Restaurant Reviews I

We've got a couple of new restaurants to talk about, one in the Mission, the other in Larkspur.

Let's turn our attention to the Larkspur place first...

Yankee Pier
I was there with the wife for a friend's birthday recently and had high hopes for this place. It's a member of Bradley Ogden's mini-empire of restaurants (Lark Creek Inn, One Market, etc...) and I've had great times at some of these establishments, but this disappointed me a little. This is supposed to be modeled after one of those east coast fish/clam/crab/lobster houses that dot the northeastern shore. The menu featured all of those things. Nothing too fancy, nothing over $25, most entrees in the $12-$19 range.

The service was good, solid, timely, so nothing there took away from our experience, and I should give a compliment to the host (manager?) who was running the front stand and keeping us posted on the status of our table...he kept us well informed. Our server was pleasant, nothing special, nothing above and beyond, but just good.
It was the food that let us down, or let ME down especially.

We started off with their Clam Chowder and the "wedge" of iceberg lettuce. Again, this was fine, but nothing special. The wedge was served with blue cheese dressing, and not much else. Good but plain. The wife had the clam chowder. It wasn't too potato-ey, with small pieces of bacon to give it a nice smokey flavor, but it wasn't hot enough and the clam to soup ratio was lacking.

For our entrees, I had the Fish and Chips, while the wife had the Lobster Roll.
The Lobster Roll was really good. Possibly the best I've had on the west coast. It was served with fresh-cut crispy fries and coleslaw. The fries were great, the slaw was ok, good but not great.
There was a lot of lobster with a light tasting mayo sauce, with only a little filler for texture (celery, onion) on a buttery, crispy sliced roll. I'd get this again.
The Fish and Chips looked great, the fries were great, the slaw seemed better on my plate, but the fish was bland. I fixed it up with vinegar and tartar sauce, but there wasn't any flavor coming from the fish.
All food items were fresh and the server and manager both emphasized the freshness and seasonality of all the products on the menu, so it wasn't poor quality ingredients that let me down.

The desserts were really good. We all shared 3, the butterscotch pudding, a black and tan sundae, and lemon meringue pie. The butterscotch pudding had the consistency of creme brulee, smooth, silky, rich, with a nice butterscotch flavor. The black and tan sundae was neither black, nor tan...just some vanilla ice cream, caramel, chocolate sauce, etc...small and simple. It tasted fine, but one Ghirardelli hot fudge sundae is 4 times the size, for the same price. The Lemon meringue Pie was really good too, quite tart, with a nice meringue.

I think some of my disappointment stems from my expectations from a Bradley Ogden restaurant, and my comparisons to a similar seafood restaurant in my neighborhood...Cafe Maritime
It's a small seafood restaurant, limited menu, nice raw bar selection, but amazing clam chowder and some really creative entrees. It's not a "east-coast-clam/crab/lobster house" style restaurant, but it's close.

I think next time I'll just get a lobster roll and the butterscotch pudding. That should make me happy.

I'll talk about the place in the Mission in my next post...