Tag Archives: restaurants

Addendum: Thomas Keller’s New Take-out Shack

Addendum

I’d only been to Ad Hoc once, and that was for a brunch some years ago. The brunch was a tiny bit of a disappointment. I thought too many sweet things were served – the meal started with doughnuts and ended with a banana split; the savoury course consisted of ham, eggs and potato rosli.  That probably would have more than satisfied and delighted those with a sweet tooth but I’m definitely one who craves the savoury in the mornings. For those not familiar with Ad Hoc, it serves one 4-course meal 5 days a week, a different menu each night, and brunch on Sundays. They are known for their Monday Night Fried Chicken Dinners.

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Outerlands

Outerlands

If ever there was a space that could inspire dreaming, it would be the inside of Outerlands.

It’s gorgeous, with walls, chairs and countertops made out of reclaimed wood. A slanting driftwood mosaic covers part of the kitchen counter. Proprietors David Muller and Lana Porcello initially started by feeding friends out of their ocean beach abode; soon the initiative blossomed into a full-fledged restaurant. And indeed, they seemed to have captured the feel of Ocean Beach perfectly. It’s moody, but warm, the grey light from typically overcast Outer Sunset filtering in via only 3 windows. There’s a sense of escaping to the end of the earth, and its distance from the rest of the city out on Judah and 45th may be both curse for some and a boon for those of us who live relatively close by. Continue reading →

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Mugaritz

Mugaritz

Though the meal we had here is more than 3 years old, I still look back on Mugaritz, nestled in the hills of Basque country, so fondly as being the best dining experience we’ve had yet.  And indeed, calling it “lunch,” though it was technically that, is truly an inadequate way to describe what we ate, saw, and how we were treated. Continue reading →

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Citizen’s Band

Citizen's Band Interior

I’m not sure when I would have finally gotten around to looking into Citizen’s Band had not a couple of my good friends (also enthusiastic connoisseurs of good food and drink), K plus D, checked into it recently and given it a thumbs-up.  As it happens, we would be in the neighborhood attending the Almanac Beer inaugural bottle release party of their first-ever brew: a Summer Belgian with Blackberries aged in oak.  The party was at City Beer Store, a few storefronts away from Citizen’s Band.

So after we had managed to consume one of the last few glasses of Almanac’s Summer 2007 sour brew, we trotted over to the corner of Folsom and 8th.  Narrow, dominated by a long 12-seat old-school soda fountain-like counter on one side, and a series of two-and-four tops on the other, the restaurant (CB) looked small but bright and cheery, the walls plastered with postcards, vintage photographs and old prints.

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Pasion Happy Hour

Pasión Patio

Pasión has been open in our Inner Sunset neighborhood for about a year and a half now. We had eagerly anticipated its arrival and had a meal there the first week it opened (review to be posted). It belongs to the Fresca empire (3 locations in SF!) and is helmed by Jose Calvo Perez, specializing in Modern Latin cuisine – fusions of Spanish, Peruvian, Argentinian, Puerto Rican, Mexican, Brazilian and Uruguayan influences.

We had not returned until they started with an amazing set of happy hour options –  imho the best happy hour value in the entire Sunset (for folks who like shellfish and cocktails) – with $1 oysters, $5 cocktails (regularly $10) and half-price bar bites (regularly priced at $5- $10). Beers are $4 for drafts, $3 for bottles. There are probably better deals on beer elsewhere, but we go to Pasión for the oysters. Happy Hour runs from 5-7pm Monday-Friday.

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Manna Korean

Manna Korean Restaurant

Quite literally, the new (Korean) kid on the block (it opened on June 28th), Manna replaces Little Bangkok – a tiny Thai place on the corner of 10th and Irving.  It’s still small inside, but looks like it received a new coat of paint and somehow feels larger than the older restaurant.  (I must admit that I might have frequented Little Bangkok only once, hastily ordering a lunch from their steam table one day, and don’t quite remember the experience.)

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Toyose – Outer Sunset

Toyose Chicken Sign

Toyose is way out in the Outer Sunset, Noriega and 45th to be exact.  So close is it to the beach I wonder whether folks have taken their orders of Korean Fried Chicken down to the coast, perfect for an evening picnic or twilight bonfire.  It didn’t hit my radar until the New York Times ran a story on late night eats in San Francisco, focusing on where folks from the restaurant industry tend to congregate after work.  We live in the Inner Sunset, but it still took us 10 minutes or so – even late at night on a Sunday – to make it out to the outer avenues.  It’s a Korean restaurant located in the garage of a residential building and its only distinguishing sign is the one above of a winking chicken.  Cheeky and appropriate.

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Nopalito

Nopalito Signage

You’ve got to respect and honor a chef who, so entranced by the offerings of his sous for family dinners, opens up another restaurant just to highlight their cooking. Nopa’s been a favourite of ours for some time, serving great, well-executed, responsibly-sourced and sustainable food, fantastic cocktails; a bright and airy convivial space that boasts a gorgeous mural by local artist Brian Barneclo… my personal favourite is their hefty pork chop, brined just so, about an inch thick, well-marbled, hugely taking up the size of the serving platter… but that’s for another post. Continue reading →

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Incanto: Il Quinto Quarto (1)

Incanto Interior

I grew up eating offal and love it to this day.  DD will be the first to tell you that if I see organ meats featured on a menu, they’re quickly registered on the mental shortlist of items to order.  Back in the Philippines, we never referred to offal as such, no “nasty bits” references, no euphemisms about “eating nose to tail.”  We simply ate what our kitchen, or the restaurants we frequented, produced, whether it was a platter of kidneys, a sautee of chicken liver, or simmered calfs’ brains floating in a chinese herb soup.  I grew up learning how to ask for the pigeon head for the pleasure of cracking its skull open to get at the creamy goodness within. Continue reading →

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Smith@Saison

Saison

Of late, I’ve been able to resist temporary temptations.  For over a year since it opened, I made scant little effort to get to Plum until I heard visiting Southern chef Sean Brock was coming to town and would be cooking special dinners at Coi and Daniel Patterson’s outpost in the East Bay… I hastily made sure we had a spot then.  The same applied for Saison.  In all fairness, we had been trying to get here since Chef Josh Skenes was only doing 2 dinners a week in the Stable Cafe space – we’d make reservations and then have to cancel them.  But this week, we stuck to our Wednesday 9pm timeslot for Smith@Saison – Chef Jeremy Fox’s 4-day installment while Skenes is off accepting his shiny Best New Chef award at the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen. Continue reading →

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