La Folie doesn't garner the type of name-recognition as other San Francisco establishments like Gary Danko and Fleur de Lys. In fact, even though the place is a stone's throw from my apartment, I've never heard of it until I poked around on Yelp and discovered that it's the highest rated fine dining restaurant in the city. My wonderful Orin took me here as a treat to make up for staying in for New Year's Eve and I was anticipating the meal for more than a week. To dispel any suspense, La Folie lived up to my lofty expectations and then some!
Let's start with the ambiance -- the dining room is surprisingly small and seats only around 30 people. The environment is very romantic, with candlelight and white table clothes. The table for two is a tad large to be considered "intimate", but that leaves plenty of space for the various glassware and plates. I liked that the tables were not tightly packed so there's a semblance of privacy.
Our waiter was business-like and didn't try to make small talk, not that I mind since I didn't want to chat for five minutes while I itch to dig into my food. The overall service was impeccable. The servers always walk to the other side of the table instead of reaching across to place new silverware or fill our waters. Even the guy that hands out the bread makes sure to put the bread right-side up with the seam on top. That type of attention to detail is certainly admirable and enhances the dining experience.
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| The bread plate |
It's that time of the year again, where you get to show off a bit and exhibit the inner Domestic God/Goddess to coworkers. There's nothing like an elegant looking savory tart to cement your status as the office's culinary wizard. The smell of bacon and onion cooking together is probably one of the most intoxicating scents in the world; in fact, even after a day, the smell still lingers in my apartment and it makes me hungry for more onion tart...
Recipe
For the tart shell
1 2/3 cup flour
3/4 cup butter (that's 1 1/2 sticks, and should be very cold)
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons ice water
tart pan with removable bottom (mine is ~12")
For the filling
3 large onions
12 strips of bacon
4 large eggs
1 cup half and half
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste
Wow, I was completely blown away by this place!! I would rank Absinthe as one of my top three food experiences in the city. The service wasn't great -- the hostess had a worst case of the bitch-face that I've witnessed in a while, our waitress was friendly but absentee and the busboys were ill trained, but the food, wow, the food was fantastic!!
To start things off, Absinthe lived up to its name with an expansive list of creative cocktails. I had the Galapagos, which consisted of kaffir-lime leaf muddled in pepper syrup, Barsol Pisco, lemon-lime and grapefruit juices. I was expecting a bit more lime leaf, which has an extremely distinctive flavor, but the drink was very yummy nevertheless. The boyfriend had a Manhattan and thoroughly enjoyed his beverage. The night was off to a racing start.
The restaurant has a seasonal menu with large plates, small shared plates and eclectic cheeses and raw bar. We decided to play it safe and share the beef tartare, the sous vide pork loin and the burger with gruyere.
The beef tartare, we both agreed, was bar none, the best that we've had the pleasure to enjoy. If you're a fan of steak tartare, this is a must order. Heck, even if you're a bit freaked out by the idea of raw beef topped off by a raw quail egg, this will make you into a believer. The preparation was simple -- violet mustard, green apple, red onion, cornichons and the quail egg yoke, and the flavors welded together in the most wondrous fashion. The beef, I'm guessing, did not go through a meat grinder and was painstakingly chopped by hand. The result was truly worth the effort because it simply melted in your mouth. It was super fresh and didn't have any raw taste to it at all. I can wax poetic about this dish for paragraphs and paragraphs, but you get the idea. Order it!!
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| The steak tartare |
