19122 Sun Mar 17 11:26:27 -0800 2002 11 1 San Francisco Bay Area 0 62915 I have read the preceding posts on this new cafe in the Lower Haight, and seen a growing rift in opionion. The better reviews favor brunch, dinner seems suffer in comparison. However, even in the positive brunch reviews I note a heartfelt generosity in tones,as if they'd like this place to be better than it is. Last night a friend and I ducked in for a snack, and found it suffering from the extended wait to get sat at an open table to the inept waitstaff (and it's not like we were expecting 4-star service) to the mediocre, unctuous food. We entered at about 9:30 on a Saturday night. The place was pretty well packed with a very trendy, black-clad young hip crowd. Lots of expensive glasses (including my own) and nice haircuts (excluding my own). There was a bit of a wait, but as the only two-person party on the list it took about fifteen minutes for one of the waiters to come over and invite us to sit at a table that had been vacant the entire time. Then it took about another 10 before our waiter came over with menus and then water. An amuse bouche of squash soup was brought in little espresso cups. However, our man didn't send spoons with the soup. It was too thick to drink from the cup, so we used our forks. It tasted not unlike pumpkin pie and had sat so long on the stove it had lost the liquidity that makes it soup. This kind of thing continued all night. We tried, it turns out, some of the same things as the other posters and got similar results. The salmon cakes were fishy and boring--the mayonaissy sauce could have come from a jar. The deep-fried shrimp rolls were similarly unstyled, and the dipping sauce meant for them was flavored exactly like, but thinner than, the "duck sauce" that comes in plastic from Chinese fast food joints. The caesar salad was pretty tasty. The short wine list features nothing American, which seemed strange in a restaurant specializing in a mediocre brand of American melting-pot cuisine with an emphasis on bland, cloying flavors delivered without much originality or flair. I'm disappointed, as Bloo is only a couple of blocks from my house and I've been looking for a disctinctive, sweet cafe to move into the area. While business seemed good the night we were in, I don't have much hope for the food. Sun Mar 17 11:26:27 -0800 2002 0 jordan 1 62928 Jordan, I agree with you. I went to Bloo within several weeks of its opening. The chef-owners were very gracious, welcoming, and trying hard. While there were few other customers, the food was neither delicious nor interesting to me. I too wanted this restaurant to succeed; it's really tough to open a new restaurant in San Francisco during these contracting economic times. However, I am unlikely to return. Sun Mar 17 14:09:17 -0800 2002 62915 0 elise h 2 62985 I agree--I wanted to like it, and maybe it's better for brunch, but it was food like you'd get from a friend who likes to read Bon Appetit but doesn't cook much. I can make better stuff at home even when I'm not really feeling like cooking. It's just proof that cooking school does not a chef make. Mon Mar 18 12:17:11 -0800 2002 62928 0 dixieday 3 63038 "It's just proof that cooking school does not a chef make." No, but operating a restaurant DOES a chef make. Keep an eye and a palate on this restaurant, and see what develops. It has demonstrated potential. Link: http://chowhound.safeshopper.com/21/cat21.htm?842 Tue Mar 19 02:22:19 -0800 2002 62985 0 MarkB 4 63056 Anyone who takes the risk to open a restaurant at the corner of Haight & Webster deserves a chance to succeed. I have been there many times for brunch and it rocks. Very refreshing to have breakfast on Sunday morning in a nice place that is clean, bright, quiet, and serves good food. Best of all, there is no waiting! I can't understand why anyone would stand outside on the sidewalk waiting for a table at Kate's when half a block away they could be seated immediately at Bloo. The same two cooks work all the shifts. They must be exhausted! How about being a little supportive? It's not like they are charging outrageous prices. Tue Mar 19 13:53:00 -0800 2002 63038 0 baygelldawg 5 63066 I can't comment on brunch, as I've only been for dinner. But the food I had at dinner was just not very good. I don't see why this place deserves pity/protection more than any other place. Good food is good food, and this board is a place to extoll it. When the food's not good, the restaurant shouldn't get pity points just for adding a little IKEA design to a scary corner. Tue Mar 19 16:29:04 -0800 2002 63056 0 dixieday 6 63161 To me, the real question here is how long should one give a restaurant to hit its stride before we declare that it's hopeless? BTW, I can perfectly understand people wanting to nurture a nice restaurant in their neighborhood, especially in a location where none has gone before. They just need to be upfront about its good qualities and its bad qualities. Wed Mar 20 15:17:47 -0800 2002 63066 0 Nathan Landau 7 63360 after having both