Angler - The Embarcadero

Recently named the best new restaurant in America, angler is not inexpensive and calling it more casual and affordable than saison is like saying the lamborghini veneno is more affordable than the lamborghini veneno roadster.

Service was great and overall it was really good and i would return just for the pertral sole and soft serve sundae.

smoked salt

house-fermented hot sauce
great with the oysters

pickled peppers

oysters - pacific gold, shigoku, miyagi

shucking excellent

purple sea urchin
More of a lobster bisque with about three tongues of uni in it. Good, but not great and pretty small at $40. I wish they were serving saison’s uni toast instead.

amberjack, pickles, sudachi
good

big eye tuna
topped with a tomato water gelee, this was sweet, tart, fatty and delicious.

rice cracker, seaweed dust

parker house rolls

angler butter

sweet chicory caesar

petrale sole (half moon bay) #solefood
best dish of the night, cooked perfectly and served with a side of brown butter. better than dover sole i had at republique

hen of the woods

hot fried rabbit
this was more mild than it looked, with pretty earthy chipotle flavor. okay, but wouldn’t order it again.

angler potato
The exterior was sliced to give it more surface area and then fried, brilliant.

milk soft serve sundae, coco nibs, salted caramel
simple but perfectly executed. pro tip: ask for more caramel.

toto


Pre-benu bang-bang

ice cold bivalves - shigoku (willapa bay, wa), kumamoto (willapa bay, wa), pacific gold (morro bay, ca)
the molluscs and cocktail sauce were excellent

the chicken or the egg?

antelope tartare
this was fine; lean and clean.

heirloom tomato with honey vinegar
holy shit, mind fucking blow, the best tomato i’ve ever had and possible the best thing i’ve had at angler so far. the tomato itself was perfect but then it was topped with fourteen tomatoes cooked down in the embers and the concentration of sweet, smoky, umami flavors was incredible. it was basically tomato turned up to 11 and as dave chang would say a “fuck you josh skenes” dish.

grilled hand-dived scallops
textbook. excellent crust. loved the butter-lemon sauce.

milk soft serve ice cream, smoked caramel, cacao nibs, salt
leave the caramel. take my diet.

toto


Angler
132 The Embarcadero
San Francisco, CA 94105
(415) 872-9442

2 Likes

Was it mentioned in the article? I didn’t see it.

It took me a bit to figure out that it’s ON The Embarcadero and not IN it.

Bookmarked. I’ve already chosen my first meal:

Purple sea urchin;
Monterey abalone with a green salad; and
Figs on a plate.

IMG_6895

Are they taking reservations? I didn’t see anything on the website.

2 Likes

Opentable

1 Like
1 Like

It was mentioned in a previous article as a possibility.

Doesn’t it seem like uni is one of those trendy items that every high end place is expected to serve? And perhaps they won’t for that reason?

Near to the kitchen live tanks bubble, filled with abalone, urchin, fish, and all manner of sea creatures, delivered daily by fisherman to the pier outside the restaurant.

Where the hell did she get that bit of nonsense? Pier 14, which is across the street but separated from the restaurant by six lanes of traffic and two sets of streetcar tracks, does not have a dock.

2 Likes

Yeah, it looks really pretty.

Fun spot that’s open late along the Embarcadero. I’d go back for the oysters & clams, tuna tartare, heirloom & embered tomatoes, and some cocktails specifically. There were no uni or spot prawns on the menu that day, unfortunately.

We drank a 1er Chassagne Montrachet, some 1er Chablis, and 2 cocktails - a bbq pineapple daquiri with coconut that was smooth as Marvin Gaye, and a maple Islay whiskey drink. All very good, particularly the daquiri.


Oysters & clams, with seaweed vinegar, meyer lemon, and hot sauce Beyond reproach; great! The seaweed vinegar was quite interesting and savory. Pacific Gem oysters and Cherrystone clams were our favorites.


Bigeye tuna tartare with tomato water gelee and shiso flowers (best dish of the night!)


Puffed rice cracker with seaweed dust (to scoop the tuna tartare with).


Albacore tuna with celery, fennel, and parsley (the one miss)


Simple lettuces and herbs (simple but very tasty and refreshing)


Heirloom and embered tomatoes (delicious! second best dish of the night. the dried tomatoes almost tasted like barbecue sauce)


Antelope tartare. (Nice, but I prefer the traditional beef tartare preparation. This almost tasted like a nice version of pepperoni on lettuce cups).


