Title: March 13, 2013
Author: jean komatsu
Last saved by: Owner

Vault 164 in San Mateo, CA - update, lunch
Review date:  March 11, 2015
(previous reviews appended below)

San Mateo's downtown is a thriving success story fueled by its location: the perfect half-way point between San Francisco on the north end and Silicon Valley to the south. It has Draeger's supermarket, a grocery store so upscale it makes Whole Foods look like Pak-n-Save, and is crammed full of restaurants, lined up one after another for blocks on end. It is also, unlike almost all downtowns everywhere, actually possible to park - not just street parking, but a generous number of public parking lots to help keep small businesses thriving (an idea more cities should emulate).

It has been a while since we returned to Vault 164, located smack in the middle of San Mateo's modest-sized business district. We visited twice in 2013, first in March and then in September. Both times we had the burgers, which were wonderful. They are, in fact, our gold standard for burgers, and for us that's a high bar to reach. 

We like our burgers a certain way, and there's only a few restaurants who make them the way we want. The beef can be a mix or not, range-fed or not; but we insist upon the ground beef being pre-salted beforehand. The beef doesn't develop that rich beefy flavor otherwise. We don't want the patty to be too thick or too thin, and we want good quality cheese (okay, for a cheap burger, meaning under $10, slices of American or Swiss are acceptable).

Most of all, we're fussy about the bread. Whether bun or slices, we want the bread as close (preferably exactly) the size of the patty, and as thin as possible without falling apart. We love bread, but we don't want our sandwiches to be 3/4 bread and 1/4 filling. We prefer a sturdy brioche, but will happily accept an old-fashioned burger bun. Toasted, of course, after being lightly buttered. 

Forget the sourdough, the Acme baguette, the whole-wheat whatever with the too-hard crust. Those have their place in the culinary universe, but not holding our burgers. 

Mushrooms, grilled onions, and bacon are nice, as are pickle chips, lettuce and a decent tomato slice (or two). But in the end it's all about a beefy-tasting, properly cooked patty on the right kind of bread. 

Vault still offers only three burgers on what is a fairly long lunch menu. We decided to start with the deviled eggs with bacon, which were four halves, well-filled with a rather spicy mashed egg yolk filling. They were light but tasty, and the small cup of deep-fried green onion shreds alongside was a delightful surprise. 

Carlos' mom Inez was with us, so we ordered the chicken Cobb salad for her. This wasn't the best Cobb we've ever received. The avocado and cherry tomatoes were scant. The raw cremini mushroom slices were nice but we're more fond of raw mushrooms in our salad than she is, although she did eat a few. The chicken breast was small, which is fine as she doesn't have a large appetite, but it had been grilled a little too long - common these days with the super-salmonella scare. Still, she said the chicken slices had good flavor and ate them all. The large amount of shredded lettuce defeated her, although she did eat about a quarter of it.

I chose the Cheddar/grilled onion burger, and added the option of bacon (3 small slices per half, nice and crisp). Carlos picked the Gruyere/mushroom version. The patties come in a 6-oz size and 10-oz size; we picked the 10-oz patties. The brioche is trimmed and toasted; the oblong patties just fit the bread slices. The crust is perfect and delicious, the medium-rare is bright pink all the way through with no gray area at all. The burgers are cut in half in the kitchen, another sensible idea.

There is none of this nonsense of sprinkling additional salt on the burgers after they cook, which is exactly how it should be. People who salt beef after it's cooked should be taken out and shot dead.

Both the Cheddar and the Gruyere are very tasty burgers. Either one is better than the third option of a BBQ burger. But once again we must hand the palm to the Gruyere version. The Cheddar is an excellent sharp white Cheddar, but the Gruyere is simply amazing. It goes perfectly with the sautéed mushrooms, which are properly cooked and truly flavorful, not the slapdash half-raw job many kitchens turn out.

The Caesar slaw, which has been exceptional on previous visits, was disappointing. It was clearly made well in advance, and was wilted enough to be less interesting as an accompaniment this time. It was okay, but fell from 'superior' all the way down to 'average'.

