March 23, 2009 - Ramblas, Spanish

Ramblas

557 Valencia St

San Francisco, CA

(415) 565-0207
http://www.ramblastapas.com/

To start, we had a wonderful Spanish cheese, Cabra al Romero, $4.50, which is a young goat's milk cheese flavored by rosemary and served with honey comb. After which which we had the Anchovy and red pepper toasts whith olives, $5.00. A perfect flavor combonation. We had the Spanish Tortilla, $8, which is a potato and onion omelet with caramelized onions, wild mushrooms, capers, and served with aioli and salsa verde. We had Asparagus with Manchego cheese, sage and brown butter served with the Tortilla. We ended our meal with a lovely Rice Pudding that had lots of flavor and raisins.

March 17, 2009 - Andalu, Californian

Andalu

3198 16th St

San Francisco, CA

(415) 621-2211
http://www.andalusf.com/

We can't visit Andalu without ordering the Crispy Mac & Cheese, $7.50. Sooooo good! We also ordered the Grilled escolare with beurre blanc, $10.50, which comes with red quinoa salad with shitakes, corn, and swiss chard. The fish is very rich so a small piece was perfect. We loved the quinoa salad! Then we got the Grilled Eggplant stuffed with ricotta, spinach, & pinenuts, served on caponata, $9.00. This eggplant was superb and I could eat it everyday.

March 3, 2009 - Barbamino, Italian

Bar Bambino Cafe and Wine Bar

2931 16th St., San Francisco, CA
(415) 701-8466
http://www.barbamino.com/

This was not our first time at Bar Bamino - actually, it's one of our favorites! We started with a small cheese plate, $13.00. This cafe has a Salumi and Fromaggi Bar and the gentleman who is responsible for the salumi and cheese comes out and describes the cheeses with great detail. He's like a sommelier of cheese! We had Caprino Luciano (goat cheese from Italy), Lavort (sheep cheese from France) and Blue del Moncenicio (cow cheese from Italy). They were all delicious! After the cheese plate we had the Salad of Roasted beets with arugula, $9.50, hazelnuts, and goat cheese. This salad was perfectly dressed. When I saw they had Arancinette, $7.50, on the menu I had to order them, and they didn't disappoint. They were small balls of saffron risotto stuffed with mozzarella and deep fried. YUMMY! We finished with a Bruschette of Egg, $11.50, with white truffle salt and parmigiano-reggiano. The egg was perfecly poached and the flavor of the truffle was just perfect on the egg. A wonderful dinner!!

February 17, 2009 - Luna Park, American

Luna Park - Mission District
694 Valencia St(between 18th St & Sycamore St)

San Francisco, CA 94110

(415) 553-8584
http://www.lunaparksf.com/

This was my first time at Luna Park. It is very traditional, warm and inviting and yet a little contemporary at the same time. We had three appetizers. The Warm goat cheese fondue with grilled bread and sliced apples, $8.95, was scrumptious and perfect on a cold night. We had the Marinated Hawaiian Tuna "Poke" with fried wonton chips, $11.95, which was delicious though it was a little different than the other Poke's I have had. And the best appetizer was the Grilled artichoke with lemon aioli, $7.95. It was the BEST artichoke I have ever had... it tasted like it was marinated or boiled in lemon and pepper corns before it was grilled. Just delicious!!

And, something we never do... WE HAD DESERT. I have never tried Bananas Foster before, but, this was the best desert I have ever had! It's Caramelized bananas flambeed with rum and cinnamon with banana ice cream and a caramel sauce. Yummeeeeeeeeee!

February 2, 2009 - Parea, Mediterranean

Parea Wine Bar

Neighborhood: Mission
795 Valencia St(between 18th St & 19th St)
San Francisco, CA 94110

(415) 255-2102
http://www.pareawinebar.com/

Definately not our first time here, we will probably be frequent guests! If you go before 7 pm you can get a flight of wine, $10, and some free appetizers, which is in the picture above with the flight of wine. The free appetizers we got were so big we even cancelled one of our additional appetizers. We ordered, as usual, the Cheese Plate, $13, which contained Blue Cheese from Wisconsin, Camembert from France, Grana Padano from Italy and Manchego from Spain. A perfect meal.

January 27, 2009 - Basil Canteen, Thai

Basil Canteen

Neighborhood: SOMA

1489 Folsom St(between 11th St & Juniper St)

San Francisco, CA 94103

(415) 552-3963
http://www.basilcanteen.com/

Basil restaurant just opened it's second restaurant, also on Folsom. Basil Canteen is located where the Public restaurant used to be and is it's a terrific loft space. There are big shared tables and also small intimate tables, whatever is your choice. Both are good experiences. The staff are super friendly and very knowlegable of the food - and, it's a good thing because I am not so familiar with traditional Thai dishes. We started with the Mian Kum, $7, which is fresh cut mustard leaves topped with diced shrimp, roasted coconut, pomelo, peanuts, ginger and shallots. This was so fresh and unique! We took a chance on the Aor Suan, $10, because it sounded so unusual. It was an omelette, loosely, of fresh oysters, beansprouts, and scallions served with a sweet and spicy Sriracha sauce. It was fabulous, spicy and no where near anything I have ever tasted before. We then had something a little more familiar: Pla Pao, $7, which is charcoal grilled wild caught fish on bamboo skewers served with a Thai chili-lime sauce. It was perfectly cooked and again, nice and spicy! We ordered Pla Sahm Rot, $13, which is a traditional dish that comes with rice. It is a pan-roasted rock cod fillet with a Thai three-flavored sauce. The sauce was very tasty and I would eat it on anything.

January 13, 2009 - Thirsty Bear Brewery, Spanish

Thirsty Bear Brewery

Neighborhood: SOMA

661 Howard St(between 3rd St & Hawthorne St)

San Francisco, CA 94105

(415) 974-0905

http://www.yelp.com/redir?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thirstybear.com&src_bizid=M1qm-JWaI1tHVBx-XLJbmA


This brewery has some wonderful beers, which is why I had the taster flight. It had 18 oz of beer all together, eventhough it looks like much more. We started with the Hama River Oysters, $12, 3 of which had cava-tarragon mignonette, and the other 3 had an orange-saffron granita. It was a great way to start. We then had the Tortilla Espanola of the day, $7, which was green bean and potato and came with a black pepper aioli. Following the tortilla we had the fingerling potato Flat Bread, $9, with grilled treviso, carmelized red onion, manchego & rioja balsamic reduction. I would never have thought of puting potatoes on flat bread but this really worked. We then had the Piperade, $8, which is slow roasted peppers and onions, a soft cooked egg and garlic bread crumbs. This may be my all time favorite tapa!! We also had the Gambas al ajillo, $8.25, which is shrimp with orange zest, garlic, sherry and olive oil. Fabulous. This brewery is a great casual place to meet friends and have beer and tapas!