Pei's Profile
Xiao Long Bao options in the City?
Shanghai Dumpling House (down the street from Shanghai Dumpling King).
Where to buy a pound of coffee?
I like the Ambrosia from Philz too, and just bought a pound. I regretted it, however, because I also bought a cup of coffee made with the Silken Splendor and fell in love with that immediately. Wish I'd bought a pound of that instead.
The SS is a medium roast, but what's incredible about it is that it has a definite melon aftertaste. Really very interesting, because it starts off as a perfectly respectable cup of joe, but the fresh clean fruity aftertaste goes on and on..
A little help, dinner place in SF proper for business interview recommendations
I agree: it depends on the job and your budget.
If you're going to be talking about the job, a quiet place like Piperade or Ame might be good. Spruce is popular with my boss, but I have never been and can't comment on volume.
If this happens to be a food-related job, you might be looking for a place that will offer you some talking points. Atelier Crenn, Saison, Benu...just some restaurants getting a lot of buzz these days.
I do love Perbacco, but ask for a table upstairs if you want quieter. That said, I don't find Yank Sing or House to be quiet; are you saying either of these would be fine and you just want new suggestions?
-----
Perbacco
230 California St, San Francisco, CA 94111
Piperade
1015 Battery St., San Francisco, CA 94111
Yank Sing
49 Stevenson St Ste Stlv, San Francisco, CA 94105
Saison
2124 Folsom St., San Francisco, CA 94110
Atelier Crenn
3127 Fillmore St, San Francisco, CA 94123
Suggestions for first visit to SF
If you're willing to travel for a GREAT bakery, head down to Tartine in the Mission/Noe Valley.
If you just need a good bakery and find yourself in the Union Square area (very likely, as it's the shopping/transportation hub), Boulangerie on Sutter or Boulangerie on Market is very nice for savory and sweet items. Boulangerie (aka Bay Breads) is a small SF chain with French style baked goods.
I used to work down around there and liked going to Chaat Cafe for a light lunch. Nothing fancy, just good Indian food and really tasty papri chaat (a yogurt-based dish with garbanzo beans, diced cooked potaties, tamarind sauce, deep fried crispy dough, etc. all piled into a bowl)
AQ is getting great reviews on this board; I plan to head there myself next week.
Barbacco or Perbacco next door to Tadich are also both excellent choices for solos or pairs.
-----
Perbacco
230 California St, San Francisco, CA 94111
Bay Bread
2325 Pine St, San Francisco, CA 94115
Barbacco
230 California St, San Francisco, CA 94111
Orson closed, makeover in progress
Agreed. When full, it takes on a fun warehouse club vibe, and what seems like depressingly gaping spaces when empty becomes refreshingly open breathing space between tables.
There is one drink that I had there that I remember to this day: it was topped with an osmanthus foam, and named something vaguely Asian (Shanghai something or other?) . I love osmanthus flowers in my tea, and have been trying to get a bar in the city to recreate it for me. To no avail: it is one of those wonderful things that is only meant to be experienced once.
Bar crawl in San Francisco - need suggestions
La Mar - pisco sour, pisco punch
Gitane - seasonal punch, Black Sabbath (off menu Scotch cocktail), anything with sherry
Burritt Room - recent change in managerial staff, but should still be good. I liked the black tea infusions.
Jasper's - maybe not worth a stop on its own, but if you happen to be nearby the kumquat cocktail is delicious, and they have beer cocktails
Rye - a rye manhattan, of course, though they have a regularly changing, solid menu
Cantina - tequila-based cocktails
House of Shields - haven't been, but the Chronicle likes it
Smuggler's Cove - haven't dared to brave the lines yet; is it still always crowded?
-----
Gitane Restaurant & Bar
6 Claude Lane, San Francisco, CA 94108
Burritt Room
417 Stockton St, San Francisco, CA 94108
Birthday Pressure: Round Table for 8-10, not Chinese.
I think so too. Piperade has a big square table, and is a very quiet restaurant overall.
Perbacco has rounds upstairs. We fit 5 easily, you could see if there's anything larger.
-----
Perbacco
230 California St, San Francisco, CA 94111
Piperade
1015 Battery St., San Francisco, CA 94111
Casual Breakfast without long wait in SF
My guess is that the name (and the coffee mugs) came with the restaurant. There are a lot of Chinese restaurants with mismatched English names. The owners keep whatever English name the permit's under, then give the place the Chinese name they want and hope they build a primarily Chinese customer base that won't care about the English name.
Between SF and Hayward....
