edenman

Wine bar in the old Californios space at 22nd/SouthVanNess.  Went here as part of our "see all our friends" visit a couple weeks ago.  The wine list is way too heavy on the funk for my tastes these days but we drank two of their non-funky bottles, a lovely Chenin from Margins in Santa Cruz and a semi-carbonic Zin blend from Broc.  Food was great: stonefruit and early girl tomatoes, gougeres with trout roe and labneh, fried mortadella sandwich, and the highlight: a grilled king trumpet mushroom with truffle honey, feta, and a walnut salsa macha.  Say it with me now: walnut salsa macha.  Bonkers good, like a sichuan chili crisp but Cal-Mexican flavor profile.

Previous thread:

We went a couple of weeks ago.  We must have gotten lucky on the weather because the space heaters were plenty to keep us warm in the outdoor seating.  Might legitimately be my favorite restaurant in SF.  The wings were a new menu item and...wow.  Dry-fried, spicy, numbing, insanely crispy, juicy, just incredible.  The kitchen is firing on all cylinders, go go go.

Went again on my first visit back to SF since the pandemic started.  Concur with @TrelayneNYCon highlights, the sope, banana dish, and the corn ice cream were hits for us as well.  In general, however, the food felt a little watered-down, as they are clearly gunning for three stars and maybe as a result have to do more of a lowest-common-white-people-denominator menu?  Nothing was spicy at all, several dishes felt like they were missing acidity.

But that's not the main reason I was bummed out about the meal: the service was _awful_.  I normally don't even comment on service, and I know running a restaurant in a pandemic has to be insanely difficult and stressful....but at this price point it should be at least good.  One of our table was vegetarian and he was served the wrong dish and inadvertently consumed pork (particularly bad because he's Jewish and keeps kosher).  We raised this as a concern and then a few courses later they did it again (thankfully this time the meat was obvious and he didn't consume any).  Just brutal. 

The music used to be a fun part of Californios, lots of hip-hop and old school R&B.  When we were there it flailed around between chill ambient background music, hip-hop, and at one point a hot country song.  It's a dumb thing to complain about but it was really distracting.

And finally, I really hate what they've done to the space.  It used to be so bright and airy when it was Bar Agricole, and they've tried to replicate the dark cavern vibes from the old Californios space, but failed spectacularly imo. 

Also the wine list still has some good stuff on it, but it leans way heavier into old-white-man Napa Cab type stuff than it used to.  Again I'm assuming this is because they're gunning for more stars and feel like people want to drink that stuff? But with food this delicate and sensual it feels like a complete throwaway of like a third of the wine list.

$361/person for food/tax/tip.  Compared with the $204 from five years ago, it sure feels like a worse experience for almost double the price.

A little bird told me Californios is taking over the gorgeous Bar Agricole space.  Thankfully it's got a big front patio, but still seems like a really optimistic move for them.  That place is huge.

The wife and I happened to be in New Zealand on vacation in March when everything went to shit, and we decided to try and stay.  Did our level 4 lockdown in Christchurch (Gatherings for wine and fish, C4 for coffee, Vino Fino and Decant for retail wine, Inati for fine dining once that was allowed again).  I concur with @ol_ironstomachthat Sal's is a very passable NY-style slice, a comfort food I didn't know I had until I unwittingly moved halfway around the world.  Anyway, we moved up to Auckland in July, rented a house and are waiting on visa approvals.  Auckland highlights so far:

Coffee: Atomic, Espresso Workshop

Wine: Cave a Vin (he makes killer sourdough and cultured butter too), Bar Celeste

Mezcal: La Fuente and Ghost Donkey

Cocktails: Deadshot, Caretaker

Food: Eden Noodles Cafe, Pasture, Culprit, Mr Hao, Cassia, Cocoro, Sidart, Xi'an Food Bar

There's a _ton_ of mediocre food here.  Lots of stealth sugar in dishes that shouldn't have sugar in them.  But we're finding some gems.  Odd blind spot: the Japanese food here is _terrrrrible_.  Thankfully the Chinese food is excellent and there's some good regional representation.  We haven't found _great_ produce yet so we've started doing some gardening to grow our own tomatoes/peppers/herbs.

