The Stinking Rose

(415) PU-1-ROSE
325 Columbus Ave.
(bet. Vallejo & Grant)
San Francisco, CA
(North Beach district)

Price: $-$$$
Rating: 5 (Rating & price key)
Last visit: 01/19/03

"We season our garlic with food," proclaims their tagline (this attracts the tourists, you see). We started with the very tasty Bagna Calda ($4.50, tons of roasted garlic cloves in oil with a teeny bit of anchovy), to spread on the unfortunately un-heated rolls and the tasty Iron Skillet Roasted Mussels ($9.95, tender mussels doused with some booze'y sauce and served with garlic butter). The mussels turned out to be everyone's favorite dish of the evening (except Ross who hates mussels :). A green chutney-like topping is provided and proved to be fearsomely garlicy (think dragon breath), and provided a nice kick when combined with the Bagna Calda.

I (and Nam-Anh and Ross) had the Roasted Rabbit ($16.95, served with pancetta, mushrooms, tomato, green olives, thyme, and rosemary), which was good, but did taste almost exactly like chicken except for a few outside bits. It was also overly bone-intensive, which always irks me somewhat, but it was well-flavored. Khanh ordered the Silence of the Lamb Shank ($16.75, with Chianti glaze and fava beans, ha ha ha), which proved extremely tender and very well-flavored - if I came here again, I'd order that over the bunny. Both dishes came with tasty creamy garlic mashed potatoes.

The atmosphere is decent, with lots of autographed photos on the wall (though oddly, many of them were addressed to the nearby "Calzones" restaurant, not to the Stinking Rose - perhaps they have the same owner?). Definitely a tourist-trap but you could do worse.