The staff of Roti were gratified, no doubt, to hear the buzz that Bruno's has gone downhill recently -- a decline coinciding with the migration in July of sure-handed chef James Ormsby from the latter to the former. Although Bruno's tries to keep his legacy alive, that restaurant's food appears to be faltering just as Roti's has been revitalized.
Roti is a darkish wood-paneled place in the Hotel Griffon. It is comfortably medium-sized, with a group of tables in the front, a bar with a TV, and then, back by the wood-fired rotisserie, a more secluded dining area. There's lots of dark wood, a hardwood floor, and small whimsical touches, including the animals engraved in the glass partitions and a chalkboard bearing a quote from Brillat-Savarin. The unflashy atmosphere provides a good background for the uncomplicated but vibrant cuisine.
Roti has evolved over the years -- starting as a French bistro, passing through a best-forgotten Asian-tinged phase, finally returning to American soil -- and is now enjoying its prime. The "late autumn menu" is very simply divided into appetizers and entrees. Among the former are chilled prawns and fresh oysters (ask your server for the day's selection -- prices as quoted), spice-seared ahi ($9.50), crab cakes ($11), and other favorites. The salad of very fresh mixed lettuces ($5.50) is excellent, although the crunchy fried chickpeas nestled among the leaves are one of the restaurant's few superfluities. Beautiful golden pumpkin soup ($5) is wonderfully smooth and vegetal, neither salty nor sweet, its squashy flavor accented by heavily roasted pumpkin seeds, and not overly creamy or fatty as it might be elsewhere. House-cured smoked salmon ($9) arrives with a tiny stack of delicious, fresh,corn-based pancakes, topped luxuriously with salmon eggs and a rich caviar butter; however, both the fish and the caviar are very salty, and in combination form a handsome but too-salty dish.
One of Ormsby's signature dishes is oxtails braised in beef stock and red wine ($17). Listed on the Roti menu as "James' famous braised oxtails," they arrive swimming in their cooking liquid. The mellowing effect of potatoes and parsnips -- in addition to a lengthy cooking time -- render this neglected cattle part exquisitely tender and flavorful. The bones require a little effort to eat around, but the dish is worth it.
A rich pasta entree consists of garganelli pasta, sweet with sage and brown butter and further dressed with pumpkin seeds and chunks of butternut squash ($19). Oh, and seared scallops. This is an example of the chef's distinctive and possibly controversial touch: The dish would be terrific and complete without the scallops, but they, with their unique texture and soft lemony finish, make it something else entirely. The scallops are the most expensive ingredient in the dish, but they neither dominate nor merely season it. Instead, they are a lighter element, contrasting with the uniformity of the rest, cutting the richness, and transforming the whole from an unimaginative dish to a special one. It's not jarring, but it lacks the submissive conformity of comfort food.
The beef filet ($25) is accompanied by fire-roasted potatoes that taste more of fire than of potato and are topped with a sinfully big blob of blue-cheese butter. (When the kitchen varies this dish with the seasons, what changes is the flavor of the butter.)
Ceppo pasta with smoky wild mushrooms, spinach, and goat cheese ($14) is another visionary combination, woodsy and savory and tender and keen and rich. The roasted chicken ($16) is also justly acclaimed. Entrees rotate frequently, and new ones are often previewed in the prix fixe meal offered every Sunday.
James Ormsby is an accomplished dessert chef, too, but at Roti someone else is doing that job -- alas, not quite perfectly. Desserts are tasty but generally homogeneous and large, leaving all but the most sweet-toothed of diners too bored to finish. A pomegranate granita ($5), for example, is deliciously tangy, but fills an eight-ounce margarita glass, by the bottom of which the granita's uniformity palls. Devil's-food cake ($6.50) isn't the overwhelming dense kind -- it's big and light and mild -- but two-thirds of a slice is enough. A recent highlight was a very good banana-heavy banana brioche pudding ($6.50), with fresh bananas and caramel sauce. There is also a cookie plate ($5). None of the desserts is a bad choice, and none of them, with the possible exception of the peanut-butter cup creme brulee ($6), leaves you feeling weighed down, finally defeated by the meal.
The service is very competent, though there can be lapses: On a recent visit, a waiter soliloquized intelligently about the day's oysters but neglected to bring bread until the appetizers were almost gone. As was the case at Ormsby's Bruno's, wineglasses and plates are oversized, and garnish is generally limited to a couple of sprigs of something.
A great feature of hotel restaurants, Roti being no exception, is that they're open every night. Roti is also open weekdays for lunch, and it offers a three-course prix fixe dinner on Sundays. For now, at least, the restaurant is in the capable hands of a chef whose dishes are powerful and subtle, essentially perfect yet flexible, inspired, and thriving in their new home.
Roti
155 Steuart Street (at Howard), 495-6500. Open Monday through Thursday 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Saturday 5:15 to 11 p.m.; Sunday 5:15 to 10 p.m. Reservations required. The restaurant is wheelchair accessible. Parking: Valet. Muni: 32 via the Embarcadero; 1 via Main; all Market Street lines. Sound level: Moderate.
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