Central Kitchen loses its center
When a casual neighborhood restaurant begins to charge more than $ 30 for a main course, it brings the issue of cost versus value to the forefront. To put it another way, it’s like walking a tightrope, and even one minor misstep can throw the experience out of favor.
That analogy came to mind at Central Kitchen, which earned a spot in The Chronicle’s Top 100 Bay Area Restaurants guide each of the last two years. On my return visit earlier this month, I noticed that prices have risen slightly, and the surcharge for San Francisco mandates escalated from 4 to 5 percent. A small portion of Wagyu bavette steak was $ 36, and a similarly sized swordfish fillet was $ 31. Two pasta dishes listed as “mid courses” were each more than $ 20.
Those were enough to raise the cost/ value question. When the first course arrived, the restaurant slipped off the tightrope. Smoked beet salad ($ 15), where the root vegetables were piled over yogurt date purée, was so cloyingly sweet we left most on the plate. We also ordered the beef tartare ($ 11) with horseradish and a too generous dose of espelette, a dried chile that ended up rendering the chopped beef flat and onedimensional.
I’m not sure if the waiter noticed or simply didn’t care when she picked up the salad and ignored the uneaten portion, saying: “Are you finished with that?” Later when my companion asked for ice, she let out an audible sigh.
Service has never been a strong point at Central Kitchen, and a subtle sense of entitlement runs through the staff in their attitude. It’s more easily overlooked when the food hits the mark, but when it misses, other deficits become magnified.
The staff dresses like they came in off the street. It’s nearly impossible to tell them from patrons, especially on cooler nights when everyone is wearing sweaters or coats.
I also noticed — and tasted — that the cooks behind the line had a heavy hand with salt. Swordfish ($ 31) was accompanied by sunchokes and celery root with barley and miso broth; the dish was so salty I couldn’t finish it. I ate around the edges of the filet because the center was underdone and had a gummy texture. The Wagyu steak ($ 36) was chewy but had a pleasant char and turned out to be one of the highlights of the evening, although the accompanying beans and vegetables were like a salt lick.
Fruit dominated too many of the savory courses, making the offerings appear unbalanced: apple with hen liver mousse ($ 12); mandarin with roasted baby carrots ($ 15); pear with yellow fin tuna ($ 16); citrus and sweet potatoes with duck breast ($ 33); raisins with pork agnolotti ($ 22); and huckleberries with porcini spaghetti ($ 21) — though in that final case the wild mushrooms and thyme with the pasta played well with the sweet component.
Desserts seem like an afterthought: Four torn pieces of carrot cake ($ 10), heaped on a plate with ginger frosting, apple and cilantro, were overpowered by sugar. The beet and rose sorbet ($ 6) would have been interesting as an accompaniment to a cake or tart, but was too earthy and intense to stand on its own.
In the end, it felt as if the value was lacking, though I may have been more forgiving if the main courses were in the $ 25 range. When you factor in the lackadaisical service, it doesn’t quite add up.