tyler k's Profile
Old School Pizza in the City
Third Giorgio's. I can't seem to walk down that side of Clement without "accidently" turning into the front door. It probably does get overlooked because it is not only out in the Richmond, but also on the "empty" blocks of Inner Clement (compared to the blocks between 5th and 12th)
Sil Yeh at Denny's Cafe on Geary
Finally visited Denny's this past weekend. First off, it appears they have reduced their hours to 8am-midnight 7 days a week. We were there at about 6 or 7 pm and they were about half full.
Ordered singaporean chicken sewers with spicy chili sauce, curry fish balls, ox tail stew over rice, and baked rice and pork chop casserole with tomato sauce.
The chicken skewers were good, chili sauce had a kick, but was greasy and did not tend to stick to the chicken. We thought it would only be 2-3 skewers, but it came out with 7. enormous portion for the price.
The curry fish balls were good, but we were disappointed that they did not pan fry the fish balls prior to pouring curry on them. I think they just boiled them to thaw and then plated them. Much better when they are pan seared ever so slightly. Curry sauce was good.
Ox Tail stew was excellent. I think there was a full half tail on the plate. Very juicy and tender meat that came off the bone easily. The tofu sheets that were the other half of the stew were unflavorfull and showed that they had been added as they were plating the dish. So we skipped the sheets and had our fill of ox tail.
Baked pork chop casserole was okay. Tomato sauce was really just ketchup and it took them 20 minutes to get it to us. After we inquired to its whereabouts, it showed up instantly, our deduction was they forgot about it in the oven. The dryness of the rice and pork chop confirmed this suspicion. Hopefully it would have been better had they not forgotten about it.
We wanted some Do Fu Fah to round out the meal, but it seems we were there too early and it wasn't ready yet. Drinks were on par with other HK style cafe's in SF. I had boiled coke with lemon and my SO had HK style milk tea.
We will probably try it again (later in the evening so we can get Do Fu Fah) and follow Melanie's suggestions closer (portugese sauce and a fish dish.) On the definitie plus side, I survived the evening with no MSG induced headache. Always a fear when we try someplace new.
Best Burger in San Fran
I have always enjoyed the burger at The Chieftan (Fifth and Harrison) with everything on the side. Their fries are good also, but I wish the curry sauce that came with the chips&curry was richer and thicker. Irish curry is thin and runny I guess?
Belden Lane in SF
If you want mussels, I have found that Cafe Bastille beats Plouf, however, only in that one category. So go to Bastille and get the mussels and drinks and then move on somewhere else. B44 on the other hand is good all around, especially the fish cheeks.
Need a Chinese restaurant near Union Square
I second R&G.
With 10 people you can reserve one of the private rooms. I have had many 10-12 people dinners there over the years and have never been disapponted. The one draw back might be the inability to please your "chinese is fried rice" crowd. My fondest memory of R&G is eating with a friend of mine from Texas who was attempting to eat the salt & pepper crab with his chopsticks. He couldn't quite figure out how to eat crab with chopsticks when it still had the shell on. Of course, we weren't helping too much because we were lauging to hard.
Tian Sing is a good suggestion also. However, I don't think they have a round table for 10, you would have to sit 5 to a side.
HK style cafe open late in SF
Kowloon Tong out on Sixth and Geary fits your bill except not in Chinatown. They don't have congee, though. I think they are open until 2.
Best escargot in San Francisco?
Had Escargot last week at Le Charm. Very good, especially since they eliminated the butter sauce so typically overwhelming them. Just a nice simple vege broth.
I even give this recomendation after having to listen to a fellow dinnerr talk about how they deal with their backyard snails while eating!
B Star Bar
Burma SuperStar owners have opened a second location up Clement. No signage yet (just says "B"), only open about a week.
