Cortez

Seriously bummed. They had good ratings what the heckers!

Wow! Cortez just CLOSED today, out of business, kaput, no more.
Another victim of the bad economy. This was one of my favorite restaurants for small plate/​tapas style fine dining dinner. And the menu choices during DAT were usually good. It’s located inside the Hotel Adagio. The modern décor was very nice. One thing I remember is their unique way of serving bread inside little sacks, I thought it was a cute idea. The food was great. It could get expensive when ordering many small plates. But they also had a $ 35 prix fixe with decent menu choices. Great friendly service, better than many other restaurants still in business.
Sad this place closed. I hope the staff can find new jobs. As more cooks find themselves out of work, it’s possible that we might get more gourmet street food vendors popping up in SF (operated by these former cooks).

Small plates do not amuse my bouche. I am an all-​you-​can eat, hoffbrau, 16 oz strip steak kinda girl. So I was worried about going to Cortez. Worried that I’d be incarcerated for trying to eat the waitress if I were to be left hungry at the end of a $$$ meal. Lucky for me (and the waitress) my fears were misplaced. Doing a little pre-​planning with Unilocal mean that I left Cortez full of socially acceptable nourishment.
First off, the amuse bouche. I seriously dislike being fed tiny portions of things, especially if the expectation is that I will like them. True to form, the dollop of fig jam with some sort of fluffy cheese and almonds was delicious. I’ll have 20 next time, thank you very much.
I followed that with the beet salad, solely because several Unilocalers mentioned it was one of the larger dishes. I wasn’t prepared for how gorgeous it would be. I didn’t know what Burrata was, but I assumed it’d be like chevre, a traditional beet accompaniment. It was actually more like mozzarella. I would have probably preferred a sharper cheese, but it was still excellent.
We got the prawns a la plancha, because everyone seems to love them. Boyfriend said there was crab in the sauce, but I said there was no way that they’d put crab in the sauce and not brag about it on the menu. The waitress confirmed that I was wrong. Classy move, Cortez! However, I felt this dish was overrated.
At this point, we saw some soup shooters en route to another table and decided to get some. It was the Early Girl tomato soup. It was good, but too salty. Coming from me, that means something. I salt individual bites. Twice.
I had the lamb as my entrée. The lamb was some of the best I’ve ever had. But there was some flavor that I didn’t love permeating the whole dish. I wish I could identify it for you, but I can’t. It was like a subtle, soapy berry flavor. Still, this was a very good dish.
Boyfriend had the heirloom tomatoes and the Chef’s Crudo. The tomatoes were very good, but that’s kinda God’s doing. The Crudo was toro that night. I thought the portion was pushing the line when it comes to tiny, but he likes precious servings of things.
It was the dessert that blew me away. I had the sticky date pudding with soy caramel, warm pluots, toasted brown rice and miso ice cream. Wow. Wowie wow wow. The ice cream was boldly salty and absolutely amazing. The combination was incredible and made for one of the top desserts of my life.
We also had a variety of drinks. I started with a Cesar, essentially a strong margarita with cilantro and a pepper. I left off the cilantro (literally, my MORTAL enemy). I was hoping it would be spicy, but was disappointed. I followed it with the Pimm’s Splash, with Pimm’s, lemonade, Cava, raspberry, and cucumber. I don’t think it was particularly alcoholic, but it was fantastic. We also had some Dominican rum and a glass of Sauternes. And beer. But we don’t have a problem. We can quit whenever we want.
The meal was so good that I am willing to overlook the fact that Cortez commits two of my top restaurant pet peeves– they serve salt in tiny little dishes and they fold your napkins when you leave the table. But they also swooped in to quickly replace the two napkins we dropped during the meal, and the service was altogether outstanding. I was prepared to leave Cortez feeling hungry, ripped off, and potentially facing a prison stint. Instead I left free, full of great food, and a little f*cked up.

