Rooh just gets better
I tried, I really tried to get away from the Italian restaurants that have dominated my dining this month, so I sidetracked to Rooh, a contemporary Indian restaurant that opened this year.
When I reviewed the restaurant in April and gave it three stars, I was skeptical that chef Sujan Sarkar was in for the long haul, especially after reading that in March he had leased a large 170seat space in New York. With restaurants in London too, I feared he was spreading his talent thin.
I made a mental note to check back in six months to see what was going on. On a return visit I found the food even more pulled together. Sarkar, who is one of the most prominent Indian chefs in London and Mumbai, has fully embraced California.
He starts with a classic base but can’t resist adding modern embellishments. For example, his Traditional Butter Chicken ($26) is sprinkled with butter powder. Paneer Chili ($14), encircled by fine threads of crisp kataifi, is accented with ginger chutney and lemon achaar gel. Lamb keema hyderrabadi, a mixture of spicy ground lamb, is capped with a light potato mousse and accompanied by brioche that resemble Parker House rolls. It’s a crosscultural marriage of American sloppy joes, British shepherd’s pie and Indian spicing.
The cocktails are also worth trying. The menu organizes them on an illustrated tasting wheel by their main qualities — sour, salty, sweet or bitter. An example of bitter is the Mustard Old Fashioned ($13), perfect for people like me who don’t gravitate to sweet, fruity drinks.
Sarkar prepared a Diwali tasting menu Oct. 19-21, celebrating the Hindu festival of lights, which included exceptional deep-fried pepper quail. He’s now in the process of introducing a fall menu. All this while traveling back and forth to New York for the anticipated opening of his Indian gastropub next month. He says he’ll stay there a couple of months to get it off the ground, but at least for now his bicoastal lifestyle hasn’t affected the food at Rooh.
That’s the sign of a great chef: the ability to build a crew that can carry on without the head guy looking over their shoulders.
333 Brannan St., San Francisco; (415) 525-4174. www.roohsf.com. Lunch and dinner Monday-Saturday.
Esan Classic
In another break from the Italian groove, I visited Esan Classic, from Tom Silargorn of Lers Ros fame and longtime chef Chanon Hutasingh. The Tenderloin restaurant explores northeastern Thai food from the Isan Province that borders Laos and Cambodia.
I was impressed with the juicy slices of pork shoulder ($12.95) with a pungent chile and rice powder dipping sauce; and the beef shank soup ($15.95) with a bold broth that fuses chiles, galangal, makrut lime and lemongrass — but that will be the subject of a future Sunday review. 739 Larkin St., San Francisco (415) 800-7646. (Website under construction.) Lunch and dinner daily.
Oh, and about those Italian places. Last week I wrote about visits to Delfina, Gialina and Dopo, and then there was the review of Ardiana on Sunday, but it doesn’t stop there. I checked out two more Cal/Ital restaurants recently. Tosca Cafe
Chef Josh Even continues to hold sway over April Bloomfield’s kitchen. The food — and the dark, retro interior — was as good as when I reviewed the restaurant three years ago. Near the end of service, Even, in street clothes, walked through the dining room. He had been doing what many of his colleagues are doing these days — feeding people in Napa and Sonoma.
Cocktails are always on point here, as are the pastas ($20), such as the spaghetti alla chitarra with bacon, broccoli de ciccio and lemon olive oil; and trompetti with lemon cream and basil oil. The signature main course is chicken roasted to order and served with a rich Masala sauce. However, I still haven’t quite come to terms with paying $48 for it. The menu says it serves two, but if you are expecting a whole chicken, your expectations will be dashed; two people split a half, which seems a little rich, even for a guy on an expense account.
242 Columbus Ave., San Francisco, (415) 986-9651. www.toscacafesf.com. Dinner until 1 a.m. nightly. Piccino
This Dogpatch restaurant has become one of the defining businesses of the emerging neighborhood, serving food that has wide appeal with its salads, pastas, pizza and generous main courses.
While I still liked the margherita pizza ($12), another minute or so in the oven might have firmed up the crust so it didn’t sag in the center.
Fortunately, the salads continue to be on point and creative such as one with radishes, snap peas, tuna, puffed rice and almonds under a loose blanket of mache ($10).
The three main courses include pork and beef meatballs ($18), sea bass with shelling beans ($29) and chicken al mattone, a crisp, flattened half chicken on a bed of polenta with piles of roasted peppers, capers and chiles.
1001 Minnesota St., San Francisco; (415) 824-4224. www.piccino.com. Open daily 11 a.m.-10 p.m.
Coi service regains luster
On my last full review of Coi, service garnered only 2.5 stars. But the staff has stepped up, putting the restaurant’s service back in the fourstar category. Coi has strengthened its status as one of our top-tier dining rooms.
Every top restaurant is unique in its own way. The Restaurant at Meadowood celebrates Wine Country. Benu takes Asian ingredients to new heights. Single Thread has a Japanese approach to what’s served. Quince, while no longer Italian, still has a pasta or two on the menu. Then there’s Saison, where just about everything is touched by an open flame, and La Folie, which has strong classic French underpinnings — the only top Bay Area restaurant, in fact, with a French chef.
Coi stakes its claim on seafood, and chef Matthew Kirkley uses it in just about every dish on the 11-course $225 tasting menu. On a recent visit, the only items that deviated were the roasted and charred octopus with two perfect rounds of foie gras; and skate wing stuffed with fish mousse, with a nugget of fried sweetbreads on the tip of the two pieces.
But the rest of the menu is all seafood. There are oysters two ways — one cool with Green Goddess dressing and cucamelon (which looks like a Barbie-size watermelon), and one warmed with white truffle butter. Loup de mer tartare is shaped into three cylinders and studded with bursts of finger lime; abalone is cut so thin it looks like flower petals and is served with Bartlett pear, sea lettuce and celery; and black bass is accompanied by squash, zucchini and apple.
It’s a unique and refined experience, served in a serene dining room that has a Japanese feel, thanks to the clean lines, woven wall coverings and the tables carved out of single pieces of wood.
373 Broadway, San Francisco; (415) 393-9000. www.coirestaurant.com. Dinner Thursday-Monday.