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!

http://www.mokisushi.com/

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/

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

Millenium

Millennium is a vegetarian restaurant in the middle of Union Square. It's in the Hotel California.. ok I almost made a cheesy Eagles reference here ;-)

Their menu is completely vegetarian, organic as far as possible, and according to their website they use fresh produce everyday and believe "that a gourmet dining experience can be created out of vegetarian, healthy, and environmentally friendly foods". Sounds like a perfect place to review for a vegetarian food blog.

So, after a couple of hours of holiday shopping at Union Square (which if you haven't gone and seen the tree already, you must!), I was ready to sit down and enjoy a nice drink and some good food. And Millennium, unlike A16 did live up to all my expectations. The drinks were awesome, and everything on the menu sounded so good, it was tough to decide what to get.

I've totally blanked out on what we ordered for drinks, but I do remember they were really, really good! As soon as our server described the soup of the day, both Laxmi and I were like "Ok, we have got to get that". It was a butternut squash soup with some other fancy things thrown in, which obviously I don't remember. And I don't suppose I remember the name of the salad we ordered either, or the main dish. So much for writing a review about a restaurant :) Anyway, the lack of details aside, what I'm trying to bring out here is - it doesn't matter what you order at Millennium, everything on the menu is so delightful that you can't really go wrong.

But wait.. what about dessert? Well... I have to say the one thing that didn't really hit the spot was dessert. To quote Laxmi, it tasted like one of those Sara Lee frozen thingies. I guess that just about sums up how good (or bad) it was.

Overall though, I think Millennium is definitely worth a visit. It's not cheap, but not crazy expensive, and compared with the other vegetarian-only restaurant in the city, Greens, I found it nicer in terms of ambiance, food, and service.

http://www.millenniumrestaurant.com/

A16

Yay... it just hit me that I have, in the past week, done exactly what I set out to do when this blog was created. And in case you are wondering what that groundbreaking thing was - it was to go through all(seriously?) the restaurants in the 2007 Michelin guide for San Francisco. I went to four of them last week - and what makes it even more fabulous is that it happened quite inadvertently.

Let me start with A16 - it's an Italian restaurant in the Marina that's wildly popular. So much so, that on a Tuesday night, we could only get reservations for 9:30pm. Their food is supposed to be excellent, and their wine list pretty impressive. But, I have to say... I was not blown away by the place. Maybe my expectations were too high.. maybe it's not the best place for vegetarians... maybe we ordered the wrong wine... maybe.

We started out with an arugula salad with olives and mandarin oranges. So, here's the thing about me and salad - I don't want to feel like a cow chewing grass when I'm eating my salad. I mean I am eating leaves, but it shouldn't feel like I'm eating leaves... makes sense? Anyway, after a very disappointing salad, we got a not-so-disappointing funghi pizza. The pizza was good... not awesome, but decent enough. As usual what saved the day was dessert - their most popular dessert is the "Chocolate budino tart with sea salt and extra virgin olive oil". The EVOO and sea salt added an interesting twist to the flavor, and the mousse was just perfect - the next time I think I'll skip directly to dessert.

Ok.. so I really didn't mean to slam this place so much. It is an awesome place to go on a date - the dining room is gorgeous, all candles and brick walls. It's romantic, but at the same time, not oppressively so - the crowd and the atmosphere make sure of that. And I guess if you know your wine (which clearly I don't) the experience will be better.

http://www.a16sf.com/home.html

Mochica - Peruvian fusion

I am on a roll here aren't I? Three posts in one day... and I still have a few more places I'm itching to write about. I soooo happy :) The last couple of weeks have been great food-wise.

Mochica is a Peruvian restaurant on Harrison St, now when I think Peruvian food, I never think vegetarian. It's never been on my list of cuisines to try out because most other Peruvian restaurants in the city only have one vegetarian dish, some kind of veggie platter, which to me doesn't sound the most appetizing.

So, I was really excited about Mochica, when Latitha said they have an awesome vegetarian paella. Mochica has this warm, lively vibe to it... what ticked me off though, was the table we got. I have a problem with restaurants trying to squeeze in as many people as possible , resulting in someone having to sit painfully close to the kitchen. It really takes away from what would otherwise have been a great dining experience.

Anyway, except for the less than satisfactory seating arrangement, I was pretty happy with the place. They first brought out this salad made of chickpeas and corn fried in some batter, with onion and tomatoes.... very zesty. The menu has quite a few vegetarian appetizers, and of course the paella which we ordered for the main course. I have to say... the paella was awesome! It was so flavorful, hot and juicy, a real treat! Coconut flan followed for dessert.. and I forgave them for the crappy table... almost, ok, maybe if I went back and they gave me a nice table and the paella was still good, I would :)

http://www.mochicasf.com/

I left my heart.. in San Francisco

It felt so good to be back home after the "much-anticipated" road-trip through New Mexico, and I was so ready to try out some good old San Franciscan food in a good old San Franciscan restaurant.

And that's exactly what I did one lazy Sunday afternoon.... went down to the beach, stumbled upon this random band that was performing there (this is what I love about San Francisco, you never know what crazy thing you're going to come across next), had brunch at the Beach Chalet, and walked it off on the Lands End Trail. Ah... that was an awesome afternoon.

I wonder why I don't go down to Ocean Beach more often. There's something so romantic and beautiful about the beach, maybe it's the sound of the water, or the scent of the ocean, or just the constancy of the waves washing up on shore. Mesmerising... I like that word :)

Anyway.. this is a food blog, so I must focus... the Beach Chalet... it's this restaurant on the Great Highway which has great ocean views. I've heard that it can get really busy, so reservations are recommended. We just called in and put our names down while we walked on the beach - I thought that was pretty awesome of them to do that. A nice table for two by the window, and it makes for the perfect date spot. The food was really good... the omelette's fluffy, the bread soft and the orange juice freshly squeezed... what more could one want? I for one, always want dessert :) And I have to say... the creme brulee I had that day was one of the best I've had in a long, long time.

So... add this to your list of nice, romantic brunch places in the city, and remember... save room for dessert.

http://www.beachchalet.com/