Foodie Digest

So, just skipping over the reviews that didn’t get written for Mission Chinese Food (not a good experience) and Cotogna (could be great; what we ordered was just good), I’ll jump straight to Perbacco.

We had an out of town guest visiting and started his visit with a late dinner at Oola. Big mistake. Service misses all around (3 hours for a meal with a lot of plates waiting to be cleared and really mediocre food). More on that later. Tried to make it up the next night with a meal at Perbacco and I have to say, this meal surpassed any previous experiences I had there and stands at the top of any meal I’ve had in SF.

We arrived for our reservation an were mildly disappointed to be shown to the upstairs dining room. It lacks the restaurant ambiance of downstairs but it ended up being a good thing (the downstairs always has a large arrangement of flowers including lilies. Seems like something that should appeal to some people but not to me — I’m allergic). That said, if you aren’t and care about restaurant ambiance, you may want to request downstairs seating.

We started our meal with shared appetizers and a trio of pasta tastings, cocktails and a fantastic nebbiolo recommended by our upstairs bartender/sommelier/person extraordinaire.

For appetizers, we had:

• Carne cruda di vitellone - tartare of pastured veal / truffled lardo crostino. This was a sophisticated version of a steak tartare. The tartare came with the requisite quail egg on top. On its own this was velvety and luscious. Combine it, though, with the truffled lardo crostino and you had a complex balance of flavors and textures accompanied by some peppery sprouts for a little kick. I would easily order this again.
• Salumi misti — a chef’s assortment of maybe 9(?) different salumi. Some of these were great representations of basic salumi; others were inventive, flavorful and different. There was a steamed salami and pate-like blend with pork belly. The plate was accompanied by house-made pickles.

So far, we’re off to a great start. Our starters were rich and substantial. We followed this course with a pasta tasting. Here you can choose two or three pastas to be plated for each person at the table. We chose:

• Langaroli al brasato - pasta filled with short rib brasato / sugo di cugna
• Tajarin - handcut tagliatelle / 5 hour pork sugo / porcini mushrooms
• Coujette - Occitaine potato gnocchi / devil’s gulch rabbit ragu / golden chanterelles

What we actually received was the Langaroli, a butternut squash tortelli, and a rabbit agnolotti. We recognized the mistake with the squash right away and mentioned it to the server who delivered our food. He apologized immediately told us to keep eating and offered to bring us out a portion of the 5 hour pork sugo (which was the one we missed). When our other server stopped by we realized we had 2 wrong orders. She swept our plates away (after offering to leave us one to nibble on) and promised a swift return with the correct plates. Apologies were abundant and the correct plates were brought to us quickly.

I would highly recommend the trio of pasta tastings. All 3 of us were quite fond of 2 out of the 3 pastas (and they weren’t necessarily the same ones).

The pasta filled with short rib was a favorite of mine and the least favorite of the other 2. The sauce was reduced and slightly sweet; the texture of the pasta perfect. Each ravioli-like bite was rich with the short rib filling but not overly stuffed.

The tajarin was probably the table favorite. A perfect rendition of a spaghetti and meat sauce the 5 hour sugo had a complexity of flavors that combined to deliver a perfectly simple, rustic and satisfying dish. Again, the pasta was cooked beautifully. The texture provided some resistance to the sauce and again, a very well balanced dish.

The gnocchi with rabbit was my least favorite of the 3. The gnocchi themselves were light and perfectly textured. The rabbit was in larger chunks rather than blended into a sauce. The flavors were earthy with a delicateness not found in the other dishes.

At this point I’m glad I’d opted for a salad as my main entree. My dining companions had the scallops and duck. I didn’t try either of them but the scallops were declared “wonderful”. The duck “this is the best prepared duck I’ve ever had”. They both looked amazing. I had the chicories salad. The salad was fine and a good balance after all the rich starter courses.

You’d think by now we’d be full. We were, but, well, there’s always room for ice cream. And cheese apparently.

