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Categories: Vietnamese, Asian Fusion
Neighborhood: EmbarcaderoMon-Sun. 11:00 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.
Mon-Sun. 5:30 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.
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Meh. The food is average and hit or miss... the eggplant is a little greasy, found a bone in the trout, the rice cakes are a little too heavy, and the rice is bland. However, the vegetarian spring rolls are delightful and the peanut sauce that comes along is delicious as well. Basically, things coming from the kitchen are inconsistent.
Service is decent, and cocktails are interesting. But I think the Slanted Door has had its 15 minutes of fame and is on its way out. Not worth the scramble for reservations and there are many other great restaurants in SF that live up to their hype.
This place is YUMMY! Yes I know that you can get really good Vietnamese food for 1/4 of the price and to some people it is like paying way too much for Mexican food, but damn this place has it together. Great location, good service, a killer view and of course very good food. The only negative to me about this place is the wine list, it isn't that great, and the wine by the glass is even worse. Oh oh and the ribs are not that great compared to places like Lingba Lounge's asian ribs.
A pleasant surprise which I had never tried until my most recent visit is the dessert, we had the chocolate cake with ice cream and boy was that good! I have always loved eating at the slanted door, since back in the day when they were in the mission, I just wish it wasn't so hard to get in on the spur of the moment.
Another failed Phan attempt.
For years, I've heard people raving about this overpriced Vietnamese restaurant located right on The Bay.
Well, I felt so *lucky* to nab a same-day lunch reservation via http://opentable.com, but my *lucky* fortune fell short once we actually experienced TSD.
First, our waitress definitely had something against us. She was just so....flat and unavailable, and seemingly uninterested. This was reflected in the tip I left her.
As for the food...since I wasn't feeling well (who knew it was the start of 2009 H1N1), I ordered the chicken noodle soup, he ordered the beef pho, and we started with some tea and the lamb sausage with oysters.
The tea the waitress recommended was bitter and I sent it back. The chicken in my soup was questionable, and the soup itself was flavorless. Boo.
The highlight of the experience was the appetizer. The lamb sausage was totally delicious and cooked perfectly. I loved the fresh crispness of the oysters as a chaser. Yum.
So...basically, it wasn't the greatest experience and definitely wasn't anything to write home about.
Don't think I've ever reviewed a joint with more than 1600 reviews already, but here it goes, and I think, by any standard, we had a 5 star meal here.
The food is stunning, the atmosphere is loud and it's huge and crowded. That'd generally be enough to bring it down to 4 stars, but wow, that food was good.
If you've ever imagined what normal Asian food could be with excellent ingredients and a bit of innovative preparation this is it.
Fillet Mignon cubes in a great sauce
Rice noodles with crab
stunning dub pasta
And a good bottle of wine for about $30.
Just amazing eating!
The food was stellar. Everything. Everything was very, very fresh. Very flavorful. Even items that you wouldn't expect to be very flavorful turned out to be very much so.
The service was very attentive and efficient..Not very personal, though. Very much polite.
As the others have said, the atmosphere and everything else is excellent too..Top notch.
Yes you will have to 'try' to get a reservation, and you 'should' be happy to sit at the bar but you 'won't' be blown away by the food.
Unless I ordered all the wrong things.
The very mundane, non fried vietnamese spring roll wrap can be a thing of delicacy and subtlty or a mass produced glob of the usual. Theirs was on this side of that equation...no, not terrible but not special at all.
Same for the scallop "salad" and the cellophane noodles....all OK...but "I've experienced better", fo' sho'.. Service was OK but maybe if you're not ordering a C-note or better they don't like you as much....
Crowded and definitely happening, of course, I think.
I hadn't been here in ages, and figured it was a good lunch spot to take my co-workers for a work related lunch. It's got all the prerequisites - couple of blocks away, great food, fabulous view, lots of atmosphere.
Unfortunately, as usual, the service totally sucked ass. Our waitress was faintly contemptuous the entire time (she was super friendly to the table of four guys behind us), it took about 20 minutes to place our order and it was slooooooowwww. Our appetizers came quickly enough, but after we were through with them we waited about 30 minutes for our entrees. That's too long to wait for lunch - or dinner. Took another 20 minutes to get the bill. The usual SD service environment.
