Recently I had the pleasure of dining at Canteen, an itty, diner-like restaurant no bigger that a train car in downtown San Francisco. While I am not about to turn this blog into a restaurant review site (I'll leave that to Yip), I just have to take a moment to wax lyrical on anything and everything Canteen because it was quite marvelous.The restaurant offers three seatings, 6:00pm for the downtown theatre-set, 7:30pm for the yuppies and 9:15pm for the effortlessly cool (that's me) while the actually sitting options are 4 booths or the 8-person counter. We thought we were 'stuck' at the counter but it was grand! I've always been a fan of counter-eating, mostly because of the romance of Edward Hopper and the retro, urbane attitude it suggests of such diners. There were two of us (don't even try to take a large party here, this is a two-people place only...if you want to eat comfortably) and we arrived a bit early for our reservation so we opted to have cocktails in the Red Room next door. We were retrieved about 20 minutes later, though I certainly don't mind waiting if I've a cocktail in hand...
From that moment onwards it was perfection; from the tiny watermelon shooter to the homemade croissant mini-buns, the appetizer of tuna tartar to our steak and veal entrees, each was prepared with flavorful thoughtfulness and blue sky combinations. The service was genuine and the waiter (there is only one for the entire restaurant) ever-so classy (he didn't even blink when we sent the wine back which was quite the first time either of us had even considered sending a wine back), that I can't even consider the flat wine a failure. We ended up being the last couple to leave, having been enveloped in the permeating intimacy and quietness of the restaurant, a true Nighthawk moment.
Since the menu changes daily based on available ingredients, I cannot wait to get back. Seriously. RTT?
PS- The restaurant has recently been chosen as one of the best in the city by San Francisco magazine. You know what that means, you'll never be able to get that 7:30pm reservation again.
