San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
The Vault
555 California St., San Francisco, 415-508-4675 or www.thevault555.com
11:30 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday, 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 5 p.m.-10 p.m. Saturday.
Wheelchair-accessible entrance on opposite side of the building from the restaurant. Gender-neutral restrooms with heavy doors.
Moderate in the dining room, louder in the lounge.
Hours:
Accessibility:
Noise level:
$100-$160.
Artichoke dip, chicken liver mousse ($14), rib eye, Hi-Chew cocktail
Plant-based options:
Sparse: Four vegetable dishes and one pasta main.
Drinks: Transportation:
Full bar.
Regularly bad car traffic. Parking garage across the street on Kearny. Short walk from Montgomery Street Station.
Best practices:
Liveliest during weekday happy hours; quieter on Saturdays.
lobster salad ($34 for the equivalent of one lobster) was peppered with shell fragments; thankfully the situation improved by the next time I came in. Dressed like an East Coast lobster roll, the salad is served with a clutch of soft Parker House rolls that gleam like polished doornobs, but at dinner the bread service lagged behind: I ended up picking at my salad until a server appeared with the basket.
At lunch, fish tacos made with fried black cod ($19 for three) were garnished with dollops of avocado puree and quick-pickled napa cabbage that dripped liquid onto the plate. With the side of juicy white beans served both whole and pureed, the dish as presented was incredibly beige. Worst of all were the chicken nuggets ($14), battered squares of ground chicken that evoked tofu, like a reverse Impossible Burger. The black lime ranch sauce that accompanied it tasted like lime curd; the combination was rather revolting.
I found myself asking, “Why?” a lot while dining here.
Why are the chicken nuggets perfect rectangles? Why call that rice “dirty” when it’s just multigrain? Why do the menu’s attempts at individuality fall so flat? Why did the server tell me the restaurant is “known for” the chocolate lava tart ($12) when it’s only been open for three weeks?
To be fair, there are little tweaks and “takes” on classic dishes here that speak to a sense of vision. The menu’s prose, limited to the ingredient list format that Bay Area restaurants love so much, reveals fragments of brilliance within the classic dishes.
Iacopi Farms artichokes are fried and braised for a light and cheesy dip ($14) paired with three gorgeous seeded rye crackers that would make even the most finicky birds shriek with happiness. And I have no qualms with the tender rib eye ($49), dry-aged for 28 days, then served here with fermented chile paste and roasted brassicas. It was cooked perfectly, though the mix of broccoli and cauliflower on the side had the personality of those Green Giant steam-in-a-bag products