Farallon allure dips as its prices ascend
One of the most frequent requests from visitors is for a good “seafood” restaurant. It’s not easy to answer.
Of course, there are many restaurants along Fisherman’s Wharf, but few other restaurants specialize in seafood. The reason: Most top Bay Area restaurants offer plenty of options, so specialization becomes limiting and unnecessary.
However, there’s still something to be said for places like Farallon, which has been my go-to seafood suggestion since it opened 18 years ago. It has a lot going for it, including a fantastical interior that looks as if it could have inspired the sets of “Finding Nemo,” with its jellyfish light fixtures, caviar-like marbles covering the staircase and a hand-painted dome ceiling that once covered a swimming pool when the space was part of the Elks Lodge.
Upstairs more cramped
I’ve always been enamored with the interior of Farallon. But then again, I had never been seated upstairs until this visit, where there is a totally different vibe. Though the downstairs dining area is grandiose and impressive, the second floor feels cave-like with its low, curved eggplant-colored ceiling. We were seated in an upstairs booth, where I was fighting the table pedestal all night and ended up having a backache by the end of dinner.
For years, Farallon earned a place in my annual Top 100 Restaurants guide, but it fell off a few years ago amid a new crop of competitors, and the preparations had become inconsistent. A recent return visit showed that it was still good, but nowhere near the 3.5-star rating it has held since 2010, especially when you now pay around $20 for appetizers, more than $30 for main courses, and a 5 percent surcharge, one of the highest in the city.
When the butter lettuce salad ($17) arrived topped with lightly smoked trout, it looked promising. Because the waiter knew we were going to share, he automatically split the portion. The butter lettuce, judiciously coated with Green Goddess dressing, looked almost like an open rose on the plate, with the trout in the center. A garnish of individually dressed cherry tomato halves was on the side, but what set the salad apart was a sprinkling of sunflower seeds, showing how one ingredient can give everything a fresh perspective.
Many Western restaurants these days incorporate Japanese inspiration into the menu, and Farallon is no different, featuring an appetizer of ramen noodles with sauteed salmon ($19). The chunk of salmon is arranged on a plate with noodles, edamame, trumpet mushrooms and a miso broth that functioned more as a sauce than a soup. The salmon was exceptional, but the noodles needed more resistance to counteract a flabby texture.
Too many components
The third appetizer, a nicely fried softshell crab ($23), was arranged upright on an oval of avocado cream flanked by arugula, scattered with crisp bacon and a chunky tomato sauce. It was good, but it felt as if it had one too many components that distracted from the star ingredient.
That problem turned out to foreshadow our main courses, both piled high with competing flavors. An over-salted fillet of pan-roasted petrale sole ($34) was served on a square plate, along with a puckery celeriac salad, roasted tomato sauce, under-seasoned roasted potatoes, greens, a Jackson Pollock installation of balsamic vinegar, and whole yellow wax beans that turned out to be the best item on the plate. I didn’t know where to begin, and with all the competition, nothing could break out of the muddle.
Milk-poached halibut ($36) had a surprisingly firm texture and a great flavor, but was diminished by a viscous pool of corn chowder, surrounded by whole potatoes, a swirl of pepper sauce and microgreens. The corn dominated and desperately needed a hit of acid to rein in its sweetness.
Desserts have always been a strength at Farallon, but not on this visit. A strawberry basil cake ($10) tasted as if it came from a catered event, with layers of strawberry semifreddo and a Lillet gelee. The triangular slice was surrounded with chocolate cigars, strawberry sauce, fresh fruit and olive oil powder. Fromage blanc marzipan galette ($10) was made with an exceptional puff pastry that split into dozens of layers as it was cut with a fork. However, the accompanying elderflower syrup didn’t add anything, and the cherry sorbet on top diminished the impact of the pastry.
The sweet courses capped a two-plus-hour dinner. Part of the reason for the extended visit was the long waits between courses, as the service varied from being exceptionally professional to being lax and inattentive.
Overall, I liked Farallon and would be perfectly happy if someone took me there, but given the price, it wouldn’t now be at the top of my list of recommendations.