Check out SAVEUR magazine's April 2009 dining issue for a select listing of 12 restaurants in the United States that are significant and influential. In the listing is Charles Phan's Slanted Door in San Francisco.
I interviewed Charles and wrote the commentary for the issue. Charles has received a James Beard Award and has also been nominated on many subsequent occasions for the award. But the SAVEUR listing is unusual and historic. It includes Joel Robuchon in Las Vegas, Rick Bayless's Topolobampo in Chicago, Musso and Frank's in Hollywood and David Kinch's Manresa in Los Gatos. These are establishments that model culinary innovation and craftsmanship, hospitality, and overall excellent restaurateurship.
Slanted Door serves over 800 people a day. That's 2 seatings for lunch and dinner. I've worked in a restaurant kitchen before and that's a lot of covers/orders to fulfill each day. Charles and his family run the empire (there are about 20 Phans involved) and they are presenting Vietnamese food that embodies its essence but also highlights its potential. Great, local, organic ingredients are used. The service is professional and attentive -- what you would/should expect at any restaurant of this caliber. The room is modern and sophisticated. The view is of the spectacular San Francisco Bay.
Indeed, the food isn't what you'd find in Viet restaurants in our 'hoods. It's higher priced, though I've no problem with Vietnamese restaurants charging more because that helps to further the quality of the food, service, and decor. And, Slanted Door has an amazing wine director, Mark Ellenbogen. His
list is not only educational in terms of Vietnamese food -and-wine
pairings, but it features lots of uncommon Old World bottles from France and Germany; the restaurant not only propelled shaking beef but also pairing Viet food with Rieslings and Gruner Vetliner.
Slanted Door offers a complete, fun dining experience. You're not just grabbing a quick bite and running out the door. You want to linger and sip a cup of fine tea and gaze out at the ocean. Or, slip in for an evening cocktail.
Slanted Door isn't looking to represent a post-card image of Vietnam. It looks forward and exists in its own orbit, as a Vietnamese restaurant in San Francisco. In that sense, Slanted Door models what it means to be a successful, modern ethnic restaurant in America. You're not tethered to the past but you do respect it.
What do you think a modern ethnic restaurant in America (or elsewhere) should and could be like? Have a favorite to pitch? I'd love to know your thoughts!
Related links:
Slanted Door has put shaking beef (thit bo luc lac) on the map for Vietnamese crossover restaurants. Get Charles Phan's recipe for shaking beef, which employs beef tenderloin (filet mignon). Here's a shaking beef recipe I posted on this site that uses less expensive cuts of beef steak.
Diane says
Oh, I can't wait to read your article! I love this restaurant. It's everything I want a dining experience to be. It's just great food - not great "ethnic" food, great Vietnamese food, or even great San Francisco food - although it has an element of all of those. It;s the total package, and a wonderful dining experience.
In a way I think it's kind of sad that ethic food has to package itself as "modern" before it can become accepted as more than a cheap lunch spot. Some of the basic and traditional spots I've eaten at fill the soul and leave you satisfied with a full dining experience, although they may not be modern in any way. For example - I LOVE Sarvana Bhavan (South Indian in Sunnyvale) and think their food could be in no way improved on by fancy tablecloths and a wine list. While the modernist in me likes the fancy presentation, I don't think it automatically makes the food better or more interesting than a typical ethnic dive. Slanted Door isn't great because it's modern. It is great because of its food choices and chef(s).
Joel says
This reminds me that in Australia Neil Perry has a new restaurant - "Spice Temple" - serving regional Chinese cuisines in Sydney. It serves regional Chinese dishes just as how they prepare in China today and the tastes are not diluted for Western palates.
A Chinese Australian posted a review (in Chinese) afterwards saying that the ambience and standards of cooking which is high, but also noting that "although the quality is higher, it must be noted you are paying 3 times more if you have the same dishes in Chinatown or other Szechuenese restaurants in Sydney, and this is for something better, but not by a lot, in quality". Still, he reckons Perry should open a Cantonese restaurant in Sydney just to showcase how good ambience, adequate service, and quality can work for an ethnic restaurant.
This is how high end Chinese food is presented in places like Hong Kong too. I think I'm a bit of a skeptic if good ambience and better quality translates to charging 5x the costs. I'm ready to pay a dish of regular stir-fried beef with asparagus to be about NZ$35 or about US$20 (regular cost of this dish would be NZ$20 in NZ) but not higher.
Andrea Nguyen says
Diane, I've been meaning to get to Sarvana Bhavan. Now you're pushing me.... My piece in Saveur is a nice, punchy distillation.
