Skip to main content

Dining Review - Slanted Door

By
There is simply no better example of the quintessential San Francisco dining experience than Slanted Door. Named one of the Top 100 restaurants in the US, I was lucky enough to be introduced to this gem years ago, and I have been an addict ever since. They have moved several times, but their current location in the Ferry Building looks to be the last move. While I have eaten there on many wonderful occasions, I was lucky to head back there this last week, taking a client who was in from out of town. It occurred to me I never shared the amazing experience of a Slanted Door dinner with you!

Slanted Door is Vietnamese, but has evolved into something uniquely San Francisco. First, a word of warning: don’t try to have dinner here without reservations. It just can’t be done unless you come very early, or eat very late. Second, if you ignored my first words of advice, don’t be afraid of the bar: it's a full menu, and sometimes the service is even better, as well as more intimate dining. Lastly, as my dining guest this week commented, "I feel cool just BEING here!" Embrace the atmosphere. Yes, there's a DJ spinning dining music. Yes, everyone is in tight black T-shirts. Go with it.

We had reservations at 8:30, and we could not be seated sooner. We strolled around the Ferry Building, then waited in the lounge. They tried to get us in earlier, to no avail. Finally, we were seated in the main rear section: louder than I like, but a small price to pay. Service was perfect: he was there when we needed him, and invisible when we did not.

Ok, skip to the good stuff. Appetizers: Imperial Rolls: perfectly flaky, flavorful, and hot. Niman Ranch Beef Carpaccio with peanuts and lime sauce: incredible; it exploded with flavor in your mouth. Main Courses: Meyer Ranch shaking beef: cubed filet mignon with garlic, watercress and organic red onions - incredibly tender, yet so much flavor. Out of this world. The crispy five spiced Liberty Farm duck legs with braised baby carrots, turnips and yellow finn potatoes were all duck should be, with remarkable intensity of flavor. Even though the crab is not yet in season, the cellophane noodles with fresh Dungeness crab meat were amazing. Oh, did I mention the green beans? Worth eating on their own.

A glass of French Red kept me happy, and Amy and our guest split the Strawberry mousse napoleon for dessert. Yes, we had food to take home, and they did a nice trick: they cleared the plates before dessert, and brought us the remainder of our dinner to take home only after dessert had been finished. Nice!

You simply can’t go wrong with Slanted Door. Lunch is easier, and they even have their to go storefront in the main Ferry Building, Out The Door. But dinner, on the water with the twinkling of the Bay Bridge behind you, and the amazing food and service, is a treat unto itself.

* Service: 5 stars

* Food: 5 stars

* Ambience: 5 stars

* Overall: 5 stars
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Loyalty Review: Kohl's Yes2You

By
 As some of you know, I've spent over 15 years in the customer loyalty space. So, when I come across a new retail loyalty program, I can't help but see the pluses and minuses. After this many years, it's kind of ingrained. Periodically, I'll share my thoughts with you. Today, it's Kohl's turn under the scope. Let's have a look, shall we? I've divided the review up into three sections: what's good about the program, what's bad about the program, and what I'd change about it. That last one has some actual value: I charged hundreds of dollars per hour for loyalty program consulting, and had over a dozen clients, before I moved to JustAnswer FT. But, being a pandemic and all, I'm giving it away for free here. Kohl's, you're welcome. Here we go! The Good Sign up is opt in Seems odd to praise Kohl's for this, but in department store loyalty, this is a rarity, and a smart one. It means the customers who are opted in are already prime
1 comment
Read more

The Icarus Effect

By
This morning's news started with the latest grim proof of overdevelopment in a tough sector: SkyBus Airlines shut down , less than year from when it started. Never heard of Skybus? Not surprising; they chose to focus on trips from Ohio to the West Coast for ridiculously low fares. Yes, you read that right: the airlines' unique niche was that they focused on trips from Ohio . Was air travel such an amazingly profitable business that we needed that much segmentation and focus? Of course not. A year ago, when Skybus was just getting off the ground (har har), fuel costs were at an all time high. United was still in bankruptcy; Delta, a fellow airline with a major hub in Ohio, was just exiting Chapter 11. And yet, "irrational exuberance" led investors like Nationwide Mutual Capital, Huntington Capital Investment Co., and Battelle Services Co. to ignore the obvious signs of risk, and dive into what was a dubious investment. Today, they, and the passengers who were lured by
Post a Comment
Read more

2020 CV19 Lockdown: Winners and Losers

By
It is said that in any time in history, the winners and losers are determined when a unique set of circumstances arises the requires an unprecedented response. How a company responds to those conditions can often propel them to new heights, or sentence them to an ignominious end. This post is meant to be an ongoing and often updated list of those that may come out of the Great 2020 Covid19 Lockdown as champs...or chumps. Winners Zoom How is it that, with all of the video conferencing choices in the market, a relatively obscure one (and a freemium one, to boot!) ran away with the title? Think of it: you had entrenched competitors like Skype and Facebook, as well as work-focused like Microsoft Teams , Google Hangouts , and Amazon Chime , any one of which had far greater reach than Zoom . Yet Zoom won, to the point that they achieved the exalted state of having their product/platform become a verb ("I'll Zoom you later"). More amazingly, they even continued their gro
Post a Comment
Read more