Author: GCS

E&O Trading Company
314 Sutter Street (between Grant & Stockton), San Francisco
http://www.eotrading.com/restaurants/sfran/gallery.html
Review date:  November 2008

E&O is part of an upscale chain (SF, San Jose, Larkspur in Marin Cty, and Honolulu) that has been in the Union Square district since 1997. This means it has survived through considerable ups and downs in the economic sphere, and there’s good reason for this.
Set in an impressively large floorspace on three levels – ground, mezzanine, and basement – it offers an Asian small plates menu that is delicious by itself but probably goes even better with a good beer or cocktail (and there’s a massive bar area to prove it). 
It’s decorated as an “ancient Asian trading warehouse”, in dark woods (with small lights). Hopefully you’ll have reservations (necessary for dinner; not so for lunch) but if not, it’s one of the only restaurants I can think of with a truly comfortable waiting area – three huge upholstered sofas out in front.
Service is cheerful and so fast, it’s almost dizzying. They don’t make you feel rushed, but if you’re starving and want your food immediately, this is the place to do it in. I wouldn’t be surprised if E&O could easily do four table turns in an evening.
The stars at E&O are the sauces that accompany the plates. They are all very good, and occasionally approach excellent. This is not damning with faint praise; all too often, Asian restaurants take the “open a jar” route – tasty, but neither fresh nor exciting.
At E&O, however, the sauces are not only fresh, they’re a skillful take on the traditional. They please the palate without overpowering it. Also worth noting is that E&O likes chiles. Mind you, nothing is incendiary…but the chile heat is just enough that you wouldn’t want to take your Aunt Edna from the Midwest here, unless you were sure Edna eats a regular diet of sinus-clearing jalapeno sauces or authentic Indian vindaloo. For us, it was perfect – spicy, but not obscuring the taste of the food.
First out was the naan. We ordered the panir cheese version, served with a medjool date chutney and tomato sambal. It’s a modest sized naan cut in six pieces, stuffed full of fresh cheese, brushed with ghee and served warm. The chutney is sweeter than the usual tamarind chutney, but has the same tang underneath. Both sides and the bread go beautifully together – we could easily have eaten a triple order of this without needing anything else.
But that would have meant skipping the salt and pepper calamari, which would have lost us the best sauce of all. Simple but perfect, the green chili sauce is reminiscent of the Vietnamese nuoc cham, but without the fish sauce. It’s merely lime juice, sugar, green onion, garlic, cilantro and fresh green chile. But it’s a wonderful change from the usual aioli, and the perfect sweet-hot-tart balance of it had us soaking the tender crusted calamari rings. This was a sauce Carlos kept by his plate after the calamari was gone!
We ordered the E&O platter, which is two each of their four satay items: peanut chicken, sesame steak, garlic prawn, and ginger portabello. It’s perfect for two people to share with a couple of other items. Don’t try to think that three or four could share it, because it could ruin an evening out when people start fighting over who gets what, because one tiny little bite of steak or portabello really won’t be enough to satisfy anyone. You’ll want more, so one (two-bite) skewer to a person, please, at a minimum. They’re just too tasty to cut up any further!
The satay sauce with the chicken was standard non-hot curry, but the addition of real coconut cream made you wish for a bowl of sticky rice to dump it on (which alas, they don’t offer). The steak and portabello come with a sweet soy-hoisin sauce, good but nothing unusual. We kept the green chile sauce from the calamari for the steak, and it was way better with it, since the steak was already fairly salty from its glaze. Both chicken (breast, not thigh) and steak were perfectly cooked, not overdone, and delicious.
The mushrooms, also glazed, were fine by themselves with no need for more sauce. The chopped shrimp, grilled on sugar cane sticks (the others came on skewers), was served with a mango basil dipping sauce that had real mango flavor with a nice build of heat to it. All four satay items were excellent – we agreed the platter is the way to go, because they’re all equally good.
I was eager to try the Indonesian corn fritters again, but they disappointed me. The first few times I had them (admittedly many years ago when I worked downtown) they were thin, lacy rounds with a chili soy dipping sauce. The kitchen seems to be using the same delicate batter, but frying the fritters in big thick clumps. It comes out crisp but a little greasy, and the corn kernels tasted more starchy than sweet. And someone forgot the chili in the dipping sauce – it was sweet soy, but no hint of chili in it. 
Another disappointing dish was the long beans, stir-fried with black bean sauce. The sauce tasted like a combination of miso and Chinese black beans – not bad, but a different taste than I was expecting. Also, the beans were al dente, and I don’t like my green beans undercooked. They never develop the sweetness that a slighter longer cooking time would develop, retaining too much grassiness and toughness to the tooth. 
I got a single bowl of brown rice, but it was chewier than we prefer as it was short grain instead of long grain. Next time we’ll stick to the flat breads – the spicy sweet potato naan and curried lamb naan sound really tempting! Carlos loves naan, and the one we tried was easily as good as anything Breads of India can make.
Although E&O isn’t cheap, the quality of the food is excellent and its non-greasiness is a real relief from the low-budget Asian places. It’s elegant Asian food, dressed up for a night out and perfect when you want something savory, but special.
Carlos said he would definitely come back, although the prices made him wince. One bread, the satay platter, two small plates, a bowl of brown rice, and a single beverage was more than enough food for the two of us, so we skipped dessert – but lunch cost us $80 including tip.