I had an iced tea, which surprised me by being quite strong. It isn't the best black tea, but it actually offers noticeable flavor. This is probably because like most restaurants these days, Vault 164 is known more for its drinks than its food, and they have several tea-based cocktails on their menu which are unique to them.

They also have Italian sodas and several fruit juices, so Carlos got a Mango Cooler, a mix of fruit juices that still retained a good strong mango taste. 

We asked our waiter, Kevin, for ketchup when he delivered the burgers, but he forgot about it. After waiting for a few minutes, Carlos chased him down and requested it again. Embarrassed by the lapse - they weren't at all busy - Kevin comped us the Flaming Baked Alaska dessert.

We're not overly fond of Vault's desserts. They tend to be on the too-sweet side and somewhat heavy-handed. This one stayed in that vein; it was coffee ice cream atop a fudgy solid brownie, in a pool of dark chocolate and covered with a very sweet meringue. Set aflame, the meringue tends to burn, especially around the bottom.

Carlos made me laugh by whispering to me, "I prefer my baked Alaska with the swirls!"

I replied that I doubted there were any Millennials who had ever seen a true whole baked Alaska with the traditional little swirls all over it, hand-made with a spoon (you can see some at https://www.google.com/search/baked-alaska-images). 

Baked Alaska is one of those desserts from the old-school French-American restaurants. It wasn't that great to begin with and isn't any better now. Like Cherries Jubilee, it's more show than quality or substance. Frankly, there are so many better desserts both past and present, I'm not sure why this one keeps coming back for periodic encores every twenty years or so. 

Inez liked the ice cream with the meringue and chocolate sauce, however, so it didn't go to waste. Vault makes good coffee and espresso. Carlos' cappuccino was especially fine this time, with a beautiful smooth-textured foam. If it had been a little bit hotter it would have been perfect.

We enjoy Vault 164. It isn't San Mateo's best restaurant by a long shot, but Carlos and I agree those burgers remain our "gold standard". There's a lot of good burgers around - Artisan/Lafayette; Oakland's The Fat Lady, Mockingbird, Flipside and Spice Monkey; Berkeley's Joshu-Ya; French Garden and Hole In The Wall in Sebastopol. Those are the closest to Vault's delectable Gruyere burger...but not quite there. It's still Vault by a nose.

Vault keeps it simple and doesn't mess with success. Their burger is not the biggest or the thickest, nor do they do the tired 'sliders trio.' They don't try to offer a zillion different configurations. As mentioned before there are only three types, and there's only one option on one of them. 

It's just a good, well-balanced burger with the right amount of additions but nothing over-the-top...the way it should be.

Three people, lunch: one starter, three entrees, two beverages, with tip (dessert was comped), $90.

Vault 164 in San Mateo, CA – update, lunch
Review date: September 2013
(previous reviews appended below)

We first visited Vault 164 for lunch in March 2013. We were wowed by their burger as well as the steak sandwich. This is notable because (a) Carlos had the burger, and he's normally not a big fan of restaurant burgers; and (b) I got the steak sandwich, and I'm not normally a fan of restaurant sandwiches. 

For both of us, it's all about the meat, and the bread must be in proper proportion, which it seldom is. All too often the sandwiches are like the ones at Peasant & Pear/Danville – good, but annoying carb-heavy with twice as much bread as we like to see. At least 80% of the time, we end up taking off the top bun and messily eat it open-faced. It's doable, but it annoys us and is the major reason why we're not commercial sandwich lovers.

We were doing an errand in San Mateo, and Carlos specifically requested we have lunch at Vault again to make sure that burger wasn't a fluke. I'm always up for a burger, so off we went. 

The soup of the day was salmon-corn chowder. I was surprised Carlos ordered a cup, as he doesn't care for salmon or corn. But he's been on a soup kick lately, so he decided to risk it. As it turned out, he was very pleased with it. The temperature was a little too lukewarm, but that meant the generous amount of salmon wasn't overcooked. The fresh white corn had been roughly puréed to give it some texture, with all the corn sweetness. I told him I thought this chowder was easily as good as the ones we had tried at Seattle's Pike Place Chowder, and he agreed.

