Spruce Review, San Francisco

Reviewer: Foodnut.com Spruce 3640 Sacramento Street San Francisco, CA 94118 415-931-5100 Spruce Website Book Reservation

Elegant old school favorite. Why did we dine here? – Spruce is a popular American restaurant in San Francisco’s upper crust Laurel Heights neighborhood. This restaurant has one Michelin star and has been packed ever since it opened. This is our fourth visit, with our last meal here several years ago. The chef Mark Sullivan also oversees Village Pub in Woodside. We recently had one of the best duck dishes there, in a long time. Our last Visit was in 2018.

Insider Tip – Make reservations by phone as online reservations didn’t show all the tables that were available.

Cuisine – Contemporary American
Location – San Francisco Laurel Heights Neighborhood
Opened – 2007

Service – Spruce had very good service. The waiter was sociable and good guidance. Wait staff passed by every couple of minutes. You can see that great service needs a lot of people.

Verdict – Spruce continues to attract the clubby Pacific Heights upper class, older-aged crowd. The food was excellent as was the surroundings. No mystery why this place is so busy. If you are on a budget, sit at the bar and order a Spruce Burger ($20).

Spruce Signature Dishes – Duck, Fish, Burger, Pork Tenderloin

Spruce SF’s Menu included 8 different entrees that change all the time. Not a lot of options for vegetarians.

Website Spruce SF Menu

Spruce Food Picks:
Matusalem Mojito ($14) was tall, balanced, with hidden potency.

High quality, home baked 3 breads and a Parker house roll.

Amuse of Arancini balls

Hudson Valley Foie Gras ($23) Vadouvan waffle, Strawberry, Pistachio. This dish included both a sauteed and a torchon. Simply awesome.

Terrine of Hudson Valley Foie Gras ($31) poached rhubarb, hibiscus gelee was a huge chunk of decadent goodness along with some nice brioche. This dish could have used more rhubarb and gelee.

Spring Harvest Salad ($14) Romesco, Hazelnuts, Shaved Pecorino Di Moliterno was beautiful and featured some very fresh greens, a huge flat bread covered with high quality cheese shavings.

Gem Lettuce ($17) is an expensive salad, but looks great and was pretty hearty.

Asparagus special with optional burrata ($30) was topped with an egg. Take a healthy vegetable and kick it up 2 notches.  Expensive but rich and satisfying. Use the great bread to sop all the egg up!

Pacific Sablefish ($32) Chorizo, Black Trumpets, Artichokes, Caper Parsley Pudding. The day before, we had a pretty below average Mahi Mahi at the Fish Market. They need to send their cooks over here to see how fish should be cooked. This dish was superb, fresh and tender.

Roasted Loch Duart Salmon ($41) with buttered leeks, tokyo turnips, beurre rouge was cooked perfectly.  They make it look easy and this was really fantastic.

Poached Alaskan Halibut ($42) with artichokes barigoule, pioppini mushrooms was also a great fish.  Different preparation  but still a great result.

Liberty Farms Duck ($39) Smip Ranch Salsify, Huckleberries, Smoked Honey Jus, Shaved Foie Gras done table side. A very good dish with an excellent sauce. Perfect medium rare and some fun chips.

Honey-Glazed 38 North Duck Breast ($43) with turnip soubise, watercress, civet sauce was also fantastic.  Huge duck pieces with a nice spiced crust.  They also do duck well at sister restaurant Village Pub.

Coconut Rice Pudding, Passion fruit Sorbet, Pineapple, Batons ($10) was a nice desert although the Passion fruit sorbet was a bit too sour.

Trio of House made sorbet ($10) chocolate, guava, and pear were fantastic. Definitely homemade.

Warm Beignets ($13) with chocolate sauce, creme anglaise is a must get. Warm and freshly made.

Complimentary salted Carmel and Chocolates rounded out the meal.

OK: (Order if you like this dish)
None

Pans: (We would not reorder these dishes)
None

 

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