The bustling new restaurant Arquet has opened its doors in the former Slanted Door space at the Ferry Building. And Chef Alex Hong has gone from cooking subtle and delicate prix-fixe plates to bold and inspired, craveable modern dishes.
It is a most welcome thing to see the glassed-in space at the northeast corner of the Ferry Building come back to life, lit in warm tones, and filled up with eager diners once more. The Slanted Door hadn't served a dish of Shaking Beef in the space since March 2020, leaving a large and prominently located restaurant space dark for half a decade. But all that jas changed with the opening of Arquet, Sorrel chef Alex Hong's take on a casual a la carte restaurant, which blends inspirations and flavors from the farmers' market and global cuisines.
A dish of barbecue oysters ($7.50 ea) come drenched in vadouvan butter (France's answer to curry), and garnished with crispy rice. Delicious Dungeness crab salad ($28) is served simply on brioche toasts with dill. And a starter of white bean hummus is served with housemade seaweed lavash ($14), and garnished with dandelion pesto and trout roe.
Easily the big hit of the menu to date seems to be the scallion fry bread, sort of a marriage of a Chinese scallion pancake with Native American fry bread ($18), but ever so fluffy inside, and served with some fantastically tangy buffalo-milk ricotta, topped with honey from Hong's own Oakland hills hives, and some salsa matcha that could double as chili crisp.
Salads and crudos get some extra care and attention, and everything coming out of the kitchen's wood grill looks pretty amazing — I can attest that the whole BBQ rockfish tastes amazing as well, with a vermouth cream sauce on the side.
But Hong seems to have struck gold with the humbly named Hot Honey Pasture Raised Organic Chicken ($38 for half, $68 whole), which comes from the wood oven in the form of a well glazed and sticky, perfectly juicy breast, and a leg and thigh that get the Nashville hot treatment, battered and fried and then drenched in spice.
Suffice it to say, I doubt Arquet will have much trouble filling seats in the coming months, with plenty of pent-up interest in this place and the virtue of nearby hotels, downtown offices, and Ferry Building foot traffic. So snag a reservation when you can, or try to snag a seat at the bar. With the exception of the entry area, a sofa or two, and some cacti, it all looks pretty familiar — but the food is a whole new world.
Arquet - 1 Ferry Building - Open Sunday to Thursday 5 pm to 9 pm, Friday to Saturday 5 pm to 10 pm - website