The food - my clay pot was fabulous, my colleague's lemon grass pork was amazing, and the noodle salad another person had was practically life changing.
Too bad we won't be coming back to try those and other great dishes again.
Bite me, Slanted Door. I'd rather go to Tamarine in Palo Alto.
Not bad in my book. Here's my play by play highlights:
- great decor and nice atmosphere.
- great view of the bay in the outdoor area.
- pretty versatile menu with lots of seafood/veggie options.
Pitfalls:
- the waiter said lunch was "family style" but I was hesitant and ordered my own plate. Good thing too. I don't know if it's because I'm a fatty but I ate the whole plate!
- above waiter seemed a bit snotty after I insisted on my own plate.
- it's pretty pricy for a lunch.
I ordered the Grilled Tiger Prawn over rice noodles. Good choice. The shrimp was fresh and the Imperial Roll it came with were GREAT. The bed of noodles were a bit cold and mushy but still tasty. I had a bite of my friend's dungeness crab and it was sweet.
Overall, the food wasn't totally worth the $13 spent on it but it was good and the view was nice so three stars, here you go!
For a place that is so hard to garner a reservation, you would think this was a bomb ass place.
I called on Sunday around 12 pm to get a table for 2 at 1 pm. The guy said it was no problem, so we started walking over from Union Square. My stupid iPhone map gave me the wrong address, so we ended up walking 1 mile more than we were supposed to, but I guess it was worth burning the extra 200 calories before our big lunch.
Due to us getting lost, I called and told them we were running 15 min late. He said it was not a problem. When we finally arrived at 1:20 pm, the hostess said it would be a few minutes. We sat down in the lounge area and waited 20 min before my BF went up there to ask what was up. Apparently she claimed that she thought she sat us already. Whatever, she ended up seating us then.
After sitting down at a table by the window, we looked over the menu and waited for our waiter. And waited. 20 minutes later, we flagged down a busboy who went to get our waiter. By now, I was beyond starving since I didn't eat breakfast cuz I was saving up for lunch. It took all of me to keep my temper in check. I mean, c'mon, get on it Slanted Door! Service was definitely not a high point here.
Anyway, the waiter shows up and friendly and cool, so at least when he was present, he was decent. We ordered daikon rice cake, grilled prawns with rice noodles, shaking beef, and catfish in claypot.
My favorite dish was hands down the daikon rice cake. I don't know what they put in there, but it was so damn good, I could have ate 5 of those babies. The sauce it came with was well flavored and had a slight tang to it. It's similar to turnip cake at dim sums. But, I think theirs trumps any dim sum I've ever had. I'll have to find the recipe to duplicate it.
Rice noodles with grilled tiger prawns was mediocre. I've had better at a hole in the wall Vietnamese restaurant. I did enjoy the imperial roll that came with it, but overall, the highlight of this dish were the mint leaves. I guess mint really brought out the flavor of the noodles. Oh yeah, the fish sauce was good too.
Shaking beef was okay as well. I thought the filet mignon was bit chewy, but the onions were to die for! OMG. I could have just ate the onions over a bowl of white rice and been happy. Also, the lime sauce was pretty damn good too. A nice tangy addition over the white rice we ordered.
Caramelized catfish claypot was my least favorite. My BF loved it though. The fish itself was cooked well, but the sauce was overpowering and way too sweet. I put a little bit over my rice and it was so saccharine sweet, I couldn't eat it. I had to waste rice! Oh horrors.
In nutshell, The Slanted Door is a good place to dine at, when you get service. I expect better service for a $75 lunch for two. However, I'm coming back for those daikon rice cakes. Also, I heard the cellophane noodles with crab are a must try as well. Next time.
PIX- http://pandaliciousfor...
I came here late night for drinks and apps. Sat at the very front by the door in front of the bar. Obviously the location is great. The place is sterile and quite the scene. Lots of eye candy. I could see hunting parties coming here to take full advantage of the scene.
I can't really comment on anything else, I had the limeade and some spring rolls. Both were fine. The taste buds were not the sense that was being appealed to.
Have you ever found yourself wondering whether you could write a negative number at the tip line on your bill?
