Vivande
2125 Fillmore Street, San Francisco (415) 346-4430
| posthoc's Late Night Restaurant Guide |
Some of the best food in the City is at Vivande in Pacific Heights (also found downtown). Vivande is a small, narrow restaurant, which also sells fine cheeses, cookbooks and wines. It is altogether charming: the napkins are cloth, the tablecloth is paper over cloth, and, on the night we attended, the owner busses tables.
Although we were served hearty, strong but soft bread and butter while we made up our minds, we also ordered a spinach salad and a specialty appetizer of mushrooms. The salad has incredible spinach you cannot find in a store served with a soft vinagriette, feta cheese and pine nuts. But the mushrooms stole the show. The mushrooms were sliced, sauteed with garlic, lemon and anchovies, and brought to the table encased in a flaky, phyllo envelope.
Deciding on an entree is very hard here with wonderful sounding chicken, pork and even a chilean sea bass special dishes. Even the risottos are special--made with portobello mushrooms or asparagus. My chicken breast was juicy and sweet and especially good with the accompanying fava beans in balsamic, roast tomato and steamed spinach. The pork loin was just as tasty, and stuffed with pancetta for added flavor and texture. The pork came with chard as delicious as any spinach.
Of the two risottos, the portobello is better than the asparagus, although both come surrounded by the creamy, almost custard-like rice. The portobellos retain their firmness, perfectly cooked, to contrast with the silky risotto. It is some of the best restaurant risotto I have ever had.
We spent the meal alternately moaning over the perfection of our dishes and craning our necks (you don’t have to crane very far in these close quarters) to see what other diners had ordered. Often a dish served a few tables away would send a mouthwatering scent our way. A special shrimp dish on our vist was causing many heads to turn.
Dessert can be extraordinary--the tiramisu at the table next to us looked magnificent--but we opted for simple cappucinos and cookies. I don’t know if I could have stood an incredible dessert after a meal of such perfection.
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