Author: GCS

Café Zitouna
1201 Sutter St. @Polk, San Francisco
Review date:  March 2009

Boy, it’s hard to put Zitouna on the same review email as Aqua. Too great a leap, I guess, from showy tableside presentation down to a shoestring, tile-floored Bargain Bite, LOL.

Walking four blocks along Polk Street really made us remember what we miss most about moving out of the city. We love living in the East Bay, mind you. But seeing the staggering mass of small, wildly different eateries crammed into a few blocks was a poignant reminder of when we lived in the Richmond district for almost two decades. 

A rent-controlled apartment meant we ate out more often than not, without ever having to drive anywhere. I used to joke that somebody wasn’t dining out at all, because Carlos and I were way, way over the median average of 4.7 weekly restaurant meals for the typical San Franciscan!

Anyway, Polk St. was a wonderfully messy assortment ranging from Irish pub to Greek souvlaki to Chinese/Thai/Japanese, to pizza or burritos and on to Maye’s Oyster House, almost all of them in multiples, fighting for your $20 bill (okay, Mayes and Crustacean are way over that limit, but that’s unusual out here).

It’s a world away from Aqua/Boulevard/Silks, which are only a couple of miles down the street, in fact. 

Our lunch at Zitouna would have been an ordinary greasy spoon ethnic diner experience, save for two things. They’ve been lauded for their mint tea, which honestly is quite good and nicely served in a pot with small glasses, already sweetened. But the merguez was a bit too dry and the fried eggs were tough, although the miaoui, a fried Moroccan flatbread drizzled with honey, was a charming discovery.

But the real find for us was the bastilla. Flaky filo, chopped nuts, scrambled egg, ground chicken (squabs not being inexpensive, despite our many city pigeons), scented with cinnamon and dusted with powdered sugar – it is one of Carlos’ favorite things. And since I never make it, he only gets it in restaurants. 

And this bastilla was very good unto itself. When you add in the fact it was a full 8” round individual pie, with an extremely moist filling and full of chopped pistachios (not walnuts, which are cheaper but not as good in this dish), it was a serendipity worth celebrating.

Oh, did I mention…this very generous, beautifully made bastilla was a mere $12? 

Incredible! 

This being San Francisco, there’s no street parking worth mentioning. The place is very clean but borderline dumpy. The cheap chairs and cheap tables skid alarmingly across the slippery tile floor. The only atmosphere is provided by the street people who wander by. 

But if you like bastilla, and you’re around the area…stop in (they’re closed on Mondays). There are expensive Moroccan restaurants in this city that don’t make it any better than these guys.

Price: cheap, cheap, cheap. The parking garage we used for 4 hours cost us $20, a lot more than Carlos’ lunch!