Well, if not that, in this case I really thought that it would have been less absurd if the line had been crossed out using tippex. (Of course, I chickened out in the end, found myself tipping like there's no tomorrow, reasoning, as always, that it wasn't the server's fault but the restaurant's miserable policy, and all that blah blah about the server probably not getting enough tips because all the other diners must be feeling the same way I do. What's wrong with me? Anyway, soul rumination is not the point of this review but other types of rumination, so with this I continue:)
The food cannot compensate for the service. It's nice, but not consistent enough in quality for an aggregate experience of more than two stars.
Hmmm, I'm trying to be nice to a place that charges an arm and a leg for 'Vietnamese' food that, in my humble white girl experience, is not really even very Vietnamese. In all fairness... the food was average-good but too expensive. Also, the hostess was a lil too snotty and the waiter, kind of a kiss-ass. (Oh wait, in all fairness, I've actually backpacked Vietnam and then later, roomed with Vietnamese for years... lol.)
Guess it's still 'A-OK' but I'm used to getting amazing Vietnamese food for a fraction of the cost and I try not to dock a place too much for price just because I'm cheap sometimes. LoL Guess I'm just not 'foodie' enough to deal with places like the Slanted Door.
We sat outside so we could see the ocean which was nice but it was too cold. Too bad the wait for inside was too long. What can I expect from a place in the Embarcadero?
Won't see ya there.
We took our friend here for her bday and were pretty excited about it. I was looking forward to experiencing all the great things I had heard about it. Maybe it was hyped up too much, but my experience was just okay. I love that it's a part of the Ferry Building. Yes, a perfect view of the Bay Bridge at night isn't something to complain about. I guess the biggest disappointment was the food itself. Spring rolls tasted like any other ordinary spring rolls from a mom and pop Vietnamese shop. We also had the shaking beef ($29) had which was about 6 small pieces of beef. I was especially disappointed in this because I've had shaken beef at places where the beef was so juicy and tender it tasted like it melted in your mouth. Not here. On the other hand, the chicken clay pot was a hit. I'd recommend that.
Ambiance was nice and warm. Very modern. Service was great. A wine sommelier came right out to help us find the perfect pairing for our dishes. Food could have lived up to the ambiance, prices, and service of the restaurant.
The flavors are to die for! The ambiance and view are superb but for God's sake, a word of advice to the chef and owners, add a bit more food to the plate. Jeez, for example, the beef dish had 6 pieces of beef, small ones...the chicken claypot was 1/2 full...for the price, it should be more..Wine selection is tops!
Only gonna comment on happy hour (my bff meling gave a v. detailed food review).
I was in a sober state of mind with a few friends who were drinking a fair amount. "excuse me. can i get a water?" ten minutes later when she's bringing more drinks over "can i get that water? if it's an issue you can ask the bartender for tonic and lime" (i'm not destitute. i swear. i just want a fucking glass of water for the love of jesus) then ten minutes after that "uhhhh i asked for water" (the bitch is coming out). She's just staring at a spot above my head and nodding saying she would get it asap. finally my friend flagged down a busboy and i asked him en espanol which he promptly retrieved for me. maybe the slanted door should hire their servers outside of home depot. It would seem that my people don't have an issue carrying a glass of water ten feet.
thanks for nothing snobby waitress... my friends undertipped you for their lukewarm martinis too (you left them standing at the bar for a hella long time). I would do the one star dealie but the busboy was really nice and la raza unida and all that jazz.
So many reviews of this place! One of my faves in SF. What can I add that has not already been written by the 1000s of reviewers here? Get the shaking beef!!!
This is by far and away one of my favorite restaurants in San Francisco. Not only is it in one of my favorite spots (the Ferry Building) with a view of the bay...it is so deliciously fantastic.
You will need reservations to sit in the dining area, but if you just want to grab a quick bite- order from the appetizer menu because the bar is fun with plenty of seating. They also have a great cocktail menu (ginger limeade and pisco sours to mention a few) and full wine list.
There are a few menu items you should not miss:
crispy imperial rolls, slanted door spring rolls and the papaya salad should not be missed.
High end panasian interpretations, a bit over flared, but they have to justify the prices I guess. It's good for taking folks from out of town for a high energy see and be seen meal, but it's better if someone else is picking up the tab.
