The Other Critics

Sens and Miller Dig Into Dixie; Roth Calls Gilberth’s Good, But Unpolished; Unterman Swoons Over Market & Rye’s BLT

Dixie
Dixie Photo: Brian Smeets/Grub Street

This week we get a pair of reviews of Joseph Humphrey’s new Presidio restaurant Dixie, one from SF Mag’s Josh Sens, and another from the Guardian’s Virginia Miller. Sens finds the place ambitious and interesting but (much like Bauer did) perhaps in the wrong setting, saying that Humphrey “has embarked on a personal project in one of the city’s least personal locations.” He notes the lively happy hour crowd at the bar and the solid selection of Southern bar snacks — pimiento cheese curds, pork cracklings, honey-drizzled hush puppies. But Humphrey’s high-end dinner menu, he says, “deserves better surroundings.”

He enjoys the “intimate” and “sublime” experience of the tasting menu (a steal, he says, at $72) in which diners are ushered to the chef’s counter in the kitchen for part of the meal, but it’s “over in an eyeblink,” and the underseasoned servers don’t make you want to return to the dining room. All told: two and a half stars. [SF Mag]

Meanwhile at the Guardian, Miller also files her review saying the place “whistles, but doesn’t sing,” and she also finds the space “corporate” and the service “nearly condescending” and “cold.” She loves the chicken and dumplings, and his fried quail with garlic waffles, and she liked the red miso black cod so much she ordered it twice. But the cocktails she’s most unimpressed with, and after dropping over $100 on the bill she leaves unsatisfied. [SFBG, Bauer’s earlier take]

The Weekly’s Anna Roth takes Gilberth’s Rotisserie and Grill for a spin over in Dogpatch, and she comes away having had a few good bites but an overall sad impression. The dining room was totally empty on a recent weeknight, and despite being the only table there she says the service was bad. She’s a fan of the alligator tacos, and says other dishes like the lamb-chorizo burger and plantain chips were very good too. But things like the cactus salad didn’t come together, and she couldn’t really get over the inept service and repetitive Death Cab for Cutie soundtrack. [SF Weekly]

And last but not least we have Patricia Unterman’s web-based thoughts on Ryan Scott’s new venture Market & Rye. She falls in love with his new take on the BLT, “a saucy, utterly luscious bacon sandwich slathered with green garlic aioli amplified with roasted tomatoes and melted cheddar.” She also recommends the scoopable, never soggy market salads at the West Portal branch, and the cornflake-crusted fried chicken sandwich at the Potrero branch, which she says is reason enough to go there. [Unterman on Food]

Sens and Miller Dig Into Dixie; Roth Calls Gilberth’s Good, But