November 15, 2011 Off

Mission Beach Cafe (SF: Mission)

//// By in 04: SF+Bay Area, Favorite Food Entries

Mission is full of pricy brunch spots and they’re ALL packed ALL the time. We came to this popular joint on the weekend of Burning Man, thinking we’ll have a easier time waiting. Turns out…not really.

Mission beach cafe

Bay Shrimp & Dungeness Crab Benedict $14.50 with smashed avocado, pickled shallot, saffron and citrus hollandaise. Heavenly! The seafood gave a wonderful umami flavor, and were balanced so well with the sweet and citrusy creamy sauce. It’s a very nice twist to the Eggs Benedict.

Mission beach cafe

Lavender Infused French Toast $13 with fresh strawberries, bananas, honey mascarpone, bourbon syrup. Melty and incredible.

Mission Beach Cafe

Citrus and Dill Cured Wild Salmon $16 Butter crunch, fingerling potato, sauce romesco, poached eggs, caper, herb creme fraiche. The salmon are fatty perfectly cured, really good.

mission beach cafe

The Canele is very well made, it’s divine!

Mission beach cafe

This place is pricey but it’s oh~so~good!

Mission Beach Cafe
198 Guerrero StAt 14th St(415) 861-0198

Tags: , ,

November 15, 2011 1

Foreign Cinema (San Francisco: Mission)

//// By in 04: SF+Bay Area

Foreign cinemaForeign cinema
Foreign Cinema is a fun place to be at the Mission district. The entrance is very unassuming. After you enter a long hallway you’ll reach a beautiful open space that’s converted from an old movie theatre.  I love the ceiling windows that bring in sunlight into the interior. There’s an outdoor courtyard area where they’ll screen foreign films on the wall at night.

It’s too bad we only had time for brunch there.

Foreign cinema
Bloody Mary

Foreign cinema
Foreign Cinema’s Fruit “Pop Tart”

Foreign cinema
Omelet with crispy Yukon Gold potatoes

Foreign cinema
Foreign cinema

All the brunch dishes were excellent! Refine cooking, fresh ingredients and great flavors. I’d definitely like to go back for their dinner + film experience.

Foreign Cinema
2534 Mission St (between 21st St & 22nd St)
San Francisco, CA 94110

Tags: ,

November 15, 2011 Off

Nopa (San Francisco: Nopa)

//// By in 04: SF+Bay Area

Another year-old visit that I finally get around to blog. Unfortunately, unlike the previous entry, my memory of this is a bit hazy…

NopaNopa
Nopa is one of those places in SF that’s highly recommended by everyone and guidebooks. It has a great cocktail menu and we got some very good beverages. We tried couple of their cocktails and my favorite was the Pisco Sour (quebranta pisco, lemon juice, lime juice egg white and amargo cusco).

NopaNopa
Amuse bouche: apples with dip and sea salt
Little gems with creamy herb vinaigrete, fuyu persimmon and mezzo secco.

Nopa
Moroccan Vegetable Tagine with toasted almonds and lemon yogurt
I believe this is one of their star dishes.

NopaNopa
Grilled Calamari, roasted cauliflower, olives capers and aioli – a lot smaller than we expected…
French Fries and roasted red pepper-feta dip

Nopa
Wood Grilled Hanger Steak, Fingerling potato and arugula

Nopa
Forgot what this is…could be delicata and sweet dumpling squash, sherry onions and parmesan.

The tagine and the hanger steak were great, overall the food was pretty solid. Though have to say they aren’t very memorable hence the hazy memories. I asked the people whom I had the dinner with what they remembered and all said they only remember the cocktails. Perhaps we were too hyped up by all the recommendations? Their menu changes all the time so

Nopa
560 Divisadero St, San Francisco, CA 94117
(415) 864-8643

Tags:

November 11, 2011 2

Bar Tartine (San Francisco: Mission)

//// By in 04: SF+Bay Area

Freda is out of town again so let me insert my SF experiences at the mean time.

