Watergate is another blossom on the fast-growing branch that is Mission dining. Yes, it puts one in mind of nature metaphors. Watergate is a delicate water lily, or perhaps a stand of bamboo -- filled with quietly grazing pandas.
As you enter from the street, the dining room seems oddly formal; with its dark wood, hanging fabrics, and protective plastic covers on some of the chairs, it's reminiscent of a hotel lobby -- more to be enjoyed with the eyes than to be lingered in and used. But that effect vanishes when the room fills with customers. The food is sturdy but graceful, in a comfortably familiar Franco-Californian vein graced by Asian touches. The chef doesn't take the diner too far from the traditional European piece of meat in the middle of the plate, but he (Walter Liang, last seen at Savoy) plays with flavor and composition in various intriguing ways.
Appetizers tend toward the luxurious, with such ingredients as foie gras, caviar, lobster, and duck prosciutto, but they can lack balance and excitement compared to the main courses. The lobster martini ($10), a frequent special, is, alas, not as rich as the one at Ricochet. It's sour and salady, like ceviche tossed with lettuce and tomatoes; the nest of fried leeks topping the dish is at least as flavorful as the lobster. An asparagus soup du jour ($6.50) contains delicious creamy chunks of roasted monkfish, but the soup itself is curiously lacking in flavor -- lacking asparagus flavor in particular -- and more orange in color than one would expect from an asparagus puree. Salads are more successful: The butter lettuce salad ($6) consists of ... just butter lettuce, in a smooth winy vinaigrette that forces the lettuce to speak for itself. Fresh and succulent, it does so eloquently. The frisee/Roquefort/pear salad ($6.50) is a prime specimen of its genre, with a hearty walnut dressing. Also available, on the heavier side, is a sauteed foie gras medallion in tangy verjuice sauce ($14), oysters with champagne sauce and caviar ($10), and seared ahi ($8.50).
The entrees are mercilessly delicious, each one consisting of a perfectly complementary medley of flavors, with notes that are sometimes unexpected but never out of place. A sizable filet mignon ($17) comes in a full, lavish bordelaise sauce, accompanied by large flat pasta pillows filled with Roquefort. The tang of the cheese offsets the meat exquisitely, and the wonton wrappers cleverly keep everything pristine: no sauce in the cheese, no cheese in the sauce.
Risotto ($12) is replete -- almost overwhelmed -- with wild mushrooms, and topped generously with Romano cheese and black pepper.
Sea bass ($16), imbued with lemon and herbs, notably thyme, is served on a bed of polenta, which, while excellently creamy, does not appear to be an entrant in the recent faddish competition among San Francisco restaurants to create the most nauseatingly overly creamy polenta. It's just perfect. And so's the bass, subtle and pleasing in both flavor and texture. Sea bass is also available cooked en papillote ($15), with dates, white wine, and rosemary, rendering it velvety and sweet in a most interesting way. This dish is one of the best on the menu.
Yet another seafood option is the swordfish ($16). A firm and mild-flavored fish by nature, it stands up beautifully to being roasted and served in a viscous and tangy, though pure-tasting, sauce, which includes large pieces of assorted mushrooms and dried scallops. This is an unmistakably Chinese-inspired dish -- dried scallops are not a traditionally Western ingredient -- but the flavor is quite original, very clean, very well poised. For the vegetarian in the family, there is a roasted portobello mushroom atop polenta, in a hearty mushroomy gravy ($12). It's not hard to make a portobello flavorful, but this one is exceptionally so, beefy and herby, complex and faintly sweet. The pan-roasted chicken with baby bok choy and fingerling potatoes ($13) is also delicious.
The dessert menu at Watergate is a list of the usual suspects: ginger creme brulee, a seasonal sorbet trio, chocolate or lemon mousse, profiteroles, cheesecake, apple tart, and a napoleon (all $5.50). But each of these is terrifically well prepared -- notably the sorbets, the tart, and the napoleon -- and whimsically garnished with a sprig of lemon thyme in lieu of the ubiquitous mint. The napoleon is filled with delicate pastry cream and dressed with both dark and white chocolate sauces. The apple tart is more stimulating than the standard version: For once, the tart's crust is downplayed, and instead, dark caramel sauce, a very intense cinnamon ice cream, and the apples themselves are featured.
The sorbets of late are ginger-lemon, mango, and blackberry-cabernet. The first and last have a very strong flavor and a grainy, icy texture; the mango is made with a lot of mango puree, so it's as creamy as an ice cream but more subtle. And, as by this point one has come to expect, the flavors marry beautifully.
But the real after-dinner treat is the tea. Served in gorgeous YiXing stoneware pots from the chef's private collection, and hand-selected by co-owner Rebecca Kwan, it provides a uniquely refined experience and imparts a feeling of contentment. Options include green tea leaves hand-rolled with jasmine petals into "pearls" ($4); and tikuanyin, a member of the oolong family, traditionally (though not nowadays) picked from treetops by trained monkeys ($5.50). The leaves are displayed at the table, then placed in the pot and allowed to steep. The resulting brew is hugely fragrant and delicate, as different from Safeway bag tea as canned asparagus is from fresh. It is distinctive enough to make an excellent complement to dessert or to be enjoyed unaccompanied. If you were a panda, you might feel inclined to linger in this particular grove forever.
Watergate
1152 Valencia (at 22nd Street), 648-6000. Open Sunday through Thursday 5:30 to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday 5:30 to 11 p.m. Wheelchair accessible. Reservations: recommended on weekends. Parking: not terrible. Muni: 14, 26, 48, 49, and 67. BART: 24th Street station. Noise level: quieter than average.
