Baker & Banker – Strong Start but Fizzled Out

Baker & Banker has a much more conservative feel than most other San Francisco restaurants. The clientele was older, and many of the men were in jackets even though this isn’t a ‘fancy’ restaurant. It didn’t feel too stuffy though, and I appreciated the classy vibe. The space is VERY small, but they did a great job of dressing it up with the warm decor (think Pottery Barn) and using lots of mirrors.

The meal got off to a great start….excellent wine and incredible fresh-baked bread. Their bread was actually one of my favorite parts of the meal! The buttermilk dill bread was light with a refreshing hint of dill, and the warm, just-out-of-the-oven sweet potato rolls had a lovely starchy sweetness.

House Smoked Trout, potato latke, horseradish crème fraîche, pickled beets, shaved fennel – beautiful appetizer. It was much sweeter than I thought it’d be, but still nicely balanced. The beets were like candy and actually outshined the smoked trout (plus, they didn’t have that strong beet aftertaste that I usually don’t like). I also loved the contrast of the super crispy potato latke against all the other softer components.
Sausage Stuffed Quail, coffee-molasses glaze, wild rice pancake, blue lake beans - way too sweet…I didn’t even want to finish my dish. The coffee-molasses glaze got to be too cloying, and the quail was tender but its flavor was lost underneath that overly sweet sauce. To my dismay, even the sausage inside the quail was also sweet. What were they thinking?! It would have been so much better with a salty/peppery sausage to balance out the dish. And to make it worse, the wild rice pancake soaked up more of that sauce so that is all I could taste.
Moroccan Spiced Pozzi Farm Lamb Loin, sausage, couscous, charred eggplant and pine nut purée, tzatziki, natural jus – the lamb was tender and well-cooked. However, it came with some really dry pieces of sausage…I would’ve rather just had more lamb instead. Overall, the flavors were good, but the dish wasn’t particularly unique or special.
Nectarine & Pluot Crisp, brown sugar-pecan streusel, blackberry swirl ice cream – the streusel had a thick, crunchy home-made feel and its sweetness was a nice contrast to the tart fruit. It was also baked to order, which was appreciated.
My experience at Baker & Banker was pleasant overall, but it didn’t leave me with a desire to come back…maybe only to buy bread if they had a bakery.

BITE METER: Baker & Banker – 2.5 bites (out of 5.0)