if you live in san francisco, you are either well acquainted with tartine bakery or severely deprived. i suppose you could also be vegan, hence not able to enjoy their delectable baked goods, but there again you fall into the category of severely deprived. some doubt tartine's perfection, calling their bread pudding excessively eggy; those people would be mistaken. a more appropriate manner to describe the dish, and everything else they serve, would be the finest way to start a day.
despite the occasional complaint, however, the acclaim for tartine bakery is nearly universal. initially though, bar tartine -- same people, full restaurant -- failed to garner the same level of praise. inconsistency permeated the menu and the service lacked the attentiveness and precision of formal dining and the warmth and care of the best neighborhood establishments. or so the reviews said. but as the months passed, so did the critics. the dishes, which previously lacked imagination and suffered from flawed execution, had been fixed. now everything they served matched the quality of their bakery sister. allegedly.
i beg to differ. nothing on the menu was priced exorbitantly, nor did anything deserve to be. along with one of my regular dining partners, we split two each of starters, appetizers and desserts. i confess to never having any sort of confit except duck, so i was intrigued by the tuna confit salad. now i'm aware that tuna confit is just an alias for starkist. the fact that the greens were horrendously over-dressed in italian vinagerette only exacerbated the situation. my companions watermelon and radicchio salad was a significant upgrade, but still short of remarkable.
sadly, the entrees brought little relief. the sweet corn risotto was slightly undercooked, leaving the center of the risotto slightly chewy. but the pan-roasted quail didn't make me feel i had erred in my selection. the green salad the quail was served with actually overshadowed the bland prepartation of the fowl.
even the desserts, which would seem almost guaranteed to approach perfection given their relationship with the bakery, didn't quite meet expectations. the warm chocolate cake with chili flakes finished with a suprising kick, but it was notable primarily for its novelty. even their signature dessert -- muscato soaked nectarine served with a scoop of basil sorbet -- though excellent, brought little glee. the peel of the nectarine made it such that even when slicing with a knife, the fruit was ground into a pulp-like form. plus my knowledge that just a few short blocks away at range, a nearly identical, but superior version of this dessert was being served, simply made me wish i had chosen another dining location.
i'm sure i'll check back in a year or so. by then, maybe they will have actually sorted through their problems.
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