Lunch @ RT Rotisserie

A few years ago I visited the much acclaimed Rich Table in Hayes Valley.  I was extremely underwhelmed.  The experience there didn't leave me all that interested in RT Rotesserie, the fast causal spinoff, down the street, even though reviews for it too were quite strong.

Except, one day, I decided I really wanted to go there.  It was fairly last minute, and I'm still not sure what inspired my visit.  Whatever it was, I'm glad I got the inspiration, as it blew its fancier sister restaurant out of the water.  I'll gladly return.

Lunch Feast for 3.

Our visit was for lunch, three of us all "normal" hunger levels.

We ordered ... the perfect amount of food.  1 rotisserie item, a pile of vegetable sides, and all the sauces.

It was all above average, and I was quite pleased with the entire experience, particularly at the price point.

Setting

RT Rotisserie is just down the street from Rich Table, with a simple and streamlined interior and experience, just like the menu.

Service is fast casual style, order at a register, receive a number to put on your selected table, food is brought to you when ready, tables are cleared as staff wander around and notice dirties.  They also do considerable takeout, including delivery or pickup via Caviar, and catering.  While the restaurant itself was reasonably occupied, we saw far more orders flying out in those ways.

But simple does not imply lower quality, the setting matches the quality of the cuisine as well.

Exterior.

The exterior of the restaurant is quite understated, on the corner, not much signage at all, much like Rich Table right down the street.

Interior.

The interior reminded me of Rich Table as well, although I liked it more at RT Rotisserie.

Most seating is small tables for 2, although there is one large table that can seat 6.  Groups of 4 tended to pull together two adjacent tables.

On the table when you sit are buckets with utensils and napkins, bottles of ketchup, and their house-made hot sauce.

Decor is simple but quality, wood tones, artwork, interesting light fixtures.

A station for water is on the side to help yourself, although we also enjoyed the housemade shiso lemonade ($2.75), which was not too sweet, and had a subtle fairly lovely shiso undertone.

Cuisine

The menu is fairly small and seemingly simple: Sandwiches (chicken - rotisserie or fried, pork belly, lamb, cauliflower), Soup & Salad (1 salad, 1 soup), Vegetables (including, uh, rice ...), Rotisserie (chicken or ribs),  Dessert (single flavor soft serve, single flavor cookies), and Drinks.

At a glance, its just another basic cafe menu.  But, each of these dishes, no matter how basic they might sound on paper, is far from it.

The proteins are all cooked either on the rotisserie, or slow roasted.  While we didn't have it, one signature dish is the cauliflower, yes, the cauliflower, slow roasted, served as a HUGE head of cauliflower.  People go crazy over this.

We went heavy on the side dishes, to ease sharing, but honestly, I would have been happy with nearly anything on the menu.  Seriously.  Even the basic salad sounded great, topped with generous herbs (a theme we'd see throughout the meal), pickled onions, and other goodies, including all the proteins you can optionally add on top.

We did not order dessert, which I know is surprising for me, but, they offered only a single cookie and single flavor of soft serve, so we decided to go elsewhere.  That said, I'd like to try the soft serve sometime on a warm day.

Umami Fries. $6.

"Porcini powder and fried garlic."

For our carb option, we went for the fries.  I was even tempted by the rice (!), cooked in rotisserie fat, but the group voted for the fries, and I was pretty fascinated by the idea of "umami" fries.  Plus, I was ordering a slew of sauces, and wanted something fun to dunk in them, besides the chicken.

They arrived piping hot.  Seriously, piping hot.  Fresh from the fryer, no question.

These were good fries.  Some skin on, not oily, dusted in the porcini powder, very salty in a good way.  I can't say I found them remarkable, but I think I wasn't really in the mood for fries.  My dining companions devoured them, said they were their top dish, and they were the first dish to disappear.  They particularly liked them dipped in the Douglas Fir sour cream (more on that soon).

The "fried garlic" was just a little bit that seemed to have fallen to the bottom of the bowl, it didn't really add much flavor.

Overall, well made fries, not what I was in the mood for though, so my second to least favorite dish.

Charred Cabbage and Almonds. $5.

"Lemon vinaigrette and candied almonds."

Charred cabbage.  How exciting does that sound?  Yeah, I know.   Reviews for this were so strong though.  And I assure you: it was fabulous.

It certainly didn't look like much.  Just shredded green cabbage, seemingly sloppily topped with a pile of random herbs and the remnants of a bag of almonds.

But it was delicious.

The cabbage was dressed in a light vinaigrette, a bit too lemony, but it did add a brightness to the dish.  The herbs were actually shockingly fantastic, very fresh, and great complimentary flavor.  The star though was the almonds.  They were candied, slightly sweet, crunchy, and just phenomenal.

This was a dish that ate well, if that makes sense.  The experience of eating it was quite enjoyable.  Crispy fresh lightly dressed cabbage, bright herbs, excellent crunch from the nuts.  Like this, it was a light, refreshing dish, probably great alongside the heavier items like pork belly or fried chicken.

