FT and I went to Campton Place in Union Square for the January 2013 San Francisco Dine About Town. We were excited to try a Michelin star restaurant again (the last time was for the previous year's Dine About Town) and the menu looked tasty.
Campton Place is located in the Taj Campton Place hotel on the northeast corner of Union Square. The hotel, for all its claiming to be a "palace", was actually quite cozy and when we walked in, we weren't even sure that taking the few steps down took us into the Campton Place restaurant.
The place was unexpectedly very small, with less than 20 tables. It was also unexpectedly bone quiet when we arrived - note to self, a noon reservation is possibly too early for lunch. As we ate, the restaurant did fill up a bit to a nice soft chatter of people chatting and silverware clinking.
Despite advertising three courses for their lunch Dine About Town menu, we were handed a menu with only two. Oh well! Our waiter also recommended a separate dish of the day - truffles shaved by the gram on top of pasta - but being the type of people who go to Dine About Town in the first place ("...wait, a gram costs HOW much?") we opted to stick with the set menu.
Amuse-bouche: avocado, green apple, and arugula foam. The flavor of the green apple was crisp and strong, and you could get a little bit of the avocado creaminess. Arugula was, sadly, missing - or maybe it's Campton Place using the mom-approved tried and true method of slipping vegetables into our meal.
Sunchoke veloute with a nice crunchy beignet. It was rich, creamy, and sweeter than I expected. FT and I both enjoyed.
You got your choice of either sourdough or olive... of course, I asked for one of each. Glorious soft butter slathered on top. Yum.
FT and I both picked the beef short rib as our course as the other option was fish, and neither of us wanted to give up our carnivorous leanings. When this came to us it did not come with a sharp steak knife, so I briefly imagined how awkward it would be to saw at my meat and have a piece fly across the room.
Luckily for me and the guests surrounding, the beef was unbelievably, melt-in-your-mouth tender. The sauce was rich and decadent, and I liked the cauliflower puree as well. We both loved this and wish we could've had more!
Lastly we shared a dessert - cheesecake mousse with grapefruit sorbet and citrus. It was delicious and a good take on cheesecake, though we did feel a little miffed that this was a $9 dessert for something so underwhelmingly small. Note to self: mousse cheesecake is not the same thing as cheesecake mousse.
Overall, all we had were delicious, and this is a good chance to try a restaurant that we normally would not be able to afford and a great deal for the price. We got the wine pairing, which added another $18 to each - but hey, you only feel this fancy once a year!
Oh and, if you ever go, you can ask for one of the window seats but you can also opt for one of the best surprises of the day: shockingly, the comfiest restaurant booth ever.
San Francisco, CA
Campton Place Yelp
