Fish.

photo - Yelp, Suliman A.

Fish., Dinner, Sausalito

May 28, 2016

P:

The Saigon King Salmon Sandwich - Grilled, marinated wild king salmon with a blend of fresh carrot, jalapeno, cilantro and house made Vietnamese ginger-scallion sauce atop a fresh roll; served with a choice of chili-lime coleslaw.

J:

Tuscan White Bean and Tuna Salad - The Fish. version of the old Italian classic, served with Iacopi bombaloni beans, house-poached albacore tuna, red onion, black olives, fresh lemon, olive oil and aged red wine vinegar.

Notes:

We've been to Fish. once before.  Today, it was our last stop before heading back home after a day of roaming aimlessly around the Bay Area.  (Side note: if you have never found yourself roaming aimlessly around town, I suggest you give it a try.)

Fish. is a sustainable seafood restaurant on the waterfront in Sausalito; their mission is to serve sustainable seafood alongside locally grown organic fruits and vegetables.  The food is always very good here.  I wouldn't say it's always amazing, but it's always very good.  Take the Saigon King Salmon Sandwich, for example.  The name suggests it will be a take on the Vietnamese sandwich: a soft roll filled with a rich meat (typically pâté, or roasted pork, or pork belly...and the list goes on), and filled with crunchy raw and pickled veggies, jalapenos and piquant sauces.  Well, here we had the soft roll going on, and the raw veggies, and a generous hunk of beautifully cooked salmon, but the whole was not greater than the sum of its parts.  The sandwich was plain, it had no zip; with a little something more, it could have been amazing.  The slaw, to boot.  No zip!  Where was the chili?  The lime?

And, then there was the Tuscan bean and tuna salad; I absolutely love this type of thing.  Here, it was a mountain of flaked tuna (I'm not kidding, it bordered on obscene), tossed with some giant white beans, a few slices of red onion and a smattering of black olives.  All good, but it was a little dry, and the flavors weren't coming together.  If you've ever had this dish made proper, and clearly whoever created this dish has not, no one ingredient overwhelms another (except for maybe the dressing - it's usually swimming in olive oil and lemon juice) and it's a magical combination of textures and flavors.  This dish was good, but missing the magic.

Though nothing we had this time was spectacular, most of what we had on our first visit was memorable, so I know this to be a great restaurant.  And, yes, it's expensive, but the portions are ridiculously huge.  We could easily get away with 1 dish between the two of us, which we'll try to remember next time we visit.

Sam's Anchor Cafe

Sam's Anchor Cafe, Drinks and a Snack, Tiburon
May 28, 2016

P&J:
Chips & Onion Dip - Old bay potato chips, creme fraiche with caramelized shallots
Pink Lemonade - citrus vodka, lemon juice, sweet and sour, 7up and cranberry


Notes:
On our way back home from a lovely day in Mill Valley, we decided it was time for a Pink Lemonade.  Years ago, before I moved to California, a friend of mine told me about the must-have beverage at a place in Tiburon.  "But, don't drive there," he warned, suggesting that it was easy to have one too many - the drinks were potent, but didn't taste that way.  "Take the ferry," he said.  Tiburon is north of San Francisco, across the bay; the ferry terminal neighbors Sam's.

We walked into Sam's and through their empty bar to grab a seat on the sunny patio behind the restaurant.  Perhaps a little too sunny (and hot), there was only about 1 umbrella for every 10 tables, but I talked Patrick into it; it seemed a shame to drink Pink Lemonades anywhere but on a sunny patio on this gorgeous day. "We'll just have one," I promised.  So, we sat.  And sat.  And sat.  No less than 5 servers looked at us, sitting at a bare table but for a couple of menus, and never approached us.  About 10 minutes into this nonsense, a group of four was seated two tables away.  "If they are greeted before us, we're leaving," I thought.  And sure enough, they were.  So we left.  I was pretty disappointed, that I waited over 10 years to finally try a Pink Lemonade, and I wasn't going to have one.  But, as we walked back through the bar, Patrick persuaded me to take a seat there instead so we could have a drink.

Boy, am I glad he did.  Those Pink Lemonades were delicious!  The lemonade flavor was so strong that the booze went practically unnoticed; you really could get carried away with these, I'm sure.  We ordered some chips and onion dip to snack on while we enjoyed our lemonades - also very good.


Is it worth a trip to Tiburon for a Pink Lemonade?  Well, if you've never had one, sure.  But is it worth another trip?  I'd say unlikely, but you never know.

Noci Gelato

Noci Gelato, Dessert, Mill Valley
May 28, 2016

P:
Sweet cream and black cherry

J:
Milk chocolate and salted almond


Notes:
Where do you go on a hot, sunny day in Mill Valley?  Plenty of places, I'm sure, but we stumbled across this gelato place and had to give it a try.

The first time I ever had gelato, I was in Italy with my family.  It was very warm, we were there in late spring, I believe, and we came across an ice cream a gelato shop.  I was drawn to the hazelnut flavor, nocciola, over a more familiar one like chocolate or vanilla; perhaps I liked the challenge of a foreign word, or maybe I had Nutella in mind at the time, who knows.  But, when I took that first bite, ice cream frozen dessert as I knew it changed forever.  This was richer, creamier, and more full-flavored than any ice cream I'd ever had - and I knew good ice cream - I grew up eating fresh strawberry ice cream right out of the churn during hot Kansas summers.  After returning from Italy, I was on a mission to find gelato, but couldn't.  It wasn't until I moved to California about 10 years (?) later that I found anything that came close (at Gelateria Naia).