dinner recently and brunch there this weekend, i'm not sure what you guys are all talking about. it is the same restaurant, where we had a great waiter named chris who was very professional and made us feel as home with wine suggestions and its pairing with the eclectic menu. we ended up having the beef brisket and salmon which were fantastic with the exceptional french merlot. and to cap off the meal, the chocolate cake and and creme brulee are some of the best to be had comparing with some of my recent visits to antica trattoria and aqua. the chocolate cake was a winner with its soft molten center and rich, not cloying, flavor. the creme brulee was top notch with a hot crispy shell over a cool light custard, i can't tell you how many restaurants serve it straight out of the fridge, brulee and all, which defeats the whole purpose. In short, perhaps all of you writing to chowhound are a bit jaded. I'm not sure whether you simply like to smear places that don't comp your meals or give you individulized treatment. Please let's maintain some semi-professional objectivity to our opinions and not follow the potentially nepotistic approach of our God, Michael Bauer. oh, yeah, by the way, Both the chefs, whom stopped by our table have great backgrounds. One has a degree in hotel and restaurant management , the other worked at the Ritz-Carlton Dining Room, Azie, Liberty Cafe. which are all great culinary experiences beyond the Culinary Academy. your complaints are unfounded. by the way, it is spring and their menu is changing this week, so perhaps after your trips to rosamunde and india clay oven, you can find time and a few dollars to go to Bloo. Heraldo J Mon Mar 25 12:38:27 -0800 2002 63161 0 heraldo 8 63374 Heraldo, my comments, and I believe the comments of fellow chowhounds, are honest and well meaning. I do not like to smear restaurants. On the contrary, I wish I could write wonderful comments about all restaurants. Taste is subjective, and everyone will have a different perspective. Let's respect - although we may not agree with - everyone's opinion. Mon Mar 25 18:03:16 -0800 2002 63360 0 elise h 8 63385 Who here expects restaurants to "comp your meals or give you individulized treatment"? Maybe a couple of posters here are food industry professionals, but the vast majority of us are the eating public who share their eating experiences on this board. My experience eating out with chowhounds is that if anything they pay very generously -- when we have a great meal we leave a great tip. Or am I naive? Do people here go into restaurants and announce they are going to write up the meal on a popular website in hopes of getting special treatment? Gee, maybe I've been doing this all wrong! Mon Mar 25 20:47:30 -0800 2002 63360 0 Ruth Lafler 8 63394 One of the great things about being on chowhound is that we get a whole bunch of voices that reflect different tastes and opinions. This particular thread about Bloo is a good example -- some don't seem to like it, some do. I can understand your frustrations upon reading that a place that you like isn't universally adored (I wonder all the time about why the marvellous cooking at Chaz isn't worshipped on every corner of this board). As you know, it's not possible for everyone to agree on likes and dislikes, which can vary tremendously among individuals with good taste. Moreover, restaurants have good and bad nights and thus experiences could differ wildly. It's very possible that some of these complaints were based on honest experiences that were very different from yours. One way to combat this is to rely on as many datapoints as possible. I try to read all the comments on a single restaurant, not just one or two. One post here does not make or break a restaurant. Many posts do. To get great posts from all chowhounds, a restaurant would have to treat *all* their customers well -- at which point it's a good restaurant. Personally, I think that it would be rather delusional for us expect special treatment above and beyond what other paying customers receive just because we post on this board. Besides, some of us don't even us our real names here! As for me, I earn special treatment the old-fashioned way: by being a regular, by being generous with tips when appropriate, and by being polite and pleasant with the waitstaff. P.S. I was hoping to give Bloo a whirl anyway, and was just waiting for them to settle down first. P.P.S. the overly thick pumpkin soup that jordan reported might have been the result of staying in a warmer for too long...early diners might have had perfectly textured soup, while later ones would end up with something thicker as the water evaporates. Another potential source of variability in experiences from diner to diner. Tue Mar 26 04:30:21 -0800 2002 63360 0 Limster 5 63201 right! let's pay money for bad food just to be supportive. isn't that precious. if they aren't ready for prime time, they ought to trim their ambition until they are or work in someone else's kitchen to learn how to do it. Wed Mar 20 22:50:12 -0800 2002 63056 0 ankimo