I'm going to write an extremely rushed and succinct review of Suriya Thai in the Mission. This is only fair considering that this is probably the quickest dinner I have ever ordered and eaten.
We got there on a Saturday night after Lit Crawl, 10 minutes before closing. We knew that we would have to decide our orders quickly - but we had no idea how quickly. The server was literally around our necks forcing us to order quickly. With so much pressure, of course we ended up ordering too much, and definitely waaay to much tofu. No sonner had we ordered our food, that it started appearing at such a fast pace, I'm sure these guys set the record for the fastest service ever! In the next 5 minutes every single dish we had ordered was on the table, and the kitchen was closed! If this was a relationship, it would be one of those definitely headed towards disaster for moving too fast!
The rest of dinner was a blur - the pace had been set, and we ate dinner at breakneck speed too, in case they made us leave the restuarant in the next 5 minutes because they wanted to close up. Anyway, half an hour later, and with the feeling of being spun around too fast we left Suriya Thai - a little dizzy, and convinced that some places are just better for take-out.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Vegetarian sushi?
I love sushi - it's weird coming from a vegetarian's mouth, but true. I always think how fortunate I am to live in San Francisco with so many restaurants that cater to, or atleast recognize vegetariansm. And I have not one, but two favorite sushi places that have so many vegetarian options that you feel like a kid in a candy shop.
The first one is Cha-ya, there was a point when I ate here so often, I guess because it only serves vegetarian food. Here was a place that I could eat, literally everything on the menu ( and I'm saying this because they don't have a single dish that has eggplant in it... hehe). So, I have my staples at Cha-ya that I would recommend to anyone - start with the miso soup and an order of the gyoza for appetizers. Next, order some rolls to share, I love the kappa rolls, the Shattuck and the tempura rolls. I also loooove the Cha-ya Delight, it's this wholesome hearty rice dish, with almost spice or salt, but it is still so flavorful. I don't know what it is about this dish, when it's served to you it looks like a bunch of boiled vegetables sitting on a bed of brown rice - almost too healthy looking to be tasty. But one bite of it and you know you were so wrong in judging this awesome dish - the vegetables are cooked to perfection, I think they marinate them in something because although there is no visible sign of spices, there is a certain subtle flavor to them. Moving on... the only thing I haven't had at Cha-ya is dessert, I'm usually so full and happy by the time I'm done with dinner that I never have room for dessert - and I think all their dessert options have B-fruit in them :)
So my second vegertatian-friendly sushi place is one that I recently discovered thanks to Siddharth. It's called Minako, and is in a pretty grimy part of the Mission. This place has attitude! And I mean that in a good way. As soon as you enter the small space, the individualism of the owners and the patrons is evident - the menu has caricatures and poems wirtten over the years by customers of the restaurant. That's a pretty novel concept according to me. The menu is pretty exhaustive - in addition to the regular menu, they had this little board on every table with 10 specials for the day. Pretty cool! So anyway, I was pretty impressed with how much character this place had... but what about the food?
It was a tough choice deciding between so many vegetarian and fish options (Minako is not an only-veg sushi place, but it still has more than enough vegetarian options). We ended up ordering the almond encrusted tofu, seaweed salad, gyoza, kappa rolls (of course), and my favorite - the vegetarian spicy eel roll. The soup is entirely passable - so don't order that. Instead the sushi options and the noodle options are safer bets. The fish-eaters on the table ordered some hamachi and Ashish's usual inari. Overall I think everyone was really happy with the food - we ordered too much, but surprisingly finished almost everything. I think the highlight for me though was the personalized touches - the menus with the customer drawings, the owner (?) of the place who chatted with us after dinner, and the little metal board with smart comments and the specials of the day. This is the kind of place you want to be a regular at - if only it was closer to home.
http://www.yelp.com/biz/cha-ya-vegetarian-japanese-restaurant-san-francisco
http://www.yelp.com/biz/minako-organic-japanese-restaurant-san-francisco
Chez Panisse Cafe
This is completely inexcusable - that I would go to Chez Panisse Cafe for lunch more than a month ago and not blog about it. It is just the cafe we are talking about, but still - it is associated with Alice Waters, the pioneer of Californian cuisine. Better late than never I guess, so I'm going o try my best to remember the fine nuances that make this restaurant and the food as famous as it is.
