beefnchedda

I would say: Tartine for some breakfast pastries and a coffee Swan Oyster Depot for a beer and some seafood (not necessarily cheap) Koi Palace for dim sum (if you have a car or a willing to Bart out to Daly City) Lers Ros for Thai food in the Tenderloin (last time I had a spicy boar dish that was amazing) Turtle Tower for Chicken pho in the tenderloin OR Hai Ky Mi Gia for duck noodle soup, also in the TL (http://blogs.sfweekly.com/foodie/2011/02/hai_ky_mi_gia_duck_noodle_soup_sfoodies_92.php) Roli Rotti for chicken or porchetta sandwiches at the Ferry Building farmers market Rosamunde for a sausage in the Mission, or Rosamunde+Toronado (beer) in Hayes Valley/Haight For just beer, without food, definitely check out City Beer in SOMA Quick street food, go for a crispy bacon wrapped hot dog in the Mission OR check out some of the Off the Grid food truck locations (http://offthegridsf.com/weekly-markets) Lahore Karahi for Pakistani Hope that helps, if I think of more, I will check back in. Also, time for me to ask a question: Does anyone have any good recommendations for wine tastings in Sonoma/Healdsburg? I am trying to head up there with 3 friends in a few weeks. 2 of us are above average in wine knowledge, 2 of us below average, and we are ideally trying to keep costs down. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Thanks stickmoon! I guess I will resort back to Chowhound, back to separating the knowledgeable from merely the angry or uninformed.

Slightly off-topic, but does of anyone know of a donrockwell-esque website for dining in San Francisco? I have recently moved out to the West coast and cannot find any equivalent forum. Thanks!

Just got back from an interesting meal and birch and barley. I decided to surprise the lady with a midweek nice meal and both of us were eager to get try birch and barley before we leave D.C. I say this meal was interesting because it was very much hit or miss. We opted to go with the tasting menu, but without the beer pairings since we drank a few beers at Churchkey beforehand. Our meal started with complimentary arancini, served over a puree of peas with mint. These arancini were delicious; stuffed with cheese and I what I assume was pancetta. The pea puree cooled them nicely. Next came an ahi tuna poke served with a sesame crisp. This was very good as well and perfect for a hot dc summer. The dish contained celery leaf, which I thought was a great and interesting contribution to the dish. At this point, the waitstaff finally remembered to bring out our bread board. The breads were delicious. However, i really didn't want to be eating the bread right before the pasta course, which we both knew was waiting on-deck. The pasta, was really good. It was corn tortellini with dungeness crab and broccoli rabe. This dish, despite being the best savory course of the evening was incredibly salty. I thought it was the perfect serving of pasta to go with a big meal, but i think my girlfriend would have been much happier getting a plate of this pasta and skipping the rest of the meal (having asked her now, I know she would have preferred to eat multiple portions of the pasta and forgo the next two courses). Next out was the halibut, which was perfectly cooked. It was served over a bed of rice with peas. This course was easily the most boring course of the night, and was something that one might cook at home for a what-do-i-have-in-my-fridge, oh shit there is fish-type meal. I was starting to get annoyed that nearly every dish had a starch (not that this is necessarily a bad thing, but I thought it was bad for a tasting menu): arancini to bread to pasta to rice to: Spring lamb with bulgur wheat and some sort of curry sauce. The lamb was, like the halibut expertly cooked. Also like the halibut, my girlfriend and I ate the protein and left the starch pretty much untouched on the plate. The wheat was, like the rice, boring. Starch mixed with a vegetable. These previous two plates in the tasting menu were simply one-plate meals, shrunk down into tasting-menu size. We were not pleased. But then, a revelation, the dessert. I am not dessert lover, but I ate this course, in fact I loved this course. It was probably one of the best desserts I have had in a long time. Complex, not too sweet and nuanced. I wish I remembered every component, but i think it involved: strawberries and a strawberry sorbet of sorts, tapioca, passion fruit creme brulee with what appeared to be a homemade marshmallow crust, and what might have been a basil, or some other herb, pureed-type sauce. Everything went very well together and despite the shortcoming of the meal, this dessert left me smiling. For 55 dollars a person, this meal might be considered a good deal for a tasting menu, but I probably will not be ordering it again.

Goodeats, My girlfriend and I were also at Hollywood East this past Saturday. Maybe they were having an off-day, but we too were underwhelmed by the offerings and felt that the dim sum we normally get at Oriental East was much better. Let see if I can remember what we tried: har gau, sui mai, some sort of duck dumpling, shrimp balls, taro cake (mistakenly ordered, since I thought the waitress said turnip cake), fried taro dumplings, pork spare ribs (with the green pepper and black been broth), chinese brocolli, and sesame balls. Needless to say, were were inredibly hungry when we arrived. Everything tasted rather "bland", with the har gau, in my opinion being the standout of the bunch. None of the food was bad, per se, but I dont think we will be making the drive out again, when other options are much closer. The waitstaff was incredibly attentive, with employees stopping by frequently making sure everything was going well with the meal.