But you know me ... light items aren't really my style.  I had to "julie it up", and, that I did, utilizing my pile of sauces.  I quickly discovered that mixed with the chipotle yogurt it made for a rather excellent slaw, now also creamy and spicy.

I adore this, and gladly polished it off.  My absolute favorite dish, but, even moreso when I added the chipotle yogurt.  I am still thinking about it a few days later.  The $5 price was incredibly reasonable.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts Caesar. $6.

"Garlic aioli and cotija cheese."

Ok, moving on to the "caesar".  Made with roasted brussels sprouts as the base, topped with garlic aioli, cotija cheese, bread crumbs, and, yes, more herbs.

This plating looked better than the cabbage, and my companions definitely were surprised that this was our "caesar".  No lettuce, no standard dressing, no parmesan, no croutons in sight.  I knew to expect this though, and had ordered it intentionally after reading so many reviews.

The brussels sprouts, much like the fries, were super hot and fresh, intensely roasted to the charred state, in a good way.  At first I loved them, and thought this was my favorite dish, but after a while I did find them a bit oily.  I loved the charred leaves though, and the herbs again where fabulous.

The toppings were interesting, the garlic aioli delicious (and I wish this was offered as a side sauce, I'd probably love it with the fries or cabbage), but it was drizzled only on the top, so some brussels were awesomely drenched in it, and most were without.  The bread crumbs quickly got lost, and didn't add the same crunch nor texture as you'd get from traditional croutons.  Perhaps they needed to be a bit bigger, or made from something besides bread (cheese?) that would stand up to the hot sprouts.  The cojita was nice, soft, salty, good flavor.

I wasn't sure how I felt about this in the end.  I loved the first few bites, before the bread crumbs got lost, before I got full of oil, and when I could get sprouts covered in aioli.  I happily exclaimed to my companions that it was amazing.  But as the dish went on, I quickly got sick of it.  Good to share, good for a few bites, but I wouldn't want a full serve.  My second favorite dish, again with a very reasonable price tag.

Market Vegetable Special: Chinese Style Eggplant. $6.

"Sweet & sour hoisin, sesame, herbs."

For our final vegetable, we opted for a seasonal "market vegetable", the Chinese style eggplant (our other option was delicata squash).  These change up constantly, so I hadn't seen any photos nor reviews of this.

On top of the roasted eggplant was sesame seeds, and like the other dishes, it came topped with herbs, even more here.  Sadly, the herbs were the only part that I liked.

The eggplant was expertly cooked, crispy skin, soft flesh.  And the pieces were well coated in the sauce.  I liked the crunch from the sesame seeds.  But ... I really disliked the flavor of the sauce.

I like hoisin, I like sweet & sour, but ... yeah, I really didn't care for this.  I don't know why, but it was certainly not something I liked.  Our collective least favorite, one diner thinking it was too slimy.

Half Rotisserie Chicken / Honey Mustard / Chipotle Yogurt. $10.

"Served with your choice of two sauces."

Ok, finally, the signature rotisserie chicken.  Since I don't like chicken, we only got a half, although a whole chicken is available too.  It comes served with two sauces, out of a selection of Chimichurri, Douglas Fir Sour Cream, Chipotle Yogurt, Nanny's BBQ, and Honey Mustard.

Those who had the chicken said the skin was crispy, that it was "better than I'd make at home".  One found it very moist, the other thought it was dry.  Compared to a grocery store rotisserie chicken though, it was clearly better.  I didn't try it, so I can't comment.  Oh, I had the herbs though.  Yes, more herbs thrown on top!

The honey mustard I expected to adore alongside the fries, but, it was very, very mustard forward.  Creamy, but, very in your face mustard.  My third pick I guess, but I didn't really want it.  The others agreed, and it went unused.

The chipotle yogurt though was incredible.  I don't usually like yogurt sauces, and lamented that they didn't have any mayo based options, and I don't usually like chipotle, but this was crazy delicious.  A bit spicy, creamy, flavorful, not too tangy from the yogurt.  The others used it on the chicken and fries, and I loaded up my cabbage with it.  This was everyone's favorite, and we were scraping up the edges of the dish.

Douglas Fir Sour Cream / Nanny's BBQ. $1 each.

But you know me.  You think I really just got the two sauces?  While the chicken only comes with two, you can purchase more for $1 each.  I opted to try two more, skipping only the chimichurri.

The Douglas Fir sour cream was a favorite for the fries eaters.  I thought it was ok, but really, just sour cream, and I didn't have much use for it.  The flavor was subtle and unique though.  My second favorite.

Nanny's BBQ though ... went the way of the eggplant.  Really strange flavor, sweet, and just not pleasant.  None of us liked it at all.  Hands down least favorite sauce, which surprised them in particular, as they expected to use it with their chicken.

On the table was bottles of their housemade hot sauce, which I added to a few things just to try it.  It was ... hot sauce?  Not much to say there.  You can purchase a side of that as well for $0.50 if you are getting takeout.