Surprisingly, gelato is actually less rich in fat than ice cream.  It uses more milk than cream, but it's churned at a slower speed resulting in a less airy, more dense texture.  Because it's lower in fat, it's served at a warmer temperature, ready to melt in your mouth.  When it does, the flavor is more intense, since there's less butterfat to coat your palate and interfere with your taster.  Don't get me wrong, ice cream is still an amazing thing, but gelato can beat it at its own game.

Except this stuff at Noci; I was pretty disappointed with this place.  They did not have hazelnut flavor (WHA?!), so I settled for salted almond (which sounded perfectly delicious) and milk chocolate.  The salted almond had an unpleasant, grainy texture and no discernible salt or almond flavor; the milk chocolate tasted like frozen chocolate milk, lacking body and richness.  Patrick's choices were more successful; both the sweet cream and black cherry had a nice flavor and texture, though in my view, it still didn't compare to what I know it can be.  And surprise, it was expensive.


Next time we're in Mill Valley on a beautiful, hot, sunny day, we'll probably try to find an ice cream shop (or..?) before we'd come back here.

Joe's Taco Lounge

photo - Yelp, Ann S.

Joe's Taco Lounge, Lunch, Mill Valley
May 28, 2016

P:
GRILLED CHICKEN  w/ spicy chipotle salsa, lettuce, cilantro & onions
AGUA FRESCA, strawberry

J:
MARINATED GRILLED FISH  Pacific snapper w/ salsa fresca, habanero mayo, cabbage & lime


Notes:
We decided to spend a day wandering around Mill Valley, and came across this taco joint on our way into town.  "Fish Tacos" was painted on the front window, and that was enough for me.*  Joe's is a curious little place with bottles of hot sauce and religious paraphernalia lining the walls, little faux-crystal chandeliers, colorful plasticized table cloths and a horseshoe-shaped bar in the center where the cashier greets all who enter.

There was only one choice for fish tacos, and I took it.  They were surprisingly good.  I love fish tacos, but for some reason I haven't found any in California worth talking about, until these.  The grilled fish was heavily seasoned, moist and flaky topped with just enough chopped cabbage and finished with salsa and a nice drizzle of spicy mayo.  We're talkin' taco harmony - hot and cold, tender and crunchy, light yet filling.  Okay, this wasn't the best fish taco I've ever had, but it's pretty good for what I've had in California, so far.

Patrick was less pleased.  The grilled chicken was heavy on the char and overbearing.  The salsa was watery and caused the tortillas to fall apart in his hands.  The chipotle salsa was nice, but couldn't save the day given everything else.

It's hard to say whether we'd go back since we don't find ourselves in Mill Valley very often.  but if we did, and I had a fish taco craving, this would be the place (and Patrick would happily order something different).


*Fish tacos were a thing in Austin, or at least, that was where I first heard of them; and I thought it sounded like one of the worst ideas, ever.  To me, tacos were crispy shells with seasoned ground beef; taco night at our house when I was a kid was a special time, and that's all I knew - crispy shells and seasoned ground beef.  And fish, well that was something you ate fried or broiled and with steamed broccoli.  It took me years before I would even try a fish taco.  But once I did (I think with the very same friend who got me to try cilantro - which I also love), I was hooked.  Grilled (not fried), seasoned fish in soft corn tortillas with some sort of crispy cabbage slaw and spicy condiment - there are endless options, and I like it all kinds of ways.  It is one of my absolute favorite things.  I feel like I say that often, but it's always true when I do.

Mourad

photo - Yelp, Tony L.

Mourad, Drinks, SOMA

P&J:
OLIVES  preserved lemon . marash 7
PECANS  harissa

P:
VERVE ‘STREET LEVEL’ ROAST small pour over

J:
COCONUT | LEMONGRASS tequila . lemon . coconut . lemongrass . egg white . maraschino . lemon tonic


Notes:
We walked over to Mourad with our friends after having dinner at The Cavalier.  A mutual friend works there, so we stopped in to have a drink and say hello before going our separate ways and heading home.

Shortly after taking seats at the large communal table in the bar area, we were treated to some warm, marinated olives and spiced pecans.  Patrick was in love with the pecans - we'll need to figure out how to make them.  He was equally happy with his coffee.  My drink was citrusy, coconutty, and very pretty, the ice to drink ratio was a little off, but I was happy nonetheless.

Why am I even mentioning this place when I have so little to say about it?  Well, because maybe it's something that should be on our list, but I'm not sure I can bear to put it there. It's yet another overpriced, fancy-pants dining experience in San Francisco.  Mourad is the eponymous restaurant by the same man who is responsible for Aziza, a once-favorite of mine.  Like Mourad (the restaraunt and the man), Aziza is Moroccan.  I've had some of the most delicious food I've ever known at this lovely gem of a restaurant, which just happened to be in my neighborhood (and still is).  But once the restaurant gained notice, and accolades along with it, it started to change.  The food got smaller, more contrived, less real.  The cozy, calm atmosphere was lost, traded for communal tables and the fevered glow of red lighting.  It just wasn't what I fell in love with.  And now, there's Mourad.  Take the modernity of Aziza, add a healthy dose of investment dollars and contemporary design, and voila, uber-expensive, plated-with-tweezers Moroccan food.  I just don't know if I can do it.  But if anyone could convince me otherwise, it would be Patrick.  He likes Aziza, even as it is now.  Maybe he'd like Mourad, too.