Gotta do a friend a favor and drive out to Hayward tomorrow. Any must-eats for a City girl who doesn't get to East Bay much? Otherwise I'll probably end up grabbing a burger at Val's. I'd much rather get a great bowl of soup noodles, a tasty falafel, or some really great Korean food (spicy cold noodles, anywhere?)
TIA
Casual Breakfast without long wait in SF
We'd already had coffee by the time we got there, so unfortunately I have no idea. Sorry!
What's your favorite pork chop in San Francisco?
I'm with you on the no love for pork chops, but I do have a lot of respect for the one at Zuni. Aside from that, I stay away from pork chops unless they've been fried a la Chinese pork chops or wienershnitzel
-----
Zuni Cafe
1658 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94102
uhockey reviews The Bay Area 9/2-9/7 Including: Meadowood, Cyrus, Saison, Atelier Crenn, Commis, Redd, Benu, Plum and more.
Thank you for this amazing report!
Would you say that for people who've done the tasting menu thing, Crenn is worth it for the visual impact? Or are Saison/Benu different enough from the old guard that they are worth trying first? And by old guard I mean Manresa/Cyrus/French Laundry
What to Bring Home from Prague? And a Few Veg- Tips Needed
I'm finally going to Europe!! Help me make the most of what I hope is going to be the first of many.
My husband and I are going to Prague, with a 3 day stop in Zurich to visit friends. Since we'll have hosts, and since Zurich is so excruciatingly expensive, I don't anticipate buying too much or even eating at anything other than basic restaurants. So we're all set.
What I need to know is what to be on the lookout for in Prague! What do foodies bring home from the Czech Republic? Anything goes: are there specialty food stores? Particularly useful kitchen tools? Fun linens? Especially good spices?
i think we have a good handle on what to eat while there, thanks to the many previous posts here. Le Gustation, Lokal, Strahov Monastery's brewery, Kava Kava Kava for coffee, and about a dozen other contenders means we have plenty of choices for meals. I think my research will be complete if we can round out the following:
-cheap, simple breakfast. Pastries on the go, traditional breakfast plates. We're not big breakfast eaters, but will want something since the hotel has no offerings besides a full buffet.
-coffee
-vegetarian? We hear rumors that the young people in Prague are picking up on the local/sustainable/green eating movement. We're travelling from San Francisco, so we're pretty used to that kind of eating. I'm mainly concerned that after a few days of drinking beer and eating sausages, we're going to want a good, light, vegetarian meal to keep us going.
Many thanks, can't wait to report back!
Casual Breakfast without long wait in SF
I had a great brunch a few weeks ago at La Terasse. Fairly standard dishes (croque monsieur, chorizo and eggs) with a few surprises (crab and spinach salad, an exceptional mojito). No wait, beautiful outside dining area, and everyone on our party from age 13-40 enjoyed it. A little further for you than downtown, but no parking issues.
Mom's Night Out in SF--we want to talk and drink and eat a little
Second that. It's almost never crowded when I walk by in the early evening.
Also try Tajine on Polk. It's a family style restaurant, and it's easy to share the large plates of food. It's sort of new, in that the name and owner have been around for several years but keep changing location.
The Melt - Fairly Epic Fail
Melt's concept strikes me as being more like that of Cereality than Chipotle. It' much easier to make a grilled cheese or bowl of cereal (hot or cold) at home than a burrito.
-----
Chipotle
34893 Newark Blvd, Newark, CA 94560
SF Neighborhoods
I agree with Windy. Noe Valley is a great place to live, but I never venture down there to eat unless someone else has done the planning. It's out of the way and doesn't offer much else to fill the day with. So I never take my visitors there, even the ones who've visited the city a dozen times.
You'll have a much more to look at in terms of eating, shopping, people watching, and overall wandering about in the Mission, Hayes Valley, Richmond district, or Inner Sunset (my personal order of preference for visitors).
Upscale Kid-Friendly Restaurant in SF?
We were just at Perbacco with a 13 year old and noticed another table with a baby. Upscale but family friendly. We were upstairs in the mezzanine. So I think they try to tuck the kids away from the bar, but that's reasonable.
Kokkari is also family friendly, and for some reason our bill there ended up being half what it was at Perbacco. Exceptional value for a superb restaurant.
-----
Perbacco
230 California St, San Francisco, CA 94111
Advice on SF food adventure
Don't save your nice meal for LA. Go to LA for Chinese, Japanese, even Thai food. While you're here go to Ame or Benu, or save your blowout meal for NYC. On Sunday, Zuni might be a more fun overall SF experience, though Canteen is delicious and more off the beaten path. I wouldn't do Foreign Cinema on a 2 day trip. Any of your dinner suggestions will be fantastic, but skip Nopa if you end up going to Zuni. It's very similar.
