As I walked into Andalu, I found myself immersed yet again in another trendy tapas joint. Our party was over fifteen people, and it took about 30 minutes for the staff to finally clear out a table for us.

The atmosphere is lively–cloyingly pushing everyone to celebrate whatever there is to celebrate. The menu consists of safe choices, anchored in Italian and French traditions. We each ordered two items, so variety was the spice of the night.

First, there was the fondue made from Cambazola cheese (a blue cheese), accompanied with Fuji apples and thin crunchy bread. I was a bit wary of Cambazola with apples, but the combination was actually quite nice. As always, everyone yearned for more bread or apples, since restaurants never give enough dipping artifacts to comfortably finish off the fondue.

Next came to the crab cake with Mache salad. The crab cake was good, but nothing special. I found it to be a bit heavy on the cream (or mayo, or whatever they used for creaminess).

After that was the grilled eggplant stuffed with ricotta, spinach, and pine nuts, served over Caponata (an Italian eggplant relish). I was disappointed with this one, probably because I had a lot of hope for it being good. The grilled eggplant was flavorless, not even imparting a gram of eggplant goodness on my taste buds. The ricotta and Caponata were satisfactory. However, this didn’t make up for the grilled eggplant, which should be the star of this dish.

Next, we dove into some of the heavier dishes. The grilled lamb was quite juicy, tender, and flavorful.

After that came the duck confit, which was very flavorful. However, this is the first time I’ve had duck confit, so I’m not sure how to judge it. Duck confit is duck that has been preserved in fat and salt for a period of time. The only cooking that is done is on a very low heat for extended periods of time. Complex flavors should develop as a result. It was, however, quite salty, which probably is to be expected.

Finally, we come to the dish everyone raves about: the Coca-Cola braised short-ribs. The ribs looked fantastic and incredibly tender. Perfect ribs should be tender, but never mushy. The meat should easily come off the bone, but still have some snap to it. Andalu’s ribs were inconsistent. I found some of the pieces to be entirely too tender and mushy, while others were a bit on the dry side. The marinade, however, was very flavorful and rich, just shy of being cloyingly sweet. There was no need for the sauce that came on the side, unless you’re hard of tasting. The beans added a nice temperature contrast with an interesting herby taste that I couldn’t pinpoint.

In short, Andalu’s was a good experience, but probably equivalent to many of the tapas places in the city. The food is familiar and easy to swallow, and the atmosphere is cheerful. On busy nights parking is almost impossible–use the valet.

3198 16th St. @ Guerrero
San Francisco, CA
415-621-2211

Filed under Restaurants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.