Cavalier, Part II

The Cavalier, Dinner, SOMA
May 20, 2016

P&J:
Quail Egg Mayonnaise - celery salt and crispy shallot
Crispy Brussels Sprout Chips - vadouvan and lemon zest
Lamb Scrumpets - pickled chile and mint sauce
Baked Sweet Potato and Spring Vegetables - beets, heirloom carrots and apples, tumeric, yogurt, pumpkin seeds
Shepherd's Pie - minced leg of lamb, carrots, peas and curried mash
Fish and Chips - thrice cooked fries, minted peas, and malt vinegar aioli


Notes:
I know, I know.  I complained about this place the first time.  And the only reason I'm writing about this a second time (ordinarily, I'd keep these entries limited to a single visit) is because Patrick and I were together on this occasion.  How we ended up here so soon after I was traumatized by a Scotch egg, well...

So, the situation here is that we were meeting some friends, and food was ordered.  We didn't choose any of the food (except for the Shepherd's Pie), but it was brought to the table and we ate it.  And we didn't pay for it.  We did a good old fashioned dine and dash, you know, where you create a distraction at the end of the meal and just make a run for it?  I'm kidding.  We don't do that; I saw it in a movie once.  But we didn't pay, and I'm only putting that out there because I think it's relevant.

The quail egg mayonnaise...where do I begin.  Apparently, there is some "story" behind their eggs (that I missed), but to me, that translates into this-is-why-we-charge-you-2-dollars-for-half-a-quail-egg.  It's ridiculous.  I feel the same way about their $15 Scotch egg, so what this says to me is that I should never order egg-anything from The Cavalier because it gets me all worked up.  Here we had half a quail egg perched on a teeny dollop of mayonnaise with shallot and some chervil if I remember correctly.  It's their take on a deviled egg, except it's nothing at all like one.  Moving on.  The Brussels sprout chips were very good.  They must have one poor (literally), naive culinary student in the kitchen, peeling apart Brussels sprouts leaf by leaf so they can be flash fried and tossed with curry spices and lemon zest.  Well, great job, kid, they're delicious!  Lamb scrumpets were succulent little bits of lamb left on the bone, lightly coated and fried and served with a thin but flavor-packed mint sauce.  The meat was unbelievably tender and just the right amount of fatty; I ate these with my fingers and cleaned the bones.

The Sheperd's pie was served so hot it could barely be eaten.  But once we could, we found it savory and appealing, though nothing extraordinary.  The sweet potatoes were slender and creamy white and garnished with shredded raw beet, apple, and carrot; the turmeric yogurt sauce on the plate seemed out of place with everything else.  All very tasty, but again, nothing extraordinary.  The fish and chips I liked very much, though the rest of the table wasn't as taken.  For me, it was that the fish was nicely battered, crispy and not the least bit greasy, and I do like their thrice cooked fries.  (If there's one thing this restaurant knows, it's how to operate a fryer.)  For everyone else, it was just fish and chips, nothing to get excited about.

We didn't have dessert.


So, now would we go back?  It's leaning "no".  Aside from that ridiculous egg thing, everything was good, or very good, but nothing was truly amazing.  And because we didn't pay for anything, we have no idea what the bill should have been, so we didn't leave offended; but "it wasn't offensive" is not a feeling that would make us return.

Padrecito

photo - Yelp, Tristan L.

Padrecito, Dinner, Cole Valley
May 18, 2016

P&J:
chips y salsas con guacamole
queso fundido - pt. reyes toma-oaxaca cheese, refried black beans y corn tortillas
sweet corn esquites
budino de chocolate (for dessert) - ancho-pepita brittle, 3 twins salted caramel ice cream y cajeta caramel

P:
chipotle chilaquiles - duck carnitas, fava beans, poblano pepper rajas, chipotle mole y crema latina
requero (cocktail) - blanco tequila, gran classico bitter aperitif, maraschino, lemon oil

J:
grilled arctic char tacos - achiote rub, avocado aioli y mango jicama slaw
pinata (cocktail) - reposado tequila, pineapple, serrano chile, rosemary, lime
boliviano (another cocktail) - bolivian pisco, lime, alpine herbal liqueur, pineapple cordial


Notes:
Patrick found out about this place one afternoon, and made reservations immediately thereafter.  We're both huge fans of Mexican cuisine.  I hadn't heard anything about it before, but only knew it was the sister (or should I say brother?) restaurant to Mamacita in the Marina.

In an attempt to be good girls and boys, and not order everything in sight like I usually try to make us do, we settled on an appetizer to share and an entree for each of us, with a vegetable side.  "Should we get chips and salsa?" he asked.  "No, it's fine, we can be good," I said.  We were seated near the kitchen, and one server after another walked through that doorway with chips and salsa, going to what seemed like every table but ours.  "I can't watch this anymore.  I think we need chips and salsa," he said.  I giggled.  We got the guacamole, too.

The chips were fresh, though not plentiful, I suppose a good thing given the amount of food we had coming.  They were served with three little pots of salsa - a mild tomatillo, a roasted tomato, and a smooth, smoky hot chipotle, Patrick's favorite.  The velvety guacamole was served with a little pot of fruity habanero salsa, which was my pick for best of the bunch.  It had an unbelievable amount of flavor, it went beyond just hot; eventually, I was putting it on everything (a little goes a long way).  The queso fundido was a nice surprise.  Well seasoned and smooth refried black beans rested below a generous layer of blistered, melty cheese, waiting to be mounded into fresh corn tortillas.  The beauty of this was that the cheese did not overwhelm in a tangled, stringy mess when you spooned it from the dish, and the piping hot beans underneath kept the cheese warm and gooey, long after it sat.

Next came our entrees and the veggie side.  Patrick's dish looked amazing, my tacos were simple but beautiful, and the corn looked like the thing I needed to try first so I did.  Aaannd, I lost my mind.  This corn was so flipping good that I couldn't think about anything else.  I took small bites and savored each one (I don't normally do this) because I wanted this dish of corn to last forever.  FOREVER!  It was a flavor bomb.  Corn, cut fresh off the cob, is mixed with a concoction of smoky ancho chile sauce and crema (think thin sour cream) and topped with salty cotija cheese and finely chopped pumpkin seeds.  Sounds simple, but it was so amazingly complex and mother loving delicious.

