Skool

Skool
1725 Alameda St.
San Francisco, CA 94103
Yelp

The theme of the meal was confusion. At first, I thought Triple F recommended Skool. Then I thought about it more and maybe I got the place confused with Aina. Both are Asian fusion type places with Skool leaning more Japanese and Aina more Hawaiian. We were supposed to meet up with The Pouter and UVA for brunch, but she got confused on the date and The Annoyer and I were left sad at our empty 4 person table. We migrated over to a more appropriately sized table and proceeded to order an inappropriately sized brunch. Sometimes the oinker in me cannot resist.

Oysters

A half dozen to start. Even though it seems weird to me to eat something as delicate as oysters with cocktail sauce, I’m beginning to agree with The Annoyer. Cocktail sauce may be the superior accoutrement over mignonette or lemon juice.

Uni Flan ikura, uni, fleur de sel

I was really impressed at the successful execution. The flavors and texture were all on point. It was smooth, creamy, and savory with that unique taste of uni. It went perfectly with the crispy bread slice

Baby Eryngii Fries cornmeal breaded, sun smiling farms mushrooms, miso aioli

I appreciated the creativity here. They had the shape of french fries, but were juicy tender mushrooms. The cornmeal breaded was extremely light. The miso aioli was nice, but the mushrooms itself could have used an extra dusting of salt.

Squid Ink Spaghettini monterey squid, local white shrimp, garlic tomato compote, red curry, lemongrass dashi broth, seaweed butter, enoki mushrooms, shisoThe spaghettini BLEW MY MIND. It was frickin’ bomb dot com! I can’t even begin to describe the flavors going on here. There was a certaini umaminess that incredibly delightful. I kept wanting more and more of the tangy, sweet, savory broth. I could taste hints of seafood from the dashi, a bit of tang from the lemongrass, and some spice probably from the red curry. I have never had anything like. The noodles and plentiful seafood were awesome bonuses, but that broth should win an award of some sort. So beyond YUMS!!!!!!!

Pork Belly Porchetta potato hash, caramelized onions, poached jidori egg
This was a frank disappointment next to the spaghettini. The porchetta was beyond dry and really tough. The tater tots were just tater tots. The dish was just heavy and lackluster.

It was clear Skool provided a solid brunch. The uni flan and spaghettini were FANTASTIC dishes. I can’t wait to come back and enjoy them again. Brunch in SF can be a hairy beast, so I appreciated the ease of dining here. No long waits and easy reservations.

10 – You NEED to eat here
9 – Awesome
8 – Very good
7 – Good (minus points for the awful porchetta)
6 – OK
5 – Average
4 – Not bad
3 – Not good
2 – Terrible
1 – Do NOT eat here