Orson
San Francisco, CA 94107
Phone: (415) 777-1508
Fax: (415) 707-6508
04/03/2008 Posted by MrMutt
The decor was very contemporary industrial, almost to a fault. I had to ask what the big piece of iron was in the middle of the entryway, thinking it had some kind of significance. Nope, just some hunk of construction junk. And, what's with all the wait staff wearing weird band things? Whatever, anyway, to the food. Neither my wife nor I really understood the logic behind the dishes. First, you get the sense the prices are reasonable, until you're told it takes 4-5 dishes to get things going. At $5-10 ok...at $7-17 each, ouch. And the mixtures of one thing with another, while it sounds all new age, really didn't taste all that good. Tempura egg with scallion bruillon...messy, tasted like it was undercooked, and just weird. Other things just didnt seem to go. Bone marrow? Beef tendon? Carrot and blod (purpose mispell) orange? It felt like it was trying to push the envelope just for the sake of it. And the portions, very small. Shot of soup is literally a shot glass with soup. Didn't even fill my mouth. Honestly, don't places give those as "chef's specials" or something? The other portions, even if we had liked the food, would not have come close to being filling or satisfying. All in all a wholly underwhelming experience. We ate at a place called Jack Kennedy's in Toronto last weekend, serving in the same style of small "tapas" dishes, and they did it right. Generous portions, tasty, good. Orson, I'm sorry to say, fell short. The silver lining is that if there were any place on the west coast where an overly pretentious (mixologist? try bar tender...), ultra-contemporary, overpriced oddity of a place with an "I'm not like anyone else" just like everyone else attitude could exist, its in San Francisco. Save yourself and eat at the Utah next door. It may be old and loud, but at least its genuine. If you DO decide on Orson, you'll probably end up with you and your appetite at Utah anyway, just $120 lighter. You've been warned.
Pros: Having spent that kind of $$$ on table scraps, I left feeling pretentious and superior
Cons: I also left hungry, broke and confused
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