We ordered the burnt caramel gelato with vanilla sea salt and a cheese course with a selection of 3 cheeses. We got:

burn caramel gelato

selection of 4 cheeses

lemon poundcake.

Perbacco wanted to apologize for our pasta mix up so sent along an extra cheese (a chestnut-wrapped beauty that was new to them) and a new dessert.

The cheese plate is incredibly generous portions of well-selected cheese. Had we skipped some of our courses it might actually have been finished. The lemon poundcake (meyer lemon limoncello cake) was moist, flavorful and served with a lovely huckleberry puree. The burnt caramel gelato was well accompanied by the vanilla sea salt.

The service of the evening was outstanding. We felt very well taken care of the entire evening. Did we visit Perbacco on just a spot on amazing food evening, or is it always this good? Either way, highly, highly recommend.

Happy new year! Clearly I have a resolution to revisit foodie digest, so here we go.

New Year’s Eve/New Year’s day let me try 3 new to me places. We went to:

Thermidor for New Year’s eve dinner

Mission Chinese Food for New Year’s day brunch

Cotogna for New Year’s Day dinner.

Sure, it’s a lot of eating. It’s the holidays; time to be excessive.

First pleasant surprise was Thermidor. I say a surprise because New Year’s eve is risky any where. Thermidor had same day reservations, and the atmosphere stayed relaxed and calm most of the evening.

We started the night with cocktails, including a stellar Old Fashioned.  This was so well made that when our friends joined us for dinner, one of them ordered it right away.

Because it was NYE we had a prix fixe menu to choose from. Because there were four of us, we got to taste many things.

First course

Choice of:

• Oxtail Croquettes These were served 2 to an order and basically were mini-corndog size croquettes filled with, surprise, oxtail. It was a really interesting presentation, hearty and flavorful.
• Crab and citrus salad A huge portion of fresh dungeness crab with a great balance of citrus and fennel. This was my dish but declared by other tasters as the winner of the course.
• Lobster bisque I didn’t try this but it appeared to be enjoyed. Bisque along with chunks of lobster.
• Goat cheese and pear napoleon Nobody at our table ordered this so no comments.

Next course, choice of:

• Sweetbreads coated in panko bread crumbs and lightly pan fried. I liked this but it wasn’t my favorite. It was the favorite of the diner who ordered it.
• Crab and artichoke newburg My course and my favorite. This was very delicate and not overly creamy. The presentation was lovely; served in a scallop shell.
• Salsify “pasta” with mushrooms Nice umami flavors but lacking the promised mushrooms.
• Pork belly I think I tasted this but don’t remember it. Still, we enjoyed all of these four courses.

Main course had 4 choices, but we skipped the veggie course and and the duck a la orange. We had:

• Butter poached lobster, scallop and shrimp Prepared well and tasty but not overly inspired.
• Filet mignon served with braised short ribs and potato puree This was good BUT they needed a second chance. One of our filets was a beautiful cut of filet mignon; the other was random end pieces (and decidedly not tender). We asked nicely for a replacement and the freshly fired steak was tender and perfectly prepared.

A bit of comedy when the new steak came without the short ribs, but the comedy ensued because it followed a glass of champagne dropped and shattered by the server. All good natured and resulted in the restaurant buying us a round of cocktails. We requested a house-made egg nog which was boozy, not creamy with just a touch of egg white at the rim.

The meal was really overall very good until dessert. There was a choice of 2 and both fell flat.

Milk n cookies was a vanilla bean panna cotta with fresh baked cookies. This was OK. I wouldn’t go out of my way to order it but it was the final course included in the meal

The other option was a chocolate parfait that had an overwhelming coffee flavor.

All in all it was a great night, fun company and friendly service.

Next up, Mission Chinese Food

I spend too much time reading about, and then anticipating, new restaurants in my neighborhood. The latest arrival, Zero Zero has been one of the most hyped places to open recently. So hyped that I felt obligated to check it out the first week, alright, the first night, it opened.