Here is the run-​down (see my photos):
soup shots: chilled melon soup, with spicy prawns — very good. The spices really worked with the melon.
amuse bouche: a microscopic amuse bouche (see photo) of lemongrass panna cotta — very nice.
prawns a la plancha: exceptional: the prawns have some kind of spicy rub on them, and the creamy rice goes well with it.
pork belly: outstanding: it was even better than the pork belly at Canteen.
cinnamon spice beignets, with the optional house made Vanilla-​Milk Liqueur: fantastic. Much better than the beignets at Gitane. The optional liqueur is not to be missed!
date pudding with cinnamon ice cream: skip it. The date pudding didn’t stand on it’s own: it needed all the sauces to prop it up, and it was a really small portion.

I am just blown away with my entire experience at Cortez. My family came in to town for Fathers Day weekend and asked me to make a reservation at a nice restaurant. I had been wanting to try Cortez for a while and thought it was the perfect opportunity.
First off, I want to start with the décor because it is so freakin’ fun! It’s modern with colorful light sculptures throughout. There was a ton of fun art adorning the walls and the bar was super swank.
They sat us at a four top and we started out with cocktails. I ordered «the Fat Cat,» which was a bourbon martini-​like concoction. Not too sweet, not too strong; the perfect blend for somebody who likes a mix of hard core and frill.
The menu is plentiful and they had an entire section of farmers market fresh appetizers. We ordered the figs, green beans and favo beans. OMG Every single one of them was amazing but the figs… THE FIGS!!! They were inspiring.
We ordered the gnocchi appetizer as well which was truly unique and scrumptious. They had a harder crispy shell but when you bit in to them they just melted in your mouth. They paired it was this cream that tasted like butter. It was seriously sinful bliss.
I ordered the lamb for a main course and it fell in line with the rest, every bite a mini orgasm in my mouth. We ordered a bottle of red wine that, gosh darnit, I wish I could remember the name of bc it was one of the best I’ve had in a long time. It starts with a G and the label had a large G on it (go figure) LOL So not helpful but maybe the waiter would know if you were curious.
On to the desserts. We ordered the beignets and the date pudding. I absolutely loved both but I’m going to give a slight edge to the date pudding surprisingly. The beignets were little doughy balls of bliss dipped in chocolate sauce… delish but not unique. The date pudding was just, I don’t even know how to explain it, every bite sent an explosion of different flavors and textures on my pallet.
This was one of the nicest meals I’ve had for the price. Our bill came to about $ 300 and there were four of us which in my opinion is very reasonable.

Their portions are really small, but overall great ambiance, customer service, and food.
The Sautéed Sea Scallops lobster was delicious, yum yum!

