Bar Tartine

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561 Valencia (at 16th St.) San Francisco, CA 94110

415-487-1600

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Critics'
Pick
Best Restaurant Reinvention
Award Winner 2012

Cuisine(s): California, Dessert, Greek

Hours: Sun,Sat 10:30am-2pm, Sun,Tue,Wed,Thu 6pm-10pm, Fri-Sat 6pm-11pm

Price: $$$
Payment Types: All Major Credit Cards

Features: Business Dining, Coat Check

Serving: Breakfast, Brunch, Dinner
Alcohol: Full bar

Reservations: Accepted, Online Reservations Available

Parking: Street

Description

Over the years, Bar Tartine has zigged back and forth between classic California cuisine and more experimental fare, and under Nick Balla it has tacked back into exciting waters. Balla is exploring his Hungarian roots, incorporating California vegetables and Japanese flavors (he was last chef of Nombe Izakaya), and his menu is rife with sauerkraut, paprika, and, above all, sour cream. But this is no Mitteleuropean pork fest. While the fried potato bread known as langos and the chocolate-hazelnut dobos torte are easy hits, Balla's dramatic, complex palate shows through in cool cherry soups flavored with fennel and black pepper, buckwheat-inflected bread tiled over with thick slices of housemade bottarga, and blood sausage with duck-stuffed cabbage roll.

2012 | Best Restaurant Reinvention

It's not quite a new restaurant -- the owners and the gorgeous marble bar in the back are the same -- but under chef Nick Balla, Elisabeth Prueitt and Chad Robertson's restaurant is nothing like it was a year ago. To describe Balla's food as Hungarian with Californian and Japanese influences is to underestimate how intricately the flavors are woven together, and how far the chef's imagination roves. Balla isn't just making his own blood sausage, he's grinding his own paprika and... More »
2010 | Best Meat Salad

In this signature preparation from chef Chris Kronner, three steaming bone segments, which look like grisly yogurt cups, come with a toasted slice of Tartine bread and a verdant pile of lightly dressed herbs. You scoop out the shuddering, translucent contents of each cylinder with a tiny spoon your grandma might have used to shake sugar into her chamomile tea, then spread some of the marrow across a triangle of bread and crown it with herbs. The greenery evokes the pasture the... More »
2007 | Best Cheese Plate

What better to accompany Bar Tartine's excellent bread (sourced from its famous parent, the Tartine bakery a few blocks away) than cheese? And cheese is treated with respect here: It's given its own separate menu, featuring about a dozen different varieties, whose careful affinage results in each one being served at its peak. (Try that at home!) They're priced at $6 each, $15 for three, $23 for five, $36 for eight. You'll receive generous portions elegantly displayed on polished wood slabs,... More »

Number 1: Bar Tartine's Blood Sausage

By Jonathan Kauffman | Mon, May 14, 2012

SFoodie's countdown of our favorite 50 things to eat and drink, 2012 edition The lengths to which chefs like Bar Tartine's Nicolaus Balla are going to ensure the authenticity of their creative vision... More »
Trends in Beer: The House Brew Comes to Bar Tartine, Public House, and More

By Jason Henry | Wed, March 28, 2012

Remember those Virginia Slims ads with women frolicking beneath the proclamation, "You've Come a Long Way, Baby!"? That's pretty much how beer geeks feel these days. Once the sovereign domain of wine,... More »
SF Beer (and Food!) Week Highlights Include Night Cheese and a Circus

By Jason Henry | Wed, February 8, 2012

Man cannot live on beer alone. Or, at least it's not recommended. While the focus of SF Beer Week is squarely on the brew, there are dozens of events that explore the intersection of beer and food. I... More »
Jonathan Kauffman's Top Five Dishes of 2011 (Plus Runners-Up)

By Jonathan Kauffman | Wed, December 28, 2011

If 2010 belonged to Benu, Mission Chinese Food/Commonwealth, and Sons + Daughters, 2011 was all about burgers, barbecue, and ramen. A buzzy group of new-generation food trucks turned into a fleet, and... More »
A Year in Food: Five Favorite Dishes of 2011

By Jonathan Kauffman | Wed, December 28, 2011

Even while it was happening, most of us who monitor San Francisco's restaurant scene recognized that 2010 was a peak year. The city's tepid tolerance for avant-garde flavors and techniques gave way to enthusiasm, and it became clear that Bay Area ... More »
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Dinner Menu

Pickles

$4.00

Cauliflower In Beet Juice

$4.00

Turnip With Dill

$4.00

Asparagus And Onion

$10.00

Langos
fried potato bread with garlic, sour cream and scallion

$10.00

Creamed Herring And Onion
with whole wheat bread

$12.00

Spinach And Goat Cheese Dip
with paprika, sea laver and rye bread

$17.00

Wagyu Steak Tartare
charred sesame bread, mustard, pickles, egg

$12.00

Chicories
with preserved lemon, horseradish, coriander, radish

$13.00

Asparagus Salad
mizuna, kohlrabi, egg, creamy scallion and anchovy dressing

$13.00

Chopped Salad
paprika salami, button mushrooms, halloumi cheese, yoghurt, sunflower

$16.00

Pork Blood Sausage
black trumpet mushrooms, stewed sauerkraut, sour cream

$14.00

Warm Beet Soup
smoked brisket, fennel, sour cream, dill

$13.00

Grilled Tripe
with braised fennel and onion

$17.00
Add Bottarga $22.00

Nokedli
farmer’s cheese dumplings, sunchoke, wild onion

$24.00

Fisherman’s Stew
sturgeon, kale, hen of the woods mushrooms, green chili

$23.00

Chicken Paprikas
red chard, leek, king trumpet and baby shiitake mushrooms

Sides

$8.00

Broccoli Shoots
pea and fava greens, garlic chive, chili oil, crispy shallot

$8.00

Cauliflower And Dulse
seaweed with 7 spice

Dessert

$8.50

Turo Cheese Cake
rhubarb, blood orange, ginger crumbs

$8.50

Chocolate Dobos Torte
salted caramel, smoked hazelnut

$8.50

Cultured White Coffee Ice Cream
cardamom, krumkakke

Looking for another city?

Bar Tartine

561 Valencia (at 16th St.) San Francisco, CA 94110

415-487-1600

Description

2012 | Best Restaurant Reinvention

2010 | Best Meat Salad

2007 | Best Cheese Plate

By Jonathan Kauffman | Mon, May 14, 2012

By Jason Henry | Wed, March 28, 2012

By Jason Henry | Wed, February 8, 2012

By Jonathan Kauffman | Wed, December 28, 2011

By Jonathan Kauffman | Wed, December 28, 2011