Parker rolls (with good butter)


Little abalones, grilled with lemon sauce


Nashville hot fried rabbit wrapped in foie gras. (Like a rich version of rabbit meatloaf; spice was mild, but it picked up with their house hot sauce).


Potato mille fuille with Cowgirl Creamery cheese and chive sauce (very nicely cooked!)


Melon sorbet. (Good, like concentrated fruit flavor, very pure, but also quite sweet. A little too sweet for me, actually, but it was ultra smooth.)

7 Likes

Price please?

Recent pictures of the menu with prices can be found on Yelp, here:

The oysters & clams were $4 each, tartares are in the $20’s range, etc.

What a lovely meal. I’ve never seen baby abolone served like that, it looks good.

Wow looks good!

Nice report @BradFord. Encouraging to hear that Saison’s casual spinoff is generally very good. In terms of execution, satisfaction, etc., would you say it’s like a Michelin 1 Star? Or more casual / less well executed than that? Thanks! :slight_smile:

Thanks - I’m not sure about Michelin these days; I think they’re rather over-inclusive and predictable. There are some in SF that baffle me, 1* in particular, so I’m not sure a Michelin 1* is that good a gauge of a great restaurant anymore, unfortunately.

What I can say is that I really liked the oysters & clams, tuna tartare, heirloom tomato, potato, and simple salad. (note that the tuna doesn’t have a ton of taste but the dish is well composed with the heirloom tomato water gelee and shiso buds; delicious overall). I’d go back for those. And the super smooth daquiri. I’d also like to explore more of the menu - the whole fish, for example.

There’s no tasting menu but the cost can get up there, naturally. Ingredients were very nice across the board, but if I’m going to nitpick, I didn’t care for the albacore (olives were too strong; the toppings kind of fell off when you pick it up, I guess you could fold it but it didn’t eat as easy as most “crudos”), antelope was nice but I prefer classic preparations of steak tartare, the citrus on the abalones was a little strong (perhaps that’s intentional), and the rabbit was juicy (it was wrapped with foie before frying) but the meatloaf-like texture was not quite what I expected. Now, I’m known to be quite critical, but I definitely want to try it again. I will do the oysters & clams (these are beyond reproach, and the seaweed vinegar is so interesting!), tuna tartare, heirloom tomato (beautiful smoke flavor and different textures and flavors of tomato), and maybe the whole chicken, whole fish, or whole steak. Overall, ingredients are very good and execution is nice - there are some great dishes to try there and I’m glad it’s an option in SF.

3 Likes

There are 41 one-star restaurants on Michelin’s current SF list. None of the ones I’ve been to are bad, but it’s a very narrow selection.

Their Bib Gourmand list is a lot more representative of the Bay Area and has a lot more places I’d like to try or return to.

1 Like

Recently named the best new restaurant in America, angler is not inexpensive and calling it more casual and affordable than saison is like saying the lamborghini veneno is more affordable than the lamborghini veneno roadster.

Service was great and overall it was really good and i would return just for the pertral sole and soft serve sundae.

smoked salt

house-fermented hot sauce
great with the oysters

pickled peppers

oysters - pacific gold, shigoku, miyagi

shucking excellent

purple sea urchin
More of a lobster bisque with about three tongues of uni in it. Good, but not great and pretty small at $40. I wish they were serving saison’s uni toast instead.

amberjack, pickles, sudachi
good

big eye tuna
topped with a tomato water gelee, this was sweet, tart, fatty and delicious. thanks for the rec @bradford.

rice cracker, seaweed dust

parker house rolls

angler butter

sweet chicory caesar

petrale sole (half moon bay) #solefood
best dish of the night, cooked perfectly and served with a side of brown butter. better than dover sole i had at republique

hen of the woods

hot fried rabbit
this was more mild than it looked, with pretty earthy chipotle flavor. okay, but wouldn’t order it again.

angler potato
The exterior was sliced to give it more surface area and then fried, brilliant.

milk soft serve sundae, coco nibs, salted caramel
simple but perfectly executed. pro tip: ask for more caramel.

toto

Angler
132 The Embarcadero
San Francisco, CA 94105
415-872-9442

7 Likes

Nice report @PorkyBelly. :slight_smile: It sounds like there were quite a few OK dishes, but not great? Worth a visit focused on just a few items like the sole?

Thanks!

1 Like