Save Me San Francisco!

Jade sent my dad RM300 worth of Tai Thong vouchers for his birthday and he needed to use them up before they expired. How best to blow that kind of cash on one meal? For dad, it was to invite his greediguts along for lunch, with Kit in tow.

Because the Tai Thong vouchers cover all of TT Resources’ restaurants, we had a good selection. Chinese, Italian, Thai, Western. And quite a few of them were at Tropicana City Mall, so off we went to San Francisco Steakhouse.

Oysters in the half shell.

Deep-fried mushrooms.

Nachos.

I’d dined at an SFS before with uber Creative Director Pat Seow. I enjoyed that experience and was hoping to replicate it. However, though the Tropicana City Mall outlet was the successor of the branch I dined at, right across the road, it was designed by someone who clearly did not care to see what he was eating. It was so dark there that a bat would have dined in comfort at noon.

Still, the oysters in half shells were fresh and briny. RM34.90 for a half dozen weren’t too bad for the size we got. A decent enough start, as were the baked onion soup (RM11.90) and dad’s oxtail soup (RM12.90). The nachos were also passable, but really, it’s quite hard to louse up nachos, since nearly everything comes from a pack!

The dingy interior lighting made the tuna look worse than it was.

Lamb ribs.

Double slab beef ribs combo.

The entrees were quite disappointing however. My medium rare tuna ahi was stringy and obviously had been residing in deep freeze, and had lost texture when defrosted. There was a dingy grayness about it which was quite off-putting. Mum enjoyed the puy lentil accompaniment though, but for RM48.90, I could buy a whole sack of split green beans!


The family shared a Combo of beef ribs (RM65.90) which dad deemed very tender and tasty, but which Kit said were overly soft and mushy. The slab of black pepper lamb (RM28.90) was so fatty that it was congealing before they could be eaten and though tender enough, the cloying fat was a little off-putting.

Pear and ginger pud.

Key lime lie.

Varlhona chocolate cake.

Dessert was good, with a surprisingly well-done pear and ginger pudding (RM12.90). The key lime pie (RM12.90) was a bit stodgy and felt as if it had been in the dessert chiller for a little too long.


The wait for the Varlhona Hot Chocolate cake (RM17.90) was worth it, as the moist little sponge gave way to a molten, oozing center of black gold which went really well with the accompanying ice cream.

Verdict? The peripheries were all good, but the main event fell short. Would I come again? Yes, if someone were buying. And even then I’d order something less likely to disappoint, like pasta.

San Francisco Steakhouse 
Tropicana City Mall
Tel: +603 7728 8070