Skool opened in San Francisco several years ago, in the Dogpatch. It was on my radar early on, a seafood focused restaurant, with exciting menus. I remember being pretty interested in the menu, and it got positive reviews. I honestly have no idea why I never visited.
And, well, I still haven't visited. But they are open for lunch Tues-Fri, brunch on weekends, and dinner Tues-Sun. The menus continue to sound great.
So, I finally tried their cuisine, in a fairly non-standard way, for this type of establishment: delivery! Yup, they offer delivery via Caviar, and sometimes ... well, I just make ridiculous decisions. Like ordering ... delivery uni flan from Skool.
Ridiculous only because uni clearly isn't your average delivery item, not because it wasn't a success. I was quite pleased with the whole experience.
As you know, I'm a sucker for custards, like panna cotta or creme brûlée, savory or sweet. I went through quite the phase of seeking out savory custards (remember the asparagus panna cotta from The Village Pub or the English pea and green garlic panna cotta from Radius? Or the foie gras custard parfait at Cyrus, the foie gras panna cotta at The Fifth Floor, or the foie gras creme brûlée at The Village Pub?)
But in particular, I love uni, so I went for uni custards all over the place as well, like the uni creme brûlée from Quince, the signature version from Lot 7, the uni flan from Fifth Floor , the uni chawanmushi at Alexander's and Commonwealth, etc.
I've had a fair number of uni puddings, it turns out.
So I still can't tell you anything about dining at Skool, or about much of their menu, but the uni flan? Delivered? Totally works.
"Light Sea Urchin Flan / Ikura / Fresh Uni / Fleur de Sel."
Ok, first, let's just acknowledge that the plating for delivery obviously isn't like what they serve in the restaurant, where it comes in a cute little jar. But really, this wasn't bad looking.
And the taste? Yup, uni-liscious! You could taste the uni quite clearly in the flan, a creamy smooth pudding, that I think had suffered a bit in transit, some of it spreading out into the base of the container, and the top part remaining a bit more firm. Still, the flavor and texture were good, even if it clearly would be better chilled.
In addition to the uni-forward flan, was two full lobes of fresh uni, which seemed good quality, although they were a darker color than is more common. It hit all the uni notes I was looking for.
The rest of the dish was made up of ikura (standard ikura, great little pops of flavor and salty component), a slice of radish, and some kind of micro herb garnish. It looks like a drizzle of olive oil was probably applied too.
Overall, this was a good execution of an uni flan, perhaps not the best one ever, but certainly solid and worthy. I enjoyed it, and the $16 price was quite reasonable.
The flan normally comes with crostini to spread it up, but I don't really like filling up with bread, and I knew from reviews that it was just generic hard random bread, so I asked them to sub something else, hoping for lotus chips, taro chips, shrimp chips, anything like that.
And, well, I still haven't visited. But they are open for lunch Tues-Fri, brunch on weekends, and dinner Tues-Sun. The menus continue to sound great.
So, I finally tried their cuisine, in a fairly non-standard way, for this type of establishment: delivery! Yup, they offer delivery via Caviar, and sometimes ... well, I just make ridiculous decisions. Like ordering ... delivery uni flan from Skool.
Ridiculous only because uni clearly isn't your average delivery item, not because it wasn't a success. I was quite pleased with the whole experience.
As you know, I'm a sucker for custards, like panna cotta or creme brûlée, savory or sweet. I went through quite the phase of seeking out savory custards (remember the asparagus panna cotta from The Village Pub or the English pea and green garlic panna cotta from Radius? Or the foie gras custard parfait at Cyrus, the foie gras panna cotta at The Fifth Floor, or the foie gras creme brûlée at The Village Pub?)
But in particular, I love uni, so I went for uni custards all over the place as well, like the uni creme brûlée from Quince, the signature version from Lot 7, the uni flan from Fifth Floor , the uni chawanmushi at Alexander's and Commonwealth, etc.
I've had a fair number of uni puddings, it turns out.
So I still can't tell you anything about dining at Skool, or about much of their menu, but the uni flan? Delivered? Totally works.
 |
| Uni Flan. $16. |
Ok, first, let's just acknowledge that the plating for delivery obviously isn't like what they serve in the restaurant, where it comes in a cute little jar. But really, this wasn't bad looking.
And the taste? Yup, uni-liscious! You could taste the uni quite clearly in the flan, a creamy smooth pudding, that I think had suffered a bit in transit, some of it spreading out into the base of the container, and the top part remaining a bit more firm. Still, the flavor and texture were good, even if it clearly would be better chilled.
In addition to the uni-forward flan, was two full lobes of fresh uni, which seemed good quality, although they were a darker color than is more common. It hit all the uni notes I was looking for.
The rest of the dish was made up of ikura (standard ikura, great little pops of flavor and salty component), a slice of radish, and some kind of micro herb garnish. It looks like a drizzle of olive oil was probably applied too.
Overall, this was a good execution of an uni flan, perhaps not the best one ever, but certainly solid and worthy. I enjoyed it, and the $16 price was quite reasonable.
 |
| Sliced Cucumbers (sub for crostini). |
I got ... sliced cucumbers. Fresh cucumber, which is fine, but clearly not something I was excited for. I used nori wraps instead, which worked really well, and it was kinda fun to make my own little bite sized wraps. (Ok, so I ate at least half of it just by the spoonful, like luxurious pudding ... but once I was ready to experiment, seaweed wraps worked nicely).
Points to Skool for reading my instructions though, and coming up with an alternative, which doesn't always happen with delivery.
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