Bauer Giveth and Bauer Taketh Away At Volta and Central Kitchen

Staid critic Michael Bauer is a solid Volta fan. In his review this week, he especially appreciated the grandeur of the Scandinavian restaurant from the Perbacco team, which opened just six weeks ago, a time period many consider to be on the early side to review a restaurant. Fairness aside, Bauer felt favorably toward the entire affair, writing:

Instead of a mall restaurant, I peg Volta as the grandest restaurant to open since Mourad a year ago. In our affluent economy, it might seem logical that restaurants would reflect that wealth, but it’s had the inverse reaction — most new places today are smaller and more modest. That’s not the case with Volta … Volta is a great package with a fully realized interior and a menu that offers something a little different for San Francisco’s already-rich resume of great restaurants.

Bauer’s favorite dishes were the “riot of flavor” pickled herring, “creamy” gravlax and “among the best around” aged duck. 3 stars.

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The Elsewhere: Bauer also returned to Central Kitchen, where he thought the quality has gone down and thus awarded it a reduced 2 stars, Anna Roth ate a pretty bomb-sounding curried goat burrito at the Scotch Bonnet food truck, Josh Sens doled out three stars to Ninebark, SF Weekly’s Peter Kane found a refreshing dining style change at Fogo de Chão and Luke Tsai wrote about The Snack Shack’s deep-fried candy bars.