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.
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.
Labels: San Francisco Restaurants, Sauce
posted by The Food Guy at 12:15 PM
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