All-Day Eats at Presidio Social Club

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Ray Tang is back in the house.

After a two-year hiatus, Tang, the opening chef of the Presidio Social Club in San Francisco, is back at the helm of the picturesque restaurant located in the former Army post-turned national park. Indeed, the long, clapboard building, a short drive from the Laurel Inn, was once the barracks for enlisted men.

It’s always been a laid-back restaurant, where you can rock jeans and a T-shirt just fine. Tang has brought back a lot of familiar dishes from when he was first chef there, including crabcake sliders ($12) and island-style ahi poke ($11). He’s also re-instituted the Sunday pig roast, where he cooks a whole pig in a “Caja China” wooden box. A plate of roast pork with fixings is $20 those nights.

Tang also added a Monday night clambake through the summer, where $32 will get you a feast of lobster, clams and mussels, along with potatoes, corn on the cob and dessert. What’s more, Presidio Social Club is now an all-day restaurant, meaning you can walk in anytime from lunch-time to closing to get a meal without being turned away if you’re starving at, say, 3 p.m., when most other places would close the kitchen between shifts.

I was invited to dine as a guest at dinner recently to check out the new menu. We ordered a few dishes, and the kitchen brought out even more to make sure we tried enough items.

First to arrive was a sampler of  three of the day’s antipasti ($10), which included corn kernels spiked with a little chile, an assortment of tender-crisp summer beans, and lovely roasted carrots drizzled with pesto, which made me think I’ve got to replicate this at home with my backyard basil.

Next, those adorable crab cake sliders ($12). With a topping of aioli and tangy slaw on soft, airy tiny buns, they almost had an Asian flair to them.

That was followed by an appetizer of meatballs agridolce ($8), made with pinenuts and currants to lend an earthy, slightly sweet taste.

When we ordered the pan sauteed calamari Doré ($10), our server made a point to explain that it was not deep-fried calamari as so many people often expect. Instead, the calamari are first sauteed, then beaten egg poured over them, creating almost a creamy, open-face omelet. Green olives lent a piquant note. This would be just the ticket for Sunday brunch.

My husband, aka Meat Boy, ordered — what else — the burger with fries with a very tart pickle spear ($12) to which he added Gruyere ($1.50) and bacon-onion saute ($2) atop his patty.  The meat was appropriately manly and juicy. The cheese and sweet-rich onion marmalade are definitely worthwhile additions, too, lending the burger a lot more interest.

I went with a special of the day — lingcod ($19) that arrived on a bed of favas and corn, with a loose pesto oil drizzled around the plate. The fish was fluffy and delicate, but maybe could have used just the tiniest pinch more of salt to bring out all its wonderfulness.

For dessert, there was a delicious lemon meringue cake ($8). Layers of light cake were interspersed with lemon curd, and crowned with a cloud-like, mallow-y top.

Psst. For a real treat, insiders know there’s also a secret menu item for dessert. It’s not listed on the regular dessert menu. But if you ask for it, they’ll make it for you. And believe me, it’s worth asking for.

It’s the “Dirty Dozen” ($9) — a dozen cinnamon-sugar-dusted donut holes, fried up fresh, with molten chocolate hidden inside. A little cup of creme anglaise is served alongside to gild the lily.

Tang, who was born in Hong Kong, worked his way up to cooking at Postrio in San Francisco, then Restaurant Daniel and Lespinasse, both in New York, before opening his now-shuttered Mariposa in Windsor, Calif., where I first experienced his food. It’s good to see the welcome mat rolled out once again for him at the Presidio.

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