Plenty have said as much before, but that shaking beef is surreal. Their spring roll appetizers are also great - you can taste the freshness and that dipping sauce drives it home.
One thing that occasionally gets frustrating is when the waiters go talking about the dishes you order and how they may interfere with your palette or some nonsense like that. I go with coworkers occasionally and we order a bunch of dishes to share, and they always point out how two dishes in the batch are somewhat similar... I appreciate the looking out, but at the same time... we kind of know what we like and when they keep doing it to us it gets funny.
Otherwise, this food is fresh and tastefully prepared, and always consistent in its quality. They've got a great selection of teas, and their location gives a nice taste of the waterfront. I'm a big fan of places with full-window walls, and these guys take advantage of their prime spot.
If you want a great taste of Vietnamese food, I highly recommend this place. The spring rolls for appys, followed by the shaking beef and the claypot chicken make for a great meal for 2.
Went here for lunch - Ordered 5 spiced chicken, clear noodles and imperial rolls. Portions? Downtown sized..Definitely not family style. Everything was pretty good but definitely not worth the price compared with other places around the city...But then again, this is downtown so you're paying for the location and to sit by the water...Good venue..Decent service compared to other yelpers' experiences. $80/2 people for lunch? Meh...I'd rather eat at one of the other dozen places in and around the ferry building. I would suggest this place for business meetings, even though this was personal, but it's ridiculously loud in the dining area. You seriously can't hear each other across the table. Not the first impression I'd want to make with a client....
Can't imagine anyone wanting to eat here for dinner unless you don't want to talk to whoever you're eating with =P
Had some clients in town who had never been to San Francisco before. This restaurant was the perfect place for several reasons: location (the Ferry Building is great and the view of the bridge is beautiful), atmosphere (elegant, but not stuffy) and a great range of menu items (we had a vegetarian in the group).
We all loved the Shaking Beek, Scallops, Claypot Chicken and Rice Dumplings. Just when I thought the meal couldn't get any better...dessert. The Lemon Tart was to die for.
The only downside is the bill. Since the plates are small and you need to order many, the total adds up quick. That being said, every now and then, you deserve a treat.
The view is great, everything else is really not that special.
Reservations are definitely recommended, but they let you sit at the bar or outside without one. I went on a Tuesday night and the place was packed, including the bar. Because they are so busy, the servers aren't very attentive.
-vegetarian spring rolls ($9)- the mint was everything. not better than spring rolls at any cheap vietnamese joint
-cellophane noodles with dungeness crab ($18)- imagined japchae with crab, but instead it turned out to be just what it says - noodles with pieces of crab. couldn't taste the crab...salty...
-vegetables/corn ($10) - salty ..
Overpriced and overated, if you want a better experience for less money, go to their sister restaurant "Out the Door" in the Ferry Building or in the food court of the mall - that place is great.
The food was pretty good, but this place nailed most of my pet peeves dead on.
1. Small portions - Even for lunch. I left feeling hungry which is not cool for the price you pay.
2. Bad twists on traditional dishes - They put wide rice noodles in the Pho (aka "snot noodles"). Their consistency is not right for soup and they were impossible to get out of the bowl.
3. Sloppy - I don't know if it was too much oil or what, but I've eaten my share of vietnamese and I usually end up with a lot less on my shirt. Not a great situation for a business lunch. The Pho came in a tiny bowl filled to the brim - no room for add ons and hard to pick up. There is a reason why Pho usually comes in a monster bowl with four inches of slosh room. The beef flank noodle dish, while delicious required additional cutting and sorting to fit in my mouth.
4. 20 minutes to eat, 30 minutes to get the check - Always a frustrating experience when you're trying to get back to work.
5. Tight quarters - We went in close to 11, the restaurant was empty and quiet and of the empty 100 tables in the place, they picked the table abbutting ours to seat the next pair that came in. Wtf? Getting out of out of the bench seats between the tables is a bitch, even for a skinny mo fo like myself.
I also have to wonder if the shaking beef costs $10 more than every other dish because of it's reputation, feels like price gouging to me. How can I prove it? I guess I can't. Balls.....
