Coco500... I loved it... and I hated it.

I don't like writing lukewarm reviews, particularly when the food leaves absolutely nothing to complain about. But when poor or negligent service detracts enough from a meal to taint the overall experience, it has to be noted.

This past Saturday night, C and I had 9pm reservations at Coco500. We arrived a few minutes early and found ourselves crammed uncomfortably with a party of four in the small entry foyer. We were seated quickly, and had a nice long time to peruse the menu and examine the decor. It's warm and inviting with a new mirrored panel to help expand the feel of the space. The menu is divided into several sections, most of which invite sharing.

After about 10 minutes, our waiter came along and we ordered cocktails and our food. He wrote nothing down. Now, I am extremely impressed when waitstaff can commit to memory a full order without error, and I'm not at all predisposed to expect mistakes. Unfortunately, in this case, we would have been much better served by a small notepad. But more on that later.

About five minutes after we ordered, our first two plates came out. Our drinks didn't show up for another five minutes, at least. Still, we happily tucked in to our Duck Liver Terrine ($6), a deliciously rustic pate with house-pickled vegetables. The COCOmole "tacos"($4) were five tortilla chips topped with shredded beef cheek mole and some kind of avocado crema. C really enjoyed this, while I thought they could really have benefited from a bit more spice.

As our cocktails arrived, so did our Squash Blossom Flatbread ($9). Wow. There is a reason Loretta Keller's known for this dish. It was, in a word, amazing. Deep truffle essence, squash blossoms and parmesan cheese on a crisp-tender crust. I could eat this everyday, and never tire of it.

Our cocktails were tasty (the COCO500 and a Caiprinha, $9 each), though we really didn't expect to be drinking them with our dinner! It was at this point the first service oversight occurred. I asked for the wine list so we could enjoy something more appropriate with our larger dishes, but one never came. We ended up making do with our waters until dessert.

Next up came Beef Cheek with Watercress & Horseradish Cream ($13), which was mouthwateringly delicious, though perhaps better suited to wintertime. The beef was crusted in bread crumbs and fried. How do I know this? Because I asked the manager, as he was walking away from the table next door; the snotty attitude I got from him was staggering. When our "side dishes" arrived shortly thereafter, one of them was incorrect. We enjoyed the Cream Corn ($5) immensely, and waited patiently for our correct order of Creamed Cipollini Onions, which were more of a gratin-style dish. The corn was everything corn should be -- sweet, faintly smoky, luscious. The onions were, heavenly, but too rich for us to finish.

Unfortunately, our order of Local Calamari, Black Rice & Stewed Garlic ($9), which we'd really been looking forward to based on Joy's recommendation, never arrived. And frankly, by the time we finished what we could of the onions, we didn't press the matter.

Plates were cleared, and dessert menus presented. C ordered an espresso while I ordered a glass of Banyuls ($9), and we decided to share the Vacherin ($8.5), a favorite of mine from the Bizou days.

The Vacherin didn't disappoint (though I swear there was less meringue than before), the Banyuls was fine, and the espresso? Yeah, that never did show up.

Like I said at the beginning of this review: The food was fabulous. Unfortunately, the service seriously tainted the experience for us. Will we be back? Yes, I'm sure we will. But we will likely sit at the bar and have a few bites, rather than a full meal. And frankly, we're not likely to take guests here, because we're not willing to risk such lackluster service as hosts.

It makes me very sad, because I really wanted to love Coco500, all 'round.

Coco500
500 Brannan Street
San Francisco, CA
415.543.2222

Technorati Tags: Food | Food & Drink | Coco500 | San Francisco

Comments

[Melissa]

Geez! What a shame. Derrick and I will still give it a try, but maybe we'll wait just a tad longer. That sounds like a very frustrating night. I'm flummoxed as to your not receiving a wine list! Did you have to remind them of all the undelivered dishes and drinks at check time? If so, what was the reaction?

[Amy]

All restaurants need time to "iron out he kinks". As much as I'd like to be the first to eat at a hot new spot, I try to restrain myself for fear of service mishaps...nice to hear the food is good though.

[Fatemeh]

Amy, here's the thing -- Coco500 has been open for a while, and has gotten good reviews elsewhere. This wasn't a service snafu -- other tables around us with other staff were getting timely and good service (as best we could tell, at any rate). It was just this singular waiter, and the manager, who were fawning so much over the four-top of young, chic women next to us that they neglected our table.

[Fatemeh]

Melissa, thanks for bringing this up. I should have mentioned it in the post.

No, we were not billed for any of the items that were forgotten. It seems they were never entered into the system, at all.

[Dr. Biggles]

Jeez, 9 dollars for a cool refreshing beverage? Spose I'll be sippin' muh schlitz and relaxing in the boom boom room instead. The weather has finally warmed up for us.

