Salt House

Haven't updated this blog in some time, but had a delicious dinner on Friday at Salt House that I felt needed to be reviewed! We went to Salt House in SOMA and the experience was amazing. I should preface this review by mentioning that Tyler's friend is the manager there so always gives us the best service, which could make this review slightly biased. Going out to dinner anywhere in SOMA is always such a fancy outing, I think getting ready might be half the fun. That, in addition to an extremely expensive cab ride to get across the city sets the mood for a high class dinner, and Salt House's ambiance only adds to the elegance of the evening.

To start with, the wine selection here is pretty good and the excellent semonaye service always makes me feel much more confident in my selection. The one downside to this place is the SERIOUS lack of vegetarian items. Only a few select appetizers are veggie, and most everything else is pretty seafood based. I ended up splitting a mozzarella salad which was pretty good, and getting a corn soup that was extremely small and fancy but pretty good. I love that you get to watch the cooks working in the kitchen which is pretty much right next to the dining area. I also love that they re-fold your napkin every time you get up from the table. Such service!

For the main course, I ended up going with the only vegetarian option available (again). I was a bit hesitant to come here knowing that my meal would be the same entree I had ordered during my previous visit, but the dish is good enough to have every few months. The meal is a buckwheat polenta with spring vegetables, however the vegetables are SO delicious, I could eat them without the polenta! The last time I was here they had the best brussel sprout of all time and this time they had some more summer veggies including some yummy tomatoes. The dessert is pretty straightforward, and I tried a bite of the chocolate peanut butter cake which was so rich but good.

Aside from their reluctance to cater more to vegetarians, if you are in the mood for a fancy dinner in SOMA with great ambiance, I would highly recommend this restaurant. Make sure to order a bottle (or 2!) of wine and definitely get one of the dishes with excellently prepared vegetables!

Darbar

With most ethnic foods, the less ambiance and the sketchier restaurant makes for much better food. With Indian food, I would have to argue that this is definitely the case. I've had a few nice Indian meals in the city,including Dosa on Fillmore, but I find that the cheaper hole in the wall restaurants are just so much better. I found Darbar in Russian Hill and decided I needed to try the place. It's listed as both Indian and Pakistani, but the menu seems to be pretty Indian. As for the wine selection, which is non existent. I'm thinking that might be the Pakistani influence. Although wine is normally a necessity at dinner, when you are consuming a large quantity of spicy food, water tends to be my preference.

As for the food, the tikka masala selections were definitely the hi-light. Paneer, Aloo and every meat option you can imagine with perfectly spiced tikka masala. The portions are enormous here. And of course, every good Indian food meal (in my opinion) must include garlic naan. Which they had, so I was pretty happy.

Little ambiance, no wine, but AMAZING tasting Indian food makes this a 5 star recommendation. Also, the proximately to an enormous selection of Polk Street Bars makes up for the lack of wine served. I'm planning on going back very soon.

Spotlight on NYC!

Last week I went on a week long getaway to New York City! We were lucky enough to have some amazing weather and a wonderful apartment to stay in, which made indulging in some over the top meals much more doable. On our first night there, in our lack of sleep red eye time change haze we stumbled out to an Indian food restaurant called Nirvana. Since it was a Monday, the place was not too packed and the service was amazing. I just love when restaurants give you free food. Makes paying $50 for a bottle of wine much more enticing. They gave us some papad with quite the selection of spicy chutneys to start. We also ordered some garlic naan, which really just can never be bad.  I went with the Paneer Makhanwala for my main course which was absolutely delicious and way too much food for one person. We seriously had a mini-feast going on at our 2 person table. Such delicious food, great service and amazing ambiance that we decided to come back our last night for another delicious meal... and being in NYC that is really saying a lot! The second time we got some free Indian ice cream. I'm normally not too into the selection of deserts at Indian restaurants but after having a meal that was so so so spicy, this was a welcome treat. If you're ever in the city, you should definitely check this place out!

