Cliff Notes

Comments (0) By Naomi Wise Wednesday, Nov 12 1997

...continued from page 2

Our window table in the downstairs dining room gave us a view of surging surf. We began with "the famous Cliff House Shrimp Louis" ($15.95); crab Louis is $5 more. We found the Louis lousy. It had a modicum of naked, limp bay shrimp, a great heap of unshredded lettuce leaves, a load of fruit garnishes, but just one aging avocado wedge. The dressing, a too-small portion in a ramekin on the side, was too sweet. But another starter, fried calamari ($7.95), was very tender inside the thick, cayenne-heavy American-style batter. Alongside were bowls of ordinary tartar sauce and cocktail sauce. We yearned for aioli.

This time our salmon met its happy reward as a house specialty: Broiled five-spice salmon ($17.50) arrived rare in the center, its aromatic spice-coating magically conferring a haunting deep-sea flavor. The honey-balsamic vinaigrette on the bed of greens was of course too sweet, but I loved the shish kebab-ish hunks of broiled eggplant, zucchini, and bell peppers. Petrale sole with a macadamia nut crust ($15.95) would have been tasty, too, with its fresh, clean "tropical salsa," were it not for the slight rancidity of the coating's ground nuts. More broiled vegetables came alongside, and all rested on a bed of rice with a tantalizing aroma -- apparently a recurrence of the Chinese spice-blend. Goldstein had praised the downstairs pastry chef, so we looked at the dessert list. It was quite different from upstairs, with more pastries and even a celebratory baked Alaska. Alas, we could eat no more.

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The Cliff House Bistro

1090 Point Lobos
San Francisco, CA 94121

Category: Restaurant > American

Region: Richmond (Outer)

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Still, we looked around us with some pleasure, knowing that more than the food is changing here. The Cliff House has been perpetually doomed to play the phoenix, rising again and again from its own ashes. It's about to rise again. The GGNRA has realized that its most popular man-made attraction has spent the last half-century decked out in clam-diggers, Cuban heels, and a beehive hairdo. The towering, elegant grande dame of the 1890s is gone forever, but the Cliff House renovation of our own fin de siecle may at least restore the old gal's dignity.