Our March Dine About spots filled up quickly and for good reasons. Waterbar – one of two high-profile restaurants (the other is Epic Roasthouse) to opened recently on the San Francisco waterfront to high fan fares and expectations. Waterbar is co-owned by Mark Franz of Farallon and features seafood from around the world. Both Waterbar and Epic Roasthouse are designed and co-owned by Pat Kuleto.
Diners included: we had 4 Klinkes this time around, Avis & John and first timers Ray & Janet Klinke, Lehmann & Jason, Ken & Mo and the Phans.
We had a short wait at the buzzing bar area before we were led to two round tables to enjoy our dining experience (they don’t have a table in the main dining room that can accommodate a party our size). We decided to break up the couples and mix up the seating (Ray’s idea) and Ray ended up in the table of 4 with 3 lovely ladies.
Food: 93 With this being a seafood restaurant, we started off with a few dozen oysters (Hog Island Kumamotos & Preston Points from Tomales Bay, Miyagis from Washington and Chincoteagues from the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland). They tasted fresh, clean and just the right amount of creaminess. Most impressive was that Mo not only had her first raw oyster but she followed that up with a second!! The oysters were followed by a Sea Bass & Sea Urchin Ceviche for one table and Geoduck Ceviche at the other. The Sea Bass & Sea Urchin Ceviche was definitely the better of the two. We also had two salads – the Fuji apple, endive, aged Gouda grilled cheese salad stood out. Main courses: this is where Waterbar really shines. The pan-seared Black Bass was well seasoned and accompanied by shaved baby artichokes in a cream sauce. We had two types of whole fishes, a John Dory (oven roasted) and two Turbots (a mild sweet white fish, one oven roasted and one poached). The oven roasted Turbo was outstanding (Avis said it was the best fish she has ever tasted!!). One table also ordered the roast free-range chicken that was very good. All the main courses were perfectly cooked. We shared 3 desserts and they were all solid; a Meyer lemon crème brulee, a roasted pineapple tart with crème fraiche custard and a warm bittersweet chocolate pudding cake with coffee ice cream
Service: 85 We had two different servers – a female server that was very good and the male server that was pretty “rough”. The rest of the staff help brought the averages up. I think we just got unlucky with our bad server.
Atmosphere: 90 Waterbar is a beautiful restaurant. In the main dinning room, there are two dramatic, 19-foot tall, five-foot diameter, floor-to-ceiling circular aquariums filled with an eye-catching array of fish and marine life from the Pacific Ocean, while walls of vividly illuminated fish tanks display a gallery of fresh lobsters and spot prawns. Our tables had excellent views of the bay and the Bay Bridge. It would have scored higher except a few thought it was pretty loud.
John on the Jon….
