Bar Crudo Review

Bar Crudo Restaurant Review - May 28, 2006


Bar Crudo 603 Bush St. San Francisco, CA 415.956.0396 www.barcrudo.com
Buy Valves

What kind of floundering sole doesn’t carpe diem like a monkfish liver? Not me. When I want to splash out, I head to a shore thing.

Atmosphere:
You could easily pass this small, stealthy storefront without realizing it’s a restaurant. This small, two tiered eatery has an upstairs seating area as well as a counter in front of the food preparation area on the ground floor. It’s casual, but there are people coming off work in their suits so, if there’s a dress code, it’s jeans and suits.

Service:
A warm greeting awaits you at the door of this small eatery. Friendly and well informed staff guide you through the menu.

Do you like mud flap girls? Then you won't bar the Crude-O logo!

Assorted shellfish ($1.50 - $2.25 each) were served with sliced lemon, as well as mignonette and cocktail sauces. This order includes oysters, little neck clams and marinated mussels. This seasonal display included hits and misses but the marinated mussels and fresh clams were the tastiest of this day's platter.

Uni ($20.00) was served with greens, enoki mushrooms, tobiko, quail eggs and vinaigrette. This was exceedingly good in what amounted to an impeccably fresh sea urchin roe salad. The yuzu, black and wasabi tobiko added a mild citrus, salty and peppery crunch and the raw quail eggs and vinaigrette pulled all the elements together with a robe of rich and tangy flavors.

Crudo for two ($19.00) was a striking presentation of four sashimi assemblies. Crème fraiche boosted the richness of the char which was focused by the wasabi tobiko, and dill. Delicate slices of bass were arranged with paper thin radish coins and faintly peppery daikon sprouts. Marshmallow sized, red, tuna chunks were strewn with green onion ribbons. Of the quartet, this was the least dynamic. My favorite was the sweet tasting raw scallop halved and hidden under thin slices of fennel, chopped olives, mint and chunks of orange.

Three carrots out of four
This is an unique San Francisco restaurant. The impeccably fresh seafood, simply prepared is a draw in itself, but combine that with a location directly next to the Bush Street exit of the Sutter Stockton garage and it's an obvious choice to satisfy your downtown seafood craving.

"Okay"	Bar Crudo Bathroom Rating One teeny unisex room with the smallest sink ever. There is a starfish (not the chocolate kind) perched overlooking this water closet (and I mean closet.)