The Slanted Door has been tremendously successful, and provides San Francisco with its own Horatio Alger story, as Charles Phan and his family left Vietnam as part of the exodus of boat-people in 1975. The original restaurant opened in the Mission in 1995, moved to larger quarters in SoMA in 2002, and moved into the Ferry Building when its restoration was completed in 2004. Slanted Door is now number 61 on the list of the Top 100 Independent Restaurants, serving over 275,000 meals per year and taking in more than $12 million.
Surprisingly, in San Francisco food circles, The Slanted Door is somewhat controversial (see below). I've never regarded Charlie Phan as the Vietnamese Thomas Keller, but I've always enjoyed my meals at his restaurant including visits to the Brannan and Embarcadero location as well as the current incarnation. I was there Saturday evening in a party of four and we tried:
- crispy imperial rolls with shrimp, pork, glass noodles and peanuts
- one dozen oysters (Luna, Fanny Bay, Marin Miyagi)
- Japanese yellowtail with fried shallot and thai basil
- local king salmon belly with cucumber-dill relish
- manila clams with thai basil, crispy pork belly and fresh chilies
- baby Mediterranean Pulpo with shishito peppers and lime-cilantro sauce
- mesquite grilled local King salmon with roasted garlic soy dipping sauce
- Meyer Ranch shaking beef cubed filet mignon with garlic, watercress and red onions (x2)
- Hodo Soy Beanery organic lemongrass tofu (spicy) with fresh shiitake mushrooms, onions and chili sauce
- Catalan Farm sweet corn with green onions and golden chanterelle mushrooms
This is clearly California-style Alice Waters influenced Vietnamese food with an emphasis on fresh top-quality ingredients. But that's fine with me. Although some folks are annoyed that this isn't "authentic" vietnamese, and others are in a huff that the prices are higher now than when Slanted Door was in the Mission, neither complaint seems fair. The food at Slanted Door has always been ingredient-driven, and, just between you and me, I'll bet the rent is higher in the Ferry Building than it was in the Mission.
Everything was quite good to excellent, though the the salmon-belly was a bit less interesting than the other dishes. My favorites were the Japanese yellowtail with fried shallot & thai basil, and the manila clams with crispy pork belly and a delicious sauce which made us ask for extra spoons so we could finish it off.
We bought a bottle of 2005 Prager Grüner Veltliner Smaragd Weissenkirchener Zwerithaler off the list ($70) which was a deep gold color from some botrytis though perfectly dry with 13.5% alcohol. It went very well with raw bar selections and the spring rolls. We also brought along a 2001 Dr. Loosen Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese, a 1969 Lionel J. Bruck Savigny )a mite tire), and a 2004 Schwarz Zweigelt 'W' Red Table Wine (Manfred Krankel of SQN is a consultant on this project; "do you like oak?")
And then, since the night was still young, we went for desserts (2) with wine at Coi, and drinks at Bix (by which time the night was middleaged and it was time for this middleaged group to beat it on home). Recommended
1 Ferry Building
San Francisco, CA
415.861.8032
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