Prospect

San Francisco, CA

Prospect is another example of how fine dining is moving into a more casual setting with more affordable prices, at least at brunch anyways. From the team that produced Boulevard, Prospect is a beautifully contemporary designed restaurant with windows for walls, and a large open dining room. I really appreciated the decor and the casual mood inside. We met up with Ghost and Wildcat for Sunday brunch and I had one menu item already circled in my mind, the Prospect Fried Chicken. We'll get to that in a moment. We started off with a couple drinks, Chu-Toro's "no mojito," a virgin mojito, and a simple ice tea for me. 

No mojito

Ice Tea

The drinks were pricey, but the little details were nice. For example, I received a extra carafe of tea, wedges of lemon and was asked if I wanted liquid or packaged sweeteners. Our server also came by and filled my tea even though I'm sure the intent of the carafe is to do it yourself. Nice touches and service off the bat. I was amped for the fried chicken and our server confirmed my expectations by hyping it up more and telling us the accompanying biscuit was the best she ever had. Ghost and Wildcat were sold too, ordering the same. Chu-Toro selected the second most popular item on the menu, the Prospector.

Fried Chicken– slow cooked greens, house made tasso

Although its hard to see in the picture, there were about six pieces of chicken on the dish with a good serving of greens also. We were impressed with the serving size considering the reasonable $15 price tag.  The chicken was pretty good. It wasn't the best I've ever had, that distinction belongs to LoLo's in Phoenix, AZ, but it's the best I had in a long time. The chicken didn't taste oily or greasy, and had a nice crisp to it with a moist interior. A refined, successful take on fried chicken. I think i could have done with a bit more seasoning or herbs in the batter, because it was a bit of a one noted flavor, but overall a very good dish. The greens were a nice added bonus.

Creamed biscuit, honey butter

The biscuit wasn't oversold either, because it was pretty damn good. Moist, creamy, flavorful and lathered with honey butter made this a success. I was even itching to finish Ghost's and Wildcat's but was pretty stuff by cleaning up my own dish.

Prospector – house smoked korobuta pork spare rib, corn skillet cakes, eggs your way

An equally impressive mountain of food was on Chu-Toro's Prospector plate, a combination of corn skillet cakes, eggs the way you want them, home fries, and a house smoked korobuta pork spare rib. The corn cakes were mini pancakes, bursting with corn flavor, textured by the crunchy corn meal while remaining light and fluffy. The pork belly had a good layer of fat and was very tasty. The eggs were scrambled and cooked well reminding Chu-Toro of the ones at Boulette Larder. The only weakness of the dish were the home fries that needed another good 15 minutes in the oven and a little more seasoning. But otherwise a filling and gratifying plate, all for $14 bucks. 


Our meal at Prospect was successful on every level and we really had a good time too. Our server was great, attentive and kind. The food was well executed and flavorful. I'm curious to see if their dinner service is as great, knowing its significantly pricier than brunch. Everything we had was well made, mixing good ingredients with refined techniques presenting simple tasty dishes. All in all, our visit was a success and we will be back.


Rating 7.5/10
December 19, 2010