Chez Panisse Cafe is on the second floor of a beautiful house in Berkeley. The lower level houses the California landmark restaurant - Chez Panisse. Maybe I'll go there for a special dinner someday.. but on that Saturday it was the girls and me, mere mortals out for brunch at the cafe upstairs. According to Grace, Alice Waters herself showed us to our seats. I both want and don't want this to be true. Can you imagine meeting someone famous and not showing a glimmer of recognition or respect towards them? So, anyway, I had really high expectations of this place. the dinner menu looked scrumptuous, and had lots of veggie options, so I was looking for something similar with the lunch menu. I have to say, the lunch menu was not half as exciting as the dinner menu - there was nothing vegetarian, just one dish with poached eggs. So I ended up asking for the chicken pasta minus the chicken, of course the choices for the non-veg entrees were stellar, the meat tender and the vegetables all looked as fresh and organic as ever. We shared a baby romaine salad with avocados as an appetizer and that was delish!!
I guess I'm committing an act of blashpemy by even implying that my food that day was not the best - I wonder if I'm even allowed to think that. But, I'm going to attribute it to the fact that I imposed this bad food on myself by asking for a dish which was clearly designed to be a meat dish to be converted to one with vegetables. Thank God the menu keeps changing so I think the next time I will definitely be more than happy with my food. What was beyond any measure of greatness though was the dessert. Oh My God!!!! I wished that I had only eaten dessert for my entire meal. btw, a little bit of trivia - did you know that there is a restaurant in Barcelona where they serve only dessert, this is not a dessert shop, it's a restaurant where the actual dinner entrees are sweet. How awesome is that! Anyway, back to the dessert at Chez Panisse - we ordered two to share between the four of us - a chocolate brownie, and honey ice-cream with toasted figs. I almost can't complete writing this entry because my mind is stuck craving a bite of that ice-cream and figs.... waaah, I want! Oh well, I guess all good things must come to an end, and we literally licked off every last morsel of what was on the plate and headed out complete satiated (with me deciding that I couldn't wait to blog about this place and the dessert). And we all know how much I couldn't wait :)
Chez Panisse Cafe is on the second floor of a beautiful house in Berkeley. The lower level houses the California landmark restaurant - Chez Panisse. Maybe I'll go there for a special dinner someday.. but on that Saturday it was the girls and me, mere mortals out for brunch at the cafe upstairs. According to Grace, Alice Waters herself showed us to our seats. I both want and don't want this to be true. Can you imagine meeting someone famous and not showing a glimmer of recognition or respect towards them? So, anyway, I had really high expectations of this place. the dinner menu looked scrumptuous, and had lots of veggie options, so I was looking for something similar with the lunch menu. I have to say, the lunch menu was not half as exciting as the dinner menu - there was nothing vegetarian, just one dish with poached eggs. So I ended up asking for the chicken pasta minus the chicken, of course the choices for the non-veg entrees were stellar, the meat tender and the vegetables all looked as fresh and organic as ever. We shared a baby romaine salad with avocados as an appetizer and that was delish!!
I guess I'm committing an act of blashpemy by even implying that my food that day was not the best - I wonder if I'm even allowed to think that. But, I'm going to attribute it to the fact that I imposed this bad food on myself by asking for a dish which was clearly designed to be a meat dish to be converted to one with vegetables. Thank God the menu keeps changing so I think the next time I will definitely be more than happy with my food. What was beyond any measure of greatness though was the dessert. Oh My God!!!! I wished that I had only eaten dessert for my entire meal. btw, a little bit of trivia - did you know that there is a restaurant in Barcelona where they serve only dessert, this is not a dessert shop, it's a restaurant where the actual dinner entrees are sweet. How awesome is that! Anyway, back to the dessert at Chez Panisse - we ordered two to share between the four of us - a chocolate brownie, and honey ice-cream with toasted figs. I almost can't complete writing this entry because my mind is stuck craving a bite of that ice-cream and figs.... waaah, I want! Oh well, I guess all good things must come to an end, and we literally licked off every last morsel of what was on the plate and headed out complete satiated (with me deciding that I couldn't wait to blog about this place and the dessert). And we all know how much I couldn't wait :)
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Kasa
Who would have thought that some day you could get kathi rolls right here in San Francisco?!? Kasa is his new (ok, it's not new any more, I just took a long time getting there) Indian place in the Castro that I've been meaning to try out forever - and finally one Saturday night I convinced Judy and Karen that we should go there for our neighbors night out together.
