Arrival and First Impressions: On Saturday December 1st, me, my Mom, my Brother and some friends went to Tadich Grill in San Francisco. Dubbed “The Original Cold Day Restaurant” Tadich Grill is California’s oldest restaurant and is located in the heart of the financial district of San Francisco. Upon walking into the restaurant, I could instantly feel the vibe of an old school seafood restaurant. A long bar with classic leather bar chairs sits right in front of you as you enter and spans about 3/4 of the restaurant in length. The bar is bustling with chatter and there is not an empty seat to be seen. White tablecloth tables surround the bar on both sides (mostly on the left of the bar) and were bubbling with conversation. Waiters and waitresses, wearing white jackets and black ties, were walking around patrolling their tables. We slowly adjust to our surroundings and immediately checked in at the hostess stand, a small podium standing directly in front of you as you enter the restaurant. Upon checking in we are instantly brought to our table. While walking to our table, I noticed that the walkway felt a little crowded and cramped due to the enormous amount of tables in such a small restaurant. We walk through the crowded walkway and finally arrive at our table, a private booth, formerly used by people for private dinner or lunch meetings. We sit down at our table and I instantly realize that this restaurant is going to offer some food and fun for the evening.
Settling in and Service: Upon sitting down at our table, we are instantly bombarded with big pieces of San Francisco sourdough bread and not even close to enough butter to go around. We all dig into the bread which is something that you can only find in San Francisco. While enjoying our bread, we proceed to look at our menus until our waiter arrives. Our waiter says his hellos and instantly tells us the specials, speaking too fast for me to understand. luckily, my Mom understood what he was saying and was able to relay the message back to me and everybody else at the table. The waiter finishes telling us the specials and asks us what we would like to drink; I order a lemonade. The waiter then leaves which gives us a chance to look over our menus again before placing our order. Upon looking over the menu again, I notice that it is a little bit complicated because it has one side has all the different types of fish you can get and the other has all the different styles of cooking you can get for each fish. Even though it is a complicated menu, I am still able to decide what I want fairly quickly: a pan fried Petrale Sole filet. The waiter comes back with my lemonade and the other beverage we ordered and we immediately order our entrees.
Food: Our entrees arrive to our table and I instantly know I am going to be happy with what I ordered. Sitting in front of me are two huge pieces of petrale sole with pan sauce as well as oven baked potatoes and a vegetable medley. Before I dig in, I put a little bit of salt on my potatoes and plop some of their delicious homemade tartar sauce onto my plate. My first bite is the fish which is cooked to perfection. The Petrale is flavorful, tender and delicate all at the same time and when mixed with the tartar sauce and the pan sauce, it tastes amazing. My one complaint about the fish is that it was a little too flakey but other than that it was a solid piece of fish and was the star of the dish. My next bite is the potatoes with the little bit of salt that I put on them. The potatoes taste good but there is nothing special about them and they were cut a little too big for my liking. I wish they would have come with a sauce or something but when mixed with the tartar sauce they tasted very good. Finally, I take a bite of the vegetable medley consisting of roasted cauliflower, carrots and zucchini. The vegetables were cooked really well and I really enjoyed the flavor that they had. But again, I wish they would have had another depth of flavor to take them to the next level and make them special. I ended up adding a little bit of salt, lemon and tartar sauce to them which made them taste better and it added the depth of flavor that I craved. Overall, I was extremely pleased with my choice of entree because the fish was supposed to be the hero of the dish and it was. Upon finishing our entrees, we decide to order dessert; I order a piece of carrot cake. As soon as I received the carrot cake, I noticed that the plating was done very nicely but that it should have been put on a bigger plate. nevertheless, I take a big bite and I am instantly in heaven. It has the carrot taste I like as well as the richness of the cream cheese frosting to balance it out. But, even though the flavor of the carrot cake was very good, it was a little bit too crumbly for my liking and I did not like the little nuts that they put on the frosting.
Overall: Overall, I was very happy with the experience we had at Tadich Grill. I loved the classic, old school vibe the restaurant gave off and the atmosphere was great. The service was good overall although I wish our waiter would have talked a little bit slower. The food itself was very good even-though there were a few things I thought they could change or make better. But, by the time our meal had ended I was very impressed with our experience and I hope that I can return to dine there again soon
Ratings: Food: 4/5, Service: 4/5, Atmosphere: 4.5/5
Walker's World 