San Francisco Dining 2010

In early September my husband and I took a quick three day trip up to San Francisco to celebrate our wedding anniversary. When discussing what we wanted to do for the big event, we decided that rather than have a party, we just wanted to go to San Francisco to eat. We took a similar trip last year and had such a good time we were really looking forward to our return. Below are some of the places we went while in San Francisco. If you want to see more of our trip in detail, please check out the San Francisco 2010 page on my travel blog.

Out The Door:
Out the Door is owned by the same people who own the Slanted Door Restaurant in the Ferry Building. There’s no big sign outside, just a small “OTD” painted on the front door. This is upscale Vietnamese street food and most of it was very good, albeit not exactly authentic. We were here for lunch with my husband’s Aunt and started with decent spring rolls filled with shrimp, pork and vegetables and a Vietnamese crepe which gets wrapped in lettuce and dipped in sauce and was very tasty and similar to the ones we had in Hue Vietnam last year.

I ordered the pork over rice noodles with crispy imperial rolls which was similar to one of my favorite dishes, Bun Cha. This was probably the best dish of the bunch. My husband got a wide noodle (which weren’t) with flank steak and Hungarian peppers which turned out to be a bit bland and his Aunt got a nice looking chicken salad. They didn’t have any Vietnamese beer on the menu (is it possible to get here in the US?) so David got a Belgian wheat beer. Lunch for three was around $65 before tax and tip.

Perbacco:
Perbacco was full when we arrived for dinner, but we only had to wait about three minutes before we were seated (we did have a reservation). This place had been on my list since our visit last year and I was hoping it would still be as good as the recommendations had been back then. Fortunately, they did not disappoint.
Our server was wonderful; he recommended specific dishes, was able to answer questions about the menu and even brought us wine to taste. I really like that the restaurant offers many of their wines by the 1/4, 1/2, and full liter. They also offer pastas in small and large sizes.

We shared an appetizer of heirloom green tomatoes, burrata cheese and fresh corn. Then we shared langaroli al brasato which was a pasta filled with beef cheek, served with a velvety sauce made with quince (sugo di cugna) and a crumbled hard Italian cheese called Cusie al Castagno on top. The flavor was outstanding, really enhanced by the sharpness of the cheese.

For my entree I had a cooked-to-perfection, roasted veal loin, first cooked sous-vide,with porcini mushrooms and artichoke hearts and my husband had a roasted quail breast stuffed with foie gras and served with braised chard and chanterelles, also excellent, though very rich.
It’s hard to miss the cheese table when you walk though the restaurant so of course we knew what David was having for dessert; one of the three blue cheeses from Italy and a 20 year tawny port. I had the burnt caramel gelato with vanilla sea salt. Heaven. Dinner was $143 before tax and tip.

Sometimes our experiences with places, food, are not as good as the memories were the first time around. I’m happy to say, the porchetta sandwich from the Roli Roti truck is notone of those disappointments.  The pork is perfectly seasoned and they make sure that each sandwich gets its share of the sliced pork meat and crispy skin. The bread is soft, but doesn’t fall apart, and the addition of caramelized onions and peppercress perfectly compliment the roasted pork. It is, hands down, the best pork sandwich I’ve ever had.

We got in the long line and waited about 20 minutes to get our sandwich. We sat in the sunshine for a while enjoying our food, watching the other market-goers, and watching the seagulls and a duck dive for fish off the pier. After a while we went inside the Ferry Building, but the shoulder to shoulder crowds drove us out in short order.

Dave’s Bar:
After a lovely afternoon spent at the Museum of Contemporary Art, we stopped in at a bar called Dave’s, on Third St, between Market and the museum. We’d passed it on the way to the museum and my Dave wanted a hat with their logo on it (his name and a martini glass). We ordered a couple beers on tap and what turned out to be a giant order of “small” nachos as a snack. This place is an odd cross between local dive bar and tourist stop. You could tell there were some regulars sitting there at the bar in the middle of the day, every day.

For dinner, we met up with one of my husband’s colleagues who was in town visiting a friend. We wanted something more casual so we chose First Crush, a wine bar/restaurant only two blocks from Union Square. First Crush offers more than a dozen wine flights (tastes of three different wines in a theme) and small plates which is a nice way to eat and share everything with the table. Unfortunately, I was so wrapped up in our conversation, I forgot to take pictures of anything but the menu after the first two plates; the cheese and the charcuterie.

Ton Kiang Dim Sum:
This morning we met my sister-in-law, her husband, and their two boys (ages 1 and 4) for dim sum at Ton Kiang in the Richmond District. We arrived at 10:30am and were sat upstairs in an almost empty room. The upstairs room has larger tables than downstairs. The place filled very quickly and by the time we left there was a long line waiting outside (and yet no one in line for the dim sum place next door).