I am way past due for this post, but at last here it is! I ate my way through the wonderful city of San Francisco and here are my reviews of the places I visited. I have to warn you… this is a long post!
Our first stop as soon as we got into town was Chaya Brasserie in the Embarcadero district. It offers amazing views of the bay bridge all lit up. It is a French/ Asian fusion restaurant.
In my opinion, the best thing they serve is this uni risotto. Amazingly creamy. It blew me away. They also serve a chocolate croissant bread pudding for dessert that is worth making the visit.
I found this little hole in the wall joint (located in the SOMA district) while looking for restaurant on the internet. I made the trek to find it and I cannot tell you how much I recommend this place! It was worth the 35.00 taxi drive (taxi driver got the location wrong the first time) and the 30 minute wait in line. I am not one that waits in line, but I am glad I did this time!
The best thing ever is found here at HRD. The spicy pork kimchi burrito. I will dream about it until I go back! I cannot adequately describe how yummy this awesome creation is. Just go. And this place is cheap! Good thing since I spent 35.00 on my taxi ride to get here!
Locanda was highly recommended to us so this was our next stop for dinner. This is found in the Mission district. Jim and I started with three starters and they were the so terrible we decided to jump ship before they brought out the mains. In my opinion, if you cannot do starters right, there is no hope for the main entrees. I do have to say, the manager couldn’t have been nicer and she wanted to make our experience a good one, unfortunately, the food just did not meet up to what we were told. I will give you one example of one dish. We ordered a salad that the server highly recommended. It came out and was the most bland flavorless salad I have ever tasted. The manager said that it was because they forgot to put salt in the dressing. She insisted they remake it and we of course let them. When they brought it out, it now tasted like a salty bland flavorless salad. Get the picture? Don’t waste your time or money at this place. Luckily for us, she didn’t charge us for our plates. I promise we were nice and appreciated her attentive service.
Another place we were told by many to try was Tartine Bakery. Luckily it was just down the street a bit from Locanda, so off we went! It was way past the dinner hour so they were sold out of many of their specialty bakery treats but luckily for me they still had their lemon cream tarts.
Just look at this beauty. And I can assure you… it did not disappoint! Amazing…creamy….just the right amount of tartness. Made me a happy girl ! I also tried a couple of amazing looking cakes and they were rather dry and disappointing. I don’t recommend the cakes.
After Tartine, we still wanted dinner so off we went to a wonderful restaurant I found on our last visit to this city. Seven Hills is a tiny little place (in Nob Hill) run by the nicest man with amazing Italian food. After Locanda, I didn’t want to take any chances and eat at another miss. I needed a hit and I got it here.
The signature dish here is there house made ravioli with browned butter and a farm egg yolk. It is dreamy. This particular night they had some fresh truffles and we had the opportunity of having some shaved on top of the ravioli (the dark bits on top). The ravioli is so good on it’s own, I wouldn’t spend the extra 15.00 to have the shaved truffles next time. But it sure didn’t hurt to have them either! They make all their pasta in house and you can tell. Another fabulous dish is the spaghetti with Grandpa George’s Sausage. Truly full of flavor and amazing!
Here I am with Alex the owner. He is so kind and makes your eating experience such a pleasure.
Another highly recommended place and very hard to get into is Nopa. After our third night, we finally tried with our might to get in and we did! It is located in the Panhandle district. We arrived shortly after they opened the doors, one hour prior to them serving dinner in hopes of getting a table. When I called for reservations each night, they could not get us in until after 11:00 pm! I thought I lucked out getting seats at the chef’s area where we get to watch all the action at in the kitchen.
After 1 hour and 45 minutes…. yes 1 HOUR and 45 MINUTES after ordering our food, we were served this amazing pork chop. The best I have ever had. They cook it over a wood fire grill. But honestly, after waiting that long for our food, I was so mad I could not enjoy the food. Can you imagine waiting that long for your food AFTER you order?! The burger they serve was also amazing, but once again, I was so mad after the long wait, I had a hard time enjoying it. So for that reason alone, I do not recommend this place. The waiter was not at all apologetic for the wait. I guess it is par for the course in this hard to get in to place. I would come back if the food came within a normal and decent time frame. But almost two hours after you order? Ridiculous!
While researching online for eateries, I read about this bakery that only makes focaccia bread and apparently people went gaga over this place. So off we went to the North Beach area to Liguria Bakery. We tried the pizza and the garlic focaccia and I have to say it is nothing to write home about. I don’t get the hype.
This is the garlic focaccia. It is good, but not spectacular. I wouldn’t make a special trip to come here.
Ok….saving the best for last! Oh my did I find a treasure when I found The House (asian fusion)! It is on the border of North Beach (found it while leaving Liguria Bakery…Maybe it was worth going to Liguria after all!) and Telegraph Hill on Grant Avenue. This place is my new favorite place in all of San Francisco!
These are fried salmon rolls that my hubby absolutely loved. A popular starter they serve.
Their Wasabi Noodles are a popular specialty there. So good!
This. is. the. dish. Sea bass with garlic noodles and snap peas. Best thing ever! This would make a fish lover out of any fish hater. The sea bass is so buttery and amazing in taste and texture. The garlic noodles are the perfect complement. You can tell this is amazing as most people in the restaurant were eating this. I cannot wait to go back to SF just to have this again! (and HRD’s kimchi burrito!)
And to make this restaurant even more amazing….. they have the best desserts too! The special the day we were there was this chocolate macadamia tart and I just about died it was so good. I definitely have to try to recreate this one. Wish me luck!
This restaurant was so good I had to get a picture with Angela, one of the owners. I promise she is very nice (Asians typically do not smile for pictures. My hubby said she smiled right after the picture was taken.) Her husband is the chef and she is the pastry chef that makes the amazing desserts. What a team! It is a very small place so I hear reservations are recommended. We found it after the lunch hour and were lucky to snag a table. In fact I loved it so much I came back the next day for more! That is saying a lot as I am not one to do that, especially in a town with so many great restaurants! Well, that’s it my friends. I hope you get an opportunity to try some of the amazing places and dishes next time you are in this beautiful city!
