Routier is a new French restaurant that opened in August 2020 (during the pandemic) in the Pac Heights neighborhood and is positioned at the corner of Divisadero and California, just down the street from B. Patisserie.  “Routier” refers to a roadside restaurant, and is definitely a welcoming neighborhood spot serving French bistro fare with a distinct Californian accent.  Routier is a collaboration between pastry Chef Belinda Leon of B. Patisserie (the award-winning bakery in Pac Heights, is known for its sweets, particularly the sugar-encrusted kouign amann), business partner Michael Suas (Founder of SFBI) and chef John Paul Carmona who is Belinda Leon's longtime collaborator from Manresa.

spot .

We are now crossing the street toward the restaurant.

The front of the restaurant with dark green exterior gleams with gold script in the glass windows. The landlord insisted they keep the rounded metallic door as an unusual entrance.

Entering the restaurant.

Inside, the restaurant has two levels, with a tall dining room sweeping up to a mezzanine overlooking the bar. Originally a jazz club, it’s morphed into many bars over the years, most recently Wild Hare, a dark tavern in black and red.

View of the bar from out table.

The Routier team stripped back and restored the hardwood floors and added brass details (behind our back).

Large windows letting natural lights in the restaurant.

The table set up is simple with a nice bouquet of flowers in the center.,

Colorful flowers arrangement.

The Menu

Wine Menu

Plate setting

Hoa selected this bottle of wine from their wine list.

Cheers!

Baguette with beurre diable

The baguette is made from B. Patisserie and of course it was delicious!

Crispy Monterey Squid with our beurre diable, pickled chiles. Delicious!

Local heirloom tomatoes, tonnato sauce, capers and crispy bread.

The tomatoes were amazing, the sauce was so flavorful, and I also like a bit of crunch from the bread.  We are so lucky to live in California were the produce is abundant and flavorful.

We shared the appetizers between the 3 of us.

We are definitely starting the meal in the right direction.

For my main dish I selected the Roasted halibut, buttered corn and summer beans, chili oil and dill.

Portion is pretty generous and the presentation is very appetizing.

I love the fish, the corn is so sweet and the summer beans added another texture to the dish.

Kevin ordered the crispy lamb shoulder, summer squash, snap peas, marinated Nardello peppers with fresh herbs.

This was not what I expected but I was told the lamb should was slowed cooked for hours and then shredded.  The meat is molded into a circular ring and put in super hot over for a crispy outside.  It is actually really good!

Hoa loves meat so he got the roasted beef bavette, fingerlings, and Maitake mushrooms.

Classic bistro fare and it was served to Hoa's liking (Medium rare but on the rare side).

Cheers to great meal!

For dessert we ordered the roasted plums, berries and vanilla mascarpone with caramelized batons au beurre.

Two thumbs up!  Love the whole thing and the batons aur beurre were crunchy, buttery, and simply delicious.

Dark cholocale mousse, coffee crumble and chantilly.

The mousse was light as air.  Another delicious dessert.

Routier is a really nice neighborhood restaurant with great food, reasonnably priced, and with great service.  I love everything about Routier and will defintely be back with our friends.

Routier is also listed in the Michelin guide in 9/2021 under Bib Gourmand:  good quality, good value cooking

Filed under: Restaurants