I don't imagine the border restrictions will be relaxed anytime soon, but if they are, give us a shout if you're going to come visit!

And they just picked up a second Michelin star! 

Prubechu is one of my favorite restaurants in the entire city.  

• They have an a la carte menu, but we mostly stick to the $65 tasting menu.  If you go with 4+ people, the tasting menu is required.
• Guamanian food (from Guam) food is a delicious mash-up of native Chamorro food, combined with influences from Japan, Spain, and the US, who have all claimed the island at some point.
• The beer bottle/can list is really good, and the guys who work there are total beer geeks, so they'll occasionally have some off-menu stuff or an interesting keg on tap.
• It's right by 24th/Mission so it's super easy to get to via BART, Muni or Lyft.

Our latest meal there:

Guamstyle sweet rolls / Tuba butter / Inarajan sea salt: perfect texture, the tuba/coconut butter on the side a great foil.

Corn soup / spam / fried onions / coconut milk : I am a sucker for corn soup, but this was superlative.  Creamy and sweet, yes, but deeply rich and complex, with textural contrast from the toppings.

Chicken Kelaguen / grated coconut / lemon: this was a fun "make your own taco" style dish.  The house hot sauce saved what would have otherwise just been a good dish.

Coconut titiyas - the house flatbreads, they're about 3" in diameter and fluffy and delicious.  Get some of the hot sauce and the tuba/coconut butter on em, omg. 

Fried thingies (I didn't get the name of this one): tomatoes are in season and this was basically an extravagant excuse to show off how good local tomatoes can be. 

Coconut greens: bury me in this dish plz.

Motsiyas ( chicken sausage ) mint / basil / onions / coconut milk / onion soubise: this is always on the tasting menu, and it's always great. the crispy chicken skin is a great contrast to the herby sauage, and the hot sauce is the third pillar of joy.

Chalakilis ( rice porridge) English peas / maitake mushrooms / fried egg / sesame seeds: the egg is a staple of the tasting menu and it's basically almost always my favorite dish.  panko-coated and fried until the white is set and the yolk is still runny.  The rice is great, and the black sesame was an excellent accent.

Guamstyle BBQ ribs / soy / onions / vinegar / lemon: really good.  soy marinated, with sunchoke chips.  not too smoky, not too fall-apart-y, just wonderful.

Coconut ice cream, fritter: there's a healthy sprinkle of salt on the ice cream and i don't understand why other restaurants don't also do this to every ice cream dish. 

Photos here. 

On 8/20/2017 at 4:57 PM, porcupine said:

A few summers ago I had two cases of It's-It shipped to me here in Maryland. Stuffed my auxiliary freezer with them. Was very popular with my friends for the next few months.

The green tea flavor (new as of this year) is dangerously good.

Went to Californios this week for the fourth or fifth time, and it once again blew me away.  The food is right up there with the best tasting menus in Mexico City, imo, maybe ranking just-under Pujol in my book.  It would not surprise me at all to see this get a second star in the next couple years.

Tickets are shockingly easy to come by for cooking of this caliber.  Food+tax+service comes to $204/person (at least for the tickets I bought this time) but the wine list is really fun so you'll probably end up spending more.  Thankfully, the ticketing system ensures that past-you pays for the food up-front and actually-eating-the-dinner-you only has to pay for booze. 

You should go.

I didn't take photos but this person did: 

"Mexico + California - The Inventive, Engaging, Stunning Food at Californios [Review + Pics]" on foodtalkcentral.com

3115 22nd Street (22nd & South Van Ness)

Went a few weeks ago. The cocktails were lovely, and I really love that they're grouped by flavor profile.  The food was all tasty but mostly forgettable.  The decor is....weird.