Vault only makes three kinds of burgers: caramelized onion, bacon, or BBQ. I picked the onion/Cheddar with a side of Brussels sprout slaw. Carlos chose the bacon/Gruyere with the Caesar slaw. We did find it a little annoying that the waiter had to come back and ask to be certain Carlos had not requested the BBQ burger. But that's because this is the fourth restaurant in a row where the waitstaff has been relying completely upon memory. I'm not sure why it's suddenly so déclassé to write down an order on a notepad, but a note to restaurateurs: honest, I'm not offended if somebody takes out a pen and pad! I'd rather be sure they get all our orders correct the first time.

One big reason we love Vault's burgers is that they trim their bread. This may sound ridiculous, but it's a big part of the overall perfect balance they achieve. The patty is just thick enough but not too thick, and the well-toasted brioche fits exactly with the patty (rectangular; cut at an angle in half). This time the burger tasted like all ground beef, no brisket; but it is mildly salted just enough that although you're not conscious of tasting the salt, the beefy flavor stands up to the bread.

We both agreed the bacon/Gruyere is the better burger, although those caramelized onions were really tasty. The Caesar slaw, which is merely a shredded romaine Caesar, won Carlos over as it had done to me on our initial visit. The Brussels sprout slaw is good, with a rice vinegar-dill dressing that has just a touch of spicy mustard, but the Caesar slaw is so nicely balanced and the perfect size as a side, it's the way to go.

We don't care for Vault's desserts, finding them too sweet on our first visit. We ended with a regular coffee for Carlos and a decaf cappuccino for me, which had lovely creamy foam on top.

We still have burger places to try in the East Bay but for right now, Vault stands on top of everybody except Bouchee/Carmel. We wish they were closer to us, or would open up a branch somewhere nearby! I told Carlos that Hole In The Wall/Sebastopol had an equally good burger, but that's a lamb burger, not a beef patty. Vault's brioche bun absolutely rocks – it's correctly sized, doesn't fall apart, and tastes good without overwhelming the meat. 

Two people, lunch: one starter, two burgers, three beverages, with tip was $55.

Vault 164
164 "B" Street @Second Avenue, San Mateo, CA
http://www.vault164.com/pdf/LUNCH.pdf
Review date: March 2013

We were looking for a place in San Mateo for lunch. I chose Vault 164 after checking their American-food menu on OpenTable. 

This is located downtown in yet another converted bank building. The ceiling is high and beamed, with big drum lampshades of brightly colored fabric, adding nice color and deflecting excess noise. Vault is lively but not ear-splitting, which we appreciated. The interior design is nicely handled, with the bar off to one side. The tables and many banquettes are placed so that you're viewing tables or art, not just people drinking. 

Inez's dementia continues to progress, and a menu with many choices like Vault's confuses her. We pointed her towards the starters category, where she was attracted by the crab and artichoke dip. She couldn't figure out what the side of taro chips was, and as she doesn't like hard or chewy foods, we asked that they replace the chips with fresh bread.

The dip comes in a small cast-iron skillet, and was sour cream-based with what tasted like Monterey Jack cheese. The waitress, who was chatty and effusive, brought fresh bread separately. The plate itself had a criss-cross stack of thin-sliced housemade Melba toasts, which Carlos appropriated as he loves them. Inez was much happier using the fresh bread, which had a fairly soft crust. She liked the dip and finished it all.

Carlos and I shared the calamari starter, which had a heavy crisp batter and two dipping sauces – one a wasabi aioli, and the other a chipotle-lime. There isn't a lot of calamari on the plate, since Vault adds a medley of very thinly sliced vegetables: red bells, leeks, red onions, and pasilla peppers. Carlos liked the wasabi aioli sauce; I preferred the chipotle-lime. We judged this as good, but nothing exceptional.

Vault's menu at lunch leans heavily to sandwiches and burgers. I love burgers...but on Carlos' side, not so much. However, we were attracted by the same two choices, so we agreed to order both and share half-and-half.

