About the restaurant: Le Colonial is a San Francisco miracle: an airy colonial mansion tucked into an alleyway, miles from the downtown bustle just outside its doors. It still boasts much of the grandeur of Trader Vic's, the famed restaurant that occupied the location for decades. Décor, from the long outdoor patio that leads to the cavernous dining room to the upstairs bar and veranda, evokes the exotic civility of the French colonial era, including Southeast Asian rattan furniture, large ferns, shuttered windows and languid ceiling fans.Food & Drinks: Skip the traditional appetizers in favor of the meaty hoisin and passion fruit glazed baby-back ribs. Larger dishes are headlined by supple wok-seared filet mignon cubes in sweet-savory soy and pickled red onion. Also of note are the crusted ahi in black vinegar jus and the steamed sea bass wrapped in banana leaves with portobello and black-bean coconut sauce. Desserts arrive vibrantly colored: the rum cake is moist; the flourless chocolate cake decadent. Upstairs, the bar scene is as hot as the spicy peanut sauce accompanying the chicken skewers on the abbreviated lounge menu (721Lounge has an alternate entrance at 721 Sutter St.). Creative takes on classic cocktails appropriately incorporate subtle Asian spices.