After a week of anticipating to try this restaurant, my friends and I are disappointed at this Michelin rated restaurant. The food was okay, but the service was the biggest disappointment. At a place like this and charging these prices, I expect more. Plus, dining out is an EXPERIENCE and a combination of food, service, and ambiance.
We arrived early for our 8pm reservations and got seated momentarily. However, we were not acknowledged until 15 minutes after we were seated (flag #1). The busser came and filled our waters 5 minutes later and somehow missed 2 people’s glasses at our table of 6 people (flag #2). We ordered a bottle of Spanish wine that he recommended along with 2 appetizers. Appetizers were good and came out in a timely manner, but we had to ask for forks because some people only had knives (flag #3).
We were all ready to order, but our server was busy with other tables or was simply MIA. It was NOT that busy with plenty of tables open. We counted about 3 – 4 servers plus a manager for the whole place so it didn’t seem too understaffed. Waited, waited, waited, about 20 minutes later (45 minutes after we were seated), we finally got to order (flag #4).
Some of us did the Dine About Town menu so we had 3 courses. When our appetizers came, they did not replenish our silverware after the amuse-​bouches & initial appetizers, so we had to ask (flag #5). Then we waited some more (2 hours after seating now). We finally get our entrees and by this time, we were all getting annoyed about the wait.
We enjoyed our entrees and then waited AGAIN for our desserts to come. We ordered the milkshake shots and a glass of the moscato in addition to our DAT desserts. Afterwards, my friends became so restless with the waiting game that they started playing with the spoons and tried to stick them on their noses. (That’s how bored they were!)
The desserts finally came and they were delicious. Unfortunately, our dessert wine never came (flag #6). We inquired with the server about it and he said he forgot and will bring it right away. We waited for another 5 minutes after finishing our desserts. We were about to cancel the wine, but saw him walking towards our table with 2 glasses of the moscato, at which time he told us was on the house and mentioned something about the bartender couldn’t find it (flag #7). It turned out to be a delicious dessert wine, but would have been much better if we had it WITH our dessert.
Finally, we ask for our check and guess what? Waited some more. By this time, it was 10:45pm and we had been at the restaurant for 3 HOURS. I have NEVER dined for that long at any place except Gary Danko and the Ritz Carlton where I had delectable 5 or 10+ course meals with top-​notch service so it didn’t even seem like that long. We simply had 3 courses, maybe 4 if you count the initial appetizers. We were all restless and just wanted to leave. Well, we finally did leave and felt ripped off for the $ 400 meal we just had with terrible service.
3 Stars for food but service was slow and the food timing was so off. We had the table right by the kitchen and often saw the servers standing and what appeared to be waiting for the food, so perhaps it might also be a BOH problem?
Amuse-​Bouche:
— Apple something: refreshing, light
— Lentil Soup: delicious! warm, great flavor, bacon bits nice crispy compliment
Appetizers:
— Pork Belly: tender, nice sweet & savory glaze, scrumptious!
— Poached Duck Egg: toast and poached egg, nothing special
— Beets & Burrata: flavorful beets, burrata was fresh & delicious!
— Head Lettuce Salad: uncreative, basically greens with salt, pepper, and vinaigrette. My friend and I combined my beets with her bland salad, which was MUCH better tasting together
Entrees:
— Lamb: nice flavor, tender, very tasty, best entrée of the 3
— Niman Ranch Beef: very soft, flavorful, glazed onions were mouth watering good, carrots okay
— Halibut: flaky, a bit too salty, nice golden crust, sweet corn was good
Desserts:
— Milkshake shots: not too sweet, not creamy, light, big chunk of cream float
— Beignets: simply divine! served with chocolate fondue dip *drool*
We were fighting over the last few pieces and my friend actually drank the chocolate sauce afterwards! We dared him to lick it, but he’s too classy for that, so he used a spoon to scrape the rest LOL
— Strawberry Sorbet: fresh, smooth, lots of strawberry chunks
Cortez, you need to get your act together!

Although the name of the restaurant may suggest a Spanish flare from the explorer, the artistic dishes give you a taste of creativity and flavor. The colorful salads provide a distinct flavor and texture whether using beets or radishes. The tender and juicy niman ranch beef is complemented by shallots, carrots, and other sides. To end on a sweet note, try the creamy and fruity sorbet or the fluffy pillows of beignets. In the end, my appetite was conquered.
Parking can be tough on the street, but there are some nearby garages. Service may take awhile depending on the number of wait staff and diners, but it’s solid for the most part with the exception of a few mix ups. The décor is modern with a few abstract objects lit up to liven up the place. Although nothing suggests the theme of Cortez, this place is worth coming back to find other treasures on the menu.

Note: This is a review for the bar area and not the restaurant.
I’ve been here a couple times now for some wine and snacks. They have a decent selection of wines by the glass, and they serve most of the restaurant appetizers and entrees in the bar area. I’ve had their crab cakes (pretty good, though nothing special to distinguish from those I’ve had at other places), pork belly (yummy, but wish the skin was crisper), and cheese plate (teeny tiny portions, and no bread… good thing the server was kind enough to give me some anyway). My favourite is the french fries, they’re cooked perfectly (just the right side of crispy), with two really good dipping sauces… it’s the best dish if you just wanna sit and drink without spending too much $$ on food.
Most of their prices on both the food and the wines are pretty reasonable. Service is pretty good too, attentive and friendly. The seats at the bar area are very comfy, and there’s a lot of room so it’s pretty good for an impromptu gathering where you can’t make reservations, or just killing time before going on to your next event.

