After Geoff went back to Vancouver, Keith again came to stay for the few days before school started. We went for dinner with my dad at Tartare, the new restaurant by George Morrone, who opened Aqua with Michael Mina back in the day. Since then, you could say Mina has hit real stardom, while Morrone has seen some tougher times. Anyway, Tartare is supposed to be Morrone's big SF comeback. He took over the old spot that used to be Elizabeth Daniel, and decked it out with some swanky new design. The room has an arched ceiling with across-hatched square-patterned cover (for lack of a better word) and orange lights coloring the space à la Frisson. The initial table setting is unusual, with the silverware placed diagonally next to a long, rectangular plate bearing a Tartare emblem. It's quite a funky place, really. The menu consists of, as the name implies, a very large variety of raw dishes, but also hot main dishes as well. Actually, I think all of the raw items are appetizers. They also have a selection of supposedly very good soups. 
classic hand-cut beef tartare, pre-tableside mix 
classic hand-cut beef tartare, post-tableside mix - $14 I read mixed reviews of the beef tartare at Chowhound, but I had to try it - I mean, the place is called Tartare! They have a few other interesting items like an ostrich tartare and a buffalo carpaccio, but I decided I had to order the beef in order to gauge the place a bit. I personally thought this dish was the star of the night. The ingredients around the beef are: dijon mustard, salt, red onion, lemon zest, I think jalapeno, pepper, I think parsley, and more lemon zest. I'm pretty sure I got that right. Anyway, I hope you guys can see the way the beef is cut - they're in significantly larger chunks than every other beef tartare I've tried, and this technique worked to striking success. It had a very unique and pleasing texture; chewy is an ugly word to use, but I'm not sure how else to describe it. I read complaints that this was seasoned too much or not enough, but it was just right on our trip. I really can't say enough about the way it was cut - this seemingly simple technique made a normal dish like beef tartare truly memorable. I'm surprised I haven't really heard others praising it! Maybe I'm just weird. 
tuna foie gras "melt" - $29 This is the dish that everyone raves about here, and, to be honest, when I first saw the name of this thing, I was dead set on a personal mission to try it. Tuna? Foie Gras? Melt? Ohhhh gooddddd. Anyway... I'm not usually one to boast, but I think this is probably the best-looking photo I've ever taken of food. That's not saying much since my other photos are all so crappy, but I think in this one I actually managed to capture the different layers of the dish. I've been using it as my desktop background for a while. That said, I was a bit underwhelemed. I guess my expectations were set a bit high. The melt is composed of a big potato cake thing at the bottom (basically a good hash brown), spinach, a seared tuna steak, seared foie gras on top, and some chopped mushroom (I think they were shiitakes). Don't get me wrong, the dish was good - very good, even. Eating a cross-section bite of potato, tuna, and foie gras was a delicious experience. But something was missing. On a return trip, I'd probably try something else. I think the fact that it's a "tuna foie gras melt" coupled with everyone raving about it just set the bar too high to be fulfilled. Maybe if it were a toro foie gras melt... 
warm chocolate cardamom cake, vietnamese coffee ice cream, made to order - $10 
orange blossom crème brûlée, cinnamon sugar - $9 
gingerbread pumpkin ice cream sandwiches - freebies The desserts were forgettable. I think the enticing nature of the "made to order" note on the chocolate cake backfired on us. The ice cream was indeed clearly made to order - it wasn't frozen enough yet! The cake was nothing special. The crème brûlée was okay, but the top layer of sugar was a bit thick for my taste. The freebie ice cream sandwiches at the end were pretty good, but unfortunately I'm not a big fan of either gingerbread or pumpkin. My dad did try one of the soups and gave me a sip; it was wonderful. Keith had high praise for the steak frites, but considering he ordered a beef tartare followed with a steak, he may have just had a severe bovine craving. The duck fat french fries were good, but at $7 a pop I'm not sure if they're worth it. So I guess Tartare lived up to its mixed reviews - I really loved the beef tartare. I think it will be worth a return trip some time to try some of the other interesting stuff on the menu, most notably the other tartares.