We went last week - twice. On Wednesday, we wanted Pho, but didn't want to drive out to Sunset, but we remembered new construction where Clement Bistro (maybe, don't remember the old name) used to be and thought...they looked close to opening. So we stopped by. Didn't know it was BSS #2 until after we ate and started to chat with the staff.
We had Chicken Satay, Garlic Noodles with roasted duck, and a basmati rice claypot with roasted chicken. The satay was simple but well prepared, with a good sauce. Garlic noodles very good with just enough red pepper spice to give it a kick (see below). Basmati rice claypot was very good, a little too much cardamom for my taste. Rice was a little chewy too, but it was a clay pot so sometimes chewy is good. Manager brought us out a coconut ice cream with mint shavings and thai ice tea to pour over the top after we started to chat. She said they don't have a desert menu yet, but still working on it. I hope the coconut ice cream makes the cut, it was awesome.
Went back on Friday with 2 other friends because we thought they would like it. Ordered Fish as Chips, Lotus Chips, Agedashi mushrooms, Green tea salad, Garlic noodles (again-it was that good), pork dish with fried egg, and another entree that slips my mind. Fish as Chips were fried until crunchy small silver fish (don't remember what kind) very good especially when dipped in the accompanying curry sauce. Salad was identical to BSS version. Agedashi mushrooms had an excellent coating on them, better than most agedashi tofu coatings I have had in recent memory. Other entree dishes were good, but not as memorable as the first visit.
They are obviously still going through start-up pangs. They seem to have some electrical issues with the lights flickering annoyingly all night. Food prep was good, service was excellent. I hope that over time they will evolve the menu a little bit and settle on the better dishes and maybe experiement with some others that are not quite there yet. They definitley have the enthusiasm.
muffaletta
Okay, time for a report back. Over the last six months, I have tried every place suggested in the six replies, and I can truly say that if anyone looking for a start-up idea.....this is one hole in the bay area. Six months and not a single decent muffaletta.
Poor House Bistro-dry and fluffy! bread, way to sour olive spread, and just generally a blah taste. Ordered a whole to split and we both could barely swallow a quarter each. Left the rest. Also tried the gumbo and jambalaya....didn't finish those either. Not a good lunch.
Cafe Niebaum Coppola-Okay, but definetly nothing to go out of your way for. meats were too Italian, please no proscuitto.
Andronico's-was promising, but the sandwich maker was a little preoccupied (with what I don't know) so construction and ratios were a little sloppy, ingredients seemed to be close. Need to try again. Maybe a different location.
Murphy's deli, in the building near Mission/2nd next to the bamboo garden. I think this is a chain from Texas. Sandwich was okay, however pretty bland, The olive spread tasted like it should, however a little chunky. Meat portions were a little light, bread was honestly the best yet. But the worst offense: I had to stop them from putting mayo, lettuce, and tomatoes on!
That is my round up. Any more suggestions?, I would be glad to continue my search. In the mean time, I am trying to perfect mine in the kitchen, maybe I will do the start-up.
sanmi (geary @ spruce) in the old BY Grill location
We will be there soon, we have beeen sorely missing BY Grill's ramen, which I think was some of the best around. I always did wonder how they stayed open, as we always seemed to have the place to ourselves.
Wine Deals? Who else is doing this?
Solstice at California/Divisidero gives you the bottle for the price fo two glasses on tuesday (I think...it might be wednesday) Also, it has been awhile since we went (last year sometime) so I hope they are still doing this special.
Cheese Steak Shop Redux
Cheesesteak shop calls my name about once a month and won't shut up until I go there. I go to the one at Divis and Sutter. Need to try another location one of these days to see if they measure up. Medium cheesesteak wit onions and peppers is my libation of choice. Frys are worthy but not a reason to go.
Polker's does do good fries, but have a burger and skip the cheesesteak. Jake's is good, but the bread/meat ratio is just a little off when compared to CSS.
On an aside, I think the fries at the California Street Deli (in the JCC next to 415) are very good and worth a trip.