On opening night we just went by for dessert. The place was still buzzing a little before 10, and the pizzas that went past us looked good. Instead of pizza we had the only dessert choice — a soft serve ice cream. While it’s the only dessert it’s not that limited; you design your own ice cream creation choosing from:

• strauss organic vanilla, chocolate or a swirl
• choice of base (if you want one) such as brownies, olive oil cake and more
• choice of toppings, such as pie crumbles
• more toppings, like butterscotch, hot fudge, nuts
• and the best topping of all, olive oil and sea salt.

The first time we went I got a simple vanilla with olive oil and sea salt. He had a simple vanilla with pie crumbles and strawberries in balsamic. The olive oil with sea salt topping is amazing. We still talk about it. We’ve gone back and had it again. And of course, when we went back we had pizza.

So after a week or so we went back to try dinner here. We actually tried once in between but there was too long a wait. We went instead on a weeknight and were seated within 20 minutes. We ordered (and were disappointed by):

• Hiramasa crudo with jalapeno and basil tobiko: This would have been good but the flavors overpowered the fish. And the overwhelming flavor? Salt. Too much salt.
• Padron peppers: I love these peppers. Being seasonal they are all the rage at restaurants around SF these days. Almost always served roasted and simple, these were fine but not that memorable.
• Meat plate: This was utterly underwhelming. It came with an apricot jam (that our server described as strawberry-rhubarb). The meats were all fairly flavorless so they weren’t tasty on their own, and there wasn’t enough bread/jam to help make up for it.
• Castro pizza: this pizza comes with sausage, sopresatta, tomato sauce, mozarella and basil. The sausage in this pizza was way too salty and overpowered the entire pizza. That wasn’t difficult to do because the crust was a bit limp and there wasn’t enough sauce. I’m a big fan of char on pizza but this felt almost overcharred (and yet not crispy). The cheese was good, but not enough to save the pizza. We didn’t finish it. It might have been because we were saving room for ice cream but I think it’s because it wasn’t that good.

So overall? We were really underwhelmed with all the food except ice cream. Which is fine because this place is very trendy, full of lots of people and they only take reservations for larger groups. Luckily, we remembered another italian place in the hood that makes pizza. A few nights later, we dined at Zuppa.

It’s a Friday night and we walk in around 8. Waited only a few minutes for a table (but they do take reservations for small parties).

Up for another go round, we order a sausage pizza and a meat plate, along with 2 pasta dishes. And man, did this food deliver.

• pizza: the sausage pizza comes with an arugula-like green. Perfect amount of sauce to sausage to cheese ratio. We demolished this pizza.
• meat plate: we limited ourselves to three meats instead of going for the extra large plate. They were all fabulous (well, we did get to choose). The meats here stand on their own; they don’t need bread or jam.
• ricotta stuffed pasta with prosciutto and cherry tomatoes. Really nice flavors and the stuff pasta was perfectly sized.
• summer truffle pasta with mushrooms. again, perfectly prepared.

Spring is here! Time to grab a back pack, water, and the dogs and wander along the water. We usually walk until we get hungry then start looking for a place with a dog-friendly patio. We tend to end up in North Beach but a shortcut up Broadway brought us toward Enrico’s and, more importantly Naked Lunch. I remembered reading about Naked Lunch but was surprised to see it open on a Saturday.

I took a look at the menu, saw something that would appeal to each of us and said “let’s eat here”.