Bar tartineBar TartineBar Tartine
While we’re still clearing up all these SF posts, I digged up this unblog old visit from last year (yes..it’s been awhile) of Bar Tartine , a small plate wine bar from the same people of the very popular Tartine Bakery at the Mission district in San Francisco. At the time we visited, Bar Tartine was known for its Eastern Europe influence small plate menu. I heard that since early this year it has become Cal-Hungarian under a new chef. So please keep in mind this review reflects their old menu prior the change.

Bar Tartine is very popular among the locals so reservations is a must. We tried our luck and walked into the restaurant at 6 pm without reservation. and viola, luck was on our side! Someone just cancelled and we score a table.

Bar TartineBar Tartine

Very good bread like the ones from their bakery and addictive cheese bread.

Bar Tartine

Chicken liver pate, pickles and whole grain mustard
The pate was smooth and flavorful. It’s very good with the bread.

Bar Tartine

Fig & walnut anchoiade with radishes
Anchoiade is an anchovy-based paste with garlic and olive oil. This one has fig and walnut so it’s pretty sweet like a fig jam.

Bar Tartine

Braised gloucester pork, spring onion, fennel and fried egg
Best dishes of the night! The pork was very tender. Everything works together and I loved the fried egg very much.

Bar Tartine

White sea bass baked on a fig leaf with lentils and sea beans
The fish was well cook, but the highlight was actually the lentils and sea beans. Hearty and full of flavors,

Bar Tartine

Crispy kentucky wonder beans with dill creme fraiche 
A good beer companion dish, but we all had cocktails.  Very crispy. We actually ordered this because we like the name “Kentucky  wonder beans”.

I thought the food was great overall. The vibe was fun, I liked the intimate interior and I found the menu to be quite interesting. However Freda tried it at another time and she found the food just alright. I’m a bit curious about their new cal-Hungarian direction.

Bar Tartine
561 Valencia St (between 16th St & 17th St)
San Francisco, CA 94110

Tags:

November 3, 2011 1

Tartine Bakery (San Francisco: Mission)

//// By in 04: SF+Bay Area

It only took a few years for Tartine Bakery to become one of SF’s top destinations. I think most people know about this place from the very famous cookbook. Everytime I passed by this place, there’ll be a long queue wrapping around the place. Yes I noticed that SFers love queuing, but the lines at this place (and the Bi-rite Creamery a crossed the street) is just insane. I avoided it for a long time, until a friend of mine came up to the city, and I decided to show him how to wait in line like a SFers do.

Tartine Bakery

We waited for about half an hour (felt longer). It’s surprisingly not that chaotic inside.

Tartine Bakery

The Croissant. It is good! Light, crispy, flakey, buttery, it’s almost a bit too ‘balanced’ all around and perfect that I kinda wished some of the aspect stands out more. Oh~ it’s so pretty, look at the glossy surface and layers.

Tartine Bakery

Eclair so delicious!

Tartine Bakery

They’re probably real.

Tartine

Ham Quiche: it has an overwhelming sour cream flavor in it that I don’t  like. But again, it’s so pretty. In this case of it looks better than it taste. The texture is wonderful though.

Tartine

Croque Madame. First time I’ve seen such a pretty and slick one.

Tartine

The Morning Bun is highly recommended by a lot of people and the reviews I read, but I’ve only find it alright – because I’m not a fan of cinnamon. If you already got the croissant it’s pretty redundant as it’s basically a croissant inside. But since Morning Bun seems to be a SF thing (it’s in most of the bakeries I’ve been to), I’m glad I’ve tried it.

According to my co-worker, their last freshly baked bread comes out after 6pm. It is the best time pick up some freshly baked bread as most people would have gone on to line up for dinner at other restaurants already. I don’t know if the wait is really worth it, as the stressfulness of waiting in line contradicts what I think a breakfast experience should be. I didn’t go back either as I’ve found other bakeries in the city (in future postings).

Tartine Bakery
600 Guerrero St (between 18th St & 19th St)., San Francisco, CA 94110

Tags:

Older Posts
Newer Posts