Cuisine: Californian
Location: One Letterman Drive, Building D Suite 150, San Francisco, Ca 94129 @ The Presidio
Original Review: Feb., 2008
By: James Lim
My wife and I love to eat! Our gastro adventure took us to a restaurant, called Pres a Vis. The restaurant is marketed as Asian-Fusion, which includes Spanish, Filipino, French, Italian and Latin American influences. The culinary dishes were created by a fairly well-known chef in the Bay Area, Chef Degala. He is one of the rising chefs in the Bay Area and is more well-known in the East Bay for his restaurant, Va de Vis.
When Cay and I arrived in the restaurant, we were excited as the restaurant has a great vibe to it. The maitre d’ was friendly and we were seated promptly. Our server was very knowledgeable and friendly as well. When our server presented the menu and the wine list, I became more interested in the wine list. It was very impressive with more than fifty wines available by the glass. Each wine is also available in 3 oz taste or six oz glass with clever taste descriptions. One can also indulge in wine flights that has three half glasses of white or reds. Since I was driving, I decided to just have a 3 oz taste of Sangiovese, Cab (Italian red).
We opted to go for the small plates and one big plate. We started off with Pork Belly (a.k.a, Kawali) with green papaya salad. The kawali was delicious as it had some sweet sauce on top. The sweet and salty flavor of the dish were a perfect combination and it goes really well with the green papaya salad that had cucumber, pickled red onions, taro chips, flower petals, bean sprouts and carrots.
After the kawali, it was a complete disaster! We had Hawaiian Ahi Tartare. Cay is the expert when it comes to Ahi tuna as that’s one of her favorite starters. She was completely disappointed with it that she was planning to pass-by Mahalo Grill in Pleasanton the next day to satisfy her cravings for ahi tuna.
We also ordered “Duck Buns,” a duck confit dish in a steamed bun. The confit was prepared with too much salt. One could hardly taste the garlic. The hoisin overpowered, which made the dish even more salty. I could get a better duck bun in Chinatown.
Finally, we decided to order the miso-marinated Alaskan Black Cod. It’s also known as “butterfish” in some restaurants. Again, the dish was too salty that we could not enjoy the texture and the unique taste of the fish that was presented. If you are craving for an Alaskan Black Cod, I suggest you visit Kyo Ya at the Palace Hotel and not bother go to Pres a Vis.
This was a disappointing experience as the chef is also Filipino-American. My recommendation is that if you decide to visit Pres a Vis, go for the wine flights and just a couple of small plates.
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