Conference jump4::eats

2025.0. "San Francisco Kitchen, Nashua, NH" by SMURF::BINDER (Errabit quicquid errare potest.) Wed Apr 02 1997 16:11

    My wife and I tried the new San Francisco Kitchen in Nashua, New
    Hampshire, last night.  The owner/chef is Chinese, from Beijing,
    married to an American woman.  The resto is on Main Street, across from
    the landmark Building; this is the next block north from Martha's
    Exchange.
    
    Exterior decor is a solid copper wall with brass rivets.  Lighted at
    night, it's rather attractive, but in the bright sun it's gaudy as
    hell.  Inside is light wood, mirrors, an interesting assortment of
    hanging lamps, tables, and booths with overstuffed benches.  The booths
    are too large for the tables, so you can't sit close to the table
    without perching on the edge of your seat.  The preparation area, or at
    least part of it, is visible behind the bar.
    
    The menu is definitely Left Coast in style - lots of lightly stir-fried
    veggies, the suggestion of innovative sauces, and prices to match. 
    There is a good selection of bottled beers, and there's a wine list
    that we didn't bother with.  There's an assortment of tarted-uo dessert
    coffees, Irish, Mexican, and the rest.
    
    We were brought a basket containing slices from a pie-shaped flat
    Chinese bread that was interestingly flavored but somewhat pasty in
    texture.  The basket also contained hard sourdough rolls that had
    probably been microwaved once too often.  When they arrived, they were
    warm - and VERY tough.  By the time they had cooled, they had become as
    hard as the concrete under the carpet.
    
    I ordered hot and spicy prawns with stir-fried veggies.  The dish was
    well prepared and generous - I counted 18 shrimp sized approximately
    31-40 to the pound, and - according to me owner - they were roughly 60%
    of the dish's total contents.  There were a lot of bamboo shoots and a
    good variety of colored bell pepper chunks.  The sauce was hot and
    spicy, as advertised, but not of volcanic heat.  The plate was prettily
    decorated with a flower formed of three slices of colored Chinese
    radish, pinned together with a piece of toothpick and placed
    attractively on two half-slices from a plum tomato.
    
    My wife ordered lamb in ginger cream sauce.  The lamb was a poor cut -
    tough, not very flavorful, and laced with connective tissue.  The sauce
    was intentionally served cold.  It was thin and lacking in flavor -
    both the cream flavor and the ginger flavor were so faint as to be all
    but imperceptible.
    
    We both ordered sides of vegetarian fried rice.  Jasmine rice was used,
    fried quickly with a few scallions and peas.  It was rather dry and a
    little overly clumpy, and there was little flavor.
    
    The dinners included salads, which were pretty plebeian "Chinese"
    salads - Chinese by virtue of a light dressing made with soy sauce and
    by virtue also of alfalfa sprouts.
    
    Service was languid.  No, let me rephrase that.  The resto was less
    than half filled, and one of the two servers had failed to appear for
    work, but the service was unacceptably torpid - we were not served ur
    entrees until we'd been there more than an hour.
    
    I can see that the place has promise, but whether the owners will be
    able to get their stuff together remains to be seen.

My experience at lunchtime confirms Dick's observations.

It was a fairly cold day, but the back door was left open for an extended
period of time for a delivery.  And this was at peak lunch time.  And
mentioning this to the owner didn't help much.

Moreover, that door opened directly onto the hallway the buffet table was
in. It made the entire meal almost unbearable, even though the food was
mostly OK.

    Re: .1
    
    So does this imply that they have a lunch buffet of some sort? If so,
    how much is it and what sorts of things do they have in the buffet?

Sorry, I forgot the price.

There was a reasonable selection (including a fairly good selection of
vegetarian entrees); all of the usual standbys, plus a couple slightly
unusual things (though again, I've forgotten details).  They did seem to
have trouble keeping up with demand, which is actually a good thing: it
means the food didn't sit around on the steam table too long.

I'll probably go back on a warm day some time :-).