New FiDi Seafood Place Georges: Noisy, Outer Neighborhood-y

J. Birdsall

Garden of Sea brochette: Sort of a ratio thing.

​The din of feeding businesspeople filled Georges at lunch today. After a slight delay, the seafood restaurant opened Monday, with a reveal that showed everybody just how diligently owner Elias Bikahi has niced up the old London Wine Bar space on Sansome. Bikahi used to own Russian Hill corner café Nook and Valentina, a neighborhood trattoria in Bernal (he still owns Caffe Sapore in North Beach). Ex-Valentina cook Amanda Hamilton manages the kitchen, though Bikahi seems to have input, too. And though the space is all dressed up for downtown (a vertical wine shrine, wasabi-green counters, and reclaimed-wood wall cladding), the prevailing vibe is of the kind of outer neighborhood bistro Bikahi knows.

J. Birdsall

​Today's menu teased a few raw bar offerings (ceviche, halibut sashimi, oysters), sandwiches (including smoked Scottish salmon on focaccia), Dungeness crab capellini, fish and chips, even a pizza bianca. We ordered something called Garden of Sea brochette ($18), a metal skewer packed with a couple of scallops, a few small shrimp, and big-flake pieces of bass, along with sweet peppers and onion. The seafood's surfaces semi-caramelized on the grates of the gas grill, and it tasted fine (scallops were the best), though the accompanying green beans with almonds and tried-out minicubes of pancetta rated just okay (underdone, undersalted). And if we hadn't been able to expense our lunch, we would've been pissed at the cost-to-portion ratio. Maybe we were anyway. Then again, we did go for the priciest item (sandwiches cost $12-$14).

No doubt dinner will have a less frantic pace. And Bikahi wants to starts an after-office drinks scene, with a sherry club, maybe. We'd probably show up for that.

Open now:
Georges 415 Sansome (at Sacramento), 956-6900; Mon.-Fri. 11:30 a.m.-10:30 p.m.