The Rotunda Restaurant Review

Hello there. It’s been a while since we had a restaurant review on Just One Cookbook. We want to share with you today one of the restaurants we enjoy around Union Square, The Rotunda.

When Nami and I were dating, we used to go to downtown San Francisco about once a week for dining and walking around. Near downtown Union Square, there are many restaurant choices and you could almost find any food you are in the mood for. One of our favorite restaurants in Union Square is The Rotunda restaurant located on the 4^th floor of Neiman Marcus.

On Mother’s Day, we celebrated with our friends and their family by going to the Rotunda for lunch. We had made the reservation many weeks prior and were promptly seated when we arrived. Children were provided a fabulous coloring book and crayons. I was surprised on the last page of the children coloring book, Neiman Marcus actually shares their delicious popover recipe.

The meal started with a savory shot of consommé and cheese puff pastry. The consommé is very rich with the perfect amount of flavoring and definitely leaves you wanting another shot.

After the consommé, we were served the popover and strawberry butter. The popovers were a crowd favorite and kids absolutely loved the strawberry butter. See recipe here.

Since there were a few of us, we were able to order a variety of our favorite dishes, including soup, salad, and main courses. The soup we had was lobster bisque with crème fraîche, chives, and lemon oil. The tasty creamy soup is filled with sweet lobster essence. It’s a bit on the heavy side so I recommend sharing it with another person.

The seared miso scallop salad with marinated shimeji mushrooms, cucumber, carrots, wakame, in the yuzu-soy vinaigrette was very refreshing. The generous serving of scallops were seared just right and the light dressing didn’t cover up the flavors from the rest of the ingredients.

The only disappointing appetizer we had was the lobster egg rolls which is usually superb. Not sure if it was Mother’s Day and the restaurant was extra crowded, but the egg rolls feels like it’s been sitting there for a while. The egg rolls contain Maine lobster, glass noodles, tree ear mushrooms, and bean sprouts served with a sweet chili sauce dip.

The overall food presentation that day was not as great as they usually are plated. The children shared a burger and grilled chicken. The burger was juicy and loved while there was plenty of leftover chicken.

For the main course, we shared achiote and lime marinated flat iron steak sandwich, two orders of the lobster club, and grilled filet mignon. The lobster club is one of the primary reason we went there, the applewood smoked bacon, avocado, arugula, and lemon aïoli served on a toasted brioche is amazingly good. The presentation subpar but tasted just as great as before.

Both the filet and the flat iron steak sandwich were average and I would recommend trying something else on the menu instead if you are there. The filet was tender but not very flavorful, it was served with heirloom tomatoes, grilled artichokes, and chimichurri on the side.

We were too full for the dessert but couldn’t resist the special Mother’s Day complimentary chocolate from the Rotunda.

Overall, it was a fun experience for us celebrating Mother’s Day with our friends and children in the city. Even though the food presentation isn’t as good as it usually is, the service was great. Our server was very attentive to all our needs even though it was a super busy day. We’ll come back to Rotunda again to enjoy our favorite lobster club and popovers, but definitely not a busy holiday.

Other SF Restaurant Reviews :

• The Amazing Meal at Atelier Crenn
• Keiko à Nob Hill – Restaurant Review
• Jai Yun Chinese Restaurant Review