(Note: Winterland has closed since this review was written.)
With the buzz around Alinea (Chicago) and El Bulli (Spain), i was excited to hear a former chef from El Bulli had opened a restaurant in SF. I’m definitely one who can appreciate experimentation & tinkering, and I’m optimistic enough to believe that a restaurant founded on the premise of experimentation should be confident in its cooking, if nothing else.

Reports from the American crop of “molecular gastronomy” have been mixed: Alinea is a love/hate affair, WD-50 (New York) gets my nod, Bastide (LA) is making a big splash on online forums, Moto (Chicago) is getting insane PR, and Minibar (DC) is somehow under the radar. With this backdrop, I was really hoping Winterland could provide experimental, yet enjoyable, cuisine a scant 10 blocks from my house.

(On a sidenote, if classified as a movement, what is the end goal? I see parrallels w/ modern art of the 50s & 60s: mix of high & low brow, reductionism, abstraction, the ‘theory’ being more powerful than the product… the ‘food’ is not even food (see Moto’s paper sushi.) Modern art seemed to collapse on itself. Will this movement do the same?)

Atmosphere
Is it a club? A hotel bar? A restaurant? All? None? The bar and restaurant seem to be equal size; once inside the restaurant, I liked the muted gray walls & the paintings. The bar is trying a little too hard to be modern & hip; in fact, i’d swear you could plop this inside the W and no one would notice.

Service
Service is secondary to the food in my book but amateurs were in the house. 10 minutes after ordering, we were informed that they ran out of one dish and the bottle of infused vodka I ordered broke earlier in the day. Little things. Once, while clearing dishes, a piece of bread popped into my friend’s lap; the waiter didn’t even notice. When we didn’t want to buy additional bottled water, they didn’t ask if tap would suffice.

The Food

Amuse Bouche – Beet Gelee w/ parmesan & peanut brittle
Uh oh, not a fan of beets, but it wasn’t the taste that put me off – it was the extreme coldness of the gelee. The parmesan & peanut brittle were room temperature, and it constrasted starkly w/ the very cold gelee. I couldn’t reconcile the temperature difference; even if i could, the mixture of ingredients made no sense to me.

This is a theme that seems to repeat itself at these types of restaurants – extreme temperature differences that have no known purpose.

Poached Organic Egg w/ asparagus broth & bacon ice cream
Take the egg, break it & whip it into the foamy asparagus broth, very delicious… Great textures, sensations, and taste. Whip in the bacon ice cream – yech – too cold and it ruins all 3 – texture, sensation, and taste.

Take a bite of ice cream by itself – yech – tasted like the bacon bits you get in instant grits. Overlooking the taste, the texture of the ice cream was way too icy, not nearly creamy enough.

Zucchini Blossom Risotto w/ basil broth & tomato confit
This was very good, but it was something you could find in any ingredients-first SF restaurant. The risotto was cooked perfectly, it had a nice bite, and zucchini & snap peas gave it a little extra crunch – nice texture. The tomato confit “tasted like re-constituted dried tomatoes.” They were hanging out off to the side, and added nothing to the dish.

Soft Shell Crab w/ champagne mango & passionfruit dressing
The legs were nicely fried, very crunchy, w/ a nice spice that acted well w/ the mango & passion-fruit dressing (mayo-like consistency).

The body was too soggy to me, tasty but soggy. My friend commented is was just very juicy. This was a good dish, nothing that will wow you, but not disappointing.

Veal ‘Menage a Trois’ w/ romaine lettuce puree & black pepper jus
Obviously, this was veal prepared 3 separate ways (although if it were true to the name & experimental nature of the restaurant, it really should have been veal 3 different ways combined into one uniform dish!) I’m not a veal expert but the 3 pieces were of varying quality.

The best cut of meat was probably cooked using the sous-verde technique; it was tender, but somewhat bland. There was no accompanying sauce.

The 2nd best was grilled and sat in the romaine lettuce puree. The puree was dark green, like pool algae, with a very strong and unpleasant taste. It completely overpowered the veal, so i ate the 2nd piece of veal w/o sauce too.

The last piece was very fatty, and (i’m guessing) seared w/ bacon. Hard to say if it was just the cut of meat, but it was nearly as fatty as pork belly. I probably liked this piece least.

Rabbit Chop & Braised Rabbit Raviolo w/ porcini mushrooms & small rack of rabbit
This was a much better dish but, like the risotto, it wasn’t as experimental. The rabbit chop was pretty good; it had the consistency & spiciness of a tiny sausage so he may have done something funky to it.

The ravioli was excellent – the ravioli was fresh & delicate and the dark meat inside was juicy & tender.

The rack of rabbit was crusted w/ pistachios; it could have been a little juicer considering how small the rabbit was.

The porcini mushrooms were grilled, and tasted excellent by themselves. i can only assume they were great additions to the raviloi but my friend ate them all before i got a chance to mix & match

Carmelized French Toast w/ Olive Oil ice cream
Ok, this was *inspired* – easily the best dish of the night.

The french toast was soaked in cream and carmelized on top. The bread was very fluffy. great sensation – bite into the burnt caramelized crust, chew into fluffy bread, and out comes a little cream. Absolutely delicious.

The ice cream was equally as good. This ice cream, unlike the icy bacon ice cream earlier, was very creamy. It tasted like regular vanilla at first, but there was a nice olive oil coating inside your mouth at the end. It was a very delicate & unique sensation; it is what i expected from more of the dishes.

Cherry Triffle w/ Sour Cream something
This was a mess. 4 layers of whipped cream (i think), sour cream, cherries, tapioca of some sort that i’m guessing was meant to serve as the triffle, and cherry gelee at the bottom. Too much going on and the cherry gelee tasted exactly like bad cough syrup. I say bad b/c i generally like cough syrup.

Overall
They are still finding their way. The french toast, olive oil ice cream, and egg w/ asparagus (no bacon ice cream) showed the chef could create exceptional tastes and flavors not experienced before. The rabbit & risotto dishes proved he could cook in a more traditional manner. But the others failed, some miserably. There’s no consistency; one might say the menu is a minefield.

When compared to WD-50 in NY, the food is just not as refined, exact, and, one might say, confident. There seems to be some trepidation in either the techniques, ingredients, or execution. Even when WD-50 fails, you can appreciate what Wylie is trying to do; with Winterland, you wonder if he’s trying to force an idea on you or if he’s unsure of what to expect.

Would i eat here again? Maybe in 5-6 months, but there are too many other restaurants on my ‘to-do’ list that will get a higher priority.
- chuck