Biggles

[sam]

Oh F - i know we were meant to come with you to this place, and I have been slack (so busy). Sorry!
maybe next time you try to give it a try we'll be there.
(Or somewhere else, like Zuppa nxt door or Fringale)

And to hell with ironing out kinks I say - I have wasted too much of my money on other peoples' 'laundry'.
Once a restaurant is open for business, if it has kinks then it should comp the customer for any mistakes.

We went to Jack Falstaff on the second day
they had kinks and they dealt with them brilliantly
And so I was forever well disposed towards them.

[Fatemeh]

But Biggles, this cocktail contains BASIL, and keffir lime vodka! Still, when I'm at home, a perfectly made Manhattan is my cocktail hour libation of choice.

[Fatemeh]

Sam, don't worry about it! We made a night of it -- headed off to Mighty to see Colette after dinner, so it all worked out.

I'm willing to excuse some service snafus, but it's all in how they handle it. Forgetfulness and attitude have no place in a restaurant, regardless of HOW bustling they are.

[Alder Yarrow]

I went last Thursday and I have to say it was some of the worst service I have EVER gotten in a San Francisco restaurant, and I don't say that lightly. It wasn't that busy, but it took 15 minutes to get a drink order in. Then another 15 minutes before we were asked if we wanted to order. We ordered wine with our meal that didn't show up until after our appetizers (and then only because we asked). The bread that should have been on the table as soon as the menus were gone showed up halfway through the appetizer course... it goes on and on.

The food was only just OK and my dessert sucked. I'm bitter about the whole experience.

[Joy]

This makes me really glad that I sat at the bar on my visit. I'm not sure I'd sit anywhere else now. Of course, knowing the bartender didn't hurt, either!

[Lenn]

No wine list? Do they not understand that it's in their best interested to fetch that for you...that's where they make their money! :)

[Fatemeh]

THERE WAS A BREAD SERVICE???

Seriously, though, while I'm sorry you had crappy service, Alder, I AM glad that I spoke up on the blog. I was a bit worried that this might have been an isolated experience.

And Lenn, by my calculations, they lost nearly $50 in revenue on our two-top with all the oversights.

[cedichoyu]

Re: ironing the kinks. Coco500 isn't exactly a new restaurant, it is a remodel/revamp/renewal of bizou, so they have tons of experience. When I went to Bizou the week they closed, the waiter was looking at the break as a 6 weeks vacation. Maybe they lost some staff -ie the ones who could not afford the vacation-, but there should be more than enough institutional memory.

Re: the beef cheek. I had that dish at Bizou, and it was too bready and too heavy. I have to admit not getting it. I'll try to remember 'best suited for wintertime' as a positive euphemism, should I encounter such a dish again.

[aaron]

hi there....

wow... memories, from the corner of my mind.

i opened this restaurant and read this review early on... (it was posted during the second month we were open)... and it was disheartening then and it is certianly disheartening now, but I think i finally know how to respond.

there is something about the restaurant business that makes it different from other businesses... maybe it is the fact that it is a community based organization no matter how you look at it; maybe it is that restaurants feed people and there is something organic and natural about that purpose. i do not really know the answer, but restaurants are not banks, they are not clothing stores, they are not equipped to handle everything that comes their way the day they open to the public. ever.

Because of that, restaurants should be looked at more as an organism with a unique personality that takes on characteristics of its own as time goes by. And new restaurants should be likend more to an awkward 13 year old cast into the throws of maturation and confusion with very little control over the direction that process takes than compared to some machine that is programmed to respond to the needs of everything with which it interacts properly and in a timely manner 100% of the time.

A restaurant goes through its infancy and early development in the minds and passions of the restaurateur (not unlike the conception of a child... sub parents for restaurateurs). The years of youth are non-unlike our own: a raw and innocent collective consciouness is subjected to strict rules and regulation, social scrutiny, and an introduction to the power of authority. In our lives we call this "elementary school"... for a restaurant, we call this "the permit approval process."

Next we come across the early adolescence, when our bodies begin building themselves up to blossom and start that long journey toward "maturity"(whatever that means). This is the "construction" phase for a restaurant: closed doors, tons of questions, frantic late nights delving into the notions of whether or not it is all going to turn out okay.

Following this VERY extended metaphor, the first time a restaurant opens its doors to customers/guests/partons it really is the equivalent of a 13 year old kid... equipped with a new body, a new look, an ego that extends way outside its realm of understanding and an attitude that it knows itself 'way better' than anyone else. I mean, seriously, how many 13 year olds have you met that you actually liked right off the bat?