Joel, I was thinking of the high-end restaurants in Hong Kong. They're not inexpensive and the service is very good. One of my thoughts has been that it takes a fair amount of labor and skill to prepare many Asian foods and if diners are willing to pay more for quality renditions, then the folks in the kitchen will also be paid better.
Restaurant cooking is one of the hardest jobs around. There's no glamor involved, yet people do it because they love it, or have to. I'd like to see good Asian cooks, from top to bottom, rewarded. We're willing to pay through the nose for a prime cut of steak cooked to perfection (sides are extra) so why not an exquisite version of beef and asparagus?
Joel says
Andrea, I think it probably requires a wholescale shift in perception among the general population in Hong Kong (or for other places in Asia and the West) to make this workable. Even I myself will pause before seeing a place trying to sell stir-fried beef with asparagus for US$40. Most of the general populations are not even willing to pay a little more for "ordinary ingredients" at upscale eateries.
I have read accounts that in the starred eateries in Hong Kong, you will never dare to order "ordinary" fares such as stir-fried beef with vegetables or even simple poached chicken. You must have something "elaborate" such as pan-fried Kagoshima black Berkshire pork with black pepper sauce, braised abalone etc, and forget about "cheap" carp (freshwater fish in HK always has the stigma of being homely fares unlike many sea fish) and go for grouper instead, and even chicken suffer discriminations at times because it is now everyday fares. A disadvantage of this attitude is a vicious cycle where many dishes' preparations have become careless due to cost constraints, and people develop an unhealthy attitude of "Chinese food at a premium 100% = rare to find exotic ingredients".
It is not an easy road to change attitudes because no matter how many lectures we give, it can only start with individuals and trickle to every one in the general population. I would say it will probably take at least 3 to 4 decades to accomplish where we are happy to pay more for better quality Chinese/Asian food that also does not necessarily mean rare exotic ingredients.
Andrea Nguyen says
Joel, you've struck on a very important point. People do equate the exotic with the expensive. What a pity. Glands, nests, tongues, and pizzles do not make a cuisine delicious -- just rarified and frankly weird.
Give me a really well made pho, perfect fried rice, or spectacular rice chao/congee (jook), and I'm in paradise.
steph says
ooh i'm excited to pick up this issue. i actually just had shaking beef at the slanted door yesterday! 🙂 thanks for the interview andrea!
worldcupfever says
The Slanted Door piece made me hungrier than anything else in the new issue. sigh.
Jack says
Andrea - I finally made it to the Slanted Door and while the food was excellent I am still reeling from sticker shock. Admittedly, I've eaten at so many great mom & pop Vietnamese restaurants so I found it hard to pay $10 for 2 egg rolls. Having said that, the service was excellent as well and of course the view of the Bay was beautiful and I realize that that is part of the price of admission. I did try the delicious shaking beef and couldn't help but think that Charles could put something like 'thit bo xao khoai tay' on his menu and have it be a big hit. That is a dish that I grew up eating and it's rare to find in most Vietnamese restaurants. Aside from the 1-2 recipes found online for this dish (they're only OK), do you have your own version of it as I would love to try it out.
Andrea Nguyen says
Jack, you're right. But you know, they employ a lot of people and about 1/2 of them have been with the restaurant since the beginning in 1995. Charles takes care of his people like family and they stay with him because they are treated well. It's a different kind of restaurant experience. A lot of Viet restaurants are low-priced because people aren't paid well and/or the ingredient quality is not great. That said, restaurant food is hard to compare to homemade -- which is always better, no?
As for Thit Bo Xao Khoai Tay, that's one of my favorite dishes from childhood. I have a recipe for it in my cookbook, Into the Vietnamese Kitchen (see the meat chapter). I grew up frying French fries for that dish, which we must have had every other week, till my dad got worried about cholesterol . . .
paydayloan says
I am bare impressed with the article I have just read. I wish the writer of http://www.vietworldkitchen.com can continue to provide so much useful information and unforgettable experience to http://www.vietworldkitchen.com readers. There is not much to say except the following universal truth: Nothing works faster than a geek with a challenge I will be back.
Jordans 11 says
Every schoolgirl is a angel , they possess beautiful wing, if schoolgirl cries for a schoolboy that likes self sincerely, she will be pulled out wing to demote for ordinary person.
Discount Red Bottom shoes says
When attending a beach party or just loafing in the sun, a hat not only helps keep the sun out of your face, but also makes a brilliant statement.
Monster Beats says
Enough is as good as a feast.
Canada Goose Parka sale says
We should never remember the benefits we have offered nor forget the favor received.
Beats by Dr Dre Headphone says
More die by food than by famine.
marlon says
It serves regional Chinese dishes just as how they prepare in China today and the tastes are not diluted for Western palates.