I'll end the gripe fest there. HIgh quality food, but the rest of the experience was very frustrating and dissapointing. I'm not likely to return any time soon, but will definitely be back to out the door for the good food without the bullshit.
Man this place is packed. A reservation is definitely required or you'll be waiting. If you are of the latter, like me, then you'll be waiting for the bar, which serves a full menu, or at the tables by there for appetizers. Try not to creep out the patrons trying to hawk on their seats.
$29 Shaking beef - The beef was cooked to perfection, but the portion wasn't adequate. One would have been better off going to Harris to get a steak dinner.
Ginger Limeade - The friendly bartenders were attentive and friendly, did I mention they were friendly, and make a good drink. They do not make rum and cokes here, which could be construed as being snobby. You decide.
The atmosphere is nice, service is ok and the food is good. You can't go wrong coming here for drinks. As for dinner the choice is your's, but the food will be good.
I went here for a friends company happy hour and had a great time. It was modern, clean, great food… Read more »
This past Saturday was the first time since the restaurant relocated from Valencia Street to the Ferry Building that I went back for my friend's birthday celebration. (yeah, I know it's lame) It was every bit as good as I remember. The joint was jumping at 5:30p with folks lining up for their dinner reservations, so if you manage to get a seat at the bar, do not give it up.
Six of us sat at the bar to drink, nosh and chit chat. We shared 2 orders of shaking beef, cabbage and jicama slaw, glass noodles with crab, perfect tightly wrapped veggie and spring rolls with peanut dipping sauce, and a luscious raw oyster and lamb sausage combination that was out of this world. Our bartender was fantastic and friendly, he patiently went through the wine list with us and even comp'd us shots and a big order of shrimp before we took off. Slanted Door makes me appreciate Vietnamese food more than I ever have before.
When my bf came to visit, I decided to take him here since everyone and his/her mom, uncle and sibling recommended this place. However, I'll give you my conclusion first before boring you with what we had: this place is overpriced for no legitimate reason and the hype is undeserving.
We had:
*whiskey smash - maker's mark, mint, lemon and a hand carved block of ice
*shaking beef served with a lemon, salt, pepper dipping sauce, watercress and red onions
*"spicy" Japanese eggplant
*cellophane noodles with dungeness crab
*vanilla creme brulee
Since we didn't have reservations, we decided to seat ourselves at the bar. We happened to have a great view of the bartenders making really unique drinks so we tried the Whiskey Smash. This is a refreshing and delicious drink.
The shaking beef was great, but $29 for it is overkill. A few days after dining here, my bf and I attempted to make the same dish following the chef's own recipe (http://sfgourmet.blogs...). Our end result was, in our opinion, pretty damn competitive, and it cost a mere $10 max.
The cellophane noodles with dungeness crab lacked flavor and had too much noodle with too little crab. It was dry, plain, and boring. I ended up asking for more of the shaking beef lemon dipping sauce so I could douse these parched noodles in an attempt to salvage a $20 dish.
The "spicy" Japanese eggplant dish is a joke. A) it's not spicy B) the eggplant was so undercooked and also had a strange potato texture and C) it didn't even taste good. Seriously, don't bother with this dish.
The one dish that I actually liked, loved to be accurate, was the vanilla creme brulee. It was so creamy, milky, thick and smooth (please refrain from "that's what she said" comments although I know it's hard). The caramelized sugar layer on top had a well balanced charred flavor. Usually the caramelized top is thin at most places, but this one definitely was not. Great contrast of textures and flavors!
Anyways, don't come here unless you feel like being dissatisfied after blowing money or if you just want the creme brulee.
I went here with my boyfriends step mother and friend and i loved the food! Being a vegetarian they toatally catereted to my needs and helped offer me many options and i felt like I had a large variety. The spring rolls were also pretty amazing, I am not normally a fan of spring rolls at all however I found that the Slanted Door did them very well!! I cant remeber what i ordered as my entree but i remeber enjoying it very much and not being dissapointed at all and then to top it off they also brought out a few different complimentary salads for us to share throughout the meal! The wine was also pretty amazing! Overall i guess i really enjoyed the viet/french food and would defiently go back here (however i guess reservationis are hard to come by so book ahead!!)
