Week in Reviews: Bauer Slams Kuleto's and MORE
Wednesday, November 14, 2007

---

[Photo: Flickr/aspolo]

1) There's not much reason for Michael Bauer to stumble into Union Square for a meal these days, but with a 20-year anniversary looming for Kuleto's, The Bauer decides a revisit is in order for the restaurant that boasted organic ingredients and housemade charcuterie long before they were trendy. That's the good news. The bad news, is well, everything else:

Lack of quality control also hijacked the vaunted charcuterie. I ordered the sampler ($9/$18) with pate, mortadella, coppa, head cheese terrine and bresaola. While some items tasted good, the soppressata crumbled like a dry cake and tasted rancid.

More ouch:

The strawberry tart ($8) was inedible. The plate was dusted with powdered sugar (when was the last time you saw that kind of presentation?) and the custard was nowhere to be found. The crust resembled a thick biscuit with a sodden center stacked with strawberries, set on a puddle of under-sweetened whipped cream that was well on its way to becoming butter.

There's much, much more carnage in the review—including the waitstaff's unapologetic tendency to upsell—that leads to the conclusion that the kitchen has simply stopped paying attention. The result: Kuleto's is dropped down to one star. [Chron]

2) It must be the holiday season approaching, because Meredith Brody also happens upon tourist hub of Union Square this week at Puccini and Pinetti:

I thought of the run of brilliant Italian places that have opened in San Francisco recently: Perbacco, La Ciccia, Bar Bambino, Farina, SPQR. Puccini and Pinetti is charging as much or more as they do (mains run $20-$29), and for much less ambitious and interesting food. But it's located in a nest of hotels, and finding the other places requires a little research, reservations, and transportation.

While she—quite brilliantly, if we may say so—describes the cuisine as "a little Rachael Ray: Italian lite through an American filter," Brody accepts Puccini and Pinetti as what it is: a convenient tourist destination serving up decent, overpriced food. [SF Weekly]

3) Paul Reidinger ventures out into the Sunset for a bit of deja vu at Bistro 9, the cozy Ninth Avenue eatery with an uncanny resemblance to longtime neighborhood staple Park Chow. But, as Reidinger soon discovers, Bistro 9 and Park Chow are in fact, two different restaurants:

The sense of parallel universes is strong, then, if subtly skewed at points. The restaurants share a layout, look, and crowd — young, UCSF-ish, collegiate and postcollegiate — but they part company, congenially enough, in the matter of food. Park Chow tilts toward the Italian, whereas Bistro 9 (which opened late in the summer and is a sibling of the Citrus Club) finds its bliss farther east, in the methods and flavors of the Middle East.

With Park Chow still going strong and some worthy newcomers already arrived and forthcoming, might the Sunset be a rising gourmet ghetto? Bernal Heights, you've been warned. [SFBG]

ELSEWHERE, La Tablehopper checks out onetime rowdy dockworker bar 83 Proof and approves its makeover. Amanda Gold has 2.5 stars for Santa Rosa's Syrah, Amber Peckham and the SFBG's Dine Pick succumb to Italian in North Beach at Trattoria Pinocchio and finally, a certain Single Guy gets his fro-yo on at Jubili.

Back to top

www.flickr.com More photos in Eater SF

Links
Utility
AOL CityGuide
Burritoeater
Citysearch
CleanScores
Dodgeball
Menupages
OpenTable
outside.in
Savory SF
SF Station
SocialDomain
Urbanspoon
Yelp
Zagat

Print Media Online
7x7
Bon Appetit
Contra Costa Times
Gourmet
Oakland Tribune
San Jose Mercury
San Francisco
SF Bay Guardian
SF Chronicle
SF Examiner
SF Weekly
Saveur
Sunset Magazine

Gastro-Communitites
Chow
Chowhound
Digesty SF
eGullet
Mouthfuls
ShamelessRestaurants

Blogs
Amateur Gourmet [RSS]
Bay Area Bites [RSS]
Becks & Posh [RSS]
Beer Blog
Between Meals [RSS]
Bits and Bites [RSS]
Burritophile [RSS]
Chez Pim [RSS]
Gourmet's Choptalk [RSS]
Covers [RSS]
Daily Feed [RSS]
NYT Diner's Journal [RSS]
eggbeater [RSS]
Epi-Log [RSS]
Gridskipper SF [RSS]
Chow's The Grinder [RSS]
GrubGirl [RSS]
A Hamburger Today [RSS]
JATBAR [RSS]
Megnut [RSS]
Metroblogging SF [RSS]
F&W's Mouthing Off [RSS]
NTF: San Francisco
Offal Good [RSS]
Restaurant Whore [RSS]
Ruhlman [RSS]
SFist [RSS]
Slice [RSS]
Vinography [RSS]
Waiter Rant [RSS]
Zagat Buzz [RSS]

Newsletters
Daily Candy
Juli B
Tablehopper
Thrillist

About Eater SF
From the newest temples of haute cuisine to the oldest bars in the Bay Area, Eater SF has you covered. More about Eater SF...

Tipping Is Customary
Know about a restaurant opening or closing in your neighborhood, or other SF restaurant gossip? Do let us know.

Search

Archives
Browse Eater SF Categories... About Eater SF Adventures in Shilling Buzz Buzz: Closed Buzz: Contests Buzz: Deathwatch Buzz: Institutions Buzz: Open Buzz: Plywood Buzz: Post-Plywood Buzz: Pre-Plywood Buzz: Television Buzz: The New Black Dish Drink East Bay East Bay: Berkeley East Bay: Oakland East Bay: Walnut Creek Eat Eat: Eater Complaints Dept. Eat: Eater Inside Eat: Eater Investigates Eat: Eater's Journal Eat: Greener Than Thou Eat: Prose Eat: Specials Eat: The Gatekeepers Eat: The Tab Eat: The Word EaterWire Listage North Bay Quicklink SF SF: Bernal Heights SF: Castro SF: Chinatown SF: Civic Center SF: Cole Valley SF: Cow Hollow SF: Dogpatch SF: Duboce Triangle SF: Embarcadero SF: Excelsior SF: Fillmore SF: Financial District SF: Fisherman's Wharf SF: Glen Park SF: Haight Ashbury SF: Hayes Valley SF: Hunters Point SF: Marina SF: Mission SF: Nob Hill SF: Noe Valley SF: NoPa SF: North Beach SF: Pacific Heights SF: Potrero Hill SF: Presidio SF: Russian Hill SF: SoMa SF: South Park SF: Tenderloin SF: The Richmond SF: The Sunset SF: Treasure Island SF: Twin Peaks SF: Union Square SF: West Portal/St. Francis SF: Western Addition South of San Francisco Status: Closed Status: Open Status: Reviewed The Critics The Critics: Banned on Chowhound The Critics: On the Blogs The Critics: Yelp The Industry The Industry: Headhunter Top Week in Reviews Wine Country

Full-Content Feed

Eater SF
Editor
Paolo Lucchesi

Eater Eds-in-Chief
Ben Leventhal
Lockhart Steele

Banner Design
Jim Cooke

Publisher/GM
Kyle Crafton

Head of Technology
Eliot Shepard

Other Curbed Sites
San Francisco
Curbed SF

New York
Curbed NY
Eater NY
Racked NY
The Beach (seasonal)

Los Angeles
Curbed LA
Eater LA


Contact Us
Email Eater SF