i was watching this with will and kp:

Sounds simple but this seemingly straightforward formula often runs amok, which I think is the case at Circolo.

New chef Garret Martindale created some stunning combinations when I reviewed his food at the Carnelian Room in 2002; he was cooking high-style combinations and earned three stars at the restaurant atop the Bank of America building, a spot where the food had previously been an afterthought. He was certainly a chef to watch.

In the intervening six years, he’s cooked at various places including the Rotunda at Neiman Marcus. Two months ago he took over the kitchen at Circolo, replacing Patrick Kehler, who left to open Urban Tavern.

Forced combinations

Kehler cooked in the East-West genre, and that sensibility has been picked up by Martindale whose new menu has a heavy Asian influence with a little Latin thrown in. It’s a little too Asia de Cuba for me – the combinations seem forced and dated.

It’s a mistake to serve cauliflower soup ($6) with a china spoon. This utensil isn’t designed for thick, creamy soups; the bowl is too deep and the spoon is too large to get the entire thing in your mouth, so there’s always something clinging to the edge and threatening to drip. It becomes an annoying obstacle and draws attention away from the expert preparation.

Kabocha squash ravioli ($7) came to the table on a rectangular plate looking like Chinese dumplings, surrounded by sauteed mushrooms on one side and sauteed onions on the other. The pasta was sticky and underdone and needed a sauce to make it more palatable. The menu advertised ponzu cream sauce, and there was a small pool on the bottom of the plate, but none of it coated the pasta and soaked into the dry mushrooms.

He also tries to keep some of the Nuevo Latino and Asian blend of the previous chef in such dishes as the spinach salad ($8) that has both queso cotija cheese and a mirin sake dressing.

In many cases, these cross-cultural flavors don’t connect, but when they do the results can be magnificent.

Memorable chicken lollipops

The chicken lollipops ($8) came on the same shape plate as the pasta, but this time the bottom was matted with a sprightly napa and purple cabbage slaw with shards of carrots. Equally spaced on top were four fried chicken drumettes with the bone scraped to form a handle. The fry was perfect and held in a gush of hot liquid, a sensation that reminded me of Shanghai soup dumplings.

Martindale uses the same meat-and-bone idea on the six-hour braised Kobe short ribs ($26). One bone protruded from the center of the disk of gooey, rich meat. It was set in the center of a shallow bowl on soft white polenta and an inky meat sauce given a faux Asian sensibility with hoisin and sake. The dish was good, but needed a scattering of sugar snap peas or other crunchy vegetable to break the monochromatic look and texture.

Much like the ravioli, the miso-glazed sea bass ($27) was in need of a third element to bring the flavors together. This time the rectangular plate held a hunk of fish on a sticky pool of miso glaze on one side and a mound of gummy green noodles on the other; they were refrigerator-cold and had the one-dimensional taste of jalapeno. A broth or sauce would have gone a long way toward unifying the dish.

Head vs. heart

Each dish, while sometimes flawed, had glimmers of Martindale’s obvious talent, and even given the incongruities, the food was pretty good. However, it felt as if he was cooking from his head instead of his heart.

When Circolo opened four years ago, I thought the 50-seat warehouse felt like a pretend restaurant that really wanted to be nightclub; it still has that feeling because there is so much space for the number of seats. A large part is taken up with a sexy-looking 25-seat lounge with a lot of sofa-like seating. A floor-to-ceiling mesh curtain separates it from the dining area defined by what looks like a wood dance floor opposite the open kitchen.

In fact, the bar feels more comfortable than the dining area; the bartenders produce some interesting fruit-based cocktails, and the Manhattan ($9) and the Negroni ($8) compete with the city’s best. The waiters try to bridge the divide between the concepts and do a pretty good job, though at times they seem a little harried.

As I sat trying to eat the dismal crispy banana and peanut butter rolls ($8), with slices of egg roll-wrapped fruit on a gelatinous coconut caramel sauce, it become obvious Circolo has an identity crisis. Is it a nightclub or a restaurant?

Circolo

500 Florida St. (at Mariposa), San Francisco; (415) 553-8560 or circolosf.com.

Lunch noon-2:30 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; dinner 5-10 p.m. Tuesday-

Saturday. Full bar. Reservations and credit cards accepted. Easy street parking.

more here:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/29/FD7313NLNS.DTL&hw=Michael+Bauer&sn=003&sc=457