I usually walk right past Cortez when I’m in the ‘Loin.
Years ago, a huge group of friends planned dinner here but Cortez «lost» our reservation. I left the past in the past and tried it again. Second time, desserts were *divine*!
Third time was last night and I was charmed.
It’s great for bar bites and drinks. Kind of mod-​ish décor, an older-​ish crowd, excellent bar service and GREAT FOOD! Spicy almonds, fries, and cheese had no chance of surviving on my plate! Not the best place to be seen, but a nice time for sure.
Don’t underestimate Cortez! It’s worth it.

I’ve read a lot of Unilocal reviews on this place, and it seems like the big concern comes from their service. To all of those complaints, I’d say I think it must really depend on who you get, because our server (Steve) was one of the best I’ve ever had. He gave us great suggestions, was attentive, friendly, and very funny. I’m pretty sure I confessed my love to him at the end of the night, to which he replied «I like you too. You guys are my best table» Guess he wasn’t ready to say it back =(
The décor is beautiful. As soon as I walked in, I stopped dead in my tracks, put my hand on my heart, and smiled because I was so enthralled with setting. The drinks were outstanding. If you read my reviews, you know I’m a huge fan of fancy cocktails, and Cortez is one of the few places I’ve been where a number of the drinks actually sounded appealing. So, I got to try a lot of new creations, and I thoroughly enjoyed all of them.
Now, the food. I would say the first 3 courses we had were solidly delicious (nettle soup shots, crab cake, and chef’s crudo). As for the last 3 courses, they were the stuff of legend. It’s really hard to mess up prawns, but likewise, it’s hard to make prawns absolutely amazing, and Cortez has found the secret. The prawns a la plancha are a must-​order, as well as the grilled octopus. And finally, the pork belly. Hands down the best pork belly I’ve ever eaten. The pork belly was so good that we almost asked for another order of it instead of dessert. The pork belly was so good, that it inspired me to write a poem.
Ode to the Pork Belly
On the outside you are crisp and light,
And your salty interior makes my heart take flight.
You leave me wanting at least one more bite
If eating pork belly is wrong, I don’t want to be right.
Cortez: My favorite new restaurant in San Francisco.

I’m staying at the Adaigo (good hotel, my room is spacious and quiet, only beef is a bit stingy with the towels, but they make up for it with a slamming mini bar). I ate with a co-​worker last night at the Cortez, and had an «eh?» reaction. The ambiance is pretty bland. The server was friendly enough (and props for the free apps). I got the grilled octopus/​squid/​mussels, which I thought were nicely done, fresh and cooked well. But then there was the duck egg salad. A GIPE (good idea, poor execution). WAAAAAY too much going on on that plate, and it ended up just a muddle of flavors. The egg was a bit undercooked too. Runny is okay for a yoke, but when the white isn’t set, ick.
Anyway, not sure I’d go out of my way to go here again. Lots of great options in San Fran!

First trip to SF, first night in the city. We were staying at the Hotel Adagio so we planned to eat at Cortez, knowing we would be tired from the trip. The energy/​noise was high, but not unbearable. We could easily talk to each other, but didn’t have to fear being too loud.
The food was delicious. We had two small plates and shared a larger plate; we also split a dessert. We had the chef’s crudo, hamachi. It was delicious and served with an avocado crème but I don’t recall the other components of the plate. The second small plate was the Kennebec fries with two different aiolis. Fries were just how I liked them: nice and crispy and a nice salt/​pepper spice on them. Due to a mix-​up we also were treated to their soup shots for two. While I wouldn’t have ordered what they were serving (a bisque-​type broccoli soup) it was quite good.
This restaurant would definitely survive on it’s own, and while it gets business from the hotel, you can tell it’s not relying only on the guests. I would easily go back here on another trip to the city.

Hit or miss if you ask me. Four of us ordered 5 small plates and 3 big plates to share.
Favorites:
Small Plates: Prawns a la plancha, Soup shots
Main: Scallops! Scallops! Scallops!
Dessert: Chocolate truffle cake with Cinnamon Toast ice cream
Cocktail: Pims Smash
Not a Fan of:
Small Plates: Crab cakes (I usually love crab cakes but was rather disappointed)
Main: Duck (way too salty)
The service was also a bit on the slow side. We felt rather neglected.
We asked our waiter for a wine recommendation. He came back and said «Eric» was not available. He recommended two whites, the first he described as «waxy» and the other as «ashy». Sounds wonderful… NOT.
Overall, the meal was not bad but for a restaurant with one michelen star I expected more.

