Abacá
Francis Ang was a pastry chef at Fifth Floor in 2013. A typhoon stranded him and his wife Dian in the Philippines. He came home, cooked a fundraiser, and decided that was the job. Their Pinoy Heritage pop-up became this room in the Kimpton Alton Hotel on 16 August 2021. The sisig fried rice that started it is still on the menu.
Why go
Dian was the one who said put the sisig in fried rice. It arrives under pickled onions, microgreens, chicharrones and a poached egg. What you see is color and crunch. The pork is underneath.1
Lani Conway reviewed it for The Infatuation in October 2021. She found a seafood chowder with mussels standing out of coconut milk. Under them sat yellow potatoes and chunks of sourdough. That is a Fisherman's Wharf kitchen saying where it is.6
Ang runs six kinds of barbecue stick on a card built for sharing. He put vegetable skewers on it on purpose. One is Hodo yuba glazed in adobo. A panaderia and a coffee counter sit off the dining room. That is where the pastry side goes. Eater's Lauren Saria writes that the room has been called one of the city's first Filipino fine-dining rooms, if not the first. The dish detail on this page is from 2021, and I have not found a bylined review of the current menu.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the sisig fried rice.
- Order: the smoked chicken palabok, with quail eggs and crunchy rice noodles in it.
- Order: the paubaya menu if there are a few of you and you want the kitchen to decide.4
- Order: the bibingka at breakfast, $6 on Eater's count, caramelized brie and salted egg on a rice cake.3
- Order: arroz caldo with lechon in it at brunch, and buko pie from the panaderia on the way out.5
- Avoid: skipping the vegetable skewers because the list looks meat-heavy.
What locals & experts say
- Francis Ang to Lauren Saria, Eater SF, August 2021:
The whole idea is to make things approachable. We want to be approachable and at the same time helping to educate and spreading our culture and our cuisine.
1 - The Infatuation SF (Lani Conway, October 2021), 8.7:
Out of the many restaurants in San Francisco that surpass expectations, Abacá is the most refreshing.
6 The Infatuation is owned by JPMorgan Chase.
Good to know
- Getting in: Resy.
- The bar: Kevin Diedrich of Pacific Cocktail Haven built the opening cocktail list, with an Ube-Colada and a Pandan-quiri on it.
- Where: 2700 Jones Street, inside the Kimpton Alton, in Fisherman's Wharf.
Verdict
should-visit — Book it for a weekend brunch. The weekday breakfast is pitched at the hotel's guests, and brunch is when the city turns up.