Rintaro is excellent.  My favorite yakitori in SF.  Go early so you can maximize your chances of the best skewers (thigh oyster, liver, hearts, tail, duck) still being available.  If you are by yourself or with just one other person, I love sitting at the counter so you can watch Koko (sp?) or one of the other yakitori chefs work their magic.

Literally the only thing I don't love about Rintaro is that their beer selection is not good, and they don't have a full liquor license.

Oh, and that the dashimaki tamago is only sometimes on the menu.  If you see it, get it.

I live two blocks from La Taqueria.  A few things I've learned over the years:

• It's important to have a firm time limit in mind when going to LT.  If you show up and the line is out the door, just walk a couple blocks over to Taqueria Guadalajara.  It's not the same thing at all, but the carnitas is some of the best in the city.
• They are cash only.  There's an ATM in the back.
• The cabeza and lengua are definitely the best meats at LT.  The rest are fine, but the cabeza in particular is outstanding.
• Regardless of your preference for tacos (correct) or burritos (less correct), you'll want to order them dorado which means they'll be crispy.  For tacos this means they shallow fry the tortilla on the flat top.  For burritos in means they go into a panini-press type mechanism.
• If you're getting tacos, you don't need all the toppings.  Most of the time I just get cheese on my cabeza dorado taco.
• The at-table hot sauce is very good, but I also usually ask for the taco itself to be spicy too.

A friend suggested we try the xiao long bao at Dumpling Kitchen in the Sunset District.  The buns had nice thin wrappers but the broth and meat were bland.  If that's the best SF has to offer, don't bother.  Go to Bob's Shanghai in Rockville instead.

Dumpling Kitchen is very meh.  Kingdom of Dumpling has my favorite XLB in town.  Shanghai House does good ones too, and the chicken wings are insanely good.  If you're down in Mountain View, go to Bamboo Garden.  Best XLB in the bay area imo.

After trying a few other places and striking out, just found some at the Balducci's in Bethesda.  $29.99/lb.  My new favorite treatment: toss in oil, salt, then grill over very hot coals.  Heaven.  

I'm officially dedicating this thread to ferment everything (and his lovely fianceé, Michelle), who began it almost eight years ago.

• Keg/Carboy Washer - The extended maturation times on sour beers means carboys are a must, and this washer has made my life so much easier: put the carboy/keg on top, turn it on, and come back 20 minutes later to a totally clean carboy.  One more round with sanitizer and you're done.
• Whirlpool Arm and Pump - Haven't fully installed this yet, but the idea is to get a real whirlpool in the kettle after the boil is done.  This should consolidate the sediment in a pile on the bottom, which means I can more easily keep it from coming over to the fermenter.  But more importantly, it'll mean quicker cooling times (the wort will be flowing past the immersion chiller coils more quickly) which should save me a ton of water in draught-stricken CA.
• BrewJacket - Mine is supposed to arrive in the next few weeks.  Very excited about having fermentation temperature control in my conical.

In happier news, Prubechu has been exceptional on all three of our recent visits.  Guamanian cuisine is not one I was familiar with: it's a crazy mashup of various external influences (Spanish, Japanese) with some tropical pacific as the base (think coconut milk, banana leaves, lots of excellent fish, pork).  Crazy good, and the tasting menu has recently gone from $45 to $50.  Great bottled beer list as well.

Local's Corner is quickly becoming one of my favorite neighborhood restaurants.  Great local seafood, both cooked and raw.  A solid CA-centric wine list and a few good beers on tap.  Tonight I had a couple of small bites: smoked sturgeon, trout roe.  Followed up with a raw brussels sprouts salad with almond breadcrumbs and Capricious cheese.  Finished with a stellar smoked trout terrine that I plan on trying to duplicate at home, having just smoked some trout a few days ago.  It's small, just a handful of tables and five barstools, which makes it perfect for a solo dinner at the bar since the other four seats are invariably occupied by couples.

