I’m a little confused since I haven’t been to Sausalito in a while and the restaurants you mentioned all are familiar names here in SF. Are you saying they have Sausalito branches now?

Anyway, I’ve eaten at Zuni in SF a few times. It was OK (and I didn’t have the roast chicken which is what everyone oohs and aahs about) but I consider it more a place to see and be seen (while having maybe an afternoon glass of wine) than to actually EAT (those big glass windows on Market St., you know). I have never tried The Slanted Door. The old location was on the same block with my then-favorite Indian restaurant and I used to wonder why all those crowds of yuppies would stand in line when they could get superior curry down the block. Anyway, the new location at the Ferry Building doesn’t attract me much either just because it looks colder than an iceberg in Antarctica.

Speaking of the Ferry Building, that’s a great way to get to SF from Sausalito–on the ferry (direct to the Ferry Building).

Michael Mina, on the other hand, I haven’t tried either but would like to if only to see what he’s done to my beloved Compass Rose (the former bar in the lobby of the St. Francis Hotel which was converted to his restaurant). It certainly got good reviews when it opened.

All those white-painted columns and woodwork used to be beautiful dark varnished wood.[:(]