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Restaurant reviews by Patricia Unterman
| Tacolicious serves up a Mexico City-style menu in the Mission district | 03 February 12 |
| Delightful chicken — and sides — at Roostertail | 27 January 12 |
| Out-of-this-world sushi at under-the-radar Hama-ko | 20 January 12 |
The above are only the latest three reviews.
See a list of all available reviews.
About Patricia Unterman
Food has been my main interest since my adolescence, so much so that in the early 70’s, I changed careers to become a cook. Naturally, since that time, I have always followed the significant reviews of restaurants in the San Francisco Bay area, my home since 1964. In the early 80’s, I discovered the most respected restaurant critic in the region, Patricia Unterman, at the time writing reviews for the San Francisco Chronicle.
She busted me for using old garlic when I was the chef at short-lived Cafe San Lucas on Bush in the mid 80’s; and a second time in her Food Lover’s Guide when I let the food at Timo’s slide a little. She was right both times. I have actually seen her only twice: once in the mid 90’s, when I was fortuitously introduced to her at one of the local farmer’s markets; then some years later when I waived to her from a distance (I am not even sure she noticed) at a very special dinner cooked by Marc Meneau at Ernie’s.
In the early to mid-90’s, I lost track of her for a while, when she left the newspaper – that was the Chronicle’s loss. I caught up with her again, at the Examiner, where she is to this day writing her weekly reviews. If you ask me, she is still the best food/restaurant critic the Bay area has seen since I arrived in 1964.
I am very fortunate, and consider it an honor, that she is allowing me to re-publish her Examiner restaurant reviews, something we arranged recently by e-mail. Now you can read these reviews in English or Spanish – translated by me personally. These reviews are not her only food-related writings. If you live in the Bay area and don’t know who she is, you need to get out a little more – or learn more about her on this page in her restaurant web site.
The running of the bulls.Many of us know about this event in Pamplona´s annual San Fermin Festival, described in Ernest Hemingway´s 1926 novel, "The Sun Also Rises". During bullfighting season, criadillas (steer testicles a.k.a. Mountain Oysters) are plentiful and are a signature dish in a popular restaurant near the Plaza de Toros (bull ring), the source of a very fresh product.
At the end of the meal, he told the server how great the dish was, but pointed out that the portion on his previous visit had been much more substantial. The server´s reply: "But Sir, the bullfighter doesn´t always win!" |
An adventurous American gourmet enjoyed the criadillas immensely, so, three years later, being in the area, could not pass up repeating the experience.