Boy, was it a good call! First off the place was pretty empty, which was surprising because I had heard such good things about it. But I liked the ambience of the place - it's very clean, industrial looking with lots of metal everywhere, staple Indian B&W pictures on the walls.
A kathi roll, for the uninformed, is an "Indian burrito" (as the cute American guy behind the counter pointed out) . I was seriously impressed with him though when he asked me if I wanted an "anda" kathi roll - anda means egg, but he didn't just say egg, he said anda. Bonus points for that!
Kasa's menu is pretty simple - meaning they have about 5 different options for the filling of your roll. The veggie options are paneer and masala aloo (potato). They also have the usual meat options like chicken tikka, kebabs etc. So, pretty simple, you pick what you want in your roll, you decide if you want anda in your roll, or if you didn't want a roll at all you could just get a thali, which is an open kathi roll with rice, raita and dal.
We ended up ordering 3 kathi rolls and a thali and sharing it. It was sooooo good! Ok I am running out of things to say - so I'll stop rambling and conclude by saying that Kasa is great if you are looking for a cheap, clean, healthy (?), quick meal. Not exactly a date place.. but it's a great place to chill out with your friends (or neighbors, if they are as nice as mine :)).
Boy, was it a good call! First off the place was pretty empty, which was surprising because I had heard such good things about it. But I liked the ambience of the place - it's very clean, industrial looking with lots of metal everywhere, staple Indian B&W pictures on the walls.
A kathi roll, for the uninformed, is an "Indian burrito" (as the cute American guy behind the counter pointed out) . I was seriously impressed with him though when he asked me if I wanted an "anda" kathi roll - anda means egg, but he didn't just say egg, he said anda. Bonus points for that!
Kasa's menu is pretty simple - meaning they have about 5 different options for the filling of your roll. The veggie options are paneer and masala aloo (potato). They also have the usual meat options like chicken tikka, kebabs etc. So, pretty simple, you pick what you want in your roll, you decide if you want anda in your roll, or if you didn't want a roll at all you could just get a thali, which is an open kathi roll with rice, raita and dal.
We ended up ordering 3 kathi rolls and a thali and sharing it. It was sooooo good! Ok I am running out of things to say - so I'll stop rambling and conclude by saying that Kasa is great if you are looking for a cheap, clean, healthy (?), quick meal. Not exactly a date place.. but it's a great place to chill out with your friends (or neighbors, if they are as nice as mine :)).
Monday, August 25, 2008
Moki's Sushi
People always look at me weird when I tell them I love sushi. I know... I don't eat fish, so the whole sushi experience is probably a little (ok, more than a little) incomplete for me. But still... I love sushi, I love how fresh and crunchy the cucumber roll is, how subtle the flavors are, I love the pickled ginger, and I love the kick of wassabi mixed in in soy sauce. So.. when Lalitha suggested we go to Moki's in Bernal Heights for dinner, I was excited! The only other place I know that is great for vegetarian sushi is Cha-ya, which I really should review some day because I eat there a lot!
Bernal Heights is a cute little neighborhood. with some decent restaurants. It's really quiet, and even on a Saturday night, the streets were pretty deserted. I guess what I'm trying to say is, if you want to go somewhere happening, where you can hang out at a bar or go dancing later, then Bernal is not the neighborhood for you. If you are looking to enjoy a nice, relaxing meal though, it's got a few places I would recommend - Little Nepal, Piqueo's, and Moki's to name a few.
