1550 Hyde Cafe and Wine Bar Review

1550 Hyde was fine, probably even satisfying, but certainly nothing there awed us.

While deciding what to eat -we ordered off the regular menu-, we started with an appetizer of warm olives sprinkled with olive oil (quite good).

We ordered two appetizers. One was a salad of arugula with a sherry-something vinaigrette. While the salad was nothing special, it came with a piece of toast with a great spread on it! (Sadly, the spread wasn't described on the menu and we didn't take the time to try to identify it.) The other was squid tossed with fennel, pea shoots, and a few apricot pieces. A few pieces of the squid were wonderfully fresh and with a nice citrus zing, but most were not so exciting. Everything but the squid in that dish was definitely "eh."

As for the entrees,

• Rabbit. (The restaurant is famous for rabbit in many preparations.) Our rabbit, served as two legs, was accompanied by pearl onions, mushrooms, and spatzle. It and all its accompaniments were juicy and good.

• Breaded pork. The pork itself was okay and some pieces by the bone were scarily uncooked. The breading, however, was good. It came with okay sauteed spinach.

• Steak. Fine. It also came with some really good fries -- cheesy and salty fried goodness. In addition, it came with some things that looked like potato skins (but according to the menu were radicchio, a red salad green) that we all agreed it was so bitter as to be "nasty."

The dessert we ordered was recommended by reviewers on the web: a chocolate pot de creme (made from Scharffen Berger bittersweet chocolate). This was very good, like the epitome of chocolate pudding -- densely chocolaty and rich. It was topped with similarly top-notch whipped cream.

The other dessert we ordered was endorsed solely by critics: a maple syrup tart. We didn't like this at all -it was too sweet for us- and we didn't finish it.

In addition to food, the place is also a wine bar and has a wider-than-usual selection of well-priced wines by the glass. While I ordered an "eh" poor noir, the other attendees all had a very good 2001 Trouchard Zinfandel (Cameros, Napa Valley).

1550 Hyde is in a very cozy and compact space, with the few tables they have so densely packed it makes moving around and sitting down difficult.

Conversations this time was fairly narrowly focused on workplace issues *cough* *cough* and moving (half of us were moving this month), and, briefly, a discussion of the differences between IHOP and Denny's. The other attendees also took some time to make fun of me for constantly saying duck when I meant rabbit (in regards to the food). I've also been told by one person I'm supposed to mention "the clientele was excellent."

Total was ~$40/person, including tax and tip but without drinks.

Original Announcement

This week we'll do dinner on Thursday at 8:00pm. The place will be 1550 Hyde Cafe and Wine Bar, a Cal-Mediterranean restaurant in Russian Hill. They have a Dine About Town menu but it is only a slight discount to ordering a la carte so will likely ignore it.

http://www.1550hyde.com/

Tell me if you are coming!

Comments from Other Attendees

Feel free to add remarks here.