. I'm just not sure I know what those differences are, really. The service was excellent at Swifty's and they clearly pay a whole lot of attention to it; I'd guess its what draws people back time after time and it was pretty clear that there were many regulars.

Because it was a business dinner, we had a limited set of options which was unfortunate because Swifty's had a few things on their full menu that looked intriguing (something called a Twinburger...no idea, but I intend to eat one at some point). I ended up with a very straight ahead asparagus with hollandaise, steak frites and blood orange sorbet. The asparagus were enormous, the steak was good but a fair bit past the rare I requested. Overall, though, I ate well, everyone around me seemed happy and, were we (me and the Food Gal, that is) to end up on the Upper East side and in need of dinner, I wouldn't be at all opposed to returning.

Sauce

After the Food Gal got her hair cut yesterday afternoon (Sunday, that is) we went for an early dinner to Sauce, on Gough St. We had a nice meal. The food isn't really anything to write home about, but its fun and relaxed and easy and the cocktails were good. We didn't go with wine as they didn't appear to have any half bottles and the by-the-glass list wasn't very interesting. We were also having a rather odd assortment of things from the menu which didn't lend itself to a bottle of wine.

We started with "portabello mushroom fries" and crab stuffed wontons. The latter were quite good and served with a "mango reduction" which was, essentially, a chutney and worked well. The fries were sliced portabello mushrooms, coated in some sort of tasty batter type thing and fried. The batter type thing was seasoned is about all we can really tell you about it. I thought they were perhaps a touch dry, but tasty. The Food Gal disagrees: "The mushroom fries were perfect and I liked them way better than those silly wontons."

Then we (actually, I had...the Food Gal took a bite and acknowledged that while she could see the appeal, she didn't like it a bit) had one of my favorites, a classic wedge of iceberg with blue cheese dressing, bacon and cherry tomatoes. Delicious, refreshing and tasty. Along with that, we had a tomato bisque served with truffled cheese bread. This was just what it ought to have been and we scarfed it down.

Then we had the special crab cakes which were disappointing. Plenty of crab, but they were overmixed and the vegetables in the cakes were rather crisp and the pieces a bit too large. We didn't finish them by any stretch (and perhaps the only hitch in the service was that our waitress didn't take note of it). Fortunately, along with the crabcakes we had the standout of the evening: the roasted chicken mac and cheese. A delicious combination of house made pappardelle, a cheese sauce and roast chicken. It was really excellent; subtle, complex, well seasoned...a real winner of a dish.

Then came dessert which was our undoing. The "Sauce Sampler" included strawberries served with brown sugar and a sourish cream, ice cream smashed up with brownies and nuts, PB&J (sponge cake, vanilla ice cream, strawberry jam and peanut butter mixed with frangelico, all pan seared), and fresh cinnamon-sugar doughtnuts with a bourbon vanilla dipping sauce. Yes, its as much food as it sounds like and yes we ate way way way too much of it. The doughnuts were excellent, the PB&J was a cute idea though didn't hang together quite as well as it sounded like it should. The strawberries were perfection and the ice cream was ice cream mashed up with brownies...how could that be bad?

It ended up at a slightly suprising $130 before tip, but with 4 cocktails total and a lot of food, that was ok. Next time, we'd go smaller on dessert and skip one dish (we were full even though we'd mostly ignored the crab cakes). Chances are good we'll return the next time the Food Gal is getting her hair cut on a Sunday afternoon, but I doubt we'd make a special trip over there.

Roti

Tonight, we went to Roti. Again. We've been there together (though we couldn't agree on how many times) and The Food Gal has taken several of our friends there without me (they always bring me a goodie bag, so I'm not mad). Outside of Chenery Park (no, I haven't written about it yet, which is rather unforgivable really, as often as we eat there) its the only mid-range restaurant that has landed on our regular rotation. (We eat at many of the inexpensive lunch joints near UCSF when we get the chance to eat together, but those don't count so much.)

Roti is a brilliant concept. All the affect of a Bistro (white linen napkins, good stem ware and glass ware, nice silver, etc etc), all the deliciousness of good Indian food. Now, I can't speak very much to what actually constitutes "authentic" Indian food. I've never been to India. But, I've eaten food prepared by an Indian friend of ours who was taught to cook by his mother in India. Roti is more like that than any Indian food we've had anywhere else. So, so far as we know, its pretty authentic. Whatever it is, its tasty.

We like them because in addition to very good food, they've got a nice wine list (though the wines tend toward a bit warm because they're stored fairly close to the kitchen...ah well) and the interior of the restaurant is nicely designed and comfortable. They pay a lot of attention to service, too.

We've eaten most of what they have on the menu. Tonight we had tandoori asparagus (only in San Francisco) which were quite good and very spicy. We also had paratha (which the Food Gal abjectly loves...whole wheat naan slathered in butter...how is that anything but good?) and regular naan, which I love because its one of those amazingly simple things that most places managed to mess up but at Roti is just what it ought to be. As always, we had vegetable samosas and they're a very good example of samosas, so far as I know.

Our entrees were kind of funny, we ordered a special chicken dish with a sauce made from almond paste and various spices and a salmon curry dish (they do wonders with salmon). They mixed up the sauces, but being the good restaurant goers that we are, we tried them before we said anything and they were delicious, so we went with it.

