When your parents come to visit, that is the best time to go try out new places, right? It’s either that, or take them to the places that you love. Angler has been one of the biggest and buzziest openings and is being touted as the “casual dining” restaurant by Chef Joshua Skenes of Saison fame. We had eaten there several years ago, so I thought that a casual dining place would be the perfect price range for when my parents come to visit, so when they gave me the dates, I secured a booking on a Saturday night for the four of us to give it a try.
It’s really easy to get to, as it’s quite close to Embarcadero BART station, so the MUNI and BART trains practically drop you off. It’s also a gorgeous venue with well-spaced seating and great decor, so you feel like you’re dining in luxury. Honestly, this should have been my first clue about the class of the restaurant because it seemed way too fancy to be a casual dining restaurant. The second clue? The wine list. When my partner took a look at the bottle list, there were hardly any wines under $100. Which is a bit of a sticker shock when you are out with your parents. Guilt set in. But after waiting for a few minutes for our table to get ready, we were shown to our seats.
Next, came the pre-order shenanigans. I get that they want to make sure we have what we need, but we had about three different people coming to our table at different times trying to get drink orders and more from us. Our cocktails were ordered at different times. At one point my parents were ordering a bottle of white, while we hadn’t had time to look at a red, and then we were trying to get talk to them about the red while they were being talked to about something else, and then someone would come to talk to us before we had time to discuss anything about the menu. It was all really overwhelming to be honest. Which was a bit frustrating, but eventually after we got the drinks ordered, everything kind of fell into good rhythm. (P.S. The wine wasn’t cheap, in case you didn’t get that when I pointed it out before.) It was suggested that we order two things from each section, so we took that advice on board and did just that.
First up for our dining enjoyment were a few oysters. I’m usually apprehensive about ordering oysters as I know you can often get them cheaper at happy hour, but my dad was very keen, so who am I to say no? The oysters were very fresh and tasty, and they provided a variety of home made sauces to enjoy with them. Having homemade sauces like cocktail sauce, hot sauce and mignonette was an excellent touch as they were all tasty and well made. We also ordered some parker house rolls with homemade butter. Now the butter was an additional three dollars, but it was unlike your standard butter and had a bit of richness and umami that we just couldn’t pin down. So we asked the server, and she explained that the butter is slightly fermented so it gives it a nice bit of cheesiness plus there was a bit of nori added to really boost the umami. I highly recommend the butter, even though it seems odd that there is an additional charge, but it makes sense! Oh, and the rolls were pretty good too!
Up next was the live scallop. Basically these dishes are always a very fresh and raw scallop with some sort of sauce on top, and this one did not disappoint. The scallop was slightly sweet and the sauce had a nice acidity to balance it out. Everyone really loved it and commented that it was definitely a dish we could have had ordered one more of (or possibly three more). Then we had the antelope tartare. I’m a huge fan of unusual meats, so this dish was definitely one that really intrigued me from the start. It looks really great with a cured egg yolk on top, and honestly, it was another spectacular dish that all of us really enjoyed and wanted more of. Instead of serving it with toast or bread, it was served with lettuce cups which really added a freshness to the dish. There was also a piece of mint at the bottom of each cup, so that was a nice surprise as well.
The next dishes brought out to us were one of the mains we ordered and one of the sides. We had ordered the salt and pepper bass, and they had decided to pair it with the Brussels sprouts that we ordered. The bass was really well cooked and quite soft with a crispy batter. Again, everyone really enjoyed the dish. The Brussels sprouts were also tasty, although I felt like there were not many in the bowl considering there was a $12 charge for them. They were quite acidic and well charred so they had a great range of flavors that was unexpected.
The last of our savory dishes arrived, and they were the hot fried rabbit served with a hen of the woods mushroom. Both of these dishes had a bit of heat to them, as the rabbit was served in a buffalo wing style manner but the meat was flavorful and tender. The hen of the woods had a really rich and spicy sauce under them. Both dishes were incredibly flavorful, but again, it seemed like the side dish was a bit small given the price. (These are other clues that perhaps the word “casual” is a misnomer when describing Angler.)
I’m not going to lie, while I wasn’t starving at this point, I definitely didn’t feel that satisfied with the amount of food we had ordered, but luckily, I had seen the desserts and I knew that they were well-sized, so we decided to order the salted caramel sundae and the coconut sorbet. The sundae is soft serve ice cream where they serve the dark caramel tableside, so that is a really great touch. It was also a great caramel and some of the best soft serve I have had. The sorbet is served in a half coconut, so the presentation was spot on, and the coconut flavor really shone through. Everyone seemed really happy with the desserts, so I knew that my choice to order was a good one.
Angler really is a mixed bag for me. I am frustrated that it is being called a “causal eating” restaurant, as nothing about the restaurant from beginning to end is what I would call casual. It’s definitely fine dining, but not to the extent of Saison. In fact, Saison felt far more laid back in atmosphere than Angler. The food and wine is also not inexpensive, which is what the term “casual” brings to my head; Angler is definitely a fine dining restaurant, make no mistake. The service as the beginning had me overwhelmed, but it eventually setlled in to a great rhythm. The food is also spectacular as we all raved about everything we ate, but the portion size wasn’t amazing, and it felt like for four people, I would be more satisfied with ordering two of the same dish to be satisfied. Would I go back? Definitely! But definitely on a special occasion and not just a casual Thursday evening dinner.
Score: 4/5
Recommendation: Oysters, antelope tartare and hot fried rabbit. Oh and get the butter!
Angler
132 The Embarcadero
San Francisco, CA 94105
