Clementine

(415)387-0408
126 Clement St.
(bet. 2nd & 3rd)
San Francisco, CA
(Inner Richmond district)
5:30-10 Tue-Sun
5:30-10:30 Fri & Sat

Price: $$-$$$$
Rating: 9 (Rating & price key)
Last visit: 01/17/05

Excellent food and perfect service in this cute French restaurant in the Avenues. Reservations are definitely a very good idea - I called on a Monday to make a Tuesday reservation for two and all they had left was a 8:30. If you arrive before 7 Sunday or Tuesday-Thursday, they have a $24 3-course prix fixe which looks like a great deal. As we arrived well after 7, we ordered from the a la carte menu. We started with a crab and shrimp salad ($9.75), a large and delicious portion and porcini mushroom ravioli with truffle oil and brown sauce ($8.50), also a generous appetizer portion, and really, really good. For main courses, Sarah ordered the stuffed chicken breast ($14.95), not something I'd have chosen myself, but it was certainly tasty, stuffed with a green herb/cheese concoction and served atop a bed of incredibly garlicy mashed potatoes. My entree of duck breast with foie gras sauce ($17.50) was great - very rich and deep in flavor and very well-cooked. I ordered it medium, as I'm afraid to use the word "rare" in a french restaurant, but medium rare would have been fine. Tasty radishes and cocktail onions garnished the side of my dish and the duck had a very large pile of wonderful mushrooms under it. For dessert we had a colonel clementine ($6.50), a tangy and lovely tangerine sorbet floating in vodka, something we agreed is a really wonderful idea, and profiteroles ($6.50), stuffed with a rich ice cream and coated with a crispy chocolate layer. Both, although very different, were fantastic, a perfect way to end a memorable evening. Service was absolutely spot-on, detecting voids in our conversation and bringing tasty food to fill them. We never touched either our wine or Perrier bottles, as the staff was always on hand to keep our glasses full. Their wine list is extensive (and expensive - they have a $1070 bottle and a whole bunch in the multiple hundreds of dollars range!). Our $29 '00 Benziger Pinot was a good match to our food (although they have many French wines, I'm hopeless with them). I'm delighted to have found this place, and will endeavor to find occasions to return!