Sunday, April 11, 2010

{bar tartine, review of the pork belly sandwich}


my husband and i recently took a vacation up to northern california {cambria, san francisco, napa}. for part of the visit, we visited my friend lydia. she had mentioned to one of her bosses (a foodie) that i was coming, he was super kind enough to come up with a list of recommended places to eat! since much of the vacation centered around food (my husband kindly obliged), i have much to blog about! (although i did not forget that i need to share with you my eating adventures on abbott kinney soon)....

one of the restaurants highly reviewed was bar tartine in san francisco, famous for their open faced pork belly sandwich. the picture of the sandwich looks quite delicious right? pork belly can be amazing and i've had a few in my life. but, i sadly have to say that after slicing into the pork belly, it looked more like the fried by-products of liposuction sitting on a piece of bread. {ok that is a disturbing image buuut it seriously was 3 large greasy chunks of fat with a faint sliver of pork, and i mean sliver}. where was the PORK? i do realize that pork belly can be quite fatty, but this was above and beyond in my opinion...

i'm not that health conscience and adore bacon and fries, but this was a plate serving a heart attack, with a side of a coronary artery bypass. i'm not sure if we had unusual pieces (although we ordered two of them and it was the same) since i'm surprised that anybody could comfortably eat that dish without getting grossed out, even if it tasted good. maybe the people who enjoyed the dish had more pork on the pork belly?? granted, the flavor of the sliver of pork was delicious.... and there were other redeeming parts of the dish--the yummy shoestring fries and the avocado, egg salad, and pickled jalapenos and onions on the bread. needless to say, ordering 2 of those dishes was not ideal for the pocket & arteries and we left most of the "fat" belly on the plate. booooo...


i'm sure there are other great dishes at this restaurant and the ambience is nice. i think i'll give the restaurant the benefit of the doubt and say that the dishes we received that day were just a mishap....but i must say that i must missed the boat on what is so great about this pork belly sandwich.....

interestingly, they added a 4% surcharge to the bill to provide healthcare for their employees. apparently, not unusual in restaurants in san francisco so i was told?

4 comments:

MaryMoh said...

Looks like the super super fat part of the pork belly or just pure chunks of fat! Looks delicious but I'm not too sure whether I would try for health reasons.....maybe one bite..haha

bey0ndthinking said...

Bacon is so popular recently! Really a health problem but, hahah must taste delicious.

Medifast Coupon said...

I have never had a pork belly sandwich, sure looks good, thanks for sharing.

Anonymous said...

We sat at bar tartine for some apps, and the entire kitchen just reeked of butter and lard. most of the time, that's not a bad thing, but on that particular night... it made me wanna hurl.

Still love this place though.

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