January 20, 2014

San Francisco: Fog City; restaurant review

San Francisco

Fog City  

1300 Battery St./The Embarcadero.  Reservations advised. 

interior of Fog City in San Francisco
interior of Fog City in San Francisco


Glitzy with chrome and glowing with neon on the outside, the inviting Fog City diner offers a sleek Pat Kuleto-designed interior with an open kitchen and plenty of roomy booths hugging the window-lined perimeter.  Because of its design and lonely location, it reminds me of that bleak painting Nighthawks by Edward Hopper (which the painter said was inspired by "a restaurant on New York's Greenwich Avenue where two streets meet"—is it coincidence that the F-car stop for this restaurant is Greenwich?), but it shakes that image with a happy roar once

deviled eggs at Fog City in San Francisco
deviled eggs at Fog City in San Francisco


you’re inside.  A long V-shaped bar with seating and a communal table fill the center.  Menu items are designed to be shared.  We started with tasty deviled eggs topped with crunchy quinoa and a sprinkling of tiny chopped chives, satisfying flash-fried blackened Brussels sprouts in citrusy ponzu sauce with chunks of crispy Asian pear, and oven roasted-yet-crunchy baby carrots in a bed of black garlic mole.  Then we shared a delicate pink-fleshed trout filet served with flavorful Arbequina olives, fingerling potatoes, and the fish’s head!—all  served attractively on an Alder-wood plank.  Among the plentiful other main dishes are the kitchen’s signature whole chicken roasted in the wood oven and a good old American hamburger made special with a housemade bun and smoked tomato aioli.  Bread, which is toasted in the oven and served with Straus butter, costs additional.  Order up a cocktail—perhaps the margarita-like Paloma--and you’re ready to rock ‘n roll (however, there’s no jukebox in this former diner).   Do save room for some Straus frozen custard—I had it with (OMG!) my own little pitcher of superb egg yolk caramel sauce, but plum sauce and dark chocolate sauce are also options—or perhaps a circular portion of apple pie flavored with chilis.




More things to do in San Francisco

Way more things to do in San Francisco.

More ideas for exploring Northern California.

images ©2014 Carole Terwilliger Meyers

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