Triumph and Tragedy at Pomerol; Just as Messy, Just as Good at Paseo

Food critic Angela Garbes of The Stranger places Pomerol under the microscope this week. The new but already highly regarded Fremont restaurant from Vuong and Tricia Loc operates out of a former rug shop and utilizes a tiny kitchen to great effect — usually. Garbes sums it up:

The menu is filled with classic, indulgent, and rich ingredients: foie gras, marrow bones, béarnaise sauce, lardons, short rib, pork belly, and goose-fat-roasted potatoes. The food is ambitious, in both the prep work required and the number of elements in each dish. But Pomerol's food lives and dies by its many details—sometimes triumphantly, sometimes tragically, often within the span of one meal.

She laments the "scattered focus" found in too many dishes, overall calling Pomerol a "letdown" after so much build up. Perhaps, she suggests, Pomerol can benefit from more oversight from its chef-owner, Vuong Loc.

Tastemade's video network has a recent video review by Julia Wayne, who visited the new Paseo. Wayne says the sandwiches (she tried the #2) are just as good, if not better, than the much-loved Paseo of old.