Author: GCS

Silks at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel
222 Sansome St., second flr (inside the hotel)
Review date:  March 2009

I don’t know why the Pan-Asian Silks restaurant won’t put any of their menus on the web, which is a little annoying – c’mon, not even some sample menus? Like many hotel restaurants they serve breakfast, lunch and dinner, albeit at prices running to either the high end of moderate or the low end of expensive, however you want to look at it.

The SF Chronicle raved about them in 2008 but that chef, Joel Huff, has left. I’ve had two lunches recently at Silks. The first was uniformly excellent, making me wonder why I don’t come here more often. The portions were small but the concept and execution was excellent. Added to their pretty (and very quiet, thank goodness) dining room and truly fine service – hotels are almost the last bastion of uniformly well-trained staff – the meal was gastronomically satisfying and enjoyable.

This last lunch, however, reminded me why I don’t always have them on my radar. My roast chicken was actually half a small Cornish hen – a really small one. The skin was crispy but the boned breast meat was dry. The small pile of wilted spinach was too salty. The glazed sliced kumquats were good if you like them, which I don’t, so I gave them to Inez who enjoyed them. The coconut jasmine rice, tinted with saffron, was quite good and a sizable ricebowl portion.

Inez’s fish and chips surprised both of us. It’s an extremely large serving, even bigger than Sea Salt! Three long pieces of battered tempura-style fish, served atop crispy fries and a grease-absorbing pile of shredded lettuce, came in a cast-iron yosenabe bowl. Served with a citrus remoulade that was delightful, it was a truly filling meal.

We shared a dessert. Neither one of us was particularly thrilled with it: Maple Crème Brulee with peanut-butter sorbet and a peanut brittle slab for garnish. The crème brulee was way too sweet between the maple syrup flavoring and the burnt sugar crust. And the peanut sorbet with it was just an odd combination that didn’t quite come off.

Cost for two entrees, one dessert, one beverage, with tip was $70. My previous lunch with two starters, two entrees, and two beverages, with tip was slightly more, about $90 (if I’m remembering correctly, which I might not be!). 

Silks is a good place, but it’s easily overlooked and has had any number of chefs, parading in and then out, over the years. It tries really hard, but I always feel as though it needs more corporate attention than it gets, even though everybody there is trying really hard to do a great job against the stiff Bay Area competition.