Foodie Digest

Small and Big decided to try explore dining options to celebrate Big’s birthday. Besides, Orson had just opened in our neighborhood and we’re a fan of dining local.

First impressions: Great space. Large and LOUD as in SF Gate would need multiple bombs to rate it. It was a Friday night a little before 9 and the place was booming. We wondered where all these beautiful people live (it ain’t our neighborhood). We checked in with the hostess (we DID have 9 p.m. reservations) who apologetically said (yes, I’m paraphrasing) “We haven’t quite figured out the reservations yet—tables are staying longer than we anticipated. We hope to seat you soon so make yourselves comfortable and we’ll come find you”. There’s a very large bar. We had plenty of places to go make ourselves comfortable and the combo of Small and Big makes us easy to spot. To bullet first impressions:

• loud and booming space
• cool decor
• friendly but apologetic host
• disappointment that reservations didn’t seem to help

Off to the bar

We get to the bar area where there is one available seat. Big insists Small take it, so Small did. Moments later the couple next to us was approached by the host asking if they’d like to stay at the bar or go to their available table. An odd question one thinks, and the couple chooses the table. Big and Small both score seats at the bar. Things start picking up. The loudness seems to fade and converations are easy to be had. (as in the first impression of LOUD doesn’t last, though the place is lively). After a half hour of waiting for a table Big and Small decide it’s time to sample some food. Small is getting noticeably smaller (Small needs to self-sustain often). The bartender—who is fabulous—takes our order for a dozen oysters and two foie gras bon bons.

Next set of impressions Service here is phenomenal (well, except the host but we’ll come back to that). The main bartender in our area is incredibly attentive but any time her attention is somewhere else there is someone else nearby checking up on us. Runners bring out food quickly; servers walking by check in to see how we’re doing. Feedback on the food is encouraged and welcomed.

And now, the food.

1. First up, foie gras bon bons. These arrive and look like perfectly round truffles. Foi gras rolled in chocolate with orange zest and cocoa powder. Interesting, right? Should be delectable. These are one bite each. First taste is SALT. Next taste is orange. Then chocolate. Small thinks she can detect a little foie gras in a taste; Big says no. These were deemed unacceptable.
2. Next up, miyagi oysters. We’d requested not to have the garlic lemon whatever drizzled on them so they were pure. Mostly. We requested lemon to squeeze on them ourselves. Oysters were sweet. and salty. Which makese sense since they were oysters. But they were, well, extra salty. Looks like the oysters got a dusting themselves.

We start to realize there will be no hostess coming for us so it’s time to venture into the menu deeper. Sure, the first two dishes weren’t so promising. But we’re here, it’s in our hood and you can’t judge a restaurant on just two dishes. We order a larger sampling.

1. Market special of the day asparagus: This was served with a black garlic saboyan. We were greeted with Huge young asparagus. The black garlic saboyan was an upscale take on a french onion dip. For the most part this dish worked (only teeny bits were oversalted) but the uber large asparagus needed some extra trimming they didn’t get).
2. Charred octopus, beef tendon, sprouted nuts As served, this dish didn’t work. This is a vietnamese style salad take but was missing the necessary citrus. We asked for lime wedges to doctor up the dish ourselves and were much more impressed. Big really liked this. Small thought it was just OK.
3. Pork buns These model the baked donut style pork bun rather than the steamed style.Big proclaimed these would be good with more pork in them; Small shared half of one of hers that was appropriately proportioned. This is served with 3 pork buns; 2 out our 3 were appropriately proportioned. Both Big and Small deemed this dish good and recommended.
4. Carrot dumplings, blood orange, ricotta salata The dumplings were light, airy and lovely. The blood orange foam was delicate and the ricotta salata brought the appropriate contrast to the dish. Would return for this dish. Delicate, small, and not intimidating. Big and Smallwere both happy.
5. Roasted pig This was pig served 4 ways. Pork tenderloin, pork belly, pork, um, cake, and pork dumpling with pork jus. The pork belly worked. The tenderloin was NOT tender. Actually, was not edible. Big and Small struggled and subtlely placed said pork in napkins. The pork, um, cake could be described as crab cake with pork instead of crab. It was OK. The dumpling was missing pork (it was empty!) but maybe was just there to capture the pork jus (which was good). Oh, and the pork belly was perfectly prepared. This was one of the more expensive dishes on the menu. Big and Small would not recommend this.
6. Smoked fish, black rice, bacon The fish was a smoked trout. This was not substantial portion. There was a very lovely smokiness to this. Small liked this a lot. Big wasn’t convinced to change his opinion on cooked fish. Would recommend this to fish eaters.

By now we’re really going with a mixed bag here. A couple good things but nothing that made us say Yes, we’ll come back (except for the service at the bar. phenomenal). We’ve given up on being offered a table. We’re looking for the next thing to try. Something hearty. Something rustic. Something that’s not SWEET. We go for:

1. Chicken sausage with dino kale and pistachio pesto. Finally. This was a substantial portion of sausage (as in one big sausage) with little gnocchi. And Small loves dino kale. Only occasional bites of over-saltiness. The extra layer of salt that adorned the sausage was easily scraped away by Big. Big took one bite and said “that’s a fantastic sausage”. And trust me, midwestern Big knows sausage. The gnocchi were just OK—not quite delicate enough. Still, we both deemed this dish a huge success and could see returning for this.
2. Short ribs, spinach, espesso Small doesn’t like short ribs or most meat the requires this much slow cooking. Except these short ribs. They come out looking like tender filet. They’ve been cooked in a bag with moisture for 5 hours and taste like a perfectly rare corned beef (if you can imagine a perfectly rare corned beef). This was served with potato foam. Some bites of the foam worked-—the flavor really showed through. Others tasted like empty foam. Still, both Big and Small would order this again. Big recommends that Orson consider shaving truffle across the top of this dish for perfection.

Our bartender is now happy because we’ve had dishes we liked versus dishes we considered mediocre. We asked for the dessert menu. From here, we order:

• Pigwich This is reminiscent of one of our favorite desserts from Blackbird in Chicago. The Orson version has pizelles that are ginger snap like, with bacon ice cream and bits of maple bacon. This worked. Wonderfully.
• Gleaming the cube Described as date soft chocolate, stout foam, caramel gelato. The date soft chocolate is in a log and tastes like frosting (not a bad thing, mind you). The stout foam is most impressive. Still, this is just OK .

So all in all, it was OK. Very expensive for just OK but worth it to try some interesting takes on food. Now comes the highlight; our bartender and other servers have been asking us all along what we think of things. And we’ve been honest. Not complaining or whining, just honest. Because some dishes would work with a little help, and some dishes work. Out comes Elizabeth Faulkner to get some more detail. Many chefs have asked our opinion in the past, but we really felt like she meant it. She was incredibly open to our thoughts, acknowledged and agreed with some of our comments, and responded with “that was fair”. Her openness to our feedback made me decide I would come back again and give it another shot.

Overall thumbs: Trending upward. Some dishes rate thumbs up and others rate thumbs down. But the sum of atmosphere, service, and food is angling up.

Tastiness rating: Medium. Some dishes were yummy. Many needed work.

Service rating: With the exception of our reservations not working for us, incredibly High.