Epic Roasthouse
Kept waiting about 25 or 30 minutes for 9:15 reservation. No one suggested waiting in bar or offered any apology, though they were all friendly and congratulated us on our anniversary.
Impossible to make sense out of provenance--a list of sources on a separate page but nothing connected to actual menu items.
Cornmeal madeleines and pate-a-choux (cream puff dough) thingies served cold, which was not only startling but did a real injustice to them.
BH ordered a very dry gin martini and got something that resembled no martini I have ever tasted--weird, unpleasant flavor.
Noise level made conversation difficult and communication with staff even more so.
Spinach salad with bacon and poached egg truly delicious, even though most dressing discovered on bottom of dish with last few bites. Squid salad featured generous amount of black-on-one-side mollusks but had an overall muddy and muddled quality, amost as if there were squid ink in the dressing. Not really bad but not all it could have been.
There was a very long wait between first and main courses, made even odder by the fact that the busser snatched the appetizer plates away the second we finished, as though our main course were waiting to be served. No one explained, apologized, or even acknowledged the 20-30 minute hiatus.
To my experienced cook's eye, 32 oz was a generous estimate of our roasted rib eye for two($78) , even counting the hefty bone. The beef was drop-dead (!) delicious, served already sliced in strips, and cooked rare, not blue, as requested; however, it was tepid. When I commented on this, the waiter said the chef felt it should sit for quite a while after being cooked. I replied that a possible solution then would be to slice it tableside. (I grew up on this same cut prepared the same way.) Oddly, though the menu described a horseradish cream sauce, the waiter made no mention of it (it was in a pitcher on the plate with the beef) but instead served and touted a Bordelaise. Neither of us tasted the latter; the former was tasty, though good steak, IMO, not only never needs but is diminished if not demeaned by any sauce. BTW, though the waiter had replied to my query that the steak was grass fed (and organic), it was obvious from one bite that it was "corn finished." When I pointed that out, he had to go check to confirm then complimented me on my "palate," though anyone who has any knowledge of beef would have immediately realized this.
Corkage was $25. The sommelier(e) was excellent.
We had ordered two sides of potatoes (@ $10 each!) since the menu and waiter were both silent on the fact that skin-on fingerlings accompanied the beef. The steak fries were inconsistent, one or more tasting reheated, but the good ones were very good. The ember-roasted Yukon had what I consider the unmistkable texture and bordering-on-rancid flavor of a pre-baked and reheated potato. Our cabbage slaw ($9) was generous and pleasant.
The creme brulee ($10) was fine and garnished with nice fresh raw berries as well as a vile cookie filled with something that resembled lard or Crisco in taste; the mini serving of caramel and sea salt ice cream ($5) was "not worth the calories," devoid of any salt flavor and lacking much caramel flavor, but accompanied by a kid's delight of a peanut butter bar.
We were devotees of Birnbaum, especially in the later years, at Catahoula in Calistoga. Given the chef's long and storied career and the restaurant's horrific prices, Epic Roasthouse should not be guilty of any of the lapses mentioned in this report. I can only hypothesize that the restaurant's target clientele is not one expected to pay much attention to those details that make the difference between a so-so and a superb restaurant experience.
A friend asked if I would return. I said, surprising myself, "Yes, for the spinach salad, beef, and view."
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Robert Lauriston
Mar 11, 2012 10:52 AM
Finally got around to trying Epic Saturday. No wait to be seated for our 7pm reservation, though the place didn't fill up until maybe 8. They were fully booked and sending walk-ins to the bar or counter seating. The room's a glass box, so almost every seat has a view of the bay. The pumphouse-inspired decor is kind of goofy but unobtrusive. The lighting was exceptional, as usual for Pat Kuleto-designed places. Service was friendly and polished, the only glitch was that our first courses came out almost instantly, before the wine.
The cornbread madeleines were delicious, I didn't think it was a problem that they were cold, but the gougères should have been.
Gulf shrimp (the chef's from Baton Rouge; $15) were delicious with a remoulade-like garnish of basil aioli, frisée, and shaved radishes. Butternut squash soup ($10) had a surprisingly deep flavor, maybe from brown butter, also delicious.
The rib eye pricing is odd, $55 for 25 oz., $88 for 32 oz. We went for the larger one as that's about how much we ate at Alfred's. They presented the steak, which looked smaller than Alfred's 30-oz. ($48), then took it away and sliced it. It was perfectly medium-rare as ordered. I prefer longer aging but it was entirely satisfactory. They put two salts on the table, some super-fine pink stuff which is easy to overdo and some very coarse stuff, personally I'd prefer just regular salt as I know how much to use.
The steak came with horseradish crème fraîche and Bordelaise sauces, both excellent but unnecessary, and some fingerling potatoes that were dry and completely unseasoned, the only off note of the meal. Truffle whipped potatoes, brussels sprouts, and sautéed "wild" mushrooms ($9 each) were all great and generous portions for the price, four people could easily share them, we took more than half home.
The wine list has a lot of laughably expensive bottles but some very interesting good values in the $40-70 range. We had a Laurent Kraft Vouvray ($48), a 2001 Chateau Lalande St.-Julien ($55) which was exactly the kind of wine I want with a steak, and a glass of 2007 Inniskillin Cabernet Franc icewine ($29 for a ~2-oz. pour, not bad considering the 375ml retails for $80), which was all the dessert we had room for.
For a steak dinner, I prefer Alfred's, but the first courses, sides, and wine list make me want to go back to Epic for a different sort of meal. The whole fish (currently dorade) with andouille ($28) sounds great.
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steve h.
May 28, 2008 01:53 PM
saturday morning in san francisco was pretty dismal: constant drizzle, chilly weather. the farmers' market was uninspired (maybe it was me). i took some comfort at yank sing. i cancelled reservations at cottage eatery (tiburon).
later, when the weather cleared a bit, i checked epic on opentable. it was booked. deb and i weren't real hungry but decided to walk over and eat at the bar. glad we did. the salumi was very good. so, too the tempura-like frito misto veggie platter. wines by the glass are fairly priced. the vodka gimlets are excellent.
service, food, and views of the bay/bay bridge made for a tasty sunset. we'll go back.
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Was there for lunch last week. My friend's burger was fine, though not at all worth $27. For that, I expect quality ingredients along the lines of Daniel Boulud's burger at DB Bistro Moderne (foie gras, short ribs, etc.) not simply beef "freshly ground daily". Any local butcher can do that. My chicken entree was literally raw in the middle. Upon finally getting our waiter's attention, it was whisked away by a manager and replaced with a salad (at that point, we didn't want to take the time to have something else "cooked"). The salad was virtually inedible, with dressing made up of seemingly nothing more than lemon juice and salt. No one bothered with further follow up to ask why I left the salad virtually untouched, which was surprising since they'd already gotten off to a bad start. To add insult to injury, they charged us for the (uneaten) salad! In addition, this was our second experience with slow, annoying service. We won't be back.
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re: Bay Gelldawg
Robert Lauriston
May 26, 2008 11:21 AM
Less cooked than rare. Seared on the outside, raw in the middle.
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grishnackh
May 25, 2008 01:00 AM
Thanks for the detailed report.
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Epic Roasthouse
369 The Embarcadero, San Francisco, CA 94105
