TRACE — Restaurant in San Francisco

Good, for a Hotel Restaurant

Since it was “Restaurant Week,” which actually lasts about ten days, in San Francisco, we decided to “get out of our usual restaurant rut” to try Trace, which is the restaurant attached to the W Hotel (although we didn’t know it was a “hotel restaurant” when we booked).

We arrived a bit early for our 6pm dinner reservation, so we stopped in for a drink at the W Hotel bar. The bartender was friendly and professional – and was able to explain the flavor profiles of the specialty cocktails.

We were among the first to be seated for dinner at Trace, since the restaurant itself doesn’t start dinner service until 6:00pm (the time of our reservation). We were presented with the Restaurant Week menu (three courses for $40 USD), the regular menu, the regular wine list, and a special Restaurant Week wine list with bottles that were half-priced for the evening, which was a delightful surprise.

At the suggestion of the server, we chose a 2008 Prelude A Grand Puy Ducasse, which is a Bordeaux and Medoc blend. The cork broke as the server opened the bottle of wine, so he took it back to strain and decant, adding that the decanting would benefit the wine since it was a “bit mineral” in taste, which was an understatement, even after decanting and breathing. A mineral taste in a white Sancerre is lovely, but rather off-putting in a Bordeaux. For us, the flavor never “opened up” to be a fulfilling wine taste. In addition, while writing this review, I consulted the online menu, which indicated that the Restaurant Week special dinners included a glass of wine, but the server didn’t mention that fact (and we, frankly, didn’t notice the mention of the complimentary glass of wine at the time of our dinner).

As for dinner itself, I started with the ahi tuna tataki, with winter citrus, avocado, and black olive vinaigrette (as described on the menu). The overall flavor of the dish was OK, I suppose, but the tuna lacked in flavor, even with the overly briny olive vinaigrette. The avocado turned out to be seven dots of avocado mousse. For his starter, my husband had the roast pork belly with gochujang butternut purée and pickled apples. His dish was, by far, the better choice for a starter. The pork belly was prepared quite well, and not overly salty, which was a big plus.

For the main course, we both had the Liberty Farms duck breast, served with farro, baby kale, and duck confit croquettes. While the duck was cooked properly to medium-rare, the meat was very tough, to the point that we had to “saw off” bits with the table knife. Even if the server had brought a proper serrated knife for the meat (which, by the way, should have been done automatically), the duck itself was overly chewy and lacking in flavor. The farro and the croquettes were quite good, but if I never see kale on a menu again, that would be fine with me.

For dessert, we both had the vanilla bread pudding, with butterscotch caramel, almonds, and whipped crème fraiche, which was delicious. In fact, it was the best part of the meal.

Overall, the restaurant is generally good, particularly for a “hotel restaurant.” If you’re staying in downtown San Francisco for business, Trace is a good restaurant for the area; but, as a resident of San Francisco, I’m not going to rush back for a...

Was.. ok. I am not trying to be a jerk or not trying to be THAT review guy, but having 'meh'd' my way through my meal I figured I would internet vent.

The fried brussel sprouts were way too on the sweet side for them to be sweet and sour. They were nice and crunchy until you got to the ones soaking in the juice/sauce concoction. Then they got to the un-edible point. Way too sweet.

My rib eye was questionably a ribeye. I have am by far not an expert, but I have spent many a weekend butchering my own meat and what I was served was closer to a flat iron than a ribeye. There was ZERO fat. None. No marbling whatsoever. If it was a ribeye, they trimmed every bit of fat away - all of it. For a kitchen who, I was told, does their own butchering -that is sacrilege. What is a ribeye if not to have that buttery fat to give it flavor. Absolute travesty... Otherwise, it was cooked well, and was a decent steak. Just... not a ribeye.

Ice Cream sandwiches were good. Probably best part of the meal. I didn't really need four of them though, two would have been perfect. Not sure how you can justify the $9 cookies though if you didn't served enough for two I guess.

Service was 50/50. Staff seemed to split the room. One was very nice and pleasant. The other... stand offish and was doing his job.

Overall - stupidly expensive and absolutely not worth it. I literally laughed when I was handed the bill. Not sure what I expected I suppose.

** Edit - Just got a call from manager apologizing and accepting my criticisms. Kudos to them for taking the feedback for...

We HATED this place called Trace. It's a place where the pace of the food delivery and service is so bad that it brought frowns to our face - what a disgrace. Oh what a disgrace! The waiter must have misplaced our order and then did nothing, absolutely nothing about it for over 45 minutes! What a head case!

We arrived at 11:54 am (Google told me that), was promptly seated in a nice booth. We promptly ordered. After about 30+ minutes, we realized that somethings wrong. Called over the waiter. Came back in ten minutes and said we were ticket #3. We said "hey fella, we've watched people come and go ordering the same burger yet here we sit!". The manager checked but did nothing. One would think that they would rush our food through - nope, nada. We left at 1:31 pm after eating a turkey burger and fries. You would have thought this was a multi-course...