Title: Chapeau
Author: GCS
Last saved by: ENU

Chapeau! in San Francisco – update, dinner
http://www.chapeausf.com/Menus.html
March 2014
(previous review appended below)

I first ate at Chapeau! with my friend Ilkay in May 2010. She and I had an enjoyable dinner, and I've always wanted to bring Carlos here. Chapeau! is a true French restaurant, owned by Philippe and Ellen Gardelle, and is the merger of the original Chapeau! and Clementine restaurants. 

It recently took over a small shop next door, giving it a larger space. This isn't saying much, btw, as it's still small and the aisles are cramped. It's just that now it's bigger than a postage stamp.

Having spent the last four years traveling around Northern CA and finding some French restaurants we enjoy, it gives us a good frame of reference to evaluate this popular stalwart. Our friends Bruce and Marg gave us the perfect opportunity. They are moving to Tampa FL and wanted to have a last dinner with us. We decided on Chapeau! - they are as fond of good French and Italian food as we are – so we met them there just after the restaurant opened at 5 p.m. 

Although we truly dislike driving into SF these days – between the traffic, the 7 days/week meters with their variable pricing, the increasingly difficult parking situation – Chapeau! is in one of those rare locations where one can actually find parking most of the time within a relatively short distance. This is especially true on a Sunday evening, which is one of the reasons I chose this date.

It's at times like this that we're glad we lived in this neighborhood for seventeen years, where we still remember all the secret "ins and outs." We found parking easily where Jordan Park meets Clement St., and walked a mere 1-1/2 blocks to the restaurant, which in SF is equivalent to being right next door. Our friends were a little late in joining us, but that gave us the time to decide what we wanted to eat and how. 

Chapeau! has expanded not just the space but the menu as well. This is now somewhat larger than it was when I was first here, so it takes time to wade through all the various dishes and then decide how to arrange one's meal. There is a wide array of options allowing the diner to chose a prix fixe, or customize a three- or four-course meal, or simply order a la carte. 

As Bruce remarked, for our group it was a matter of trying to winnow our choices down to a manageable number! Finally we decided on what to have, although it took our waiter quite a while to get back to us to take the order. This turned out to be emblematic of the evening: the waitstaff is very good, and chef/owner Gardelle helps out generously, but there is no getting around that this is not a place for a quickie meal. At peak times, you are going to wait longer than usual for attention. This dinner took over two hours, not counting the half-hour we waited for our friends.

First they brought an espresso cup with an amuse-bouche of puréed cauliflower, rich with cream and butter. Bruce especially loved this, but we all enjoyed it.

Some dishes are in both half and full portions, similar to what Meritage/Berkeley does. It's a great idea and we wish more restaurants would do this. Carlos and Bruce both decided to begin with a starter portion of the porcini crusted veal sweetbreads, king trumpet mushrooms, baby carrots & turnips, truffle sauce, fried leeks, white truffle oil.

They were brought bowls with a good-sized serving of sweetbreads, about four large cubes each. Bruce and Carlos agreed these were excellent, not overcooked. The mushrooms and baby vegetables were excellent, although Carlos was not as in love with the truffle sauce/oil as our friend was. We're not really truffle fans.

I began with the Salade Landaise: frisée, duck confit & smoked duck magret, fingerling potato chips, classic French vinaigrette, lichette de foie de volaille. The frisée was old, but the vinaigrette was sharp to compensate. There were shreds of duck confit on top along with the little crumbles of crisp potatoes. Around the plate were alternating thin slices of smoked rare duck breast and smears of a good duck liver paté. It was a satisfying salad, and perfectly sized for one.

Marg began with the classic onion soup, which she said was excellent. This had the cheese-laden croute; the onions were well caramelized in an excellent beef and chicken broth.

I chose a second starter, the warm Brie over potato-leek darphin with mizuma, walnuts, and a red wine reduction. This was a sort of half-salad, with a patty of pan-browned potato-leek pancake over a small amount of mizuma, with some toasted chopped walnuts dressed with a red wine reduction that had no vinegar, so it was light and mild-tasting. The Brie was just a small coin that was half-melted over the pancake. The flavors were good, and it would be a nice starter for a vegetarian meal. Still, it wasn't that distinctive and both Carlos and I thought the Landaise salad was much better.

Marg's entrée was the Cassoulet de Toulouse: cannellini beans, shredded braised lamb shoulder, duck leg confit, garlic & Toulouse sausage. This was a generous casserole, which was too much food for her so I suggested she take it home. She let me try some of it, and the flavor was excellent although the beans weren't as creamy as I like them to be.

Hmmm....maybe I just like to bake my beans too long, LOL. 

Bruce had the roast chicken, glazed with lavender and honey. This was a stacked presentation with mashed potatoes and braised greens underneath. Bruce said it was wonderful, a flavorful and moist breast and deboned thigh.

Carlos chose the filet mignon, with pommes de terre Landaise, king trumpet & oyster mushrooms, and Sauce à la Périgourdine. Carlos keeps forgetting that the Europeans don't acknowledge medium-rare in meat; he should have ordered his filet rare. Instead, it came medium, although being a filet it was still tender. The potatoes and mushrooms were diced all the same size and pan-sautéed. Although we're confirmed carnivores, we both agreed the side was amazing, with incredible flavor of both potato and mushroom, accentuated by the Sauce à la Périgourdine – which yes, is a truffle sauce, but the truffle oil wasn't overdone.

Carlos and I opted for dessert, which were good but not great. He had the Baked Alaska: rum sponge cake, espresso ice cream, Italian meringue, chocolate sauce, candied toasted almonds. It was an individual serving, which was good, but overall he found it a little too sweet.