Sometimes I take things for face value, I definitely should have read the menu PRIOR to my arrival, b/​c I thought it was Latin. WRONG. New American.
Attached to the lobby of a small boutique hotel: Adagio & there is $ 8 parking right across the alleyway. Convenience is key for me.
Hostess has a wooden face, no smile, no expression, uh, why are you a hostess?
Table service, on the other hand, was pleasant and non-​intrusive.
The DAT entrée was short ribs, so we opted to order off the standard menu.
* Lamb cheek sugo with lemon cavatelli, tomato confit, broccoli de ciccio & pecorino romano $ 16, thoroughly enjoyed this dish, it was fragrant, the cheeks were marinated well, loved the broccolini, and the SAUCE, wonderful.
* Painted Hills hanger steak with creamy braised greens, pommes sarladaise, oyster mushrooms & Bordelaise sauce $ 26, tender, temperature was medium rare and done perfectly.
* Seared Japanese octopus & scallops with lemon-​artichoke purée, marble potatoes, parsley, Kalamata olive soil & tomato saffron emulsion $ 28, the octopus was cut in large meaty pieces, the seafood was fresh and the marble potatoes were delightful.
*Rhubarb semifreddo with cucumber jasmine consomm & black sesame tuile $ 10, light and the flavors balanced each other out. Consommé was delicate and exotic.
*Grapefruit tart with tarragon ice cream, white chocolate & black pepper $ 10, fresh, the shortbread crust was delicious, custard underneath the grapefruit was a great partner with the citrus.
Getting to the bathroom is a little irritating: shared with the hotel lobby.
There were a lot of items on the menu that caught my eye, many different combinations of food and I have to give props to the pastry chef, innovative!

This review is for the bar/​lounge:
Love it! This place has a cool vibe and is very chic. The service is fantastic and you really feel like you can enjoy a drink with your friend/​friends and escape. They also provide some amazing gourmet popcorn — trust me, you have to try this stuff.
If you’re looking for a cool spot to have a nice cocktail or glass of wine, this is a great palce to go.

Went here for DAT on Tuesday night and was really pleased with the food. Just so you know, everything on the DAT menu can be ordered off the normal menu, cooked the same way with the same portion sizes. So DAT orderers were not skimped in any way.
— amuse bouche: okay
— cabbage soup shot: yummy
— beets: okay
— chicory salad with pancetta: yummy
— venison: okay, cauliflower flavor a little overpowering
— monkfish: yummy with cabbage or mustard (but not both)
— chocolate tartine: okay
— goatcheesecake: excellent
Given the quality of the food and the price of DAT, I thought it was excellent. I may even recommend coming back here and paying full price.
Cortez, which is not much talked about, impressed me so much more than other big name restaurants in town.

I made a reservation here because we were going to a friend’s birthday party later in that area. After I had already booked it, I heard it got a Michelin star and was super excited to go there.
Interesting atmosphere to say the least – hopping crowded bar we walked through on our way to our table on a Saturday night. Some of the cocktails looked great, but we had spent the day already drinking wine so I passed on them. Once we sat down, I looked all around. With the set of colored spheres hanging from the ceiling, the best way to describe it would be an artsy circus is space. Definitely fun and not boring.
The menu consists of mostly small plates and our waiter suggested 4 for the two of us. We liked one of the large plates so decided on 2 small and 1 large.
Highlights were:
— Chef’s crudo (hamachi with candied kumquats). The Hamachi tasted very fresh and melted in your mouth.
— Pork short rib – another melt in your mouth dish. The meat was so tender it was wonderful.
The large plate was a duck dish and just ok. I didn’t care for the accompaniments on the pork dish. The cauliflower purée had too much of a yogurt texture for my taste. The kumquats on the fish were too stiff and hard to eat. Also the small complimentary soup of rosemary was very watery and didn’t have much flavor.
All in all, the food was good. I’m not sure I’d go back again, however.
The downside was the service. Once we sat down, we were dying for a glass of water but no one even approached our table for close to 15 minutes which even on a Saturday night seems ridiculous. Our waiter seemed to be good, but possibly was overextended, as we only saw him every 20 minutes or so. After one course, our finished plates remained on the table for 20 minutes. It got so frustrating that after 45 minutes to order and get our dessert, even with the good food, I could not wait to get out of there. The service is part of what makes the dining experience and I definitely expect a lot better service than that for a highly rated restaurant.

