The Other Critics

The Staff at Isa Really Blows It for Bauer’s Update Review; Unterman Eats Sheep at Oliveto

As proof that Michael Bauer is not in fact recognized at all restaurants in S.F., we offer you his update review of Isa, in which he was greeted with some awful service and where several staff members made a stink about the fact that he’d cashed in his 1,000 OpenTable points in making the reservation, qualifying him for a “special promotion” which meant he wasn’t allowed to sit on the patio and wasn’t allowed to order the prix-fixe. As for the food, he says the dishes he tried again were “merely rote imitations of what [former chef-owner Luke Sung] did,” but the half-chicken is still excellent. He gives them a pass at two stars. [Chron]

Patty U. says she drove across the Bay just because she saw that Oliveto had put a pan-roasted saddle chop of sheep on the menu, and “the only discernible sheep [she’d ever eaten] came from the old Jack’s on Sacramento Street maybe 30 years ago, in the form of a mutton chop.” Oliveto’s sheep, from Magruder Ranch “had red, juicy flesh and vivacious if mild flavor delivering the carnal satisfaction of a juicy steak, without the fat,” and Patty devoured it. She also says they’re making “the best whole wheat pasta I’ve reluctantly tried,” and she loves the white pappardelle with rabbit sugo. [Examiner]

The Staff at Isa Really Blows It for Bauer’s Update Review; Unterman Eats