Brick, San Francisco

The tenderloin district restaurant was fairly empty, even for a Tuesday night. Not a good sign. We sat at our table and a few minutes later our waiter came around.

– “Today is half-price Tuesday” he said. “All wine bottles are 50% off.”

All right, empty restaurant in half-price day. Definitely not a good sign.

The menu

You know when you find yourself reading the menu over and over trying to see if something catches you eyes? That’s how I felt. But nothing really did. It doesn’t help when you name a dish “Airplane Chicken”. When was the last time you ate good chicken on an airplane?

The food

We ordered a couple of appetizers for the table. Garlic Fries and Country Fried Maitake Mushroom. The fries were soggy and oily, like they had been anxiously waiting to be served for at least an hour. The mushrooms were on the only side too, but at least crisper in texture.

To start, I ordered the Pan Seared Scallops with Sunchoke Puree. Not bad, although the size of the scallops probably called for 3 instead of only 2.

As an entrée, I had the Goat Cheese Crusted Lamb with eggplant caponata, maché, tomato jus. The lamb was well cooked but completely overpowered by the eggplant. The so-called tomato jus looked and tasted more like a tablespoon of V8 poured on the plate.

For dessert, I ordered the Salty Lovers Caramel Pot de Crème. The name was right, as you must really love salt to eat this. The crème was hidden underneath a thick layer of coarse salt, unbearably salty I should say.

In short

Despite the good looking dining room in the somewhat sketchy tenderloin neighborhood, eating at Brick still feels like bar food. The service is slow and indifferent. But most importantly, the food is far from remarkable. If you ask me, I’m not going back. Not even on a half-price Tuesday.