Patrick was pleased with his chilaquiles, but he didn't get too far into them, hoping to save himself for dessert.  His was a dish of corn tortilla chips tossed in a smoky chipotle mole with shreds of duck meat, tender fava beans and roasted poblano peppers scattered throughout.  For the tacos, fat pieces of arctic char, which took on the color and earthy, savory flavor of the achiote marinade, were finished on the grill and placed on warm, fresh tortillas (so good) with a finely cut slaw.  That habanero salsa was right at home with these babies.  These were both very good dishes, but I couldn't get over the corn; it was the winner.

We did end up having dessert, and we went for the chocolate budino, which was essentially a warm pudding cake, so I'm not sure I need to go into any more detail other than warm pudding cake.  It was delicious and chocolatey and rich and delicious.  Yeah, I said it twice.  Patrick was pleasantly surprised by this - he felt the menu description didn't do it justice, we only ordered the dessert on the recommendation of the server.  But had he known, HAD HE KNOWN!  He would have ordered it, himself, recommendations be damned!


Oh man, we'll be back.

Pizzetta 211

photo - Yelp, Nat L.

Pizzetta 211, Dinner, Outer Richmond
May 9, 2016

P&J:
Sesame Crusted Seared Tuna with Charred Radicchio and Lemon Caper Aioli
Pizzettas: Rosemary, Fiore Sardo Cheese, Pine Nuts; Farm Fresh Egg, Asparagus, Almond Picada, Creme Fraiche: Housemade Sausage, Broccoli di Ciccio, and Chile*
Flourless Chocolate Cake with Fresh Whipped Cream
Buttermilk Panna Cotta with Blueberry Sauce


Notes:
This is probably one of my absolute favorite spots in our neighborhood.  I adore this place.  ADORE!  It's a tiny spot with roughly 20 seats, a few of them at the worn wooden bar that overlooks the even tinier kitchen.  The servers are casual and adequately friendly (though bordering on taking themselves too seriously), but they clearly care about what they do, and that makes me smile.  The wine is served in glass tumblers, which I love for some reason.  And the pizzas (pizzettas) are perfection.

We have never sat anywhere but at the bar.  They're the best seats in the house, in our opinion, and oddly the least desirable, because requesting seats at the bar always gets us in sooner rather than later.  (This also gets us the relatively undivided attention of one of the cooks in that tiny little kitchen, which is a big plus.)  They always have a "special" starter, always a salad in our experience, and always amazing.  This evening it was a seared tuna appetizer, which is pretty 90's of them and almost a turn off for me, but in light of "always amazing", we had to give it a try.  The tuna was perfectly cooked, the delicately crunchy seeds on the surface were nicely toasted and complemented the flavor of the supple fish.  Generous drizzles of lemon caper aioli and the deeply charred, tender greens brought everything together into a harmony of flavors and textures.  Yep; amazing.  We polished the dish off in about 3 minutes.  Classy.

Next were the pizzettas.  They always have a pizza with egg on the menu, a must have, in my view.  If you've never had anything like this before, I implore you, seek it out.  Here, during its last few minutes in the oven, two raw eggs are slipped onto the surface of the pizza, in this case topped with a drizzle of creme fraiche, asparagus coins, crushed almonds and mozzarella.  Moments later, the pizza emerges light golden brown and topped with two perfectly cooked, sunny-side-up eggs.  It's cut in such a way so as to maintain the integrity of the yolk, which is promptly wrecked once it hits the table, with the pieces of pizza flanking the yolk used for dipping.  It's a fabulous and satisfying experience.  The second pizza was the broccoli di ciccio and sausage.  This was quite delicious.  Let me just go on about broccoli di ciccio for a moment.  I absolutely LOVE this vegetable.  Apparently, it's an heirloom broccoli, the ancestor to the giant heads of broccoli we're all familiar with.  Except it's all thin, tender stems and leaves with little florets at the tip of each stem.  And it has more sweet, delicious broccoli flavor than any broccoli I've ever had.  It's one of my favorite things.  I'd never had it before living here, and I've only had it a few times since, when I'm lucky enough to find it.  But, back to the pizza.  So, our second pizza had pieces of this broccoli di ciccio,  a little smattering of fresh Italian sausage and some red chili flake.  Delicious!  (I know, I said that already.)  These flavors really work together - meaty, juicy bits of sausage with sweet, earthy broccoli and a little heat from the chile flake.  Yes, please.  Finally, we had the pizza with Fiore Sardo cheese, rosemary and pine nuts.  This was good, but not my favorite.  The sheep milk's cheese had a nice flavor, but didn't melt nicely - it took on that oily and rubbery state that some cheeses do when melted.  And while the pine nuts and rosemary were a nice compliment to the tangy, salty cheese, the overall texture was less enjoyable, though I'll admit, it was still satisfying in a comfort-food kinda way.  I need to comment on the fact that none of the pizzas we ordered had tomato sauce, which ordinarily is a strike in my book.  To me, pizza is not pizza unless it has tomato sauce.  (White pizza?  Nope, it's good, but it's not pizza.)  Except here - here I don't care.  I never miss it.