A wonderful restaurant that will provide a great experience. Follow these instructions:
Reservations need to be made far in advance for prime dinner time seating. But don't do that. My preference is to avoid the dining area - it is noisy and somewhat overbearing. Instead, sit at the bar where they serve a full dinner or lunch menu. To make all this happen (bar seating) either get there early (before 5) or late (after 9) as it is first come first serve. A lot of snagging seats at the bar is really luck.
Once seated, try a cocktail - they're great. Everything I've ever eaten at Slanted Door has been very good. The hamachi is incredible and the imperial roles are worth trying. Try also: dungeness crab with noodles, shaking beef and ahi. There's a fairly substantive vegan menu as well.
If you follow the no reservations route you need to be prepared with a back-up dinner plan. This requirement for spontaneity isn't for everyone, but I find it almost always results in the best of all possible worlds - at least that is, for an evening out.
i've been wanting to come to slanted door for almost 8 years and it's about time i went! came in for lunch and the view was AWESOME and the service was GREAT!
we sat at the bar and shared:
1) slanted door spring rolls - my mom, for the first time, actually tried spring rolls. she usually ignores them when i order them, but she loved the sauce. the ingredients were fresh and the taste of the shimp and sliced pork were simple, which amplified the experience
2) wood oven broiled manila clams - the sauce was heavenlly! traces of thai basil, ginger, jalapeno, just a touch of tomato, and the lovely pork belly flavored the clams really well. the clams were definitely fresh and not chewy. don't you hate that?
3) caramelized prawns - i forget what the menu described this dish as, but the pawns were definitely large and sweet! the sweet-sour chili sauce they were in was phenominal!
i'll be back for the drinks! since we sat at the bar, i watched the bartender make the most delicious drinks. he would even entertain me as i asked questions about the ingredients. i found out that slanted door makes their own worcestershire sauce. see what happens when you ask?
After our walk from Chinatown all the way to the Ferry Building. We decided to get a drink and end up sitting at the bar at Slanted Door. Our Bartender was very nice and was attentive. He had great knowledge of drinks and made great suggestions of what we should order. End up ordering the Yellow tail with Fried Shallots and Kampachi. We had the Yellow tail before and its a great dish. The fried shallots add alot of flavor and texture to the dish. The Kampachi was not bad but on the sweeter side. Overall both dishes was great. I end up ordering there Ginger and Lime drink. It was perfect not overly sweet or tart. Love coming to Slanted Door. Its one of our fave places.
Came here on a day off. A day in the city when everyone is at work is great. I think its nicer in a… Read more »
I never would have expected that the best thing at Slanted Door (for me) would be the dessert. Brown butter pound cake with raspberry coulis and homemade creme fraiche ice cream...yes!!
The cocktail (ginger, lime-infused vodka, lime juice) was also stellar, making me think that next time I go I'll stick to apps, drinks, and sweets. The entrees were okay, but not worth the high cost when I could be just as satisfied with nibbles and a view of the bay.
Methinks not.
Place was packed, we asked to be seated.
Response?
"If you can find a place at the bar, feel free to sit down there."
Excuse me, douche? Why don't you see if there is a place at the bar for us? Customer Service 101 repeat class.
Sheesh.
Peace out.
First off, I did not order on my own. I came here with a group of girls for a celebration dinner, and the person who made the reservation pre-set the menu for us based on the prix fixe menu they offer. So it is very possible that she just didn't know any better and ordered boring ass dishes.
I can not believe this place and all the hype it gets in the city. They are serving basic, run of the mill classic vietnamese dishes.
-Imperial rolls? boring and you can get them at any Vietnamese hole in the wall with better results.
-The spring rolls, are you kidding me? make these at home in 10 min and you'll have a better time with it than at Slanted Door.
-Diakon rice cakes, aka turnip cakes, the same stuff you can get at any chinese dim-sum place.
-Shaking beef - too chewy and nothing special.
-grilled pork shop - actually pretty good, the only thing I ate that I had not already experienced a million times over at some other asian restaurant.
-caramelized tiger prawn - snore. standard on any chinese or vietnamese menu.
This place is a joke. They are charging an arm and a leg for stuff you can get at places like PPQ on Irving and the hundreds of other vietnamese places in the city. All just because they have a swanky location and they throw useless names of f-ing farms on the menu.