So anyway, back to Moki's... Moki's doesn't take reservations, but when we got there around 7 pm on a Saturday night, it was a breeze to get seating. The place did get crowded as the evening progressed though, so I would suggest getting there early. Our server was really nice (meaning cute!), and took good care of us. Fran and me drank sake (I forget the name, have to check with Lalitha), it was really really good, definitely recommended. For appetizers we ordered the edamame, seaweed salad and the spicy corn cakes. The flavors in the seaweed salad were really good - just a subtle hint of spice, salt and some sesame.. yummy! The corn cakes... fried and with a tangy dipping sauce, you can't go wrong with that. Or edamame for that matter :)
On to the main course then... we ordered the Moki rolls, the tempura roll, spider rolls and of course the cucumber rolls. I was pretty happy with all the vegetarian options available... we actually had a tough time deciding what we wanted to get, which is awesome for a sushi place. They also had nigiri sushi with vegetables, something I haven't seen before. The moki rolls and the tempura rolls were really good - definitely recommended. The moki roll had mango, tofu and macadamia nuts - ummmm delicious. And the tempura roll had a spicy sauce, tempura'ed tofu, coconut and macadamia nuts. Both were pretty unique, I never would have imagined coconut could taste so good in a sushi roll. And ahhh... cucumber rolls, how can anyone not like cucumber rolls, so crunchy, so fresh... yyummy! I didn't bother to check but I think the spider rolls were good too... anyway, who cares... this is a veggie blog :)
After stuffing ourselves with all the rolls we ordered (not to mention we had already stuffed ourselves with nachos at the movies before) we very politely declined dessert. And then we undid all the good of skipping dessert by walking down the street and getting ice cream from a local ice-cream store - Maggie Mudd, which was nothing to write home about frankly, but hey, I'm all for promoting local neighborhood business, so if you are in the area, by all means try the ice-cream here. But Moki's - I think it's worth making the trek to Bernal to try their sushi. The food, service, atmosphere, and the sake was definitely worth it!
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Nirvana, Market Bar and Toast
I've decided I'm going to be lazy and combine reviews for three restaurants in one giant blog posting. Not that they don't deserve their own individual moment in the spotlight - at least Nirvana definitely does. But, these are restaurants I've been to over the past two months so some of my memories of the places are hazy and I'm going to get them all mixed up anyway :)
Lets start with Nirvana, an Asian fusion restaurant in the Castro. I tried this place for the first time with Judy, when I had just moved to the city three years ago. Wow .... time flies, and here I was again, celebrating my "surprise" birthday party with my awesome, awesome friends. From what I remember (very vaguely) the drinks at this place were really good! The food was pretty good too, but since I can't remember the names of any dishes, I'm guessing at least the vegetarian options were pretty standard fare. The seafood though, was a big hit! A friend of mine who doesn't really like seafood, started ordering seafood at every restaurant he went to for the next few weeks to see if he could find the same taste closer to home. Overall, I would recommend the restaurant - it's not that great for a date, but pretty good to go out with a group. Oh.. and remember, parking in the Castro is a nightmare, so take the muni :)
http://nirvanarestaurant.net/
After two months of no brunches out with Laxmi (parents visiting, south-indian breakfast every weekend at home, who needs brunch :)), we decided to go to Toast in Noe Valley, the Sunday after my folks left. For some reason this place is super-popular. We waited an hour and a half ( I kid you not!) to get a table. I mean yeah.. they make a good omelette, but don't people have better things to do on a beautiful Sunday morning? Apparently not! Anyway, once we were seated, the service was pretty quick. The restaurant has the usual brunch fare - I do recommend getting the omelette, it's perfectly made, with really fresh veggies, light and fluffy and most importantly, not runny. If eggs are just not your thing, the tofu scramble looked pretty good, and I guess you also can't go wrong with pancakes and syrup :)
http://www.toasteatery.com/
My last review is for Market Bar - it's this huge place with outdoor seating in the Ferry Building. The only reason I'm reviewing this place has nothing to do with food - it's the location! If there's one place in San Francisco that always makes me smile and want to give a great, big hug to the city, it's the Ferry Building. I don't know if it's because of the water and the Bay Bridge in all it's magnificence towering over the Bay on one side, or all the tall financial district buildings with busy people walking around purposefully on the other side that makes this such a special place. Every time I go here though, I can almost feel the vitality and energy around me lifting me up. So, anyway, back to Market Bar - we went here to celebrate Chetna's first marathon, we were a large group, and this place was awesome - they take reservations, unlike a lot of brunch places in the city, and it's big enough to accommodate a large group. The food... was as far as I remember, pretty lackluster. Once again, it was the usual brunch fare. I mean how wrong can you go with scrambled eggs and toast? So, go here if you need a place that is centrally located and can fit large groups - but if you are looking for a brunch place with really good food, you're better off picking your favoritest (I know it's not a word.. but you get the picture) person from the group and heading to one of the many smaller, neighborhood brunch places where you'll easily find a table for two (except if it's Toast :)).
