See Us Eat: Dinner at Jack Falstaff, San Francisco, CA

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Dinner at Jack Falstaff, San Francisco, CA

We had heard that Jack Falstaff had a patio, one of the few places in SOMA that offers that amenity. It was a beautiful afternoon and we wanted to have a few drinks and perhaps a couple of appetizers in the sun. When we got there we realized it was really a covered patio, and that we weren't going to be basking in the sun, so we decided that we'd just have dinner. It turned out to be a pretty good meal. Not as good as Plumpjack, which is under the same group, but still good enough to recommend if you are in the area.

Pickled Watermelon and Cantelope in Tomato Water (gratuit)
This was fresh, and delicious and really embodied summer.

Spicy Hummous and Olive Oil (gratuit)
For bread dipping. Fresh, fruity oil and a nice, if a bit chunky, hummous.

Tomato Soup with Parmasean Tuile $7
Clean, fresh and very, very smooth tasty.

Veal Sweetbreads and Fried Green Tomatoes and Pork Belly $13
This dish sounded much better than it than it turned out in practice. The fried green tomatoes were a bit soggy and the sweetbreads were under-seasoned, but the pork belly was very tasty.

Beef Carpaccio $12
Served with minced olives, chives, peppers, lemon zest and 1/2 a quail egg, the beef was tender and flavorful, but the olives were a bit too strong and overpowered the dish. The plating, however, was beautiful.

Giao ordered the Farmer's Market Menu for $55, which included all of the dishes below as well as an order of the soup above.

Heirloom Tomato Stuffed with Crab Salad
Very tasty. The marriage of the slightly briny crab and the sweet, ripe summer tomato was delicious.

Steak with Heirloom Tomato Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing
Although they didn't ask how Giao wanted his steak cooked, and ended up serving it well done, when he usually orders rare, this was an incredibly tender steak. The best well-done steak we've ever tasted. Again, the tomatoes from the farmer's market were sweet and ripe and really tasted like tomatoes.