Sunday, May 27, 2012

House of Prime Rib

Entropy is a fact of physics, and yet it is hard to imagine a San Franciscan landmark that is in worse shape than House of Prime Rib.

The Bay Area classic has suffered in recent years and it is sadly apparent.

While the outside of the restaurant gives a nod to days of long ago, it's the inside that brings a tear to your eye.  As you enter, you will notice the dark atmosphere where everything is tired, from the servers to the furniture and fixures.  The lounge chairs are dirty and worn, the carpets are dirty and tattered and need replacing, and there is a layer of dust everywhere else.

The most abominable thing I have ever witnessed in a restaurant happened while sitting in the lounge waiting for our table (and believe me, I've seen roaches, rats, and a sneeze in my soup service).  In a pause between the seating rush, a lounge server grabbed a five gallon bucket of mixed nuts, set it on a lounge table and began to refill the miniature glass nut containers by hand, swopping each carafe into the bucket and leveling off the nuts with her bare hand.  She did not dump the old nuts.

But that wasn't the worst of it. 

These containers are not washed between customers, a face evident by the caked on fingerprints on every surface of the container.  REALLY?  Your ware washers can't just run these bad boys on a tray through the dish washing machine and give fresh ones to the lounge servers?  The dirty containers reminded me of an episode of Dexter, where he is collecting latent prints with black fingerprint powder in order to find the killer.  Eww.

As the food, this place is a feeding lot.  People are hurried into their seats, there are only about four options of what you can eat, and everyone gets the same salad, bread, sides, and meat service.  Then you are rushed out about 45 minutes later so they can seat another trove of tourists and wayward diners, but only after you have been thoroughly steamed by the humid meat service, filling every pore and fiber of your skin and clothing.

One admirable note, however.  They sure know how to make a dime, and in a country that esteems capitalism, this is money-making its best.

While our visiting family members loved prime rib and didn't seem to mind the experience, and I am glad to have tried it also, it is not a place I will rush back to anytime soon.  At least, not until they starting washing their nuts.

House of Prime Rib | 1906 Van Ness Avenue San Francisco, CA | www.houseofprimerib.net

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