RR: Matterhorn, SF - Cheese on Acid
2323 Van Ness Ave, San Francisco, CA 94109
First I want to preface this review by saying that I am the farthest thing from a fondue expert. I don’t know how to consume fondue in what I can only imagine to be an elegant way. I barely had any idea what I wanted to order. But, as a die-hard lover of cheese, the idea of dipping things into melted cheese was reason enough to visit a fondue restaurant. I also may or may not have been slightly drunk by the time I made it to our 8:30pm reservation so I totally forgot to take pictures - sorry (it’s a stock photo).
The Food: For Jane and I, we ordered two fondue **things**, a French onion soup, and a veal entrée. These were the two “fondue things”:
Ah man, the descriptions of the fondue items make my mouth water as I’m reading it back. The combination of cheeses showed so much promise. Who doesn’t like a “sharp, tangy” amalgamation of cheese - *chefs kiss. Each fondue item comes with “leavened” bread, potatoes, and veggies.
So how was it?
The gruyere in the onion soup was amazing, the body of the soup was solid. Is it the most amazing onion soup I could imagine? No. But was it more than decent? absolutely. 3.5/5
Next came the main event - the fondues (is the plural of fondue fondues or fondi?). The fondues arrived in medium-sized. charmingly colored red and white pots on top of a voracious, crackling portable stove (like the ones they serve tom yum soup on). All the fondees also arrived warm, in baskets. As I dipped a piece of bread into the Emmental, I didn’t know exactly what to expect. But I half-anticipated something akin to an under-melted croque monsieur. Thus I was shocked when the first bite of this glorious white goo turned from a blissful sharp and tangy cream to a jovial alcoholic acidity that smacked me right in the taste buds. Combine this with the sour quality of the sourdough and the pickled nature of the vegetables, the experience was really just cheese on acid.
Thinking “maybe I had ordered the wrong one”, I tried a similar arrangement on the Savoyarde. Though the cheese combination was sweeter in the Savoyarde than it was in the Emmental, the same alcoholic “kick” really distracted my intimate experience with the cheese.
Again, maybe this is just my inexperience with fondue. And in all fairness, the menu did mention the following:
“Cooked with white wine” - I should’ve known. But I really just wanted to bathe in the heavenly essence of cheese served. I didn’t need to be reminded of what alcohol tastes like. I went there specifically to sober up. This part was disappointing. Was there a non-alcoholic version (for the kids!) that I could’ve opted for? or would that be sacrilegious?
An answer on the cooking stack exchange seems to echo what many other sources online explain as to why alcohol, or an acid, is essentially creates the sustained stringy, silky texture of the cheese while enhancing the taste profiles of the cheese:
Every mention of cheese in the Wikipedia article on “Fondue” is also closely accompanied by wine.
There you have it. My own individual experience of this fondue would rate as probably a 3/5 (I still really enjoyed the potatoes, bread, and the cheese itself). Although research encourages me to maybe try a few other fondue places. Maybe the alcoholic acidity is more subtle in other restaurants and maybe that’s what I prefer. Or maybe this is one of those “preferred taste” kind of things.
Surprisingly, the veal was probably the dish I enjoyed the most that night. The mushroom cream sauce, perfectly complemented the (wait for it) slight acidity (probably lemon-seasoned) which colored the appropriately juicy slices of veal 3.5/5.
Vibe: The place was outfitted to feel like a European tavern. You’ll need a code from the employees to access the bathrooms. Also, there was a kid in an adjacent empty room doing homework - slight Chinese takeout vibes, definite credibility points here.
Summary: A decent outing. Am I clamoring to go back to this instagram-evangelized space? Probably not.
But it did introduce me to something new that I would like to try again somewhere else.