The staff was great. I ordered two sandwiches and a salad, filled up two water glasses and was prepared to hunker down on the sidewalk seats right in front. They said “you can sit at Enrico’s”. Enrico’s has flipped and flopped on their dog-friendliness, but the Naked Lunch guys assured me that when they are open Enrico’s is not and the space is all theirs. We grabbed out waters and the dogs and sat in the cool shade. They brought out all our food at once and refilled out water glasses for us. They were all super friendly and the place (it’s really just a takeout counter) has a great vibe. We had:

Spring Asparagus Salad with Wild Arugulas, Manchego, Preserved Meyer Lemon, Chives. This was well seasoned and topped with shards of manchego and threads of meyer lemon. The asparagus was prepared perfectly and the dish was incredibly well balanced. It was an appetizer-sized portion and a great start to the meal.
Artisan Foie Gras Torchon & Duck Prosciutto Sandwich with Tomato, Butter Lettuce, Black Truffle Salt.

Holy crap. This was an outstanding sandwich. $15 may be a bit spendy for a sandwich but it’s downright reasonable for this much foie gras. The creaminess of the foie was complemented by the tomato in an unexpectedly delightful way. The crispiness of the bread was a great contrast to the foie. We commented to the Naked Lunch team how utterly amazing this sandwich was and he described it as their version of a BLT. Dead on. The proscuitto was a nice substitute for the bacon and the foie? That’s the new mayo. I think this sandwich makes a regular appearance on their menu. Good thing; it’s worth the visit.

Braised Artichoke & Manchego Sandwich with Spinach, Sweet Onion, Preserved Meyer Lemon, Herbs.

I’m a fan of Manchego cheese. I also like artichokes and lemons. I’d finished half this sandwich before John even started with his. The bread here was perfect for the sandwich with a slight hint of rosemary. Good to know if you’re not a rosemary fan (like my dining partner).

Overall thumbs: Two thumbs way up. The food was amazing with super premium ingredients in an uber casual atmosphere. My favorite.

Tastiness Rating: High. The food was innovative, well-imagined and incredibly well-prepared.

Service Rating: Good. Service is friendly and casual.

Dog friendliness factor: Huge. Not only do they have outside seats in the shade, they were psyched to see the dogs.

We were at a taste of San Francisco dinner party once and someone brought an Atomic sub from the Submarine Center. John took one bite and said “now THAT’S a sandwich”. Or something like that. I took a bite and said yeah, that’s like an east coast sub (to me).

Now I should add that one of our past times has been to search for the perfect sandwich. We’ve found the perfect reuben at Morty’s deli. Seriously, it was great. And the next time I feel up for the caloric splurge I’ll go back, take a picture, and write about it for you.

But today? Today is back to searching for the perfect sub. So off we went to the other side of town to Submarine Center in West Portal.

This place clearly has reached cult status. There’s a line out the door (on a Saturday post 1 p.m.). Still, we were able to order and grab a seat.

The nice thing about Submarine Center is they have 3 sizes in submarines: mini (your normal sandwich size, IMO), center, (the normal one for other people) and super. They also have regular sandwiches but this trip was all about the sub.

We order a regular size atomic (hot pastrami, roast turkey breast, corned beef brisket, cheese and hot peppers) and a mini Italiano (mortadella, capicola, salami, & provolone). Each sandwich comes with lettuce, tomatoes, onions and special sauce.

Atomic on the left, Italiano on the right

The good: the lettuce is shredded as you’d hope in a sub. The “special sauce” is the right italian-ish vinaigrette. The proportions are right on. The mini sandwich was perfect size.

The not as good: In our case, the bread was overly toasted. In my case I don’t actually like the bread toasted at all but I didn’t realize that was the default. My bad. Still, both are sandwiches were toasted a little bit too long. The quality of the meats was OK. I would have been better off with a roast beef or turkey. I think I’ve been too spoiled by incredible salami that I should get in a sub what rightfully should go in a sub.

Would I come back here? Sure, but I wouldn’t seek it out. Would John? Yeah, probably. But we’d both opt for our sandwiches not to be toasted.