http://www.marketbar.com/
Lets start with Nirvana, an Asian fusion restaurant in the Castro. I tried this place for the first time with Judy, when I had just moved to the city three years ago. Wow .... time flies, and here I was again, celebrating my "surprise" birthday party with my awesome, awesome friends. From what I remember (very vaguely) the drinks at this place were really good! The food was pretty good too, but since I can't remember the names of any dishes, I'm guessing at least the vegetarian options were pretty standard fare. The seafood though, was a big hit! A friend of mine who doesn't really like seafood, started ordering seafood at every restaurant he went to for the next few weeks to see if he could find the same taste closer to home. Overall, I would recommend the restaurant - it's not that great for a date, but pretty good to go out with a group. Oh.. and remember, parking in the Castro is a nightmare, so take the muni :)
http://nirvanarestaurant.net/
After two months of no brunches out with Laxmi (parents visiting, south-indian breakfast every weekend at home, who needs brunch :)), we decided to go to Toast in Noe Valley, the Sunday after my folks left. For some reason this place is super-popular. We waited an hour and a half ( I kid you not!) to get a table. I mean yeah.. they make a good omelette, but don't people have better things to do on a beautiful Sunday morning? Apparently not! Anyway, once we were seated, the service was pretty quick. The restaurant has the usual brunch fare - I do recommend getting the omelette, it's perfectly made, with really fresh veggies, light and fluffy and most importantly, not runny. If eggs are just not your thing, the tofu scramble looked pretty good, and I guess you also can't go wrong with pancakes and syrup :)
http://www.toasteatery.com/
My last review is for Market Bar - it's this huge place with outdoor seating in the Ferry Building. The only reason I'm reviewing this place has nothing to do with food - it's the location! If there's one place in San Francisco that always makes me smile and want to give a great, big hug to the city, it's the Ferry Building. I don't know if it's because of the water and the Bay Bridge in all it's magnificence towering over the Bay on one side, or all the tall financial district buildings with busy people walking around purposefully on the other side that makes this such a special place. Every time I go here though, I can almost feel the vitality and energy around me lifting me up. So, anyway, back to Market Bar - we went here to celebrate Chetna's first marathon, we were a large group, and this place was awesome - they take reservations, unlike a lot of brunch places in the city, and it's big enough to accommodate a large group. The food... was as far as I remember, pretty lackluster. Once again, it was the usual brunch fare. I mean how wrong can you go with scrambled eggs and toast? So, go here if you need a place that is centrally located and can fit large groups - but if you are looking for a brunch place with really good food, you're better off picking your favoritest (I know it's not a word.. but you get the picture) person from the group and heading to one of the many smaller, neighborhood brunch places where you'll easily find a table for two (except if it's Toast :)).
http://www.marketbar.com/
Sunday, May 11, 2008
I'm back :)
After a very long hiatus.. just like the fog in San Francisco. I think it's poetic that all the time that I was on a break from blogging, there was also no fog in the city... hehe.
Apologies to all you sweet, sweet people that actually take the time to read my ramblings about restaurants in San Francisco. Arun, I didn't stop eating :) I just haven't been to any places that made me go - " I have to blog about this!"
So, what made me go - "I have to blog about this!"? It's Le Colonial, a French-Vietnamese place in Nob Hill. Ashish and me were hanging out last evening wondering what to do to kill time between watching Kedar's band play in the evening, and a pub crawl at night, and we thought, why not go have a nice, fancy dinner in some neighborhood we're never hung out in... so, no Mission, no Marina, no Haight. After 'yelp'ing around for a bit, we made a reservation on opentable, and we were set!
