Spruce
San Francisco, CA 94118
Phone: (415) 931-5100
11/24/2007 Posted by teabox
I had lunch here recently with a friend. We ordered the charcuterie plate, the house burger, mussels, and house coffee to finish. Everything was lovely and dainty, except for the mussel. The charcuterie plate is not the type of shiny and marbled workingman's indulgence gloriously slathered across a wooden block like one gets in European countries, but much more controlled and refined. I would claim the duck liver mousse the best thing since butter on bread had they not already served the rich-like-cheese butter that made me calm down and put things in perspective. The hamburger was excellent with white cheddar, came with sliced tomatoes, sweet and tangy pickled zucchini and onion on the side, which were crisp and refreshing, and which you would need to cut through the burger's meaty richness. The mussels, I don't really know why I ordered the them except maybe to see if the restaurant could do any wrong, too often good restaurants do bad mussels. Mussels are like mackerels and sardine, when they're good they're awesome, when they're bad no amount of wine, garlic, lemon, or butter could save them. I'm one to love my seafood to taste like seafood and not "chicken from the sea" but these mussels reminded me of dead unidentified sea animal carcass by dirty piers, and should left the kitchen in the other direction -- into the green compost trash bins. I know I was asking for it, but hey, maybe they just had a bad seafood day. I would go back to the restaurant in a heartbeat.
Pros: food, encyclopedia of a wine and spirits list, formal ambience
Cons: formal ambience
Write a review and share your thoughts with others
