Zuni Café is one of those places you don’t want to miss, if you visit San Francisco. French, Italian, organic, and seasonal, are some of the words that best describe the legendary restaurant, which opened in 1979 and won a James Beard Award in 2003.
Zuni was on top of our list when trying to decide where to eat in SF, but when we checked online, the restaurant was fully booked, so we started looking at other options. Though when one of Rebecca’s foodie friends also talked very warmly about Zuni, we decided to call and see if we could somehow get a table, and thanks to Rebecca’s persuasive voice, we managed to secure a table that same evening.
At Zuni, we ordered the must-order Roast Chicken with Bread Salad, which is Zuni’s signature dish, and the dish that everybody orders. In the menu, it says that the chicken is good for sharing for two people, but the waiter assured us that there would be plenty of food for three people too. We also ordered an appetizer and shoestring fries, just to be on the safe side regarding food quantity.
The starter with parmesan, anchovies, olives and celery sounded good on paper, but didn’t really work in real life, though I did find the parmesan/salty anchovies combo interesting.
The shoestring fries were really tasty. Nice and crispy, and the serving was the size of a small mountain. The chicken was really, really good. It was juicy and had thin, crispy skin, and the bread salad had pine nuts, dried currants and chunks of fried bread drizzled with the pan juice from the chicken. We had a really nice evening at Zuni, and before we knew, it was closing time, so we finished our wine and went back to the hotel with the leftover chicken, because even for three persons that chicken is huge.
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Zuni Café, 1658 Market Street, San Francisco
