The joys of being a restaurant reviewer

One of the perks of being a newspaper restaurant reviewer is, of course, all the food. One of the strangest aspects of the food is the stream of comps that come my way from restaurant PR firms. I suppose it makes sense, as it is always good for the critics to know your restaurant, but in a way it does not make sense, because I am rather impaired in reviewing a place where the servers and general manager know who I am.

So, they comp me and my guest a meal, but I can't write about it, because they know who I am, which means that what I get is an example of what they can do, not necessarily (often, but not always) what they usually do. Of course I can certainly generate buzz for the restaurant, particularly by recommending that one of our other reviewers take the place for an assignment, but it is kind of a shame, since it would really have been fun to review the place I just went to.

Since I will probably not review the place (they just got too good a look at me), I will do two things. First, I am going to highly suggest that the editor send another reviewer there. Second, I am going to tell you about it:

The restaurant in question is Fringale, a wonderful French Basque restaurant in San Francisco (4th Street). I have eaten there a few years ago, but it was under a different head chef. I loved it then and was not disappointed this time. Chef Marc Rasic, although from Luxembourg, clearly understands the food of the Pyranees.

If anyone wants details of what we ate, I will be happy to add that, but in the interest of brevity, let me just say this: frisee salad with warm bacon dressing, poached egg and toasted levain, beef carpaccio with arugula pesto and parmesan (Amalia devoured almost all of this), duck leg confitand carrot hachis parmentier (triple yum - there were two reasons that Amalia did not eat all of the carpaccio - this was one of them), Berkshire pork shoulder confit with cabbage and apples, soft chestnut flour polenta with olives, sun dried tomatoes and parmesan, some of the best pommes frites in the area, a peach tarte built on an absolutely incredible puff pastry crust, and berries and beaujolais compote with fromage blanc sorbet.

Couple this food with immaculate service and a pleasant, inviting atmosphere, and you have one more reason to visit the great city of San Francisco (or if you are already in San Francisco, another reason to brave ballpark traffic to get to that side of town).