Sitting at the bar equals sitting by the dessert.  Invariably, there is a cake stand on the bar holding their flourless chocolate cake.  Chocolaty and rich, but not too rich, and it's served with barely-sweetened, barely-whipped cream.  It's a must, especially after you've been staring at it all night.  Their second dessert is usually something with fruit.  On this particular night it was buttermilk panna cotta with blueberry sauce.  Panna cotta is a dairy-based dessert to which gelatin has been added; it has the texture of a custard, but without the egg.  Now, buttermilk panna cotta is especially good because that tang really lightens things up, and when accompanied by a lovely fresh fruit sauce, it's almost like eating health food.  So of course, we had that too.


Did I tell you I adore this place?  We don't come here every weekend only because there are so many other places around town to try, but we go as often as we can.


*We recently had a couple of friends in town; new friends to Patrick, old friends to me.  This is the last restaurant we visited with one of them before his return to the Deep South, and the last we visited among no less than a dozen within the 5 days before that.  I got a little behind in my writing, as you might imagine, and I can't remember exactly every last detail of what was on those pizzas and the menu at Pizzetta 211 has since changed.  [Sad face.]

Golden Boy Pizza

Photo by Patrick

Golden Boy Pizza, Dinner, North Beach
May 8, 2016

P:
Combination

J:
Clam Garlic


Notes:
Our fourth and final food stop for the day was at Golden Boy Pizza, because we wanted to finish the day right.

Golden Boy has been around in North Beach since 1978.  It's a hole in the wall and it's fabulous.  We've both been here a number of times, but this was our first visit together.  This is mostly a by-the-slice joint, with the available offerings on display in the front window.

They make only Sicilian-style pizza here, though they don't characterize it as such on their website, so I'm sure someone out there doesn't appreciate such a reference.  But it's the only one I have, so let's move on.  As I was saying, Sicilian-style, you know, the square slice, the thick, doughy crust.  Well, I don't typically like that kind of pizza (because "thick, doughy crust"), but at it's different at Golden Boy.  The crust is pillowy soft and airy with a crispy, crunchy base.  It's amazing.

Except, I don't know why I'm going on about their crust, because there is only one thing to talk about here, and that's the clam garlic slice.  This thing is out of control good, and it's the reason we stopped here.  This pizza has only a thin layer of tomato sauce, and it's topped with an insane amount of chopped raw garlic, clams, and parsley.  It's bursting with flavor from the toppings, the parsley and garlic slightly charred by the smoking hot oven, and it's all brought together by the soft, crispy-bottomed crust.  This is not for you if you have any misgivings about garlic breath.  Or clam breath.  But it is SO good, and one of my favorite things on earth.

Patrick will have to tell you about the combination slice, since I know only one thing.


CLAM GARLIC.

15 Romolo

photo - Yelp, Taylor O.

15 Romolo, Drinks & Snacks, North Beach

May 8, 2016

P&J:
Steak Tartare - kobe sirloin, cornichons, capers, horseradish-mustard, quail egg
Grilled Octopus - smoked paprika, buttered potatoes, preserved lemon, parsley
Charred Padrons - olive oil fleur de sel
Pimm's Cup and Fimm's Cup


Notes:
After sending off one of our two visiting friends, we looked for a place to sit and talk, and maybe have a beer or two.  A couple of friends of mine have a restaurant in North Beach, so we headed that way, not knowing until we got there that they were closed.  Thankfully, there was a great place I'd only heard about just a few steps away, 15 Romolo.

Our friend was in love with this place.  It was dark, quiet, and you felt hidden away.  We had just eaten (twice), so we were really only in the mood to chat over a drink.  I went for the Pimm's Cup, a refreshing drink with gin, cucumber, lemon, mint, ginger and soda (there might be something else, but those are the important parts).  Patrick went for the Fimm's Cup, their non-alcoholic version of the drink.  Both were quite lovely.  The Pimm's Cup is sold by the pitcher, and had I not been drinking (Pimm's) alone, it would have been ours.

After a couple of hours, we decided to try a bit of their menu.  We first gravitated to the charred Padron peppers, always a great choice with a drink.  Little, wrinkled peppers are tossed whole in a screaming hot pan until some of their skin blackens and blisters and they're served with a generous sprinkling of fleur de sel (fancy sea salt).  They're tender, flavorful, and you never know if you're gonna get a spicy one.  The grilled octopus was succulent, nicely charred and served with smashed and crispy baby potatoes.  I loved the flavors at work here with the smokey heat and salty preserved lemon.  The steak tartare was also very good, a nice balance of fresh cut beef and piquant capers and pickles, though the serving was a little smaller than I would have liked.


Overall, we weren't blown away by anything, but it was all very good.  And beautiful - this is not your average bar food.  But their menu has much more for us to try, and I love their Pimm's Cup.  We'll be back.

Eagle Cafe

photo - Yelp, Audrey P.

Eagle Cafe, Lunch, Fisherman's Wharf
May 8, 2106

We stopped here after quick bite at The Codmother.  It was a beautiful, sunny day, we (6 of us) were on the wharf, the day called for oysters and cold beer, and since The Codmother had neither, we had to find another spot.

Before I go any further, I must tell you that I don't have many good things to say about the food in and around Fisherman's Wharf.  Most of it just isn't very good.*  This area is the quintessential tourist trap, in that there is little more to do here than peruse the endless array of souvenir shops and wax museums.  I'm oversimplifying of course; I'm sure Fisherman's Wharf is perfectly lovely for some.  But anyway, there we were, in Fisherman's Wharf with a group of people in need of oysters and cold beer, and the best spot we could find was on Pier 39, the mothership of the Wharf.

