San Francisco: April 22-26

I promised Charmin Bear J that I would start updating again since I’m a few months behind, so here I am!

I went on a short weekend trip to San Francisco for a friend’s birthday. I got to revisit some restaurants as well as try a few new places.

Boudin Sourdough Bakery & Cafe @ 160 Jefferson Street

While waiting for our ride to Napa Valley, we got a bit hungry so we got a snack at Boudin. They’re famous for the sourdough bread, which you can find in all sizes and animal shapes. We ordered half a sandwich and the clam chowder in a bread bowl. Whoever said that only the east coast has great clam chowder lied. This was pretty awesome!

Clam Chowder

Rutherford Grill @ 1180 Rutherford Road

One of our friends who frequents Napa recommended we try Rutherford. One of the great things about this restaurant was that they allow you to bring your own wine. I guess that makes sense since they are located in Napa Valley. A friend and I decided to share two entrees. We ordered the Enchilada Platter and the Tuna Sashimi Salad. The Enchilada Platter was actually really flavorful and savory.  I didn’t really like the escabeche salad on the left since I’m not a huge fan of tangy/acidic sauces. The Tuna Sashimi Salad was amazing! They used a light sweet ginger vinaigrette sauce, didn’t feel heavy at all like the creamier sauces. The mango and avocado made it even more refreshing to eat.

Enchilada Platter

Tuna Sashimi Salad

I don’t have refined tastes, so I don’t have an affinity for wine, but I did think Napa Valley was really fun. It’s a beautiful place and everyone is so nice! We had tastings at places like V. Sattui,  Folie a Deux and Hope & Grace. V Sattui had a little small market that sold cheeses, various dipping sauces, sausages, fudge and more. My favorite place, however, was Hope & Grace because there was this cute dog called Romeo that was such a gentle giant. I couldn’t take my paws off him. His owner couldn’t have given him a more fitting name!

PPQ Dungeness Island @ 2332 Clement Street

After Napa, we went straight to eat Asian crab and garlic noodles. I did my research and heard that PPQ is one of the best places to get it. For crabs, we got the peppercorn crab and drunken crab. Honestly, I’m not very good at eating crabs or lobsters. I don’t know the best method to get the maximum meat out of the shell. I got pretty fed up with working so hard to get my food :( It was such a tease! From what I did get, the peppercorn was definitely more flavorful, but the drunken crab had a softer and juicier meat. The garlic noodles was so simple but so good. I wonder why Boston doesn’t have any places with their own version. The crab meat fried rice was a little bland and I couldn’t really taste any crab in it. I was hoping I could avoid the work and get my meat-filling from the fried rice :T The beef and string beans were pretty tasty too. Apologies for the blurry pictures. I forgot my camera, had to settle for the crappy 2.0 camera on my phone and my unsteady hands.

Garlic Noodles

Crab Meat Fried Rice

Drunken Crab

Peppercorn Crab

Tanpopo @ 1740 Buchanan Street

I’m not a fan. I really wanted to go to Santa Ramen, but I had no way of getting there. The service was okay. I asked them if they had tonkotsu soup. The waitress told me no, but their kyuushuu ramen is actually the tonkotsu. I think I’ve been really spoiled by Ippudo in NY and Santa, where the soup makes it seem like it’s a Japanese party in your mouth :T. The gyoza we ordered was drenched in oil. The spicy miso ramen was pretty bland. I had to pour some of my soup into Becca’s bowl to give it flavor. The kyuushuu ramen I ordered wasn’t bad but it was really hard to eat since I could taste the oil in every spoon :(

Gyoza

Spicy Miso Ramen

Kyuu Shuu Ramen

Sophie’s Crepes @ 1581 Webster Street

After lunch we went to explore Japantown. My friend went a little snack-happy and bought a bunch of things at one of the candy shops. We eventually found our way to Sophie’s Crepes. Another friend of mine was raving about how yummy their home-made whip cream was so I had to try it. I love eating dessert crepes so they basically could do no wrong. The whip cream definitely tasted fresh and not from a can. Nom nom nom nom nom.

Strawberry Banana Crepe

Harris’ Restaurant @ 2100 Van Ness Avenue

The first time I tried Harris’ I thought it was the best steak I’ve ever had. This time, I came out quite disappointed. I still did really like the bread chips they give you to snack on and the crunchy fresh Caesar Salad. We also tried the special Sword Fish Salad, which was okay. The arugula and balsamic vinaigrette was really bitter and left an after taste in my mouth. The fish itself was really sweet and delicious though. I ordered the Filet Mignon Rossini again and was so sad that my steak came out over cooked. On top of that the escargot tasted strange to me, not sure what it was. I don’t think I’m going to risk paying $60+ again on something so inconsistent.

Meat Display

Bread Chips

Caesar Salad

Swordfish Salad

Filet Mignon Rossini

Pacific Catch @ 2027 Chestnut Street

Ah! What a nice way to end my trip! This was by far my favorite  restaurant this time around. We ordered a basket of sweet potato fries that I still crave today. It was crispy, salted, thin-cut but I could still taste the potato inside. We also ordered the Ahi Poke Wasabi Bowl and the BBQ Eel Wasabi Bowl. I’ve never had a wasabi bowl before and it was so good! It sort of reminded me of bibimbap in the sense that it’s a mixture of a ton of things: wakame salad, avocado, nori, daikon sprouts, sesame, ginger and cucumber in a soy-wasabi sauce. Ahi Poke is cubed raw tuna prepared in a spicy sesame soy sauce. It was different and definitely yummy.  My friend ordered the BBQ Eel, which was also really savory but the meat was a little tough to eat. I really liked both though! For dessert we ordered a mochi (vanilla and coffee flavor) fondue. It was simple, but really good. We also had a really cute gay waiter that I absolutely adore. :)

Sweet Potato Fries

Ahi Poke Wasabi Bowl

BBQ Eel Wasabi Bowl

Mochi Fondue

– Charmin Bear T

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