This was my second visit to the Slanted Door. First time, I went with my dad about 12 years ago back when it was on Valencia. I remember walking out that night giving my dad crap for wanting to go there. Even then I thought the place was a joke. I gave it another shot this time around, and my mind is unchanged. I will not be going back to throw my money away. So get over your bad self, Slanted Door, and do something a little more innovative for a change.
I'm throwing in the second star just because the service was awesome. Our server was attentive and super nice.
and here is my disclaimer: I am a pretty big asian cuisine snob. My mom was born and raised in Vietnam though she is ethnically chinese (coincidentally, so is Charles Phan). Therefore, based on my history with Vietnamese and Chinese culture, I call bull shit on the Slanted Door. You may feel differently if you weren't also raised on spring rolls and caramelized prawns.
We knew we had made a mistake as we entered the restaurant on a sleepy Sunday evening at 7pm. The shops and other restaurants in the Ferry Building were either closed or closing but the Slanted Door was bustling with people drinking, lounging and dining. It was a full house but we still decided to give it a try.
Upon inquiring for a table for two, the hostess told us that they were totally booked till 9:30pm and that we should have made reservations. So we decided to take a rain check for our next trip to SF. But as we were walking by their patio, it seemed warm enough with their heaters that we went back in to get a table on the patio.
We were given a table for two on the edge of the patio which was a bit cooler for our taste but we decided to take it. The waiter was prompt to take our drink order. He also notified us of the menu's family sharing style which was nice since we each had had a clam chowder in a sourdough bowl 3 hours ago and we had sharing an entree with some side dish in our mind anyways.
As we were sipping our Pinot Noir, I noticed a cozier table of four that was occupied with two people who were about to leave and asked our waiter if we could get the table after they left. The waiter responded saying that he wouldn't be able to do that without the hostess' approval. So we decided to check with the hostess. She said that the table was reserved for somebody else. It didn't make much sense for somebody to make a reservation for an outside table while it was 50 degrees and windy outside but still we decided to stick to what we have and tried to shake our cold off by sipping into our Pinot's. The table stayed unoccupied for almost 30 minutes before somebody was finally seated to it.
When our $29 Shaking Beef entree came, we were appalled. It had shrunk into an appetizer size with 6 chunks of beef seasoned with some lame soy sauce vinaigrette and some onions. Thank God, we had ordered a $9 bok choy dish and an order of brown rice, otherwise even with two bowls of chowder eaten three hours ago, we would have left the table hungry.
If we had known we would be paying for a family sized portion of this junk $29, we could have been a bit more happier. But serving an appetizer size dish with a lame taste at $29 to me is robbery.
Thank God we have Little Saigon down here in OC and we don't have to deal with snobby hostesses at crappy places like these to have decent Vietnamese food!!!
Family style Asian Fusion, my butt!
It's tasty. It's not bad. Service is good. I've definitely had better viet/fusion food for a better price.
Just go to the TL and get it for half-off. Yes, replace the beautiful bay for beautiful, animated characters of the TL. But if you're taking a date or some clients sure. Or if you're going with some friends who aren't that well-versed in Viet food or don't like to venture out and try something exotic this would be a safe bet.
Otherwise, if you want the real deal go to the TL and get Viet food or make the trek out to Man Jose.
In a nutshell, the Slanted Door was everything we'd hoped for. First off, notwithstanding some of the reviews here, the service was excellent. Our waitress was happy, helpful, and never kept us waiting, despite the fact that the restaurant was either full or nearly full the entire time we were there.
For drinks, we went with a ginger theme, and both the Ginger Lemonade and the Shanghai Buck were excellent. For an appetizer we had the quail, which was good, but could have had more seasoning. The entree's however were fabulous. I had the niman ranch shaking beef "cubed filet mignon, sausalito springs' watercress, red onions and lime sauce" ($29) and my girlfriend had the stir-fried chicken with gingko nuts, chinese dates, raisins, walnuts and cashews ($17). Eaten along with some white rice, they were truly delicious. For desert we had the milk chocolate rice pudding (w/
toasted rice crunch and salted cream) and the cardamom-chocolate ice cream cake, both of which continued the same level of excellence ($9 each).