Local's Corner has closed.  Tim has been cooking at 398 (which just opened and is pretty tasty classic French) before he moves to Seattle.  Super bummed.

Dungeness season is a big deal out here in SF.  I've become a big believer in steaming them in two stages (first, whole, then removing the legs and finishing the bodies separately).  Details here.

The missus and I spent a week in New Orleans last month.  Ended up not getting a rental car so our radius from the quarter was pretty small.  Definitely getting a car and staying in the Marigny next time around.  Regardless, our favorites are listed here, mostly inspired by @jparrott.  The TL;DR?  Go to Cane and Table.  Go to Peche.

And yeah, cabs are easy to come by when you're in/near the quarter, and damn unreliable anywhere else.  You have to call them and just hope they show up...we had decent luck with asking places to call one for us, but we also didn't venture too far out so as to not risk getting stranded somewhere.  Still no Uber or Lyft.  No Zipcar or Getaround either.  Parking at hotels in the CBD/Quarter is outrageously expensive.

Additional reading:

http://www.classetouriste.be/faviken-magasinet-restaurant/

http://fergusmiller.com/2013/07/15/faviken-magasinet-2/

http://foodstudio.no/column/a-walk-on-the-wild-side-at-faviken/

http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2013/06/faviken-restaurant-sweden/

Fäviken is a 7 hour drive north from Stockholm.  We split the drive in half and spent the night in Mora, which is a cute little lake-side town with not a whole lot going on.  Spending the night somewhere halfway interesting means increasing it to at least 9 hours of driving.  If you decide to drive up from Stockholm, I highly recommend doing a one-way car rental and flying back from í–stersund.  If you fly both ways, you'll either need to arrange a taxi or rent a car.

Fäviken is unlike any restaurant I've ever visited.  It's absolutely the most remote location of a should-be-Michelin-starred restaurant that I know of.  Because it's in the middle of nowhere, they have lodging on-site for diners and breakfast is served the next morning.  On the night we went, they sat 14 guests.  It was an incredible experience.

After checking in, we came down to the porch and I started with an incredible rhubarb-rose negroni.  We then moved inside and had the following:

Flaxseed and vinegar crips, mussel dip

Excellent way to start the meal.  Mussel dip = mussel aoili and it was brilliant.

Jamtlandian broth

Maybe my favorite dish of the night.  Mixed berries from the local province (Jämtland) with a reindeer broth.  Mind-blowing.

Wild trout's roe servied in a crust of pig's blood

It's at this point that I start losing my mind.  I've never tasted anything like this before and am unlikely to ever do so again.

Pig's head, dipped in sourdough and deep-fried, a slice of rhubarb, tarragon salt

Phenomenal.  Deep-fried creamy fatty pork nugget with perfect balance in the toppings.  Served on a toasted branch of some sort.

Salted herring aged for three years, sour cream and rusks

The depth of flavor in the herring.  Unreal.

Slices of cured pork

Ungarnished lardo.  Legit.

Scallop "i skalet ur elden" cooked over burning juniper berries

One of their signature dishes, incredible depth of flavor.

King crab and almost burnt cream

I'm a sucker for crab and dairy.  Texture on the crab was fantastic, and the flavors melded perfectly.

Carefully boiled trout, bog butter and porrige of lichens prepared in lye

This was where the spell started to break for me.  The trout was perfectly cooked but the accompanying flavors missed the mark for me.

Cockles injected with beer

Yes.

Barley pancake filled with sour onions

Little adorable rolled crepes, the tart flavor of the onions perfectly balancing the dough.

A small egg coated in ash, sauce made from dried trout and pickled marigold

Awesome preparation: you pick the sheep-shit ash off the egg and then dip it in the sauce.

Very fresh potatoes boiled with semi decomposed autumn leaves, the good butter

The leaves are left on the ground all winter and then "harvested" in spring and dried.  We're instructed to squeeze the potatoes and put butter on them.  Delicious, but surprising they didn't try to impart any more flavor into them.  It's just potatoes and butter and the slightest hint of the leaves.

