BIX

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BIX is one of those restaurants that I imagine how SF was back in the days - classic with a touch of mystery and romance.  Its located in probably the only alley in the city that doesn't have a homeless person loitering around.

BIX is probably the only restaurant I've ever seen that prepares and serves beef tartare tableside.  How classic!  Fresh rare beef, a raw egg, and some seasonings mixed in makes this one of the best beef tartares I've had in a long time. 

Not the biggest fan of this preparation of roasted bone marrow because of all the effort to get the fatty marrow out!  Not bad, but it takes a lot of work.

Its not apparent when you first glance at the menu, but there are actually two burgers on this menu.  The $28 black truffle cheeseburger is the one listed in the dinner entree menu.  This burger is served open faced on rye bread along with truffle fries.  The truffle lends both the burger and fries some earthiness.  The burger was juicy and ultimately satisfying, but the only complaint I had was the huge conundrum of how to eat this burger elegantly.  This fancy restaurant with their fancy ingredient burger and a hefty price tag left me wondering if I should eat this like a piece of toast or civilized with a fork and knife.  I think the latter was the right answer, but I couldn't bring myself to eat a burger with a set of utensils so the burger ended up sliding all over the place.  It was still delicious, whatever way it ended up in my mouth.

Bix Club Burger at BIX-  2013 7x7 SF's Top 100 Eats

The more hidden burger option is their cheaper club burger.  Not quite as fancy as the truffle burger, this burger is still made with quality ingredients that compared to its fancy counterpart makes it a standout option.  The bix burger is advertised on both the lunch menu and bar menu.  The $18 burger is sandwiched between a poppyseed bun for proper burger handling.  Its juiciness competes with that of the truffle burger.  Which one is better?  Hard to say, both are really tasty, but if you are feeling fancy, then opt for the truffle burger.  If you want a solid, no frills burger, the the bix burger will satisfy that burger craving. 

The desserts here aren't very risque.  In line with the classic architecture and entrees, the desserts are very modest.  Although, they do a bananas foster tableside.  The warm chocolate brioche bread pudding was rich and chocolatey.  Nothing extravagant, but it ended the meal on a nice sweet note.

updated - Working my way through the 2013 7x7's SF big eat 100 things    

Address:                    Bix Restaurant
                                  56 Gold St.
                                   San Francisco, CA
 

Type:                          American/burger

Popular chomps:        Bix Burger
                                    steak tartare

Chomp worthy:           steak tartare
                                    Bix Burger