Better luck at Citizen Cake? Hrmm...

Another try in San Francisco was Elizabeth Faulkner's Citizen Cake. Fresh from my memory of Top Chef Masters, I decided to give it a go.

Now Citizen Cake I think is primarily known for its desserts...or one would think! I however was actually more impressed with their main dishes.

I had really nice seared scallops, cooked just right while my friend had the grilled flank steak with horseradish ice cream, no less. And tempura vegetables!

From the looks of it, many other diners were also curious about the horseradish ice cream and also ordered the steak dish. Nicely cooked, both dishes were just the perfect amount, leaving plenty of room for dessert.

This is where the meal went a little downhill. We went with the Real McCoy Ice cream sandwich - two chocolate cookies stuffed with mint ice cream, and the Spiced chocolate cake with cinnamon ice cream.

The ice cream sandwich was ok - the cookies a little too chewy and hard for my tastes, the mint ice cream a little too minty strong as well. For the spice chocolate cake - by spice they mean sprinkling on red pepper flakes.

If you happened to get one of those in your bite - boy did it have a sharp kick. And a not so pleasant one. The consistency of the cake was also a bit more like a chewy brownie...

The one saving grace was the really nice cinnamon ice cream that accompanied the cake. Man I could have had a bowl full of that. Just a hint of cinnamon, it was refreshingly light and dainty compared to the overly strong flavors of the other components of the desserts.

All in all - again, just ok... When are we going to move from just ok to great?

Better be Bi-Rite....

Citizen Cake
399 Grove St. (at Gough)
415- 861-2228