-----
Zuni Cafe
1658 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94102
Nopa
560 Divisadero St, San Francisco, CA 94117
Foreign Cinema
2534 Mission St., San Francisco, CA 94110
Benu
22 Hawthorne St, San Francisco, CA 94103
The Great Wonton soup quest (trying to find east coast style wonton soup in SF)
ditto
Food items that might "Wow" a pre-teen?
I liked the salted caramel and the rose, which was more lightly flavored than other rose macaroons I've had. I didn't like the hazelnut, but I almost never like hazelnut. The peach tasted too artificial to me. I also liked that they are sticking to muted pastels and not going crazy with the food coloring like Paulette did.
The chocolates at TCHO were very good, and they're branching out into milk chocolates too. I shouldn't have simply panned them. Good product, but their tour needs a little pizzaz.
-----
TCHO
17 San Pier, Francisco, CA
Food items that might "Wow" a pre-teen?
You and me both, Ruth. I usually pack some fruit on short trips, and dried fruit on longer ones.
Fabulous Chicken and Waffle Brunch at ZeroZero
What's the price for the brunch item? I had the skillet fried chicken as an appetizer there for dinner, and they were phenomenal. Shatteringly crispy crust, hot juicy interior. As close to perfect as I've tasted in the last year or two. But at $13 for what looked like three large chicken fingers, it was hard to order more.
And I agree, that Strauss soft-serve is incredible.
Food items that might "Wow" a pre-teen?
Reporting Back:
Very successful trip! Weather cooperated, we had all good walkers in the group, and there was only one minor "bum" event. Bearing in mind that we avoided all Asian food because they were coming from Los Angeles and her parents hadn't been to SF in over 12 years, here's what we did:
FRIDAY
Perbacco for dinner. Wonderful as always. The adults really enjoyed an "orange" wine from Italy, as well as the various summer greens being highlighted. Heirloom tomatoes and burrata were especially popular. I was disappointed the the stuffed quail wasn't on the menu, but the homemade pappardelle made up for it. And the foie gras terrine was simply off the charts.
Teen liked: the salami platter and the fig leaf panna cotta
I took her parents to Bourbon and Branch after dinner, and they loved the gimlets as well as a glass of Booker's bourbon. A great introduction to cocktail-ology and American bourbon for those used to well drinks and single malt scotches.
Teen liked: staying at home and eating Ben and Jerry's while watching kung fu movies and playing games on her iPad.
SATURDAY
Ferry Building farmers market. Everyone enjoyed wandering the stands. My aunt really liked Blue Bottle, bought some lavender salt, and became completely enamored of fresh summer peaches. We had breakfast pastries from Acme along with a mini wheel of cheese from Cowgirl.
Teen liked: peaches, ham and cheese turnover, mini wheel of cheese, eating raw baby corn fresh from the stall.
Then we took the ferry over to Sausalito.
Poggio for lunch - The table was evenly split, adults and teen alike. Half liked the fig and caramelized onion pizza out of the wood-fired oven the best; the other half liked the squid ink pasta the best. Both were superb.
TCHO Chocolate tour--I think I was more bored than the teen. This tour isn't nearly as fun as the one they used to do at Scharffenberger in Berkeley. She was okay with the wasted hour though.
Waterbar for $1 oysters. Parents enjoyed Royal Miyagis, which are super creamy! Teen contented herself with a Sprite and staring at the indoor aquarium. Offers to let her try an oyster met with a wrinkled nose.
Non-edible food-related sighting: there is a model of the Golden Gate Bridge inside the Anthropologie store on Market. It is about 20 feet long and constructed out of rice-a-roni boxes.
Suppenkuche for dinner. Everyone hated the wait, loved the food, and felt stuffed and tired afterwards. Potato pancakes and schnitzel impressed the grownups, as did the mixed salad of pickled vegetables. It's not nearly as sour as I remember, which is a plus.
Teen liked: black currant soda, grilled sausages with mashed potatoes. But she saved room for Smitten Ice Cream after dinner, which of course was a huge hit.
SUNDAY
We found ourselves at Terasse in the Presidio for lunch, the only completely unplanned meal of the weekend. However, it was a really fortuitous discovery. It's a beautiful restaurant, with stellar food and drinks. Everything we had was tasty and elegantly prepared. The pace, setting, and food style recalls Le Garage in Sausalito. I really liked the crab salad on a bed of baby spinach, with tiny pieces of mango and papaya. Good crab flavor, and savory despite the use of fruit. My aunt liked the mojitos (which I found better virgin; the bartender was slightly heavy handed for 11 a.m., but why am I complaining?)
