The Front Porch Review

The Front Porch served us respectable Southern cooking.  What was perhaps most interesting about this restaurant is that we all disagreed on what we liked and how relatively good we thought things were.

We began the meal with three appetizers, only the first of which we ordered explicitly.

• Deep-fried salt cod fritters.  Really good.  Tasty enough that the accompanying tartar sauce wasn't strictly necessary, though we used it anyways because it improved the dish.

• Cornbread shaped into miniature ears of corn.  Cool presentation!  Fairly average cornbread, meaning it was decent but a bit dry and hence needed butter.

   

• A mouthful of salmon tartar served in soup spoons.  Good.

Our main course included:

• A large bucket of fried chicken.  We had mixed reactions to this.  Some people thought it good but not notable.  I was very disappointed at first, thinking it seriously below the bar, but then I happened to grab a drumstick, which was awesome.  Sadly, there weren't many drumsticks.  The white meat that I had been previously eating wasn't comparable.  Dark, non-drumstick meat was a bit better, though still undermmatched by the drumsticks.  I think our conclusion was that there's a significant correlation between part of the chicken and taste, but there's also a good amount of inconsistency in the fried chicken.
  • Interestingly, the bucket was a traditional popcorn bucket and indeed they scattered some mediocre popcorn in and around it.

• Baked red beans with pork belly chunks.  Good.  One person's favorite part of the main courses.

• Mashed potatoes, so creamy I'd call them soaked in butter.  Although one person said these were good, mainly for this reason, I found them in fact too buttery.

• Spicy crab on grits.  An interesting dish of exactly what it says:shelled pieces of crab in a wide bowl atop a thin layer of grits.  The flavor went together well.  This was my favorite part of the meal.

We didn't have room for dessert.

The decor felt like the typical Mission cross between a bar and a nice restaurant.  Often the speakers played rock music a bit louder than I preferred, and sometimes Mexican guitar players wandered into the restaurant and played live.  We would've preferred them not being there.

Outside the restaurant is a number of old wooden chairs, making the name relatively appropriate.

Service was casual.  Our waitress, dressed in attractive jeans, was funky.

The cost was $24/person including tax and tip but not including drinks.

Original Announcement

We'll try The Front Porch, a Caribbean place known for its fried chicken.

http://www.thefrontporchsf.com/

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