Oh yum, yum, yum. Apparently if you say something 3 times people will remember. Well remember that when you are looking for some great tapas after a night of free cocktails. Come here and melt into the simple yet elegant surroundings and in the wonderful concoctions that emerge from the seemingly tiny kitchen.
We were seated in the main dining room this time. On a weekend, if you can it is nicer, quieter, and more intimate if you can sit in the room on the left where I sat a couple of years ago.
Our attentive and bubbly effeminate waiter took our order of the mustard greens, crab cakes, prawns and lamb cheeks. Everything was delectably scrumptous and waiter boy was kind thoughtful enough to space out the dishes so we didn’t have a traffic jam of plates. The small little details really enhance the experience.
Go; I know I will be going again.

A very SOLID 4 stars… All photos uploaded.
I spent all day on Unilocal,trying to find one restaurant at which my friend, whose birthday was coming up, had NOT eaten at in San Francisco. Apparently, amidst ordaining herself the TV-​Queen, since she watches everything on TV — — the rest of her life is spent eating out. After quite literally all day on Unilocal,I FINALLY fell upon one place that I had «heard about» at which she had not eaten. Finally. (Now why it was so important that she go to a new place — — well, I don’t know. But it was.)
That is how we ended up at Cortez.
I got reservations that day — and the first availability they had was for 8 pm. All of us actually arrived on time, and as we were about to make ourselves comfortable at the bar — — the hostess was ready to seat us, right on time. Excellent.
The wine list was EXTENSIVE. I’d already shared a bottle and a half of wine with a stunning man prior to arriving, so I was pretty toasted as it was, but the drinking continued. Two reds, absolutely DELICIOUS… don’t remember the name, but it was good.
Our waitress was cordial. Friendly enough, but the service here was not what I’d expect out of a restaurant I’d give 5 stars. Don’t get me wrong, she did nothing wrong. She just didn’t do anything GREAT either. That, combined with the appetizers, which I am about to tell you about, really makes this place lose one full star.
«Fresh from Japan» was what we were told re: that day’s special appetizers, Sashimi Something. Considering I just got back from Japan, those were the magic words. It should actually have been, «Fresh from Japan, 3 weeks ago, and enough for ¼ of a person» sashimi. Enough said. I never did look to see how much that cost, but no matter, it wasn’t worth a dime, never mind the actual cost.
Now — that said — — the entrees were a massive hit. Every dish was presented perfectly — but also prepared perfectly. All four of us ordered different things, including short ribs, hangar steak, my salmon, and seabass. The first three were EXQUISITE — — truly 1^st class food. The seabass was good, but nothing special — — and I have had better seabass at places like «The House» in SF. But the first three? AMAZING.
We had dessert and wine, and they, too, were all good, deserving for 3 – 4 stars.
The restaurant is beautifully lit and the atmosphere was nice. I’d definitely go here again in the near future.
I don’t know about parking, because this was one of the few days where you drank too much early on in the day that we had no choice but to cab it there. I can’t recall if they had valet parking, or not???
Cortez is a really safe, romantic choice for dates, or occasions like this one where we wanted an intimate dinner for four people. It was never too loud, but not «hush hush» either.
Cost?
Well — — with 2 appetizers, 4 entrees and 2 good bottles of wine — it broke down to approximately $ 100pp, including the tip. Keep in mind the wine alone consumed nearly $ 200 of that cost… so technically, it should be about $ 50pp at Cortez, plus drinks, for the average eater.
All in all, it was a good night.