When my sister unceremoniously canceled our reservation at San Francisco's iconic Zuni Cafe yesterday, I seized the opportunity and insisted that we go over to the St. Regis to try to get a table at Ame. Hotel restaurants usually conjure up the image of hushed, formal settings, so we were pleasantly surprised to find a sleek, contemporary dining room and even more surprised that the waiters all seemed to be middle aged men who might have once pursued careers as character actors.
Ame turned out to be an excellent choice (it's difficult to type and pat oneself on the back at the same time), with the exception of one appetizer. We started with a sashimi salad with mizuna, daikon and dried bonito and a plate of sauteed calamari with chorizo and grilled asparagus. While the sashimi salad was a delightfully refreshing teaser, the chorizo wasn't too successfully paired with the calamari and generated an unfair, yet unforgettable, comparison to fast food.
There was also a range of flavors in our entrees, each of which tasted different and delicious -- from my grilled halibut with Mediterranean accents, to B's juicy pork chop atop a bed of mushrooms and peas, to J's luscious spaghettini "crabonara." The crabonara, in particular, was thoroughly creamy from the eggs and filled with the reward of lump crab meat in every bite.
Alas, my quest for the perfect meal threatened to make me miss yet another flight so we had to regretfully skip dessert. Continuing the wonderful service, our amiable waiter joked that they weren't very good anyway so I wouldn't be missing anything. Methinks J & B should go back and investigate.
Esquire recently picked Ame as one its best new restaurants for 2006.
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