2267 Kearney St
Established 2005
Visited December 19, 2017
Tables is a neighborhood restaurant that does very little if any advertising or social media. How do people find it? Word of mouth, walk ups. However it gets it's customers, it does and it is evident this Wednesday night. The prices reflect the customers that dine here. Older, settled in, richer, middle of the road, non-hip.
Being a New American restaurant, Tables cooks with eclectic ingredients. In my experience, I find that New American doesn't really taste any better than more traditional dishes. The preparation use less common ingredients. The size of the meal is small and it feels as if the proportions have an inverse relation to price.
Rather than rewriting in my own words, I unabashedly take the description verbatim from the Tables menu: Crispy ½ CHICKEN, Roasted KOHLRABI–CAULIFLOWER, ROSEMARY & SUMAC Beurre Blanc 22.
So I was right about proportion size. That's a 1/2 chicken very tender but quail on steroid size. I never see chicken this small in the grocery store. The dish is aesthetically plated to give it a New American signature. The chicken skin delivers as advertised crispy, and it's something I wish I could replicate. Thin and rendered fat free yet the chicken itself remains moist and tender. I'm unsure of the seasoning. I'm not feeling a lack of salt but if there's any additional seasoning, my brutish palate fails to detect it. The kohlrabi and cauliflower combination support the chicken but are otherwise traditional Midwest roasted tasting. The beurre blanc jumps out to tickle the tongue with a tartness to give the chicken and vegetables a kick, but the rosemary and sumac are lost on me.
Maybe chicken is the wrong protein to showcase creativity. Despite the skills, whole chicken prepared as New American still tastes the same as American.
My waiter is a pro. Knowledgeable, friendly, efficient, unobtrusive.
Food: ★★★
Service: ★★★1/4
Probability of making an out of the way return: 2%
Probability of returning if in the area: 35%
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