Ponzu

Contemporary Asian cuisine gets rave reviews in San Francisco's theater district

Ponzu's contemporary Asian cuisine is lighting up San Francisco's theater district with bold, fresh tastes.

"I think its food is better than other Asian restaurants," says chef Barney Brown, formerly of Betelnut restaurant and now with Café Asia, a casual concept in the city's Asian Art Museum. "They use a little bit of fusion, and that's hard to pull off unless you're really familiar with the flavor and ingredients," he adds.

Lisa Redwine, general manager at Ponzu, which is a member of Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants, calls the menu fun and unique. "You can get steak in any city, but you can't find what Ponzu offers in every city," she says.

Before taking the GM job at the restaurant, Redwine was the assistant general manager for an eatery located a block away. But, she says, "I've been a regular customer at Ponzu for the last three years."

Redwine says that Ponzu's menu, which consists of small and large plates, is based on tastes and techniques drawn from Vietnamese, Thai, Japanese and Chinese traditions. The items then are presented in a contemporary California style.

Speaking enthusiastically about Ponzu's shrimp and green mango summer rolls with tamarind dip, Redwine says she "would wake up and scream to have the green mango. I'd say, 'Wow, it's a green-mango day!' "

Another hot-button item for Ponzu's GM is the Sticky hoisin ribs with lemon and scallion. "Those things are addictive," she says. "They're sticky, and you eat them with your fingers. Here you are in this beautiful restaurant environment, and it's OK to eat with your hands."

The hoisin ribs and the chili-salt squid, which is served with cilantro and lime, are among the restaurant's more popular items, says chef John Beardsley, the man behind the menu. Beardsley helped open Ponzu in January 2000.

Though the chef left the restaurant May 1, Niki Leondakis, executive vice president for Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants, says the cuisine will remain the same.

Looking ahead, Leondakis says Ponzu's menu may be simplified a bit to make it more understandable to those not familiar with Asian food.

"San Francisco is very in tune with Asian cuisine because of our demographics," she notes. "There are a lot of Asian people here, so the ingredients and terminology on the menu are not foreign to them."

It's a different story for many visitors who are not so accustomed to Asian food. "Some of the words on the Ponzu menu might be a little intimidating," Leondakis adds. "We may try to simplify the wording a bit to make it more appealing to more types of people."

For Ponzu, being in the theater district means attracting the showgoers for a first sitting. After that the mix includes guests from the adjacent Serrano hotel as well as tourists and destination diners.

"Originally, our lounge was more of a bar with lots of high bar stools geared toward the dot-com crowd who went to bars every night," Beardsley recalls. "When the dot-com bubble burst, the bar area was remodeled into a more relaxing lounge."

A man who knows something about Ponzu is David von Winckler, general manager of the Serrano hotel.

"You want to know how good the food is? I'll tell you," he says. "Ponzu started doing our room service in January, and guest satisfaction results have gone up 25 percent, so that tells you more than anything I can say."

Typical of the guest comments he gets are those who rave about the fresh ingredients and artful presentation. "A big favorite is the Bangkok Melon Salad with lime leaf, crispy shallots and Thai basil," he adds.

Every day the manager at the Serrano, a boutique hotel, hosts a wine reception for hotel guests. "Ponzu passes through with hors d'oeuvres as a teaser, and it never fails to start a stampede to the restaurant," von Winckler says.

Open seven nights for dinner, Ponzu seats 150 and offers a compelling environment, featuring a free-flowing dining room and cocktail lounge with a curvy bar backed by three 125-gallon tanks filled with exotic fish.

Beardsley notes that "we're in great shape. We've got a terrific front-of-the-house manager in Lisa Redwine and a great sous chef in Erik Ritter, who's been here from the beginning and has a bug for Asian food just like me."

As Michael Bauer, executive food and wine editor of the San Francisco Chronicle told Nation's Restaurant News: "They do a very good job. The food is fusion style with very fresh, bright flavors."

Leondakis says one of the reasons for Ponzu's popularity "is that each dish is pure in its integrity to where it comes from. John didn't mess around with combining things that were not in keeping with the ingredients of the culture, whether it's Thai, Korean, Chinese or Vietnamese."

"Ponzu is my favorite place to eat," she adds. "There's a lot of really distinctive, strong and bold flavors, but the food isn't heavy and that's a testament to our chef and to Asian cuisine in general."