Capresi Salad-----mozzerella and fresh roma tomatoes
"Pissaladiere", caramelized onion tart with anchovy and frisee salad
"Brandade de Morue" Atlantic salted cod gratinee with garlic croutons
Mussels "Provencale" with garlic, shallots, cherry tomatoes, nicoise olives and pastis
Seared foie gras with Banyuls and fennel pollen reduction, summer fruit
Pimentos del piquillos stuffed with Dungeness crab meat, saffron, tomato coulis and basil
It was my first time to Portero Hill (south of Downtown) and you get a great view. My friend Sharerun and friend from DC came here to get a nice meal. I always have a nice meal with Shareun. This cute French Bistrot is quaint, small and is very busy. Luckily for us, Sharerun made reservations in advance for a Tuesday night meal.
We decided to just get a bunch of dishes and share to our hearts contents (my favorite way of eating---family style!). I got to eat all the foods I was craving or talking about earlier in the day! The Capresi salad was excellent with the delectable and juicy Roma tomatoes, the light and slightly salty mozzerella and the pesto sauce decoration was a nice flavorful accent. Next we got the "Pissaladiere" carmelized onion tart, a first for me! The layers of golden carmelized onion were heavenly and extremely flavorful with the onions sweetness! The warm calamari was very fresh and over the excellent olive oil and slight salad was done very well with a nice contrast of flavors of slightly bitter and to the freshness of the calamari.
Another surprise that Sharerun wanted to eat was the Brandade de Morue, everyone at the table was lapping it up! We never knew fish to be such an excellent spread on the garlic croutons. Slightly salty but the texture reminded me of being mashed potato like. The Pimentos del Piquillos were alright for me. They looked more exciting than they actually were but the crab meat was fresh and the everything was good just too much batter for my taste but I must admit the tomato basil coulis added a nice flavor contrast.
We got a generous helping of seared foie gras for only $16 and it was sublime, the outer crust was lovely and the inner smoothness and texture just melted in my mouth tasting of pure heaven. The accompanying summer fruit was lovely and a great flavor contrast of smooth rich to sweet. One fave that we had to get were the mussels, the sauce was used to dip our bread and we lapped them up. The right mix of shallots, wine sauce, cherry tomatoes and pastis made the broth amazingly good!
We shared the dessert a raspberry mousse cake with a coffee reduction sauce $8. A lovely fruity airy dessert to make a lovely ending to a wonderful meal.
Service---attentive and good, always got water cleared, brought bread (and more when needed)
Faves---Brandade de Morue, Foie Gras, and Pissaladiere stick out as the top three
I give Chez Papa Bistrot in Portero Hill in San Francisco a 10 forks out of 10 forks for price, quality, location and service.