Aaannd there was a 45 minute wait for that best spot.  Sooo, we went next door to a place called Eagle Cafe, and had some of the most mediocre seafood you could ever have while practically sitting on the ocean.  It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't good and it was expensive.  Patrick liked his lobster bisque okay, though thought it tasted more of cream than lobster.  The fried calamari was fine.  The oysters were average.  The crab cocktail was...actually, that one was decidedly not good.  The crab tasted watered down, I highly doubt it was local (based on its placement on the menu and since crab has had a tough season around here lately), and I'm not even sure it was fresh (vs frozen).  The cocktail sauce was pretty much ketchup, and hard, stale water crackers were served alongside with a sad, slimy little lemon.  Yuck.  Overall, I've had fresher, more flavorful seafood in Austin.  That's in Texas, people, and it's landlocked.  What's wrong with this picture?


*Patrick disagrees with this statement.  There is one place worth going to, he says, but since he hasn't taken me there I can not corroborate this claim.

*(part II) I am a sucker for the clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl at Boudin, though.

*(part III) Okay, and The Codmother; that place is good.

The Codmother Fish & Chips

photo - Yelp, Steve R.

The Codmother Fish & Chips, Lunch, Fisherman's Wharf
May 8, 2016

P&J:
Fish and Chips
Combo (Fish/Shrimp/Chips)


Notes:
If you ever want need fish and chips in San Francisco, this food truck in Fisherman's Wharf is the place to go.  The pieces of cod are sizable, the batter coating fries to a puffy, golden crisp without being overly greasy.  The chips are fantastic.  The fried shrimp are plump and juicy.  If they served beer (our friend wanted needed beer), we would have been there all day, but instead had a snack (or 1st lunch) and moved on.  In a sea (heh.) of horrible options on Fisherman's Wharf, this is a little gem; though not a hidden one, apparently, I hear the line can get outta hand.

We would definitely go back.

The View Lounge

photo - Yelp, Dominic S.

The View Lounge @ SF Marriott, Drinks, SOMA
May 7, 2016

We ended up here looking for a place to have a drink and a chat with some out-of-town friends after a great meal in Chinatown.  I was familiar with this place only in that I knew it existed, and Patrick had been there himself a time or two, so we thought that might be as good a spot as any, especially with the view.

It was a Saturday night.  We walked through the expansive and near empty lobby of the SF Marriott and made our way to the elevators.  When the doors opened up on the 39th floor, I couldn't have been more surprised.  The place was packed.  Wall to wall people, a swarm at the bar, club music thumping loudly.  "Wait, this is the Marriott!" I exclaimed.  Since when did a Marriott become "the" place?

After pushing through the sea of people between the bar and seating areas, a small bank of seats opened up in a room off to the side, with little of the available view.  Our friends took the space; Patrick and I volunteered to get the drinks and headed back into the madness.  While Patrick squeezed his way through to the bar, I got up close and personal (not intentionally) with the couple next to me (I use the word "couple" loosely).  She's flipping hair everywhere, he's grabbing at her lady curves, she's bent over the bar chair.  "BUT THIS IS A MARRIOTT!!"  I thought.  It was so Jersey Shore; I couldn't handle it.

The drinks were good.  We had the Skyline Punch cocktail (white rum, pineapple juice, fresh citrus juice and brandied grenadine), and later shared a bottle of bubbles between the four of us.  The place eventually calmed down; we scored some seats near the windows and tried to figure out what was what in the city lights.  It was a fine end to a nice evening together.


We might go back someday, but never again on a Saturday night.  Oh, the horror.

Z & Y Restaurant

photo - foodhoe's foraging (foodhoe) / CC BY-ND 3.0

Z & Y Restaurant, Dinner, Chinatown 

P&J:
Scallion Pancake
Spicy Numbing Beef Tender
Chicken with Explosive Chili Pepper
Tan Tan Noodle
Peking Duck


Notes:
After a string of somewhat disappointing experiences, we decided it was time to take things in a different direction with a visit to Chinatown.  We headed to a Szechuan place I had visited only once before, knowing we get great food without emptying our wallets.

This place is popular, highly rated, and there's always a 30-45 minute wait.  By the time we were seated, we were ready to eat.  It took a while before anyone approached the table, so once our server came around we just rattled off a list of things from the menu; we stopped after picking five, but could've kept going.

The scallion pancakes arrived well before everything else, these were nicely layered, delicately flaky and piping hot, but ached for some sauce.  Next came the Spicy Numbing Beef Tender: thinly sliced beef tendon dripping with chili oil and seasoned heavily with Szechuan peppercorns and five spice powder.  This dish is a favorite of mine, the tendon has the texture of (very) al dente pasta, and the fiery sauce makes your lips numb and tingly.  If only we hadn't inhaled those scallion pancakes, they would have been perfect for mopping up that sauce.  The chicken dish, another must have in my opinion, arrives as a (very) large pile of wok fried dried chilies on a round platter.  Scattered within that pile of chilies are bite size pieces of lightly fried chicken thigh exploding with flavor, and surprisingly not very spicy.  It's like digging for treasure - delicious, delicious treasure.  The tan tan noodles are a simple dish of springy egg noodles and pork in more of the same fiery, numbing sauce, but this with a deeper flavor, likely gaining richness from the ground meat.  Finally, the Peking Duck, carved tableside, is served with paper thin pancakes, sliced scallion and hoisin sauce.  The crispy sweet-glazed skin was (and always is) the best part of this dish, though this was my least favorite overall; the meat was dry and the subtle flavors couldn't compete with the rest of the food at the table.


We had a great time at Z & Y, and didn't break the bank doing it.  We'd go back.  

Bi-Rite Creamery

photo - Yelp, Meghan H.

Bi-Rite Creamery, Dessert, The Mission
May 6, 2016

P:
Chocolate with TCHO Chocolate

J:
Salted Caramel


Notes:
Bi-Rite Creamery is a neighborhood ice cream shop that has been in operation since 2002.  It's so popular that it's not unusual for there to be a line out the door and down the block, day or night, no matter the weather.