To cap off an amazing birthday day spent boating in the Central Park lake, visiting the NY times headquarters and wandering down 5th Avenue I got to enjoy an Italian dinner at Il Buco! Italian food is always a treat, but getting glasses of champagne (secretly ordered by my awesome boyfriend before the meal) when we sat down made it that much more fun. Il Buco's culinary philosophy is heavily based on the Italian tradition of seasonality and their menu changes every couple months to reflect the new ingredients in season. We got an order of the crocchette as an appetizer which is basically fried cauliflower in Gorgonzola sauce. Definitely not what I was expecting to taste when I ordered it, but it was actually quite delicious. After finishing the crocchette we decided to talk to the sommelier before ordering wine. Mostly just because we could. I always kinda thought those guys were just glorified wino's who tried to sale you expensive bottles of wine, but this one really knew what he was talking about. He ended up recommending a bottle of white wine from France that was very light with hints of almond and fruit. He also had to add that he had just returned from meeting the wine maker in France so was just oh-so-sure of it's perfection. But, I can't make fun of him too much because it was absolutely amazing. Best wine we had in NYC, hands down. For dinner I ordered an asparagus mushroom risotto, which normally isn't my favorite dish, but since most of the other pastas were pretty meat centered I figured this was my best option. The mushrooms were a bit numerous for the proportion, but other than that I was very satisfied with the selection. To top off the birthday celebration I got surprised with some sort of concoction that basically tasted like a giant heap of whip creme. Strange, but yummy. A bit small on the proportion size but the cute interior and delicious food definitely make up for it. I also love that the restaurant offers olive oil flight tastings. Might have to come back just to try one of those out.

        

One of our last lunches in New York was at a tiny Venezuelan restaurant located on 7th Street and 1st Ave in the East Village, called Caracas. And when I say tiny, I mean extremely small. I think the waiter ran into our table a good 4 or 5 times. The specialty here are Arepas which we actually discovered at Off the Grid a few weeks ago (so if you aren't planning a NY trip anytime soon you can still indulge at Fort Mason). I ordered the Apera La Del Gato which was filled with guayanes cheese, fried sweet plantains and avocado slices! I was a bit hesitant about combining cheese with banana but it turned out absolutely delicious. (I think I may need to find a not so good restaurant to review next because I'm running out of positive adjectives to use!) We also got some empanadas, mine was filled with black beans and white cheese. I went with the alternating bite methods and after careful consideration,  eventually decided on finishing off with the Empanada. They also served some delicious passion fruit mimosas!

So many more superb meals, snacks and desserts, but these were my favorites! Anyone headed to NY should definitely consider hitting up one of these eateries!

Allegro Romano & Amarena

April is in full swing, which means birthday month is underway! Last weekend, I got to enjoy 2 fabulous dining experiences in Russian Hill. The first was the elusive and almost impossible to get a reservation at restaurant known as Allegro Romano. Tyler and I have been trying to go here for a few months now but you pretty much have to call a month in advance to have any chance of eating dinner at a normal time. Although I did seriously contemplate taking the original 6:00 opening when I was trying to get in a while ago. Tucked away in an off the beaten path sort of area in Russian Hill, this place is apparently the choice of celebrities and politicians when in town. Although I didn't see any myself, it was pretty cool to check out all the pictures of the Italian chef/owner with Brad Pitt, Gavin Newson, The Clintons and all the other celebs. The place is super tiny and has some good views of the city. I decided to get the Fettuccine al Tartufo Bianco, a homemade fettuccine (in season from Piedmont) with white truffle sauce which, aside from my terrible stomach ache that night, was pretty delicious. The best part of the dining experience definitely comes at the end. Once you're done eating the waiters bring out free dessert and after dinner drinks! And to top it all off, every girl leaving the restaurant gets a rose! So lovely. Would definitely recommend this place, just be sure to plan far far ahead! 

On Saturday, we did a birthday dinner with my parents. We ventured back out to Russian Hill again to dine at a restaurant called Amarena. I've been here once before, but it really is so great that I decided my parents had to try it out. The best part of Amarena, in my opinion, is getting to sit by the window and watch all the passerby's. It's about a block off polk so you see a fair amount of activity, but not too much to be completely loud and distracting. Last time we lucked out and just happened to get that table, so this time we Tyler called ahead to make sure we could request that spot. Since we were having a bday celebration later that night we decided to go a bit earlier than normal and arrived just as the sun was starting to set. Since we happened to catch a cab way faster than normal we got there a bit early so decided to have a drink at the bar. They had some amazing sangria sitting in a bowl, and since the sun was still out, it seemed appropriate. Once seated we had some delicious appetizers, the Bruschetta della Casa (Diced Organic Heirlooms Tomatoes, Fresh Red Onions in a Balsamic Vinegar and Extra Virgin Olive Oil Dressing over a Toasted Garlic Bread, pretty self-explanatory) and the Polenta con Salvia e Parmigiano (a Souffle' of Polenta served with Sage and Parmigiano Reggiano Sauce). Both delicious, although the Polenta wins in my opinion. For dinner, I stuck with my latest obsession and got the Ravioli di Zucca, a Homemade Ravioli Stuffed with Butternut squash in a butter, sage and solty ricotta cheese. This was actually the first place I ordered Butternut squash ravioli in SF and loved it, thus beginning my obsession. No dessert as we had a giant whip creme cake waiting for us back at home, but our dining neighbors looked like they had chosen some pretty divine options! Another favorite aspect of this place is that all the waitresses/waiters are all authentic Italians, sometimes so authentic that I can't quite understand what they special of the day is. But it definitely makes for a more authentic experience!