Teen said: she couldn't pick which one was her favorite, because everything was delicious. A little interrogation revealed that the quiche lorraine was her favorite.
Let's Be Frank hot dogs on Chrissy field. Teen said: awesome!
Kokkari for dinner. Wow! I haven't been there in two years, and it's as delicious as always. Squash blossoms, the house tzatziki, and spit-roasted Sonoma lamb were my favorites. My uncle said he's never had taramosalata so good, and the wine we had was really beautiful.
Teen liked: sea bream in avoglemono sauce, deep fried squash blossoms, tzatziki and a gigantic ice cream sundae for dessert.
Parting gifts from the trip: they went home with peaches from Frog Hollow, a box of Christopher Elbow chocolates, and a box of Macaroons from Chantal (formerly Paulette). I think everyone was happily stuffed to the gills, and there really weren't any dull moments the entire weekend. I'll have to send some younger spies to see what the teen says on facebook, but there were already some "ha ha, I'm eating ice cream and you are not" posts, so I'm tentatively pleased that the trip was a success.
My thoughts: I haven't dined out at the $50-100pp price range in awhile, but dining in SF in the summer really is spectacular. The variety of vegetables that come as side dishes to every meal and the freshness of these vegetables is really hard to describe in a report like this. The really make the difference between an okay dish and an exceptional one. During our trip we had fresh figs, heirloom tomatoes, cherries, purslane, baby arugula, squash blossoms, baby corn, and saw dozens more vegetables that were unfamiliar to everyone. It really sets our dining scene apart, and it isn't mentioned often enough.
-----
Perbacco
230 California St, San Francisco, CA 94111
Suppenkuche
525 Laguna St, San Francisco, CA 94102
Blue Bottle Cafe
66 Mint St, San Francisco, CA 94103
Christopher Elbow
401 Hayes St, San Francisco, CA
TCHO
17 San Pier, Francisco, CA
Poggio
777 Bridgeway, Sausalito, CA 94965
Le Garage
85 Liberty Ship Way Ste 109, Sausalito, CA
Let's Be Frank
3318 Steiner St, San Francisco, CA
Smitten Ice Cream
Octavia Blvd Linden St, San Francisco, CA 94102
Leopold's - Finally good German/Austrian in San Francisco
I love Leopold's too. Ditto what mdg says about the schnitzel, plus a secondary effect: I went to Suppenkuche this weekend, and found the food quality overall to be higher than I remembered. They're stepping up to the new compedition, and I love it!
-----
Suppenkuche
525 Laguna St, San Francisco, CA 94102
Anyone Been to Kokkari Lately?
Just went last night, found it as delicious as always. Especially tasty were the squash blossoms, spit-roasted sonoma lamb, and tzatziki (just my opinion, others loved the avoglemono sea bream and taramosalata most).
$50 a head after tax and tip, including a lovely bottle of Linmio (Greek red wine). Really one of the best overall experiences and values in town.
SF: Ice Cream Tour: one afternoon
Just to put more info in this thread, MMM sources cream that has a few percent LESS fat than other places. They specifically wanted to go a different route than what was already being done in SF.
The result is that their ice cream is way too easy to eat double portions of, because it doesn't fill you up. And because there's a little less fat in the way, your palate can really pick up the flavors in the ice cream. Their chocolate is a good way to taste how chocolatey ice cream can really be.
SF: Ice Cream Tour: one afternoon
Ditto. I tasted Three Twins at a food fair. It didn't wow me the way Bi-Rite, Humphrey, MMM, or Smitten did. I tried it again out of a carton at Whole Foods after reading something about how they had the best strawberry. Meh. For supermarket ice cream I prefer Straus, Laloo, or honestly even Ben and Jerry's or Hagen Daaz.. Three twins just isn't very high on flavor for me.
SF: Ice Cream Tour: one afternoon
If you become pressed for time, Smitten is close to Falleti, which has Humphrey Slocombe by the scoop in a case in the Delessio bakery section of the store. The number of flavors will be limited to around 6 or 8, but better than missing it!
On the other hand, if you do end up at Humphrey Slocombe, Taqueria Vallarta around the corner (on 24th) has great tacos with more kinds of meat than anywhere else on that block. It tends to be better at night than during the day, but for $1.75 it's a good snack any time.
And FFIW, I would move MMM to the top of that list, mostly for their candied violet and their plain chocolate, both of which I find incredibly addictive.
-----
Taqueria Vallarta
3033 24th St, San Francisco, CA 94110
