Zuni
1658 Market Street
Tel: 415-552-2522
UPDATE September 2005 J and I often go to Zuni, so very often. The smell alone soothes my nerves after a long day battling my email In box. The whiffs are heavenly, and the interior of the restaurant I find to be one of the coziest, most inviting of all those in the city. The nooks and crannies are endless, and we love to pop in on last-minute date nights and sit down in the bar area and people watch.. And the crowd is like SF, a true mixture of folks. When in doubt, if you have an out of town guest, bring them to Zuni. When in doubt, if you want an SF Scene, head to Zuni. We always run into friends: foodie friends. The oysters are knockout. We've become accustomed, ohh lucky us, to kicking off a meal with a mixture of local oysters from Point Reyes with a few from PEI thrown in there for good measure. And of course we have a glass of champagne. On Thursday we then moved on to the Halibut Cheeks which were mouthwatering in their sauce of vermouth and butter with cilantro and corn. Very light. ($10). The Little Gem Salad was pleasant and unobtrusive, a lettuce salad with golden beets, avocado and cucumber. ($8). I love the infamous Chickie for Two (and incidentally, we've taken to making this on Sundays at home, not so hard to do!), but this time we split the Grilled Blue Nose Bass on the recommendation of our waiter. Who was excellent by the way; his suggestions were ohh so spot on. The grilled flavor of the fish coated the roofs of our mouth such that even the next morning I was chattering about how tasty our fish was. Good martinis. Good wines. Good food. Good people watching. Zuni is very high on my list of favorite restaurants in San Francisco.
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Zuni was created a long time ago by the talented and vivacious Judy Rogers, and is still earning its stars in a variety of dining guides that are over relied upon by tired and toothsome travelers and an endless stream of grazing ‘guppies.’ Housed in a ‘rustic-modern’ barn mad of wood and glass, this Craft-style eatery is a classic unto itself reminiscent to me of a clear plastic-carrying container for a slice of pie taken on a picnic.
Located in a semi seedy section of Market Street (relatively close to the Civic Center) the restaurant is not a ‘location, location , location’ spot by any means, but Zuni’s food, service and ambience are of the highest standards and have consistently earned the praise by a doting food press and adoring public. The burger, Caesar salad and fabulous roasted chicken--the very things that have been made into trademarks by the media--are in my humble opinion only slightly above those reproduced endlessly by a steady stream of copycats and wannabes.
I first tried the Caesar salad and a burger. The Caesar which consisted of the finest emerald green romaine lettuce I have ever eaten but was poorly dressed and watery…I didn’t really notice the subtle flavor of the dressing until I was almost through with the salad, and it left me disappointed, wanting a stronger memory. The burger was a small patty of high quality and very lean beef, almost always cooked to well done, making it dry and hard, and was served on warmed focaccia, not the best platform for a burger in my opinion. The condiments were excellent.
Better options to my taste have always been the inventive and exciting specials, which showcase the finest and freshest produce, seafood and organic meats available. When asparagus is at its freshest, the Zuni does a lot of terrific things with it--one of my favorites being to serve the asparagus warm, perfectly blanched or par-boiled with toasted breadcrumbs, sieved hard cooked egg and a fine caper vinaigrette. It’s superb, and strangely, it’s almost always cheaper than Zuni’s somewhat inferior Caesar. For the most part all their salads are exquisite due to the fine, fresh organic ingredients. I find this to be true of almost all of Zuni’s side dishes too; the shoestring potatoes are fabulous and make a burger a candidate for ‘best’ because of the fries. The burger I might add, is served à la carte, so at $9.00 and another $4.00 for the fries, it’s expensive for a relatively small burger with little to distract one for the scant size and poor use of bread to encase the burger.
One item that is associated with the high standards of Zuni is its classic roasted chicken for two with Tuscan-style bread salad at $32.00 and requiring at least 45 minutes. This is a superb entrée and deserves the praise long heaped upon it.
Pizzas at Zuni are stellar, the only ones coming close are the small pizzas I’ve tasted at 2223 and it’s a case of preference in the crusts. The toppings at Zuni are wonderful, as is the crust--thin, crisp, almost crackling and always served at just the right degree of temperature.
Another favorite for me is the house-cured pork chop, usually served with a braised root vegetable and a fruit infused and seasoned with the juices of the meat and truly complements the quality of the chop. I am a big fan of the Zuni’s technique with mesquite grilling of its fine, fresh seafood (especially mahi-mahi and turbot that I love with grilled endive, roasted potatoes in an infused butter sauce at around $17.00.)
The dessert menu is small, complex and made even more difficult with the selection of seldom heard of cheeses, which are always excellent, but who the hell knows what they’re talking about. An opportunity to learn is how I choose to view this printed invitation to spend more money after I’m usually full and sated. Some of the cheeses recently offered include Fougerus with fennel at $4.50, or a Cowgirl Creamery "Los Reyes" with muscat raisins in grappa also at $4.50, which might be ‘heard of’ to a sophisticated cheese fancier, but not anyone I usually dine with, but the menu is fun and informative nonetheless.
The balance of the dessert menu is more traditional but also somewhat undistinguished. The Braeburn apple tart with crème fraiche at $5.75 is good, but pedestrian, the Gateau Victoire chocolate cake with whipped cream at $5.00 just so-so and the Chocolate-almost pot de crème at $5.00 not really interesting at all. There are some ice creams and sorbets, fruit selections and biscotti offered also, but it’s not a high point on the menu here. Zuni also offers a full bar located at the narrow entry of the wedge shaped facility, a large and well thought out wine list, a great selection of beers and ales, a menu for coffee and tea, and even a water and soda menu.
Overall, I think Zuni is quite good, somewhat flat in creativity, and perhaps sliding a little on an earned reputation. Service is excellent, and they retain only a trace of the arrogance of their former perch on the local food chain. I duly recommend Zuni.
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