Canteen Restaurant

Restaurant: Canteen
Location: San Francisco CA
Chef: Dennis Leary
Open: Daily, Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Date of Dinner: August 14, 2007
Cost of Dinner: $60
Recommendation: I'll Definitely Try Multiple Times

Tuesdays are the best time to try out Canteen Restaurant, the postage-sized restaurant at the ground floor of the Commodore Hotel. It is on this day that chef/owner Dennis Leary, formerly of Rubicon, is at his most creative...and with limited resources.

Apparently on Tuesdays, Mr. Leary gives the rest of his staff the night off save for one waitperson and maybe a dishwasher. Because of this limitation, he has to create dishes that can be created by one person. So, there is only one set menu on Tuesday, but what a menu! It is almost as if you have been invited to dinner at a famous chef's house and HE is cooking. Well, other than the fact that you have to pay for dinner.

For $38, you get 3 courses all prepared by Mr. Leary himself. You almost wish that would be some lapse in the service, because he can't possibly be preparing all the dishes himself and not stumble.

He solves any lapses by carefully crafting dishes that would be easily prepared and served as a first, second, and third course.

We got to Canteen at 6pm and it was not full at all, about eleven diners total including the two of us. Even though the restaurant was not full, the waitress kindly asked Dennis Leary if it was okay to seat us, mindful of the fact that they are undermanned. He approves. We sit down at a booth made for two. We look through the books on the wall: "The Wizard of Oz," "Spectacles," "Two Scripts by Antonioni," and a book on "The Ahwahnee Hotel." Amazing!

After some prodding from Deo, I relented and ordered a glass of sparkling wine. It was a wise choice, because it came about the same time as the amuse bouche: honeydew melon and goat's milk gouda with gastrique. What a perfect combination!

The first course was cold tomato soup with raw tuna and herbs. I had a similar dish at MK Restaurant in Chicago the week before, but somehow that dish did not sit well with me. This dish, however, was divine. The sweet acidity of the tomato soup enhanced the flavor of the raw tuna. Good move in serving a cold dish as an appetizer. This means less cooking, it just needs to be exceptional...and it was!

The main course is a navarin of lamb with eggplant, chanterelles, and ronde de nice squash. A navarin is lamb stew made with lamb shoulder and vegetables. So that's how he's doing it! A cold appetizer and a stew for the main course equals less fuss in the kitchen. And frankly, if I did not know that there were only 2 people working in the restaurant, I would have thought that the entire meal was handled by easily a staff of 6 or more. The stew was fantastic with a nice wholesome broth.

Dessert was a plum-almond upside down cake with raspberry sauce and almond cream. Clearly, this was the one dish that was cooked on the spot. While most upside down cake would be moist, they have a tendency to be soggy. This was not the case here. The cake retained it's moist and smooth texture and the raspberry sauce was a nice counterpoint.

Dinner ended at 7:15pm. It was quick, tasty, and the service was great considering the waitress was also answering phones and taking reservations. I want to go back on a regular day and try out the menu when there would be choices in courses. I also want to go back another Tuesday just to see what he would concoct next time.