Yet, for some reason we are able to give them the benefit of the doubt; we look through that puffed up, overstated exterior and search for the good within.

it has been a year to the day that our restaurant was reviewed on this site, and i would say that coco500 has started maturing quite nicely. last year i can assure you that coco was a bit full of itself. it was too big for its britches, if you do not mind my texan euphemism.

but now? the dust has settled. its like we are 16 now and have learned to drive. we have the satisfaction of knowing that first year is behind us. sure, there were mistakes. we make no claim to the otherwise. but now there is a confidence there that has replaced that egomania... there is a sense of balance and harmony within the limbs that were, only last year, awkward and embarassing.

may i just add here that when i was 13 and 14, i fell up and down the staircase to my room about 100 times... so much so that my little brother made up this song to the tune of jingle bells about my family of five... "jingle bells, ricky smells, ryan runs around, john thomas drools on thea's shoes and AARON FALLS ON THE GROUND." he was 6, i was 14...

... anyway, here i am one year later, and the third google hit down when i enter "coco500" is this review of our restaurant at the ripe old age of 13.

I do not know about you, but i am glad that my family did not start a blog site about my adolescence. if people read about the things i did, i can guarantee i would never get a date.

that said, i want to post a challenge to anyone who has read, responded to or who will, in the future, read this review of coco500 during its adolescence: come see it now, see the change, come enjoy yourself at a good restaurant that wants to people to have a good time.

i do not want to say that we will never make another mistake again. we are young. we are bound to have an off night here and there, and we hope to have attracted a clientele that will understand and accept that there will be lots of good nights and, mixed in there, will be a not-so-good night.

We are spoiled here, in sf. We have so many options. So many good choices of restaurants that we tend to be unforgiving. Trust me... i know... I can be as unforgiving as the rest. And i understand the need to vent after a bad night of bad service: I do it all the time... to my friends.

What I also do, that an electronic posting cannot, is give a restaurant a second chance. I can go back and change my mind. I can go and tell my friends that i warned away from a restaurant that it has inproved. An electronic posting can't do that.

In an interview with Jancis Robinson, my restaurateur hero, Danny Meyer, said the following of restaurant critics: "What I don't understand is why they don't follow the same approach as wine critics who taste wine and then base their opinions not just on the pleasure it gives today but what it will deliver in the future as well. We build and design our restaurants for the the long term not just because of the size of the investment involved but because, despite all the planning in the world, they take a long time to settle down. For the first three months in a new restaurant I just hold my nose and it is only after a year that I begin to feel safe."

These words inspire me. They make me feel like we are not too far off the mark, while they challenge me to continue working toward something better.

I hope to have the chance to introduce you to COCO5OO, one year later.

Thanks for reading.

Aaron, but you can 'just call me coco.'

[sam]

"coco" (aaron)

Thank you for taking the time to comment here on Fatemeh's blog.
I wish more restauranteurs would respond to blogs, especially in such a level-headed manner.

I think bloggers themselves also have their 13 year old selves to contend with, as they grow and mature into their blogs. For example, the restaurant reviews I wrote when I started blogging, I would not dream of writing today, although neither would I delete them because I think they illustrate my own personal progress.

To illustrate the fact that some of us, do, in fact take these issues seriously you might like to read this:
http://becksposhnosh.blogspot.com/2006/07/new-restaurant-review-ratings-system.html

For the record, I really enjoy your restaurant and have even managed to persuade my fussy French boyfriend to grow attached too - although it did take about four visits to win him over to you. I would always recommend it on Chowhound before I fell out with Chowhound and left it.

You can be sure that the local food bloggers I am most friendly are all huge fans of Coco500, including Fatemeh, Catherine at Food Musings, Joy, The Restaurant Whore, NS at SF Gourmet, Cooking with Amy and myself. You are certainly recommended by word of mouth in the circles I move in.

As for google page ranking - it is a mystery to most of us that cannot be completely unraveled. I hope that Fatemeh's new update this weekend will make you feel better, but there is no guarantee it will pip this post at the top of the google search page.

Sam 'Coco-Fan' Breach

PS - Is there anything you can do about the noise problem at Coco500? That is the only thing that I think is letting it down these days? When I was 13 I could put up with higher decibles but now I am getting on a bit, so the noise is getting to me.

[aaron]

hi sam, thanks for the email letting me know that you had posted a comment! I appreciate your comments and taking the time to respond to mine.

About the noise level: we are aware of the issue and have a plan. next time you are in the restaurant, look up. There is this accoustic material on the cieling that helps control sound. Unfortunately, we made the same mistake as Town Hall with theirs: we did not install enough of it! This stuff is really good at controlling sound, but the entire ceiling is not covered, so tons of sound still bounces off the walls in there. We recently re-balanced our stereo system and fixed some programming issues that were adding to the noise problem, but soon, we will be installing more of the accoustic material to level out the volume.

Thanks again, Sam