Larkspur Landing, originally conceived as a sunny shopping and dining complex to entice San Francisco tourists and city dwellers onto the Larkspur Ferry for a day trip to the suburbs, has never really lived up to its promise. While many of the shops have faltered in the past few years, the restaurant scene has begun to blossom. Last year, E&O Trading Company, the smash-hit Southeastern Asian Grill in Union Square, began a complete redesign in the old Good Earth Restaurant space. Open since December of 2004, the new outpost pours on the charm of Asia from the moment one steps through the entryway. The new design takes advantage of the high-ceilinged but oddly shaped corner space to create several intimate areas for cocktails and dining. Near the entry, there's a bar with high tables and woven rattan ceiling fans, including a tall, rounded wooden one that serves to partition off the dining rooms. Nestled against one wall of the bar is an alcove swagged by endlessly long sheer copper-colored draperies and lined with crimson cushions, perfect for large parties to wait, drinks in hand, for their full numbers to arrive. The interior dining chambers wind their way past an open kitchen toward a wall of banquettes lined with jewel embroidered pillows. Panels of brightly colored woven silk drift from the ceiling. The walls are painted in mouth-watering shades of persimmon, pumpkin, mustard and cinnamon; beaded curtains, bamboo, basketry, wooden bells and monkey gods line doorways, shelves and surfaces. Central against one wall is a huge map of Asia, and there are shaded patio tables facing the splashing courtyard fountain. The only off-note is the music, some genre of syntho-disco pop that jars against the spell of the mesmerizing decor.
With all this enchantment, we felt behooved to order luscious tropical drinks to match. My deep rose-colored Pomegranate Margarita ($9) came in a martini glass rimmed in coarse salt and decorated with a slice of lime. It tasted wonderful, with the perfect blend of tart and sweet. My companion's Singapore Sling (also $9), cool and kissed with pineapple juice and sugar cane, was served in the tallest, slimmest of glassware, with one of those little paper umbrellas peeping from the top. Feeling festive, we toasted our evening and, fortified, tackled the menu.
E&O Trading Company has been described as an updated version of the original Trader Vic's, and this comparison is apt. Reading the menu is like wandering into an Asian market, sumptuous with exotic sights and seductive, foreign scents. We managed to eliminate the salad and satay categories, but only because we hoped to duplicate some of their ingredients in other dishes. The problem is that everything sounds good: ginger sesame steak satay; Burmese ginger salad; pepper crusted ahi and asparagus. We wanted it all.
But we settled on two appetizers: an order of panir naan ($4.95) from the selection titled Indian Style Flat Breads, and tea smoked pork lettuce cups ($10.95) from the Small Plates. At the last minute, we threw in an order of Indonesian corn fritters ($7.95), which my friend had sampled in the city and pronounced spectacular.
And so they were: big chunks of plumped corn kernels bound together with the laciest of batters, served with a tangy, salty chili dipping sauce. The soft, pillowy flatbreads, sprinkled with cumin and stuffed with creamy white cheese, were equally tempting, sauced alternately with a rich tomato sambal sauce and a mango chutney with tiny golden champagne raisins.
"Smoked pork is a very good idea," commented my friend, having just swallowed a bite of lettuce leaf wrapped around shreds of the tender, smoky meat doused with Hoisin and Vietnamese hot pepper sauce. The serving included a generous pile of iceberg lettuce leaves, big enough to roll around the meat twice to keep any delicious morsels from falling out. All three appetizers were arranged artfully on their pretty ceramic dishes.
From the Big Plates list, we chose two. Hardwood grilled ahi tuna ($22.95), arranged on a triangular aqua plate, rested slices of rare ahi against emerald green halves of roasted bok choy, with a chili/soy dipping sauce, soft rounds of marinated Japanese eggplant and a mound of brown mushroom rice. The tuna itself was perfectly grilled: golden crisp on the outside and ruby at the center. The tender bok choy was ever so slightly scented with sesame, and the eggplant melted in our mouths. Although the woodsy flavor of mushroom in the rice was fine, it was undercooked, dry and crunchy, and also, superfluously sweet.
Over the course of an Asian meal, in which a collaboration of sweet, salty, sour and pungent elements work their magic in each dish, sweet flavors can begin to overpower the taste buds if not used judiciously. We were pleased to find that not to be true with our Saigon steak ($23.95), a charbroiled New York steak served with a ginger-scallion rice cake and a brochette of grilled vegetables. Although we did experiment with dipping bites of steak into the sauce left from our corn fritters, it was a relief to have this final plate turn out to be the simplest. The eggplant on the skewers was not fully cooked, but we loved the chewy texture and caramelized exterior of the snowy rice.
By this time our table was loaded with plates, each with enough leftovers to make a substantial meal for a third person. After such a surfeit of food, we chose the lightest offering from the dessert list: ice cream sandwiches made from Chinese almond cookies filled with green tea, azuki bean and Vietnamese coffee ice creams ($5.95). But our server returned to tell us they were not available that evening.
I returned for lunch, mostly to try dessert. My salad of pepper crusted ahi and asparagus ($12.95) was disappointingly small for the price, and included slices of sugary pickled cucumber and Japanese ginger along with a sweet vinaigrette. The whole was overwhelmingly sweet, which was particularly unfortunate because it made the thought of dessert less appetizing. Nevertheless, I persevered and ordered the ice cream sandwiches.
It may seem churlish to complain about too much dessert, however, this portion was far from light. I was imagining miniature sandwiches, but the trio that arrived measured three inches in diameter each, and they were almost two inches high. This matters when the dessert involves ice cream, which of course can't be taken home to finish later. The highly anticipated green tea ice cream had been substituted with banana, a significant enough switch that we should have been informed in advance. We did like the azuki bean ice cream, pink in hue and mild in flavor, and the strong coffee version, which had been dipped in chocolate on one side.
While on my first visit the service had been impeccable, this time it was lackadaisical. Our server disappeared for long periods, and I had to wander over to the bar to find someone to take my money.
A meal at E&O Trading Company can be filled with surprises and delights, just as a trip to Asia should be. In the past, I've sometimes wondered whether it was worth paying higher prices for upscale Asian meals when we have so many great, low-priced ethnic restaurants in the Bay Area. But in the face of E&O's artistry both in cuisine and ambiance, I mostly come down on the side of luxury.
The prices put this restaurant in the special occasion category, but in almost every way it does fit the definition of special. My only caution is to inquire about portion sizes, since some are surprisingly large and others, especially the salads, disconcertingly small. If you prefer to be careful about how much sugar you ingest, ask about that as well.
