S.O.S: Save Our San Sebastian
If it wasn't for the fact that my regular dining partner doesn't eat seafood, or cheese plates, or steak tartare, I would probably make Bar Crudo my second home. Since that is never going to happen, I save the treat of visiting Bar Crudo for girls' nights out. Yesterday an ex-local friend of mine, on a fleeting visit from her new home in New York, decreed that Bar Crudo should be the place to feed us, and with good reason: From raw favourites like wasabi tobiko-topped plump pillows of arctic char or tender, creamy scallops with vichyssoise and black caviar to lobster salad with burrata or the rich seafood chowder with potatoes and bacon, I am always satisfied with what I feast on when dining in this tiny little treasure of a restaurant.
Last night we tried a new special - a crab louis salad, with smudgy cubes of avocado, pale squares of beet, crisp green leaves, perfectly boiled egg, pink sauce and meaty flakes of white crab - and we were tucking in to it quite happily until the waitress told us it was probably slated to replace the San Sebastian on the menu.
What? No more San Sebastian? The same San Sebastian that was feted in 7x7 magazine? The San Sebastian of which I proclaimed, "this makes the raw tuna dish on every menu in town obsolete by comparison"? The same San Sebastian that perfumes the room with the delicious scent of grilled bread and garlic? The perfect picnic plate of oil-poached tuna confit, asparagus, roasted red peppers, olives, caper berries, Manchego, tomato bread and a boiled egg with a soft, gooey yolk? San Sebastian? No more?
I am not one to begrudge a chef who wants to change his menu from time to time, but please, San Francisco - get your arses down to Bush street for one last taste of San Sebastian, before it's too late. Don't say I didn't warn you.
I have eaten at Bar Crudo at least half a dozen times.Bar Crudo 603 Bush Street (at Stockton)
San Francisco, CA 94108
My San Diego buddy Alice Q Foodie reports on a previous visit to Bar Crudo
San Sebastian on Flickr
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16 Comments:
At 12/12/07 07:28,
Jennifer said…
Sometimes I dream about their seafood chowder. And wake up wishing I could have it for breakfast...
I must get down there again very soon. Thanks for the reminder.
At 12/12/07 08:37,
NS said…
I must have just missed you last night -- Rhonda and I were at Bar Crudo for an early dinner. We tried the San Sebastian for the first time, and we, too, were disappointed when the waitress told us that the dish was in its last days. I wonder if I can get back in time for one more sampling before it disappears...
At 12/12/07 09:11,
Kenneth said…
NOOOO!!! A requiem:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kestelnon/494858622/
At 12/12/07 09:13,
Sam said…
Jennifer - the chowder is wonderful too - even better with a San Sebastian on the side.
NS - oh no - i arrive early and was waiting in Tunnel top next door for over an hour - if only I'd known the two of you were so close by.
Knelston - thanks - I have added the link to my post.
At 12/12/07 09:25,
ChrisB said…
Now that sounds like a dish I might have enjoyed (except for the olives!)
At 12/12/07 09:59,
Anonymous said…
i love bar crudo and don't go there nearly enough even though i live along the street - thanks for the reminder...
At 12/12/07 12:37,
Keith said…
I was in town for just two days and I was lucky enough to go to Bar Crudo. We had the San Seastian and fell in love with it right away. I even blogged about the whole dinner.
At 12/12/07 16:08,
cookiecrumb said…
"Smudgy avocado"
Very good.
At 12/12/07 18:46,
Alice Q. Foodie said…
Did we not have this when we went? I don't seem to remember it. I still think about that lobster salad and the chowder though...
Did you see my honeycomb post? I have to say, the batch with the corn syrup was slightly better, but I'm not sure if it was a controlled experiment. I think I need to try again.
At 12/12/07 21:42,
Anonymous said…
I agree that it can be difficult to make it out to Bar Crudo despite how delicious it is. There are a limited number of people in the world who would be content eating raw seafood...I am among them but unfortunately not too many of my friends are! Glad you had a chance to make it there again though :)
At 13/12/07 17:23,
Anonymous said…
i find the restaurant is inconsistent. it can be pretty good but consistency falls when the 'kitchen' gets rushed.
i also wish they would change the menu. i'm actually surprised that for a fish-based business, and therefore a market-based business in my eyes, the menu is as stagnant as it is. i would imagine it would change at least seasonally, if not every few weeks.
- chuckeats.com
At 13/12/07 21:52,
Vicki said…
I didn't even get through the first sentence of your post before I was overwhelmed with the desire to smack some sense into your "regular dining partner". A person who won't eat seafood, cheese plates and steak tartare? Why bother living? (My apologies, if said partner is a decent, if slightly insane, human being.)
At 13/12/07 22:38,
Sam said…
Hey Chuck - thanks for stopping by - I have never actually had any inconsistent quality of food over 6 or more visits, everything has always been great and I have never noticed a rush causing a problem - maybe I have been lucky.
I would agree that there are some crudos I prefer over others though - but how does a kitchen get over that? There is always something one person prefers over another person. I see that more as a matter of taste, the crudos which aren't my favourites have always still been of high quality ingredient wise.
At 13/12/07 22:44,
Vicki said…
Hey, I didn't mean it that way at all! I just can't imagine life without seafood (and asparagus), etc. I have no idea who your partner is, so it definitely wasn't a personal attack. And besides, the asparagus was grown locally, so the cheap part was a bonus.
At 13/12/07 22:49,
Sam said…
Ok - thanks for the nice apology - it's kind of upsetting when you discover someone hops on your blog and starts insulting your partner so you will understand why I want to stick up for him - I love him.
I actually had second thoughts about my earlier comment and had deleted it already, not realising you had left a nicer reply.
Thanks for the explanation,
Sam.
At 13/12/07 23:09,
Vicki said…
No worries -
I'm sorry if my words came across differently(?) from how I meant them. Text-based communication sucks sometimes - I have all these thoughts in my head, but fail to communicate them properly, with all the accompanying emotions. Maybe I should try adding smileys?
As a sidenote, your blog is one of the first "foodie blogs" I subscribed to, and was one of the inspirations for me starting my own.
Wow - prepositions hanging all over the place, and 2 tenses in one sentence. I think I'll go to bed now.
Take care -
Vicki
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