I’m an east coast gal who lives with a Chicagoan. Needless to say, we have many differences of opinion on pizza — specifically thin crust pizza. He’s dragged me for thin crust pizza in Chicago (sure, it tastes fine. But if I’m in Chicago I’ll take Nancy’s stuffed pizza. I’ve dragged him to pizza in NY (John’s on Bleeker!). Neither of us were blown away by the other person’s idea of thin crust pizza perfection.

BUT we both love Tony’s.  Tony’s pizza has 4 different pizza ovens. FOUR. And four different types of pizza (so you can think of it as four different pizza restaurants). We’ve eaten here a number of times. We’ve had pizza from 3 out of 4 ovens, I think.

The 900 degree wood fired oven. This is the oven that made Tony famous. The story goes he won a competition in Italy for a margherita pizza. The specific combination is special to him and he only makes 73 of these daily. If you don’t get there in time for one of these 73, you’ll have to get the slightly different margherita extra. It’s still good. I don’t even know if I prefer one over the other. On today’s visit, we had one pie from the 900 degree oven. The Scarola con Pancetta pizza.

This pizza has Crushed Red Pepper, Mozzarella, Pancetta, Peppered Goat Cheese, Escarole, Sweet Piquante Peppers. The peppers here are truly the star; they are both sweet and spicy. In my opinion this pizza could be improved by substituting arugula for the escarole (a little more of a peppery bite) but I really enjoy this pizza. I can also heartily recommend the Truffle pizza, but at market price this can get as costly as $80!.  The quail egg and speck pizza, also from this wood burning oven, is also delightful. The crust is crispy and chewy and perfectly prepared.

Classic Italian oven We didn’t have any pizzas this time from this domed, gas brick oven. In the past I’ve enjoyed the Cal Italia pie (Asiago, Mozzarella, Imported Italian Gorgonzola, Sweet Fig preserve from Croatia, Prosciutto di Parma, Parmigiano, Balsamic). It may be a little sweet for some, but it’s a fantastic leftover for breakfast pizza.

Classic American We almost always get a pie from this NY Flat Top Gas Brick Oven. If we remember, we ask for the crust extra thin. The pepperoni is a favorite (and a bargain still at $13 - it used to be $10). This time around we got the NY Sausage and Pepper.

This (and the others from the Classic American oven) come with the perfect mix of sauce and cheese. The one pictured here is not extra thin (oops, we forgot). Still tasty.

Italian brick oven is used for the sicilian style pizza. We’ve never had one so I can’t tell you too much about it.

We’ve also had salads (huge!) and a side of meatballs (tasty). One weekend nights we get takeout from here, but the outside seating has made this a great trek with the dogs place.

Overall thumbs: Two thumbs up. Service is friendly and the pizzas are easily the best in San Francisco. Pizzas to go are easily to pick up with 2 people (one to hover with the car in North Beach, one to run in and grab the pies).

Tastiness rating: Very high. Every pizza we’ve had here has been fantastic.

Service: Good. We’ve only sat at the outside tables (when we’ve dined there we’ve had dogs with us) but they’ve always been friendly and attentive. Because we’re on foot they even wrap up our leftovers in foil instead of a box (easier for fitting in a backpack). We’ve only had to wait for a table one time and they called our cell phone when it was ready.

Dog friendliness: Very good. We’ve been here before with our two big (one extra large, one large) dogs. They have several dog bowls and heat lamps so it’s pleasant outside.

(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).

I’m sure everyone has their favorite special spot. The place where you forget about, then remember, and always recommend wholeheartedly. Canteen is that spot for me. It’s teeny, so you need reservations, and it’s just a far enough walk that we don’t go too much. Instead, it’s a nice surprise each time we go. We were looking for a last minute celebratory spot and remembered (at 6:30) to try Canteen. Luckily for us they had seatings available at 9:15.

Things to know: Canteen is tiny and only does 2 seatings nightly. The largest booth they have seats 4. A larger group would need to be seated at the counter. You need reservations for dinner because they are small. Tuesday night is prix fixe night; they have one set menu for the evening, although they’ll make substitutions (vegetarian, for example) as necessary. Other nights there tend to be 4 appetizers, 4 entrees, and 4 desserts to choose from.