As always, everything was tasty, cooked perfectly (a lot of places we've been anything out of a tandoori oven is super dry, here is it moist and tender) and well seasoned. Roti serves up dishes with a lot of balance, which I also find missing in most Indian restaurants. Usually, its just hot or buttery.

It's also a good deal. With a glass of wine, 2 appetizers, 2 orders of naan type stuff, 2 entrees, a chai, a soda the bill was $70 before tip. Not bad. And for the level of service, for that price, it's no wonder we go back a lot.

Quince

We dined at Quince for our first time on Wednesday night and we will definitely be returning.

I called for a reservation the day before and they had, basically, nothing all week. Realizing that meant some persistence would be in order, I called again that afternoon and they had a cancellation (they asked for a credit card to hold the reservation, though the woman I spoke with indicated that was only for same-day reservations).

We arrived about 5 minutes early for our 8:30 reservation and they were resetting a table when we got there. We perused the wine list (they were aware that the front of the restaurant was quite dim and provided a small flashlight so we could actually read the list) for a few minutes. The dining room is quite small, but very well designed and the waitstaff is all in exceedingly dapper suits. It created a very cool atmosphere.

The menu posed some challenges simply because many things sounded good. After consulting with our server and determining that the menu was designed to be a 3-course meal, we settled on our choices.

The Food Gal had:
Asparagus with crawfish vinaigrette
Gnocchi with smoked ricotta
Quali with white corn and English peas

I had:
American Mackerel, tartare and seared with green almond vinaigrette
Tagliallini with Morrels
Duck, Breast and Leg Confit with Apricots and Artichokes

Our server also guided us to some excellent half bottles of wine to pair with our first and third courses. A 2004 Sancerre and a Big French red that I'm blanking on at the moment, when I remember I'll post it.

The bread basket (plate, actually) was quite good with rosemary crackers, parmesean breadsticks (small, very crispy ones) and chipotle/corn meal rolls. I ate far too many of all of them.

The first courses were excellent: well balanced, nicely seasoned and perfectly cooked. The variations in texture of the mackerel were remarkable. The asparagus and crawfish were expertly cooked and really went well together. The standouts, though, were the pastas in the second course. The tagliallini were perfect and the morels were outstanding with a bit of parmagiano reggiano to highlight the earthiness. The gnocchi were easily the best either of us have eaten: light, airy, soft with a bit of toothiness and the ricotta was an entirely new taste with the smoke. We both agreed that we'd happily go back for several courses of pasta.

We told our server when she brought us the gnocchi that we'd decided we had to eat there after reading about the smoked ricotta in the NYTimes magazine (as I'm sure many others did). The chef apparently thought that was pretty cool and sent out a treat after our pastas. Two stuffed pastas, one with zuccini and another sqaush topped with a tuscan tomato conserve and a tortelloni stuffed with english peas and served with dungeness crab. These were simply remarkable and one of those little suprises that really sets a meal apart.

The quail and duck were both quite good, perfectly seasoned and the duck was cooked to medium rare for the breast and the confit leg was meltingly good. They paled slightly after the pastas but there was, honestly, a whole lot of room to not be as good as the pasta and still be exceptional dishes and these were.

For dessert we had a cherry crespelle which demonstrated that the kitchen has an affinity for working with flours and light doughs...just as with the pasta, the balance and preparation was right on. The baked chocolate mousse had great chocolate flavor though it was perhaps slightly overcooked for my tastes.

After dessert they brought out some strawberry gelee and hazlenut biscotti, both very small and a really nice end to the meal.

The pacing of the service was perfect and they did an excellent job of recapping precisely what was on each plate without over doing it. This is especially important because my wife has some dietary restrictions, so it was great to have a quick explanation as a last line check.

We found the entire experience incredibly pleasant and enjoyable. The food was of the quality of the best meals we've had in the city but the atmosphere a bit more like a neighborhood restaurant, which for us was just right.

Including valet parking, two bottles of sparkling water, after dinner drinks and tax, the tab was right at $270 before tip.

Gialina

We had a really good meal tonight at Gialina. We started with their red oak salad with apricots and cherries. I thought the greens were oversalted on their own, but with the fruit it worked perfectly. They did fall prey to the one thing that always irks me about restaurants that offer fresh pepper: they always ask if you want it before you get to taste the salad (or pasta or whatever). Nonetheless, the salad was quite good. And big (they offer two sizes, we got the large and it really was).

We got the "Atomica" pizza with some onions, chilis and mushrooms. It was really very good. The crust was very thin and crispy, and the edges were quite crispy on the outside and chewy in the middle. The Food Gal was angling for the crusts by the end of the pizza.

We shared a quartino of wine (500ml) which was overpriced, but tasty on the whole and a really great size to offer. Given that combination, we could overlook the price.

The real standout was the dessert pizza. Chocolate-hazelnut spread with mascarpone cheese and amaretti crumbled over the top. It was delicious and pretty large. We also got some Bi-Rite ice cream, which was of course outstanding.

The salad, a bottle of sparkling water, pizza, quartino of wine, two desserts, 2 coffees and a glass of dessert wine came to $95. A good $26 or so of that was the quartino of wine and we'd only do one dessert in the future (we were told the dessert pizza was "half the size" of the regular pizza....it was stretched to half the size, but the same amount of crust...so larger than we thought). I think a reasonable dinner for two, if you weren't trying everything, which we were, would come to about $50 plus tip.

We enjoyed it and will definitely return.