That night, we'd had dinner at the restaurant next door.  It was a slightly disappointing experience, and we decided the only way to turn things around was with a scoop from Bi-Rite.

Long ago, Bi-Rite was recommended to me by a friend who is a die hard fan of their salted caramel ice cream.  Before you say that flavor is "so last year" you should know that they've been doing salted caramel ice cream since before salted caramel ice cream was a thing.  And it is hands down, by far, the best salted caramel ANYTHING I've ever had.  I've probably been to Bi-Rite only about a half-dozen times.  Once, I got a scoop of "ricanelas", cinnamon ice cream with bits of snickerdoodle cookies.  It was good, but it was no salted caramel.  Another time I had a scoop of malted vanilla with peanut brittle and milk chocolate pieces, along with a scoop of salted caramel (smart, eh?).  But the malted vanilla, also good, was no salted caramel.  Ever since, I haven't bothered with anything else.  Their salted caramel ice cream is divine.  Ultra creamy and rich textured, the caramel flavor is deep and smoky, bordering on burnt, and the saltiness is just right.  It's HAY-mazing.

Patrick went with chocolate on this visit.  He's a big chocolate fan generally, and TCHO is an exceptionally good local chocolatier.  The ice cream he describes as having a deep chocolate flavor, almost as if there were chocolate extract added to the mixture.  I had some, and it was delicious, but it was no salted caramel.


SALTED CARAMEL.

Namu Gaji

photo - Yelp, Ann. L

Namu Gaji, Dinner, The Mission
May 6, 2016

P&J:
assorted pickles
kimchee
dumplings - shiitake, dashi, butter, nori
lamb tsukune - avocado, brûlée yolk, dill, cumin, calabrian chili
stonepot - market vegetables, kimchee, egg, koshihikari rice, gochujang, steak


Notes:
This was the last of the three dinner reservations I made during my friend's visit to San Francisco.  He's a restaurateur and was interested in catching one of the latest in food trends, "new" Korean; Namu Gaji seemed the perfect choice.  Unfortunately, it wasn't what I thought it was.  Their focus seems to be on Asian flavors generally, leaning more towards Japanese than Korean it seems.

Most of the food was good, but it wasn't particularly exciting, and generally we were put off by the everything else (more on that later).  The assorted pickles were a mess - little honshimeji mushrooms, red cabbage, and bean sprouts -  each tasted like they had been soaked in straight vinegar.  The napa cabbage kimchee on the other hand was top notch, and I'd love to know their secret.  It was supple but still a little crunchy, hot and sour and just a little fizzy on the tongue, just how it should be.  The dumplings were very good: mushroom filling stuffed inside thin wonton-type wrappers cooked until just tender and served in a rich, buttery broth.  The lamb tsukune, a skewer of ground lamb seasoned heavily with cumin and Calabrian chili was grilled until lightly charred but still juicy.  It was served with a brûléed yolk - raw egg yolk with a thin coat of sugar so as to be scorched, just as you would the dessert - topped with a heavy dose of finely chopped dill.  Potentially phenomenal (seriously - we're talkin' egg yolk), but it had no flavor to speak of.  Finally, the stonepot - a take on the Korean dish bibimbap.  Cooked white rice is layered in a giant, blistering hot stone pot with vegetables, kimchee, thinly sliced raw beef and a fried egg.  We were instructed to allow the pot to sit for at least 5 minutes, during which time the rice at the bottom of the pot would crisp, and the sliced beef would warm through.  When it was time, we stirred in the accompanying gochujang (Korean chili paste), mixing everything together while scraping up the crunchy rice and whacking the egg and beef into smaller pieces.  This was really tasty; the dish was well prepared and nicely proportioned between the rice and toppings, but it wasn't anything new, it was just really good bibimbap.

Sure, it was disappointing that the food wasn't what I expected, but I had only myself to blame.  The restaurant has a website, they have their menu posted, it shouldn't have been such a surprise to me.  But the real problem here was the experience itself.  When we walked into the tiny restaurant it was completely full but for the end of the bar seating which ran the length of the room against the windows.  There, in a space large enough for two people, were three bar stools.  We all knew - that was where they intended to seat us.  We should have said something, but we didn't.  Maybe we should have left, but we didn't.  Instead we sat, three people to a space built for two.  It was awful.  And did I mention the noise?  Restaurants these days are being designed for the modern aesthetic with little attention paid to the acoustics.  I know this.  I have been to countless restaurants which suffer from this affliction.  But this one was so bad, we gave up on trying to talk to one another.  There we sat, crammed together at the end of a sad little bar, left to stare out the window in between courses.

We cut the meal a little short that night and went for ice cream next door.  I doubt we'd go back.

The Progress

photo - Yelp, Andrew H.

The Progress, Dinner, Fillmore
May 5, 2016

P&J:
A few things for the table:
roasted brooks cherries with almond cream
buttermilk biscuit with apple bourbon black butter
ginger-chickpea hummus on seven pepper cracker
lettuce hearts with smoked paprika tonnato
tofu with sunflower seed pesto

Courses:
taylor bay scallop with white ponzu (add-on)
BN Ranch beef tartare - smoked oyster-ramp aioli, kohlrabi & puffed rice
black cod "toast" - maitakes, buttery favas, fermented turnips & lemon oil
So-Cal swordfish - pistachio "crema", fennel-blood orange relish & flowering kale
lamb shank-flat noodle "stir fry" - seasoned with ground 7  pepper, wild ramps & snow peas
rhubarb compote with cornmeal crumble (add-on)

Cocktails:
Martini - vodka, vermouth, smoked castelvetrano olive juice, rosemary oil
Sunny Jim - gin, lemon, vanilla, pineapple, kaffir lime leaf, soda
Black Metal - lemon-verbena infused tequila, fino sherry, swedish punsch, strawberry, lemon, grapefruit bitters
Great Mana - mezcal, aged rum, banana, coconut, lime, bitters


Notes:
The Progress was the second planned restaurant visit during our friend's stay in town.  This is the sister restaurant to the joint next door called State Bird Provisions.  I've been wanting to go to State Bird forever, but it's (still) impossible to get a reservation, and we really don't like long waits, so we've just never gone.  And since we could get a reservation at The Progress, and since it seems to be equally well-loved, I thought it a win.

