419320 Mon Jul 09 09:49:09 -0700 2007 1 1 San Francisco Bay Area 0 2732136 My wife and I ate at Eureka on Saturday night and were, unfortunately, disappointed across the board. We were predisposed to quite like the place as we are huge fans of Chenery Park and the two establishments are owned and/or run by the same folks. At Chenery Park we have become used to gracious and attentive service, interesting and well prepared food, excellent drinks and a good value overall for what you get. At Eureka, our server was mostly absent, didn't offer to answer questions and when I did ask specific questions about the "Eureka Burger" answered me incorrectly (by which I mean when I said "is it just a straightforward burger with nothing special?" she said "yes," when in fact the burger had loads of raw garlic, chives and herbs.) The drinks were ok but not very well made overall (a Manhattan with basically no sweet vermouth and it seemed like no bitters). The food was the most disappointing, though. My wife's "fig salad" wasn't actually a salad but was roasted figs with large croûtons and "queso" (not sure what sort of cheese) with a tiny amount of the standard salad mix on the side of the plate. Not a bad dish, really, but not a salad. My shrimp cocktail was populated with overcooked, mushy shrimp topped with raw red onion and shreds of seaweed salad. It was served with two dipping sauces in one bowl...so they became one dipping sauce pretty quickly. For an entree, my wife had "Meyer lemon linguine" with the tiniest shrimp ever. It was a fairly boring, bland pasta dish. My burger, which I ordered rare, was pretty awful. I got a huge bite of raw garlic and that put me off. I suppose if I'd known that the burger was loaded with such things I'd have ordered it cooked more, but more than likely I'd have gone for a different entree. (I'll interject to say that I went with the burger as a bail out because nothing else really stood out.) We passed on dessert. Our server very nicely took the burger off of the check without my having requested it, which was a good move. Is this an unusual experience here? Does anyone else have different experiences, or similar ones? We were quite excited having heard that Eureka was similar to Chenery Park but a bit more upscale. Mon Jul 09 09:49:09 -0700 2007 80141 ccbweb 1 2858175 We were there last Sunday for drinks and appetizers as part of a progressive dinner. We loved everything we had - fried okra, mushroom ravioli, potted meat, smoked fish, shrimp cocktail, grilled fig salad and smoked sturgeon. We liked the deconstructed nature of the fig dish. And were pleasantly surprised with the quality of the shrimp -- it seems like its impossible to get good fresh firm shrimp anymore. Everyone thought their cocktails were well balanced - overly sweet drinks being a pet peeve. They just started serving brunch so we're going to check it out tomorrow. They've got biscuits & gravy as well as Gumbo on the brunch menu so my hopes are high. http://www.eurekarestaurant.com/index.html Sat Aug 18 14:23:17 -0700 2007 2732136 10252 larochelle