I had the vanilla crème brulee. The sugar glaze was thin, as we like to see it; but the custard was thickened with cornstarch, and thus not particularly remarkable. The coffee, both regular and decaf, was acidic and uninteresting.

Although dessert was something of a letdown, we were very pleased with our meal overall. It's wonderful to see a French restaurant menu with sweetbreads and poached skate (skate was also on the menu when I first visited in 2010, so it's likely a regular dish on Chapeau!). 

Chapeau!'s Achilles Heel is service. The waitstaff is well-trained, but it seemed understaffed for the attention required. Several tables ordered the elaborate Cote de Boeuf, which requires a cart for tableside service, then carving and plating. This ties up one waiter for quite a while, leaving the other to cover a dining room twice as large as before. Chapeau! is not a big restaurant even now, but there are at least eight to ten tables more than previously here. Two waiters on a full night are just not enough. 

Chef-owner Philippe Gardelle is out and about on the floor, greeting and welcoming diners. The kitchen certainly didn't suffer in his absence, indicating a well-trained staff and a good chef de cuisine. 

We will be keeping Chapeau! on our list of "great little restaurants" for San Francisco. Similar to Zarzuela (reviewed 2011) and Cotogna (reviewed 2012), it is not quite a destination restaurant, but all of them are very good and worth recommending when someone is looking to eat a particular cuisine.

In the comparison to the French restaurants we've tried and enjoyed, we would rank La Folie/SF and Etoile/Yountville first. We consider Bouchee/Carmel second. Based on just first visits (e.g., subject to change based on future meals) we agreed that Walter Hansel Bistro/Santa Rosa and Chapeau! would tie for a close third place. Le Bistro, although excellent, falls to fourth because of its limited menu which has not changed appreciably in four years.

None of these, sadly, is within a short drive of our Oakland home. There are French restaurants in Alameda and Contra Costa counties – Chevalier and Artisan in Lafayette; Meritage, La Note and Bistro Liaison in Berkeley – but none are in the same class as those first seven. Artisan comes closest despite being more California than French, but we have seen a noticeable decline in the execution on their entrées. Meritage's new chef is not quite as good as the previous chef. When Meritage's chef hits, he hits big, but when he misses it's an expensive flop. La Note is a more casual, moderate-cost bistro that is so achingly noisy and uncomfortable I've refused to return even though I think the food is quite good for the price. Neither Chevalier nor Liaison rated more than adequate in our eyes, compared to the others.

Four people, dinner: five starters, four entrées, two desserts, two glasses of wine, two beverages, with tip was $317.

Chapeau! (formerly Clementine)
126 Clement St., SF
Review date: May 2010

My friend Ilkay and I went to see the Cartier jewelry exhibit at the Legion of Honor (completely over the top jewelry porn for those who are into the sparklers, BTW). There’s literally hundreds of restaurants between 34^th Avenue and Arguello, although the vast majority of them are cheap neighborhood restaurants.

Aziza is of course my first choice after our stunning meal there, but to try something new, I chose French instead. As the menu neatly explains, “chapeau” without the exclamation point means “hat.” But with the exclamation point, it becomes “wow!”, which is pretty close to the mark for both cooking and service.

Chapeau! isn’t a large restaurant, but it manages to seat a fair number of people comfortably in its rectangular dining room complete with long bar area. It’s pretty without being designer, an upscale neighborhood bistro.

Ilkay and I both chose the 3-course for $38. You can pick anything off the menu, although a few dishes have a modest upcharge. I was very tempted by the foie gras special, but decided to go with the sweetbreads as my starter. 

Ilkay chose the mesclun salad. It’s a formidable plate, with a beautiful pile of perfect greens accompanied by a breaded deep-fried slice of rich Camembert, along with slices of a thin walnut wheat bread that goes perfectly with both. It’s a winner, and such a substantial starter it made it impossible for her to finish her entrée.

I had the sweetbreads, which are served over sliced mixed mushrooms in a deep, rich truffle sauce, garnished with tiny baby turnips and carrots. They were perfect (unlike Lalime’s last attempt) although I thought the gravy overpowered the delicate sweetbreads a bit.

Ilkay had never tried skate before, so she decided to try it. Chapeau! serves it over fingerling potatoes with a Sauce Grenobloise (a brown butter sauce). The waiter recommended a glass of the Sancerre Domaine Auchere, which she said was yummy! 

I picked striped seabass, which was two thin filets with perfectly crisped skin. They were balanced atop a mold of mashed potatoes layered with a tomato concasse sauce that was perked up with some red wine vinegar. Both were delicious, nicely presented and just the right size to be satisfying without heaviness.

For dessert, Ilkay’s profiteroles were a rich trio drowned in yummy chocolate sauce. My warm chocolate cake was supposed to come with bananas, but instead they used pears, which I liked even better. The rum ice cream was sensational with it, and a swirl of caramel sauce was a nice touch without being too sweet. A decaf espresso was the ideal accompaniment.

You should note that parking is extremely difficult in the Richmond district. Carlos and I used to live in this neighborhood, however. Chapeau! is only two blocks from Arguello, so I knew we could more easily find parking in Jordan Park, the high-end residential neighborhood on the other side of Arguello. Thus it was only a walk of three short blocks to the car, in a very safe area.

Chapeau! is a restaurant I wish we could find in the East Bay. It’s much better than Post Meridian in Albany, and leagues ahead of Le Bistro in Walnut Creek. I wouldn’t say it’s worth a special trip to the Richmond (which Aziza definitely is). But if you are in the area – whether to visit Golden Gate Park, the Fine Arts Museums, or Ocean Beach – it’s an excellent choice for a good French dinner, and less costly than Le Central in downtown SF.

Even with the glass of wine ($12), the cost for two 3-course meals, plus two beverages and tip, came to a reasonable $123.