The other draw (for me) was the concept, it's different - think tasting menu served family style.  Diners are charged per person, 4 courses are served to the table on large plates (versus plated for each individual) and little bites start off the meal.  It's an interesting take if you ask me, and I was excited to give it a shot.

As we were brought into the restaurant, we're once again met with modern aesthetic so popular in restaurants today: the soaring ceilings, exposed concrete and steel.  But here, thin slats of raw wood lined an entire wall, warming the room and dampening some of the noise.  The dining room was a little crowded, though, we were at the table that always seemed to be in the way.  On the other hand, this didn't feel out of place; the restaurant had a casual, communal vibe, so what's the harm in making room for a few friends?  Except I don't like people.  Kidding!  I do like people.  I also like cocktails.

We started with a round; all of their cocktails sounded appealing, so we each ordered something different.  Mine was the winner - the Sunny Jim - tart, not too sweet, and refreshing.  But we were all off to a good start, frankly.  We sipped our drinks, the server handed us a pencil and a menu, and we went to town, marking off the items we wanted to have by filling in little bubbles next to each.  It was like a test you're happy to take.  Shortly thereafter, we were brought little snacks from the kitchen.  The winners for Patrick were the roasted brooks cherry (roasted just long enough to maintain its integrity, stem and all, but the flesh inside was warm, soft and juicy) and the buttermilk biscuits - he's a biscuit man, and these were proper - tender and buttery.  (But tiny!  One bite!)  I couldn't believe how good the hummus tasted; was it just the ginger that made the difference?  The little lettuce hearts with smoked paprika tonnato were delightful - cold and crispy lettuce with a dab of unctuous, savory sauce (tonnato is essentially a tuna mayonnaise).  The tofu didn't win any favor - it was good but on the bland side and came off as "healthy" more than anything else.  (Ptooey!  Nah, I thought it was fine.)

Next came the little bay scallops.  These were a joke; they were tiny (I mean, TINY) and the white ponzu only served to mask their flavor.  But, we soon forgot the letdown once the beef tartare came along, a truly lovely dish.  Curls of paper thin kohlrabi and a generous smattering of herbs were laid over a small dice of deep-burgundy colored beef, tossed with crisped grains of rice and the pungent, umami-heavy oyster-ramp aioli.  I could have eaten just this, and I would have been in heaven.  It was full of flavor, the textures were complimentary and playful, the seasoning was perfect, everything was in balance.  The black cod "toast" arrived next, another winner.  Large pieces of lightly seared, succulent cod were placed over thin rectangles of toasted house-made bread.   Tender fava beans, earthy maitake mushrooms, and piquant turnips were scattered across the top; the pool of smoky, buttery, citrusy sauce soaked into the toasts and brought it all home.  This was a great dish, but this is where the excitement ended.

The flat noodle "stir fry" was more redolent of an Italian dish than the Asian-influence suggested by the menu.  (I'm not sure they know how to use air quotes.)  The noodles were a wide-cut fresh pasta and rested on the plate in a tangled lump.  The lamb was seasoned nicely, but so meager in proportion it was hard to get a proper taste, and the garnish of cucumber spears, sharp with vinegar, were a distraction.  This dish had potential, but it wasn't executed very well.  Finally, the swordfish; this was the most disappointing for me.  The swordfish was a thin, bordering on overcooked.  The pistachio "crema" (there are those air quotes again) at the base of the plate had little to no discernible pistachio flavor.  The "fennel-blood orange relish" (please note the proper use of air quotes, here) was actually just slices of fennel and blood orange, and the flowering kale was little more than pretty.  That's all this dish was - pretty.  And that's if you like deliberately plated food, where the plate is the blank canvas, the food is the artist's medium, and tweezers are involved.  I'm being overly dramatic; maybe they didn't use tweezers.

Dessert could turn this all around, right?  Well, no.  Dessert is not part of the deal, it's an additional charge.   But I was looking to end the meal on a positive note, so I pushed for it. There were three choices offered, and none really grabbed us, so we asked the server to choose for us.  He wouldn't tell us which he'd picked, but when he set forks on the table, it became clear, we were not getting either of the ice cream desserts.  Because who (willingly) eats ice cream with a fork?  No one, ever, and that's a fact.  Nevertheless, our dessert was sad and disappointing: cooked until just soft rhubarb with rock hard crumbles of cornmeal cookie and the tiniest dollop of fresh whipped cream.  In an effort to let the rhubarb sing, they forgot to add (enough) sugar; it was entirely too tart.  The crumble served as an example of why people don't like cornmeal (and I am not one of those people); it was like eating gravel.  Sadly, the best part was the thimbleful of cream.


I don't know that we'd go back.  It was a lovely restaurant with an interesting concept, but only half of what we ate was worth raving about and the total bill was outrageous.  I'm still not sure how everything added up to be so expensive, but it did.  We are happy to pay (very well) for good food, but this just wasn't that good, and we left pretty disappointed.