Sometimes I seek out restaurants; sometimes I just happen to be in the right place at the right time. That’s how I ended up at Blue Plate. I had purchased something that gave me a coupon for wine at several locations around San Francisco, and after trying out a few of them during the day, the last place we ended up was at Blue Plate to grab a glass before finding somewhere nearby to grab dinner. Of course it was raining pretty hard that day, so we ended up in a LyBer. Our driver raved about Blue Plate as we were getting out, so it sent my antennae up for a place to dine as well as grabbing that glass of wine. They were definitely down for us to just sit at the counter and have some wine, but we thought we should check out the menu “just in case”. We were also sitting right next to where the food was being picked up, and it did look pretty fantastic, so by the time we finished our glasses, we decided to just stay right there out of the rain and see if the food was as good as it looked! (And as good as our driver mentioned!)
I was gravitating toward the fried chicken because it looked pretty amazing, but since we are sharers and someone wasn’t feeling it, we decided on several small plates instead. There were a lot that really jumped out at me, but finally — FINALLY — we decided on duck liver mousse bruschetta, the black truffle pecorino fondue, grilled Monterey bay squid and the toasted farro and slow egg. And of course the one glass of wine wasn’t going to be enough, so a look at the very reasonably priced wine list led us to a great bottle of red. And during all of this, I was enjoying watching all the food being made, and it was really reminiscent of my favorite place in London (without the tasting menu of course).
First up for us to try was the duck liver mousse. It didn’t seem like there was a lot on the toast, but it packed a ton of flavor and was really quite delicious. Sadly, given the recent ruling against restaurants using foie gras in the state of California, this may be the last time I have it for awhile. Hopefully they will come up with something equally as tasty for future dishes! Next we received the black truffle pecorino fondue. There didn’t seem like there was enough bread, but we dove in. Yet another tasty dish, but I’ve not really found any sort of melted cheese I personally don’t like. And they even brought us more bread when we asked for it, so we definitely ended up with enough to finish the dish.
We then received the sauteed squid. It was slightly overcooked, but the flavor profile was really incredible with a good hit of acid. I had never had beans with squid before, but it definitely added something great to the dish. I was a fan of the celery on top, but I also know a lot of people aren’t fans of the vegetable, so I can see how it might be a controversial addition to the dish. Our last dish was the farro with the slow egg. It was a rich, delicious dish. I do love a slow egg, and it was cooked absolutely perfectly. The farro was also well cooked and had a great bite to it. We were quick to eat up the dish as it was really good!
I was still a bit hungry, but now a massive dilemma came upon me: Do we order the fried chicken, or do we just get dessert? The fried chicken looked absolutely amazing, and I was extremely tempted, but my sweet tooth won out, so we got honey cake and a butterscotch pudding. Because who doesn’t want to be reminiscent of elementary school lunches? Well both of the desserts were absolutely incredible. The pudding was really smooth and had just the right amount of butterscotch flavor. The cake was moist and the fruit on top really added a nice acidity to the dessert. Even though the FOMO kicked in after deciding against the chicken, the desserts were definitely a great option for the end of the meal. Plus they had some great dessert wines to try out! We also decided to go with the digestif they had on the menu which came out in its own tiny bottle! It was similar to an individual serving of Fernet, as it definitely had a similar herbaceous quality to it.
Blue Plate was an incredible surprise for me. While it seems like it may not be an amazing place for dinner from the outside, those looks were definitely deceiving as we had a fantastic dinner with top notch service throughout. Blue Plate is definitely staying on my list for places to return to when I know we are going to have friends in town or just want a great night out with elevated diner-style food. Add to that a reasonably priced wine list, and Blue Plate is definitely a winner in my book.
Score: 4.5/5
Recommendation: Slow egg with farro and butterscotch pudding!
Blue Plate
3218 Mission St
San Francisco, CA 94110
