Dine about Town San Francisco 2004 Experience # 2 - Rubicon.

Rubicon is a great restaurant, and definitely worth the price of its dinners, and a bargain for its three course fixed price meal. Their attention to detail and presentation is excellent, the food is fantastic and if you're a wine buff, they have an award winning extensive wine list.

I'd been to Rubicon for a business lunch before when it first opened, but never for dinner. For Dine About Down 2004, they are only serving dinner.

They were named as one of the Top 100 Bay Restaurants in 2003, and here's SFGATE.com had to say about them.

"Few restaurants are better known for their sommelier than their chef, but Larry Stone has made Rubicon a wine-lovers' mecca. Of course, the wine wouldn't be shown off nearly as well without the talents of chef Dennis Leary, and the handsome interior. The brick walls and sculptural earthquake support beams play against refined wood booths and Dale Chihuly glass sculptures. It feels like a big-city restaurant, and has celebrity cachet: It's owned by New York restaurateur Drew Nieporent, Robert De Niro and several other celebrities. Leary offers the traditional a la carte and fixed-price menus, including a vegetarian option."

Here's the Dine about Town menu.

choice of:
Organic Arugula Salad with Walnuts and Crescenza Cheese
or
Chestnut Soup with a Foie Gras Crouton

choice of:
Pumpkin Risotto with Pinenuts, Parmesan and Sage
or
Roasted White Bass with Herb Potato Purée and "Thermidor" Sauce
or
"Blanquette de Veau" Veal Stew with Winter Vegetables and Puff Pastry

choice of:
Rubicon Créme Brûlée with Housemade Cookies
or
Chocolate Fondant with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

I had the arugula salad, bass and the chocolate fondant. My friend had the soup, bass and creme brulee. Instead of "Blanquette de Veau", they were serving a duck comfit.

Since it's a school night we decided to just have one glass of wine each, so we asked the waiter to recommend a red wine. He chose an excellent light italian red wine.

The service was excellent and besides what we ordered we received a small appetizer of smoke salmon courtesy of the chef, and after dessert some kind of really light cannoli or profiterole, again courtesy of the chef.

It's these little touches like extra food from the chef, that make Rubicon such a great place to eat. They treat you well, and it makes you want to come back for more. The restaurant itself is beautiful, with a glass sculpture flower arrangement that my friend thought looked like the glass sculpted flowered ceiling of the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas. She was right. The glass sculpture were done by the samer person. Whatever you think ambiance is, Rubicon definitely has it.

Red Herring was okay, but it doesn't merit a trip back. Rubicon is a restaurant to go to for a great meal and for special occassion dinners.