One of the inelegantly-named offshoots from the revered Slanted Door team, which also lists Heaven's Dog, The Academy Cafe, and Moss Room as its sister restaurants.
This was the Pacific Heights' instance, and proved to be a much better experience than the horrible Heaven's Dog, or the full o' tourists Academy Cafe. Was it as good as the Moss Room, which I've found classy and laid back, if not exactly a boundary pusher?
Once you get past the cafeteria look and feel of the place - something that seems to go with the Vietnamese street-food roots of most of the group's properties (even Slanted Door) - and get to concentrate on the food, all is good.
We had - or should I say Holly, Pavey, and Tom "had", because they shared their meals in true family style, while I plotted my own route through the menu - a great meal. Typically, I ended up choosing pretty much the same as they had: the shaken beef, eggplant and rice, with the crispy salt and pepper squid, grilled pineapple, jalapenos, and toasted garlic, which was as good as any squid I've had.
Their hue dumplings, mung bean, sesame, scallion oil, spicy soy, and spring rolls, shrimp, pork shoulder, mint, and spicy peanut sauce looked great, but I was on a strict no share diet to the bitter end.
That end wasn't bitter at all. Out The Door is an unpretentious slice of Viet Francisco that, with the kind of company I had last night, is a place I'd want to go back to time and again.
1 comment:
Thank you again from Tom and me - dinner was a lot of fun. Excellent wine selections included!!
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