Angler Restaurant in San Francisco

2020 has come to this, I’ve run out of places to talk about. No really. Between all the closures and lockdown madness and lack of take-out, there is nothing new left and like many people I seriously thought about just giving upon this year and keeping my fingers crossed for the new one. Full disclosure though, there were a handful of spots I did manage to visit in the couple months before COVID craziness kicked in and have debated (with myself in an ongoing internal monologue—because who else am I gonna talk to!) about whether to cover the spots anyway in some wistful way of what once was. How you could make reservations or just show up at a place and sit down indoors(!) without worrying about sitting so close to strangers you could hear their conversations and catch their communicable diseases.

Ultimately I decided why not! It is the end of the year when people reminisce about the past year, whether fondly or not. Though these won’t be regular reviews since these are not regular times. They will be more ruminations on vague remembrances of some things I ate with an extra dose of snarkiness that befits this year past. (See, I’m already talking like it is over when there are still three weeks to go and who knows what else 2020 has in store) Some of these spots reverted to take-out/delivery only, some changed their menu offerings to fit take-out, some just did outdoor and I think one just gave up and closed the location I went to but the original is still there. I will try to cover which is which—as of the moment—which is ever changing.

2017 seems like ages ago (considering some of the things I’ve been through since then) when me and the SO hit the triple play of super duper high end eating at French Laundry (before Newsom and Breed!), Atelier Crenn and Saison. Then the Saison folks (Chef Joshua Skenes) decided to bring in something new down on the waterfront near the Ferry Building. Called Angler, its aim was to be a high end catch of the day spot which didn’t necessarily require a three month wait for reservations like Saison.

In case you don’t remember, I personally was not overwhelmed with Saison. Service was spectacular and food was…..mostly decent. Not exactly an overwhelming thumbs up because you know, you can’t exactly eat service. But for the new venture, I was at least intrigued enough to grab Ms. O and her BF to venture out on a weeknight and grab a spot at what started as one of the hottest spots in town upon its opening. Yes, I made reservations but they weren’t a month or more out, more like a week or two.

The menu itself was meant to be a daily changing array of fresh offerings from mostly the water and farmer markets which the chef specifically procured. Thus what is on offer one day won’t necessarily be on offer the next, outside of a handful of accoutremonts (ooo fancy word for side dishes). Thus, herewith comes the stuff we ate when we could happily dine in and our only worries were whether the food would suck or not. Bring on the pithy comments!

Well, isn’t that pretty! Summer squash arranged in an overlapping circular pattern. Such care and delicacy to create a pristine visual. No salad shooters here! Probably explains why this as a starter “salad” took so long to come out and was $16. Yes, you read that right, $16 for zucchini—sorry, summer squash with drizzled oil and vinegar. I would say just ruminate on that for a second but then there was this……….

….a roasted garnet yam with clarified butter, sea salt and some other thing sprinkled on top for $14. A single yam for that price. I think when we ordered this we all three had visions more of something you get at Thanksgiving, you know a plate of yams or yam casserole or something, not just one yam. Though going over the menu again maybe it was just our fault in not reading it more carefully and taking it literally as it does clearly say garnet yam, not yams, plural. Oops, our bad. And yes, we split this three ways as if it was all we could afford at our sad Dickensian Christmas dinner.

Ok then, why stop at a $14 potato, let’s get some mushrooms for $18. I think once we started down this path of madness we decided to fully commit to it, why not tree fungus roasted over charcoal. It is served in a pool of hot pepper oil which really does enhance the earthy dirtness while also burning the back of your tongue. Or I guess it hides the taste after the first bite and then it is just you and your numb tongue—with fungi. It was definitely interesting. Note to self: save $18 and take some Tabasco next time I forage for shrooms in the forest.

**house made Parker House rolls and butter**

Let’s face it, I love me some bread and butter. Actually, butter is the only reason to eat bread. Either way, I was not gonna skip these house made rolls. It was $8 for the pan of rolls, which, all things considered is still very SF. When the server brought them I asked for butter which I kind of thought would come with them because—that is how everyone does it? I was mistaken evidently as the server said they have Angler butter for sides for $3. I gotta pay for butter? What kind of elitist BS is that?!! My outrage knew no bounds but weakness and need for butter said “Fine”, but I said it as bitchily as possible, just to make myself feel better. Then of course you get a tiny ramekin not a tub and I proceeded to consume it all letting the light fluffy bread and smooth creamy meat fat butter wash away the bitter taste of paying extra for an item that is considered a condiment in the South and given freely. Damn them and their soft rolls!

We already had hot fungus why not some hot rabbit. Guessing this was a play on Nashville hot chicken, though wasn’t quite that hot and seemed like the same sauce as the hen of the woods. But $40 got you what looked like two chicken thighs. Probably could have gotten two live rabbits for that price but then I would have named them, feed and made them pets and wouldn’t have been able to eat them unless the lockdown got super apocalypse crazy then all bets are off. They say rabbit tastes like a slightly gamey chicken, though couldn’t really tell you since all you could taste was the hot. The coating was crunchy double fried nice. Hey, maybe they should just offer up some hot crispy crumbled bits as an appetizer like chicharrones. I’m sure they could charge $15 for some deep fried flour with hot sauce and ranch dipping sauce. SF millennials would eat up that hipster retro s**t. Oh yeah, there were pickles.

I’m guessing by now some of you are thinking, wait, I thought the place was called Angler? Isn’t this a fish place? Well, turns out the answer is yes and no. In the days of opening a place in the SF restaurant scene, sure you have a gimmick to draw attention, but the menu has to be a bit rounded out because people are picky. Or so I’ve been told. Their menu did offer a selection of caviar and oysters and lucky me—I don’t like either of those and skipped ‘em. But the mains do have three fish on offer and we decided to just full on with and got the whole petrale sole.

Now that’s a fish! A $60 fish! They actually have someone come over and peel back the skin, pull out the spine and at least make it easier to fork out the meat from the bones. Similar to what Chinatown restaurants do when you order a whole fish but without offering the head for good luck and encouraging you to try an eye, it’s good and then laughing when it pops in your mouth and you want to spit it all out. Not going to lie, I did like the fish and it was more than enough to serve the three of us. Yeah, sorry, not much snarkasm to offer up for this one. They push themselves as a seafood place and they actually nailed the sole. Sometimes props are due.

We skipped dessert. I know but it was either a sorbet or an ice cream and we all know how I feel about those. Please don’t make me repeat myself.

This place was expensive, no way around it. Less than Saison but more than your average in SF. Unlike Saison, I will say service was intermittent. At times it was hard to flag down a server and oddly, getting the bill and paying it was a chore, not a good way to end. All things considered and in spite of what I’ve written above, I did kind of like most of the food (bread! butter! fish! fungus!) and I know the SO would have enjoyed it. Well, maybe not the yam—the ONE YAM! Yeah, that I won’t get over.

When the lockdown hit Angler made a huuugge pivot and started offering up barbecued meat as take out dinners and picnics calling themselves Saison Smokehouse. Never got around to trying it, seemed a bit much for roast meats when plenty of spots around town do it well and have been for awhile. Then when outdoor dining and limited indoor capacity came back they went back to catch of the day and farmer’s market offerings. But as of now who knows what they will revert to to get by. Like a lot of things we will just have to wait and see. Till then I guess we will have to learn to fish and forage on our own. I mean it does portend itself to social distancing, it’s outdoors, is a lot cheaper and won’t include an added 18% gratuity regardless of party size.

(Bottom note: the picture on the main blog page for this post is of the table settings of brass ware, oil and vinegar, pepper and an octopus salt. You know, the whole nautical fish theme.)