Off to New York next week to experience all the amazingness it has to offer!

Off The Grid

 

My co-worker has been trying to convince me to go to Off The Grid for a few weeks now, so when Friday night rolled around and it wasn't freezing, I decided I should try it out. The event takes place all over the city during the week, but every Friday from 5:00-10:00 it's at Fort Mason in the Marina. Basically, all of the different food carts from around the city circle up and turn Fort Mason into a giant outdoor party.

I was in a serious Indian food mood, so decided to go with the Curry Up Now truck. In the process, I discovered what might be one of the greatest Indian food inventions of all time - inside out samosas! It's basically exactly what it sounds like - an opened up samosas with about 2x as much filling as normal on top of it. And about 5 times as spicy. To top it all off we hit up The Creme Brulee Man who made the perfect mini sized coconut creme brulee. I would highly recommend this event, and will definitely be coming back myself to try out a few of the other vendors!

La Barca

Located on Lombard between Fillmore and Webster, you wouldn't imagine this place to be too happening, but every weekend you can find an assortment of San Franciscans enjoying the authentic fare and huge portions. There's normally a bit of a wait, but the bar and live music normally quell any impatience. And the drinks are strong. This restaurant is where I first discovered what a Freshie is (courtesy of my cousin Melissa Bernal) and the bartenders here definitely do it justice. A combo of tequila, lime juice and tonic water, Freshies are the perfect semi-healthy margarita-esque compliment to a hearty Mexican meal. The food here is very authentic (in a dirty Mexican food kind of way) and the tacos plates are great. Most orders come with rice and beans as well, and I have never heard of anyone leaving this place even remotely hungry.

Although the ambiance is a bit outdated (a giant fake rain forest set makes up one of the walls) the marina party vibe is in full effect most weekend nights. The most entertaining part of dining here, aside from the people watching, may be the excessive amount of birthday celebrations. The waiters do a whole song and dance show and serve a flan dessert, and as soon as one person announces that they are celebrating their birthday, it quickly becomes about 5 other people's birthdays as well. That being said, about a third of your dining experience is undergone while listening to loud Mexican birthday music, singing waiters, and possibly devising a plan to change one of your fellow diners birthdays to anoche. Great food and drinks, a fun ambiance, and a fake rain forest dining experience add up to a 4 star rating from me.

Florio

For my first review, I have chosen one of my now favorite restaurants in San Francisco, Florio! Although I lived about 5 blocks from this place last year, I was always a bit deterred by the small space and prices, but one I tried it, my mind was instantly changed. If you have had Italian food with me in the last 3 months, you probably know that I have developed a serious obsession with butternut squash ravioli. For some reason it's so difficult to find in stores, so I always feel like I should take advantage of getting it when I'm out to eat. Plus, it's just delicious. Florio has THE BEST Roasted Butternut Squash Ravioli with Sage, Grana Padano & Buerre Noisette. I have never been inclined to use words like savory or mouth-watering, but both of those definitely apply to this dish. Perfect proportion and the sauce is to die for. Paired with their vast selection and variety of wines, and their knowledgeable wait staff, this place gets 5 stars. The ambiance is also pretty great. Located on a bustling part of Fillmore Street, the small, dark interior provides a good escape for a cozy meal.

Sampling The City

I have been contemplating starting a food and dining blog for some time now, and after being asked for countless recommendation of eateries in the city I have decided to finally do it! Although I have had the opportunity to sample some of the cities finest restaurants, farmers markets, and hole in the wall taquerias, I always seem to come up empty handed when asked by an out-of-towner or a local San Franciscan looking for an awesome dining recommendation or eating experience. Throughout these posts I will try to document some of the best places to eat in the city, deter you from the worst, and occasionally share some of my own recipes and cooking endeavors. I hope you enjoy!