Baker and Banker: Upscale Food at a Fair Price

A small group joined this month, but nonetheless we had a culinary feast diving into the chef's tasting menu at Baker and Banker. This new restaurant occupies the former space of Quince - one of our all time best dine abouts. This place had a lot to live up to, and it did!

This month diners included Phu, Winnie, Jon and Mollie. A mighty foursome, we had an intimate and enjoyable evening with superb food, pleasant atmosphere, and friendly, if not top tier, service. We all said we want to come back!

Food: 91
The tasting menu was filled with fresh ingredients, . We started with a panko crusted mozzarella ball with basil and some type of tomato puree. Very nice way to get our palates going! This was followed by a dish of asparagus, with poached egg, and watercress - a very nice mix of flavors and textures. We then moved on to one of the highlights of the evening a snapper lightly grilled with a crispy exterior over a tart curry noodle dish. Lots of flavors that all meshed well together. We then added an extra course - we had to have the pappadelle with short ribs and English peas, even though this wasn't part of the tasting menu! We were so glad we added this - it was probably our favorite dish of the night (along with the snapper.) The meat course let us down a bit. They served us dishes of the rabbit wrapped in bacon and two dishes of the new york steak (they mixed the steak in because they ran out of rabbit.) We were happy to be able to try another dish, but neither really impressed. The gnocchi on both dishes was great, and the rich sauce on the steak was really nice, but overall they fell flat. Finally, the baked Alaskan for desserts was extremely good - a great mix of textures and again, flavors, but very rich and the portions were really too large. All in all, the food was very strong, a great mix of ingredients and flavors and very creative. Jon ordered the wine pairings which were decent, but nothing special.

Atmosphere: 87
Nice, inviting, allowed for easy conversation, but nothing that knocked our socks off (let's just say it wasn't the chef's table in the kitchen like at Quince!) Kind of a '40s French feel.

Service: 87
We enjoyed our waiter - he was very attentive and very friendly. But, not very refined. I asked about one of the ingredients in a dish (I think it was yuzu) and he had no idea what it was. Phu had to inform him, nicely of course! But, that said, they made sure we were taken care of, all plates were cleared promptly and new utensils appeared just when needed. I did think the pacing was fairly slow, and I especially didn't like how they brought Jon's wine pairing up to 15 or 20 minutes before the course came that it was pairing!

Value: strong
A tasting menu for $55! By the time you add in all the extras it's not a bargain. But we felt like the quality of food, along with the inviting atmosphere and attentive service made this a very enjoyable experience for a fair price.

Hope to see you all in June!