Both Ashish and me were kicked that we actually managed to get a reservation on a Saturday night at this really popular restaurant, but we got there and I realized why - this place is huge! Like 2 floors and multiple dining rooms huge! And fancy - so if you plan to go, dress up!
The cocktail list looked pretty interesting, although we decided to skip ordering drinks (in preparation for the long night of drinking that lay ahead of us). Straight to appetizers then, we ordered the vegetarian spring rolls, the fresh, non-fried kind with a yummy peanut dipping sauce. Wiped that out in a minute and we were ready for our main course. I have to say that the menu leans heavily toward meat and fish dishes. Everything looked great though... our server was really sweet and pointed out everything that they could make vegetarian. We ended up ordering the sticky rice with coconut sauce, a mango-potato-tofu curry, and asparagus in garlic sauce. The food was in one word - awesome! It reminded me why I think the whole restaurant dining experience is so much fun, and more importantly, got me to start writing my blog again :) The flavors we re just right, the sticky rice was this interesting sweet/savory combination. The asparagus was nice and tender, and the curry had just the right level of spice.
We were so full at the end of dinner that I almost did the unthinkable - I was going to skip dessert. Thankfully, sanity prevailed and we ordered the flourless Vietnamese chocolate cake. Yummmmmmmy!!! If you go to Le Colonial, and have one thing on their menu, have this! It looked so pretty when our waitress brought it out, that I almost didn't want to cut into it, but one bite was all it took to change my mind. Ashish and me pretty much devoured the cake, it was warm, and moist and just sweet enough - oooh, just writing about it now is making me crave some more.
In case you guys are wondering, no pub crawling happened last night for me... we went to one pub, and then I crawled straight into bed, dreaming about fancy people, curry and decadent vietnamese chocolate cake.
http://www.lecolonialsf.com/index_flash.html
Apologies to all you sweet, sweet people that actually take the time to read my ramblings about restaurants in San Francisco. Arun, I didn't stop eating :) I just haven't been to any places that made me go - " I have to blog about this!"
So, what made me go - "I have to blog about this!"? It's Le Colonial, a French-Vietnamese place in Nob Hill. Ashish and me were hanging out last evening wondering what to do to kill time between watching Kedar's band play in the evening, and a pub crawl at night, and we thought, why not go have a nice, fancy dinner in some neighborhood we're never hung out in... so, no Mission, no Marina, no Haight. After 'yelp'ing around for a bit, we made a reservation on opentable, and we were set!
Both Ashish and me were kicked that we actually managed to get a reservation on a Saturday night at this really popular restaurant, but we got there and I realized why - this place is huge! Like 2 floors and multiple dining rooms huge! And fancy - so if you plan to go, dress up!
The cocktail list looked pretty interesting, although we decided to skip ordering drinks (in preparation for the long night of drinking that lay ahead of us). Straight to appetizers then, we ordered the vegetarian spring rolls, the fresh, non-fried kind with a yummy peanut dipping sauce. Wiped that out in a minute and we were ready for our main course. I have to say that the menu leans heavily toward meat and fish dishes. Everything looked great though... our server was really sweet and pointed out everything that they could make vegetarian. We ended up ordering the sticky rice with coconut sauce, a mango-potato-tofu curry, and asparagus in garlic sauce. The food was in one word - awesome! It reminded me why I think the whole restaurant dining experience is so much fun, and more importantly, got me to start writing my blog again :) The flavors we re just right, the sticky rice was this interesting sweet/savory combination. The asparagus was nice and tender, and the curry had just the right level of spice.
We were so full at the end of dinner that I almost did the unthinkable - I was going to skip dessert. Thankfully, sanity prevailed and we ordered the flourless Vietnamese chocolate cake. Yummmmmmmy!!! If you go to Le Colonial, and have one thing on their menu, have this! It looked so pretty when our waitress brought it out, that I almost didn't want to cut into it, but one bite was all it took to change my mind. Ashish and me pretty much devoured the cake, it was warm, and moist and just sweet enough - oooh, just writing about it now is making me crave some more.
In case you guys are wondering, no pub crawling happened last night for me... we went to one pub, and then I crawled straight into bed, dreaming about fancy people, curry and decadent vietnamese chocolate cake.
http://www.lecolonialsf.com/index_flash.html
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