Cottage cheese pie, plantain leaf and meadow flowers

Mom's pie crust does not suck.  The flowers and plantain leaf add an herbal and grassy flavor that is a perfect balance.

Mushrooms, raw peas picked 20 minutes ago, stone brambles

It's an interesting idea and most of the flavors are awesome, but raw peas aren't really my thing so that throws off the balance.

Blood bread, moose broth, backfat and onions

Really interesting.  The bread and broth are great.  The onions are perfect.  The backfat was a little boring, maybe just needed some crisping.  Still a great dish.

Pork chop, mushroom and tasty paste

Tasty paste is a 10x reduction of beef broth with vegetables and mushrooms.  It's a perfectly cooked dish but surprisingly minimal for this restaurant, and one of the more disappointing dishes of the night.

Colostrum and blueberries

Holy fuck.  "An edible crisp milk shell filled with creamy colostrum (the first milk produced after an animal has given birth) and blueberry jam" (described better than I can, by this post that looks like a v similar menu to what we had)

Fermented lingonberries, thick cream, sugar, blueberry ice

An amazing pair of bites, refreshing and interesting.

Curdled woodruff milk

Woodruff syrup, curdled milk, ice cream.  Incredible temperature contrast and flavor balance.  Fully back under the spell at this point.

An egg yolk preserved in sugar syrup served on a pile of crumbs made from pine tree bark

Ice cream seasoned with spruce

At this point, I'm just in heaven.  Unfamiliar flavors, interesting texture, brilliant balanced flavors.

Sour milk sorbet, raspberry jam and whisked duck eggs.

The sorbet is churned in the dining room to much attention.  It's a bit gimmicky but who cares: it's delicious.

A wooden box filled with meat pies, raspberries ice, tar pastilles, meadowsweet candy, dried berries, anise seeds coated in crystallized honey and bees wax, smoked toffee, pine resin, cake

Sun kissed berries

I tend to hate these sorts of "hey your dinner is over here's a shit-ton of different one-bite flavors" things, but this was pretty great.

Snus

A relative of chewing tobacco, placed under the upper lip for a while.

Drinks:

Rose-Rhubarb Negroni

Champagne

Fävikens Light Mead, Bengt-Johnny & Jan-Anders, í–ster-í–vsjö

2011 Meursault "En la Barre", Antoine Jobard, Bourgogne

2012 Monzinger Riesling Kabinett, Emrich Schönleber, Nahe

2009 Saumur Champigny, Clos Rougeard, Loire

2011 Eiswein Cuvée, Weinlaubenhof Kracher, Burgenland

Sour Milk Liqueur

Duck Egg Liqueur

Pappy 15yr

It wasn't a perfect meal, but it was damn close.

Food:

Smörgí¥stí¥rteriet: Great fancy Swedish cuisine in a rustic/casual atmosphere.  We had a late reservation and (I think because we were the last table) they refused to do the full tasting menu.  Why even offer the late reservation?  Ugh.  That said, a great meal.  And they definitely win the coveted "most diacritical marks in a restaurant name" award.

Kryp In: Twists on classic Swedish fare, very well-prepared.  In the touristy part of town: be prepared to hear English spoken at all of the tables around you.

Tranan Odenplan: This is the Swedish equivalent of a French bistro.  Come here if you are in need of comfort: toast skagen, oysters, herring.  And incredible octopus.

Oaxen Slip: We found out about Oaxen late and thus were unable to get a reservation at Oaxen Krog (the fancier tasting menu version).  Our lunch at Slip was still really phenomenal.

Sturehof: Lots of business lunches and dinners happen here.  They have crawfish by weight.  A half-kilo is a totally normal amount for one person to consume, said nobody except me.

Frantzén: Best meal of our trip.  Better than Fäviken, better than Noma.  Fucking incredible.  And they have a beer bar across the street so the beer pairings are fanstastic.

Beer:

Mikkeller Bar: Really great.

