The Other Critics

Bauer Calls Terra ‘Better Than Ever’; Erickson Visits Attic in San Mateo

For this week’s update, Michael Bauer revisits Terra (1345 Railroad Avenue, St. Helena), which shuttered briefly in January and has reconfigured itself into a smaller, 30-seat restaurant and a next-door cocktail lounge called Bar Terra. Bauer says the “substantially updated” menu at the new Terra is “as exciting and modern as a restaurant that just opened,” and that chef owner Hiro Sone seems “rejuvenated” since the reopening. He especially likes the acqua pazza, “halibut cooked in ‘crazy water’ with stock, wine, garlic, capers and chile flakes,” and Sone’s inventive plating of a strip steak, cubed on the plate with a crusty bone marrow-potato gratin, herbs, and baby carrots. In the end, the place is upgraded to a whopping three and a half stars, elevating it to Quince and Prospect territory. [Chron]

Revisiting some of the Filipino-inflect highlights of the long-gone Poleng Lounge, Mandy Erickson heads down to Attic in downtown San Mateo where former Poleng chef Tim Luym is serving as consulting chef. Things like his adobo lollipops reappear here, and she describes them as “delightfully crispy chicken wings formed into drumettes and coated in an adobo glaze.” She’s a fan of the “Filipino funk” on the wok-tossed shrimp and long beans, as well as the Long-Life Garlic Noodles and the “excellent” Korean barbecue lettuce wraps. All told: two stars. [Chron]

And finally, we have a Bar Bites-size review of Presidio Social Club, which Janny Hu says is “as charming as ever.” [Chron]

Bauer Calls Terra ‘Better Than Ever’; Erickson Visits Attic in San