Brenda’s French Soul Food
(or checking your calorie counter at the door). I’ve been meaning to check this place out for a while and used the holiday exodus from San Francisco as a good excuse (that and mid-day tickets to a show nearby).
We showed up around noon on a Saturday expecting a wait. There were several people waiting outside so we put our name on the list and hoped for the best. Minutes later a server came out and called our name for the counter. Score! for being the first party of 2 on the list.
The menu is relatively small with daily options. We opted to split an appetizer and taste the gumbo, then had our own entrees. We started with:
beignet sampler. Yup, a sampler.
this was a sampler of 4 beignets (from left to right) crawfish, chocolate, apple and plain. Nice combo of sweet and savory. We started with the savory (crawfish) and saved the chocolate for dessert. These were not your normal light as a feather full of air beignet. These were more like puff donut-goodness surrounding a tasty filling. I particularly loved the crawfish one. Great seasonings and nice flavor.
cup of gumbo this was pleasant. Worth having again but I wouldn’t go there just for the gumbo. Didn’t need to, because my entree was fabulous. I’d go back again to eat this (after running a marathon to burn off the calories).
shrimp and grits this was one of the daily specials. It included a very generous portion of shrimp, great N’awlins spiciness, tomato yumminess, creamy grits and oodles of cheese. I didn’t want to keep eating it, but I did. I did save room for the chocolate beignet, though. It was GOOD.
egg and bacon tartine basically an egg sandwich with an outstanding tomato-bacon relish.
I also had the house sweet watermelon tea. It tasted like the perfect combo of an iced tea and a watermelon agua fresca. Refills on the house.
Overall thumbs: Up. We were concerned about the wait but were pleasantly surprised. All the food was well prepared.
Tastiness rating: High. There aren’t a lot of places in SF to get shrimp and grits or gumbo. These were nice renditions.
Service rating: Moderately High. We were seated quickly and our drinks orders were taken right away. It took a while to put in our meal order, though. Service was nice and friendly (which seemed all the more important because this place is tiny).