Fjäderholmarnas Bryggeri: Fun little brewpub on an island in the Stockholm archipelago (the closest and thus easiest island to get to).  Well worth spending a couple of hours on this island: the smokehouse has very good smoked shrimp.

Coffee:

Johan & Nystrom

Kafé Esaias

Coffee:

Coffee Collective was the best espresso I had in town.  Nothing else really stood out.

Food:

Manfeds & Vin: Great little wine bar and restaurant.  We had a fantastic lunch.  Close to Coffee Collective and the Mikkeller bar.

Kí¸dbyens Fiskebar: We didn't try any entrees but the apps were fantastic.  Razor clams, oysters, shrimp, all lovely.

Noma: At this point, it needs no introduction.  Ridiculously difficult to get a reservation (we scheduled our entire trip only after I managed to get a 2-top for lunch).  Unfortunately, it ended up being a little disappointing.  Maybe our expectation were too high, or maybe the style of food just wasn't our style (the meal was very veg-heavy).  Several dishes were mind-blowing but there were too many misses for something that is supposedly the #1 restaurant in the world.  We got to chat with René after the meal, though, and that was a treat.  I'd still recommend going, just temper your expecations (and go eat in Sweden afterwards).

Beer:

Mikkeller: Seriously Great.

Fermentoren: Another good option for beer: 15-ish taps.  Near Fiskebar.

My ladyfriend had a conference in London so I tagged along and ate/drank while sort-of-working.

First off, here's where I drank espresso: https://foursquare.com/beerandpork/list/espresso-in-london

Beer:

Craft Beer Co: I only went to one of the locations but it was easily the best beer bar I went to on the trip.  14 beers on cask, another 20 on tap.

The Rake: Jake was not messing about when he recommended Borough Market.  This is a fantastic beer bar in the middle of it.

The Harp: CAMRA's pub of the year, 2011.  Great beer list, but it can get super-crowded so go during off-hours.

Bree Louise: An outstanding provider of real ale.  Lots of real ciders too, if you're into that.

Euston Tap: Close to the Bree Louise.  Tiny beer bar in an arch over the road.  Lots of good american craft beer in bottles, if you're homesick.

BottleDog: The place to go for bottles to take home.

The Saturday-Only Brewery Walk:

Kernel, Brew By Numbers, Partizan

Food:

Foxlow: The 10hr shortrib with kimchi was fantastic.

Tramshed: STEAK. CHICKEN. BOTH PREPARED SURPRISINGLY WELL.

St John: Being a big fan of Fergus Henderson, this was a meal I looked forward to for a while.  Nothing mind-blowing, just a lovely set of offal dishes for lunch.

Burger & Lobster: The burger is ok.  The lobster roll is actually pretty great.

Sushi Samba: Crazy roof-top restaurant on a skyscraper.  Surprisingly good fushion-y sushi-type stuff.  Excellent views.

On the non-tasting menu front, I strongly recommend Bar Tartine.  Also fun are Nopalito (Mexican food) and Swann Oyster Depot (wait in line to eat at a counter, mostly raw bar).  I've loved the Mission Chinese in NYC, but SF is its home.  (Intense flavors, hipser/fusion Chinese food).  Cotogna is nice for Cal/Ital but not as SF-specific.    I hear great things about AQ, Rich Table, Nopa, and State Bird Provisions, but I haven't been yet.

If you're inclined to try tasting menus and money is no object, I had an amazing meal at Saison (I thought clearly better than Coi, Sons and Daughters, or Atelier Crenn).  Benu is an interesting option as well -- I thought the highs were amazing, but too many dishes were not. 

I had a really disappointing meal at Benu in '12.  Possibly the worst ratio of cost/quality of any meal I've ever eaten.

State Bird always impresses me, but you'll either have to get lucky with a reservation or wait in line (gross).

I haven't been to Saison in several years and it was at their old location, but I didn't love that meal.  Definitely preferred Coi.  But sample size is 1 for both.