dolin blanc vermouth with blackberries, splash of tonic and some lime while cooking a quick "smoked" pork shoulder roast - placed on the grill with wood chips for 1 hour and finished in the oven grazed on a few farmers market cherry tomatoes grilled tomatillo, corn, pinto bean and basil salad with roasted garlic from the grill corn meal battered, fried okra banana ice cream

Suprisingly, I took an unplanned visit to the Legal Sea Foods in Chinatown last week for a very quick happy hour. I went in skeptical, and although I didnt order anything needing to be cooked or prepared, I was nonetheless impressed with the quality of their specials. They were offering dollar oysters and 1.95 PBRs. They had three varieties of oysters available, but unfortunately they were out of kumamotos. On that day they were offering 1 choice from Maine, one from Mass, and one from the New York area, although I cant remember any pinpoint locations. I tried two of each, and all were good. Needless to say, two beers and a half-dozen oysters later I was happy.

dinner for 9: dan dan noodles long beans with oyster mushrooms in oyster sauce garlic eggplant twice-cooked pork chinese sausage and chicken fried rice asian-style boiled peanuts (with star anise and ginger)

Hmm...I had reservations for Vidalia 24 for this coming Saturday and was so incredibly excited. Now I am not so sure. Is anyone planning on keeping their reservations? Really sucks since this meal was to be my anniversary gift to my girlfriend. Decisions, decisions, decisions.....

I have already made a reservation for one of the dates and am looking forward to what will surely be an outstanding meal!

ate on Palena on Friday night, great food as always. Of note however is as we talked to our waiter about the expansion he mentioned the possibility of a pizza oven in the new expansion. No other details than that. Not sure if it was wishful thinking or if something will become of this. Edit: I see someone mentioned this back in October. Sorry about bringing old news.

I attended last weeks seminar on vermouth and had a great experience. Highly informative with great tastings (sampled 6 or 7 vermouths, two martinis and two manhattans). It was the perfect mix of learning and alcohol.

Went to the Passenger for my second last visit last night and had another great experience. Relatively quiet on a Monday night and my girlfriend and I were able to get two seats at the bar. Great service from Tom ( i think). Very nice to be able to watch he and his brother in action, a truly learning experience. To start I had a scotch based cocktail with lemon. It was like a peaty lemonade and was delicious. My girlfriend had a Hendricks based gin drink with star anise. I cannot remember if we were told it had a little absinthe as well. For our second drinks I had a bourbon drink very similar to a Manhattan, but thick. I forgot to ask what the components of the drink were, as I was enjoying it immensely. She had what I thought was called a "martina", although when i search online i don’t think the proper cocktail shows up. It was explained that the martina was an ancestor to the modern martini. We also got a great lesson on London dry gins and genever gins. Prior to the second drink, my girlfriend was insistent that we get some food. We tried the beef jerky. It too was great. Peppery and spicy and the perfect complement to my bourbon drink. I will definitely be heading back soon.

I too I was at the Passenger last night, having some pre-dinner drinks with my girlfriend. I will say the drink of Mr. Rockwell looked amazing (I think you were the only customer having it, so now, having seen the picture you posted, I can safely assume it was you). So as to not derail this thread, I will simply state our cocktails were great as well.

Ate at Corduroy on Friday night. I had made a reservation a few weeks in advance and my girlfriend and I were promptly seated in one of the two person nooks. As we went through the menu we each ordered a cocktail - i think she had something with st. germain while I had a regular manhattan (not be confused with the special manhattan on their cocktail list). Both drinks were good and definitely fairly priced. For appetizers we shared the lobster special for the night, the red snapper bisque and their lamb special. All three appetizers were amazing. The lobster was light and summery, with a great flavor of both herbs and lobster. Although a miserable night outside, this dish truly reminded us of glorious days. The lamb special, house-made lamb sausage with greens, was also delicious, although not much to look at on the plate. Personally, I thought the red snapper bisque was the best dish of the night. It was exactly what I would like a bisque to taste like. The soup was so delicious, we both, very unmannerly, searched for bread to mop up the final streaks. Unfortunately, we hadn't received any bread (we then requested it, and waited for it to be supplied before finishing our soup). For our main courses we shared both the pork belly and the fluke with truffle tagliatelle. The pork belly, the "half" portion my girlfriend shared with me (more like the 1/3 she begrudgingly passed my way), was delicious - not too heavy and autumnal, as many preperations of this protein can become. The fluke was perfectly seared and moist, and although I am normally not the biggest pasta eater, I helped myself to extra portions of the tagliatelle, although I dont think I got the fair trade in the pork belly vs. pasta trade-off. The only setback to this portion of the meal was that our bottle of wine, Lemelson Pinot Gris, had been removed from the table in order to allow it to rechill to proper temperature. It took us a long time to get the attention of our waitress and by the time the glasses were refilled, we were done with the meal (although the waitress was quick to note that we could recap the wine and take it home, but if we had wanted to drink wine at home, we would have(not trying to be mean)). For dessert we split the chocolate tart with caramelized banana. This was very well done, which is the best compliment I can give since I am not normally a desert eater. All in all, we had an enjoyable meal and I definitely look forward to coming back again. Corduroy provided an ideal mix of elegance and comfort.