Chef puts Portugal on the map
Uma Casa brings a fresh cuisine to San Francisco
When a new restaurant opens, there are always kinks to work out in the menu, the kitchen or the service. Sometimes the process is quick. Sometimes — not.
Case in point: Uma Casa, which took over the space of Incanto at 27th and Church streets in Noe Valley.
I was excited to go because it’s the only Portuguese restaurant in the city, as far as I know. Telmo Faria, the chef at Tacolicious for seven years, has always wanted to have his own place so he could honor his Portuguese heritage. While he was born in the United States, his Portuguese parents moved back to their homeland when he was 1 year old, and they stayed until his teenage years.
I stopped by Uma Casa in early March, two months after it opened. Faria oversaw a cosmetic remodel of the restaurant, opening up the side windows to let in more light, slightly restructuring the bar to give it a more expansive feel, and adding tiles to the front and on the columns.
I was impressed with the complimentary bowl of housemade potato chips with a spicy tomato pepper sauce, and was looking forward to what was to come. Unfortunately, that was the highlight. The shrimp turnovers were unevenly browned and gooey; asparagus tempura had a thick, uneven coating and looked like an alien trying to escape its shell. The red winebraised short ribs were so subtly seasoned they could have been served at any California restaurant.
The staff was uninformed and the food seemed generic. I got barely a glimmer of what Portuguese cuisine can be like.
Despite its newsworthiness, I decided Uma Casa wasn’t worth a review, and I moved on to other places. Then in May I started hearing good things about the restaurant so I went back — and found that service had become more professional and that Faria was finding his voice. By my third visit he was delivering a delicious sense of the country and its food.
Now there’s lots to recommend.
The turnovers ($8) were evenly browned, and the shrimp filling added the expected seafaring notes. The asparagus with its lumpy coating was no longer on the menu, but the kitchen exhibited its new-found control with salt cod fritters ($10), with an evenly fried shell and creamy interior. The strong qualities of the dried fish was aptly smoothed by potatoes. The once-bland short ribs ($27) now came alive with cloves and other spices bolstered by the salsa verde. The tender meat was served on sweet potato puree and braised collard greens.
A great way to start, especially if there are three or four in the party, is the Prato Petiscos ($22), a presentation of linguica, chourico, regional cheeses with pickled vegetables, olives and toasted bread. It’s too filling for two and wouldn’t leave room for other fantabulous items, including a beet salad ($12) with turnips, carrots, citrus and an herb vinaigrette. A particularly successful blending of cultures came with the arugula salad ($11) with its peppery greens, pluots, almonds, Sao Jorge (a semihard cow’s milk cheese from Portugal) and Port vinaigrette.
One of the favorite soups I’ve had in recent memory was the caldo verde ($9), with a soothing texture of potatoes laced with collard greens, coins of linguica and fragrant olive oil.
The staff makes a point to say that all the food is meant to be shared, and they follow through. The waiter even had the foresight to ask if we’d like the soup split, a logical offer but one that escapes most shared-plate restaurants. Throughout the night the staff was good at pacing items, changing out plates and checking back.
Faria also knows how to concoct a great tuna tartare ($15). The cubes of fish were enhanced with onion puree, herbs, crumbled bits of olives and a quail egg. It’s accompanied with those house-made potato chips.
The salad de mariscos ($14) also highlights seafood, a cold melange that includes shrimp, squid, mussels and octopus with garbanzos and molho cru, a Portuguese sauce similar to chimichurri.
One recommended small plate includes lamb sausage ($16) that’s mixed with fava bean puree, snap peas and sofrito, and topped with a six-minute egg and accompanied by grilled bread.
In addition to 20 or so smaller plates, the kitchen offers a half dozen main courses. These include a fragrant and boldly flavored grilled chicken ($23) with a piri piri glaze made with chiles, citrus peel, paprika and other spices that leave a tongue-tingling impression. A saffron broth is the base for caldeirada ($28), a seafood stew, with shrimp, clams, mussels, potatoes and a fillet of halibut.
More challenging is the bacalhau gomes de sá ($21) — a huge casserole with potatoes, dried fish, caramelized onions, olives and quarters of eggs served with a parsley aioli. You have to really like dried cod, in all its overbearing fragrant glory. This is definitely a dish that must be shared because it’s too intense for one person to finish.
Five desserts are offered, including a warm rice pudding ($8) with apples; a tart with peaches and blackberries; and an olive oil cake with berries and pistachio. However, my favorite was the simplest: the small Portuguese custard tart ($4) with its sturdy shell and creamy, caramelized interior.
Now, from the potato chips to the all-Portuguese wine list to the final custard tart, Faria is in command of the kitchen, adding a strong voice to a classic cuisine. As he continues to explore the nuances of a cuisine he loves, the restaurant should only get better.