A great restaurant worthy of it's reputation.
The only upside to the restaurant is that it sits on the water and offers beautiful views of the bay.
However... the service is terrible. Our waitress almost entirely forgot about us -- she was chatting with other employees by the bar. It was a battle to get her attention and the check.
In addition, most of our meal was absolutely mediocre. The cabbage salad (I believe?) was okay, but besides that, my salmon was un-appetizingly drenched in soy sauce and everything else we tasted was forgettable.
Part of me cries on the inside when I went to the trouble of making reservations, drop over $100 on a meal for two and afterwards I have a feeling that I could've gone to some anonymous restaurant with half the reputation and half the pretension and gotten four times the meal with better service. Forget the hype, this place is a waste of your time.
Gotta say, I don't get it... at all. I've been here a few times for lunch when working downtown. I've sat at the bar and in the dinning room. Eh, the food is the same no mater where i was sitting and it's just not worth the price. I enjoy good food and I have no problem paying for something I really enjoy, but this misses every time. If you're not in early there is a massive line (I don't know why)
They do have good service, and that's refreshing. I hope not to go back.
Wow! Talk about knockin' it out! I'm obviously way late in the game on The Slanted Door, having heard about this place for years now. And evidently thanks to this expansion, I could sit down w/o a reservation. So it was a beautiful day yesterday and a colleague and I took seats at the bar.
Started with a glass of Austrian Rose. The menu said it was dry but it was definitely sweeter than it was dry. Regardless, it was very nice. I ordered the carmelized prawns and my colleague ordered the lemongrass chicken. Hooray for family style so it's like 2 for the price of 1!. Also had brown rice on the side.
Bartender/waiter was quite professional. friendly, attentive w/o being annoying. Place was packed as I'm sure it always is so the place had a good buzz about it.
Onto the food: wow! The prawns were slammin'! Slightly crunchy goodness! Carmelized onions and other veggies, including peppers. This was unbelievably delicious. The chicken was also killer. The meat wasn't dry, which is always the first hurdle for me with chicken (and pork for that matter). Delicious spicy sauce and wonderful veggies.
Perfect amount of food, though I was a little on the stuffed side walking out of there (it probably wasn't a 50-50 split on the "share". I've had their takeout a few times and it's also good but I definitley noticed a significant jump up the ladder with the quality of the sit-down experience.
So IF by chance there's anyone left out there who hasn't been to The Slanted Door (*crickets*), check it out!
So, I had really high expectations of this place since I had heard nothing but good things from friends in the past few years. I was very excited when my friend told me that's where we were going. I ordered a virgin cocktail which was basically cranberry juice and my friend got a beer.
The first thing we ordered was the "grapefruit" salad that was supposed to have jicama and red cabbage. Notice I put grapefruit in quotes. What we got was a heaping plate of nothing but red cabbage, a few little slivers of jicama and literally 4 tiny slices of grapefruit. So we paid 9 bucks for about a big plate of red cabbage. It should be called red cabbage salad instead of grapefruit salad.
I will now move on to the chicken. I ordered the stir fried chicken with dates, raisins, walnuts and cashews. I stupidly assumed the dish would be white meat. Boy, was I wrong. The dish arrived and I could tell it was really cheap dark meat. Huh? Dark meat for $17? I took a bite and the chicken was so incredibly rubbery I could barely chew it. I ended up spitting it out in my napkin. It was atrociously bad. The waiter could tell I wasn't happy and offered to get me something else. I asked him if they had any chicken dishes with white meat and he informed me that they only use thigh meat for their chicken dishes. This place must be making a killing. They use the cheapest cuts of meat and charge twice as much as anyone else for it.
I will now cover the fish. My friend and I decided to just split the whole branzino because it was $32. Again, I assumed the fish would be boneless. Again, I was wrong. The fish itself was OK. And here I highlight OK. It was bland and as I mentioned, NOT boneless. I spent the better half of the meal picking bones out of the fish to eat it.
When we got the bill it was $75. We paid 75 bucks for a plate of red cabbage salad, ok fish, a glass of cranberry juice and two beers. Wow. Can you say rip off?
Never ever again. That's all I can say. The one star is for the awesome bartender. He was very friendly and accomodating.
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