The Scoop on The Slanted Door #
Address: 6000 Bollinger Canyon Rd
City Center Bishop Ranch
San Ramon, CA
Website
The Slanted Door is a chain of upscale modern Vietnamese restaurants that offers re-imagined tiki cocktails for their drinks menu. They’ve been much acclaimed since the first restaurant opened in 1994. In 2014, they won Outstanding Restaurant from the James Beard Awards.
This visit was my first time at any of the Slanted Door restaurants. In addition to the location I dined at in San Ramon, you can also find the Slanted Door in Napa, CA, and Beune, France. San Francisco’s the Slanted Door at the Ferry Building is scheduled for reopening in late 2024.
The Vibe: The Slanted Door has quite a large dining room and outdoor patio space in the upscale Bishop’s Ranch shopping center in San Ramon. Blonde wood floors, marble tabletops, and black accents throughout. Definitely a good spot for celebrations, in addition to simply enjoying a nice dinner out.
My Take on the Slanted Door #
The Food: My husband and I dined with two friends, sharing six dishes family style between us—family style is the preferred method of ordering here. We started with the daikon rice cakes, which were one of the highlights of the meal for me!
The texture was impressive: somewhat creamy, somewhat spongy, with the light pepperiness of the daikon radish.
Another favorite for me was the wood-roasted, dry-aged duck.
The duck was cooked to perfection, offering a bit of crunch with each bite of skin and a milder-than-most gaminess to the meat. Nice accompanying hoisin sauce as well. I also thought the shaking beef, served with a vibrant lime sauce, was delicious.
Shaking beef has been a favorite of mine since I first tried it at Golden Garlic on the Peninsula years ago. I love how a good crust can seal in great prime rib flavor with every bite, and the Slanted Door’s was no exception.
We also shared the stir-fried bok choy, cellophane noodles with gulf shrimp and Dungeness crab, and the shrimp and pork imperial rolls. Those were all good, but not as notable as the dishes I started out describing.
The Drinks: The cocktails were expertly made, offering unique versions of classic tiki cocktails, and it takes skilled bartenders to pull that off well. My Singapore Sling—Glendalough gin, benedictine, cherry heering, cointreau, fresh pressed pineapple, lime, angostura bitters—was a delight, and everyone enjoyed their first round picks.
The Service: It did take a while for our waiter to come by, but he was an excellent server for the rest of our meal, making some recommendations and advising us on how much food to order.
Would I Go Back? Sure! But it’s a pricy meal, so I would want to go with other people who are enthusiastic about the menu, as compared to my husband, who was not. Not their fault! Ben is just not that into family-style dining. I’d also want to scan the menu ahead of time to make sure there were enough items that I was excited to try versus spending a lot of money on dishes that don’t interest me as much. Luckily, the menu is posted online and current.
Dined in February 2024.