I started with the mojito lime skirt steak sandwich on toasted brioche. The waitress offered the suggestion of the Caesar slaw, saying it was her favorite, so I went with that.  The slaw is just a separate cup of shredded Caesar salad, but this simple step of cutting the leaves into shreds makes using more mature Romaine a fine match for the garlicky dressing. The addition of small, thin, finely-diced croutons was perfect in both amount and concept. All too often kitchens are sloppy about the size of their croutons. Here, Vault's kitchen wisely sized the croutons to the modest serving portion, so that they added to the salad, rather than detracting from it with oversized bread cubes, as frequently happens.

The skirt steak was well marinated and grilled. It could have perhaps been sliced a little thinner, but the proportion of meat to bread was generous without being overwhelming. The brioche roll was trimmed so that it was a consistent thickness for both top and bottom slices, a step that again, many places ignore. It was very lightly toasted, ideal for the robust flavor of the steak. It also held together all the way to the end, as good sandwich bread should. This was one of the better steak sandwiches I've had since the old Cuckoo's Nest/Oakland closed up years ago.

The steak sandwich comes with a generous portion of their crispy leeks, which are thin slivers about 4" long, battered and fried, served with the wasabi aioli sauce. I enjoyed these as a nice change from the usual onion rings or French fries.

There are three different iterations of Vault's burger. For all of them one can get a 6-oz size, or a 10-oz. I'm sure I don't need to tell anyone which size Carlos picked! He chose the burger with bacon and gruyere, which comes on a French bread roll, well trimmed as the brioche roll was. Normally he loads up a burger with everything. But on the waitress' recommendation that he try it plain first, he did so and was wowed! 

After one bite he told me, "This is one of the best burgers I've ever had." He left it plain, not even putting ketchup or the fresh tomato slice (a good early tomato, no less) on it. By the time he finished his half and was ready to trade plates, he amended his declaration to say this was the best burger he'd ever had in a restaurant.

The fries were second-rate, but with such a good (and generously sized) burger, we dismissed them as not important. With the half I ate, I was able to tell that this is not the usual all-chuck mix, but probably a mix of chuck with a little brisket added. It's salted ahead of time – not much, but if you want a really good burger you must salt the grind and let it sit for a bit. There is a world of difference in flavor, as salting the outside never works as well (and it takes more salt that way, too). 

The Gruyere was an extra thick slice, and excellent quality. Carlos is loving Gruyere even more over time, and it's now his preferred cheese over Cheddar. The bacon is thick-sliced, but the bread, cheese and ground beef are so flavorful, Vault could leave it off and I'll bet no one would even notice. 

As usual, Inez claimed she was stuffed, but when we ordered dessert for her, she ate it all. We chose the Key Lime crème brulee for her, which was only a moderate success. Although the Key Lime filling was good, the addition of a sugar-glazed top and sugar-laden, thick graham cracker crust put this over the top in the toothache category.

Carlos chose the chocolate bread pudding souffle, which takes 15-20 minutes and comes with crème anglaise. The chocolate used is semi-sweet chocolate chunks, and like the Key Lime dessert is achingly sweet. If they'd cut the sugar by half, including not oversweetening the crème anglaise, this would be a much better dessert, being an interesting cross between the usual bread pudding square and soufflé pouf. The outside browns into a crisp crust, sprinkled with coarse white sugar, but the inside is soft and creamy. It was really a shame it was Midwestern sugar-heavy.

He ordered coffee, I had a double decaf cappuccino, ordered very dry. Their coffee is Illy, a brand we approve of although I like it better than Carlos does. 

Carlos enjoyed that burger so much, he wants to come back. Since he's not normally a burger guy, this is the highest praise he can give! But next time we'll go to Astaria for dessert, around the corner and just down the street, for their great housemade Ho-Ho cake roll. After all, if you're going to have a classic American burger for lunch, you might as well finish it off appropriately!

Three people, lunch: two starters, two sandwiches, two desserts, three beverages, with tip was $105.