What we ate (and didn’t):

• amuse bouche of scallop, roasted cauliflower and oil (I can’t remember the oil). Scallop was incredibly sweet and well prepared. I liked it but the cauliflower could overwhelm the scallop.
• crab and cardoon soup in case you didn’t know, a cardoon is a member of the artichoke family but has the texture and flavor of celery. This soup was rich and buttery with large chunks of crab. Pretty tasty. We shared this and:
• seared foie gras with quince and duck confit this was actually a substitute for a chicken liver and foie gras terrine. Fine by me The foie gras was prepared perfectly. I didn’t have any of the duck confit (much to the pleasure of my dining companion). He loved it (but duck and I do not get along..) We didn’t get the other 2 options: shrimp poached in butter and one that I don’t remember (oops). We were also served:
• Dennis Leary’s legendary rolls. They are served with butter. I’m not sure why; they are oozing with butter when you eat them (but really, what could make butter taste better? besides bacon, just more butter). The entrees we had:
• Polenta and goat cheese clafouti with mushrooms: This was my dish and was fantastic. Think of an uber light corn pancake. The richness of the polenta was matched by the lightness of a clafouti, but still had the crispy edges. Topped with goat cheese and earthy wild mushrooms. I shared this dish, but I loved it and ate most of it. Would order it again in a heart beat.
• Pork schnitzel topped with red cabbage. Again, he achieved a lightness one doesn’t normally expect with schnitzel. This was John’s dish; he loved it as much as I love the clafouti (in a here you should try this I’m happy to share it while secretly hoping the other person didn’t love it as much as you did). We didn’t get:
• Tenderloin topped with truffle and a fish dish. They both sounded good but neither as intriguing or appealing as the two we selected. For dessert we had:
• Vanilla bean souffle which we shared. This comes out perfectly risen to the table, then is cut and topped with creme anglaise tableside. This is the one constant that’s always on the menu at Canteen (except or Tuesday nights, that is). It’s a phenomenal dessert so we have a hard time not getting it. We split this (and we were pretty stuffed when it arrived so it was a good choice). We didn’t get the gingerbread with caramelized pineapples (though clearly I thought about it since I remember the description) or either of the two other choices.

This post should really be titled How unsuspecting Chinatown restaurants deal with us XMas eve. We have an annual tradition going on 7 or 8 years (at least). Every year we gather a group of people (ranges between a dozen or two) and walk (a couple miles) to Chinatown. As you can imagine, even in San Francisco the weather Christmas eve can be suspect. So we need to carry warming liquids (bourbon and tequila in flasks). And we usually start with pre-walk sustenance. We’ve started sending two (relatively sober) scouts ahead to restaurants to ask if they have seating for us. Our Chinatown trek used to have 2 rules:

1. We cannot return to a place we’ve been before. This is a kindness to the restaurant and it adds to the sense of adventure.
2. Everyone has veto rights (one veto).

I say used to because we’ve bent rule 1 one time. And we have switched to the scout method and don’t give folks a chance to veto (otherwise we’d never eat). Last year’s outing was Szechuan at Z&Y (highly recommended). This year we went to another new favorite, Bund.

We had a dozen people and just managed to squeeze into a big round table. Perfect for throwing things at each other (it happened) and for passing beer with the lazy susan in the middle. The proprietors at Bund were incredibly kind, forgiving, and even maintained a great sense of humor. Luckily, the only table seated near us were relatives who seemed entertained by us. The star at this restaurant, besides the owner’s holiday plaid coat, was the food. We had:

• xia ling bao (soup dumplings). These are always a favorite of mine and this was no exception. Really well made. Would go back for just these and the next dish.
• pan fried pork dumplings the description of these does this dish no justice. These were small, juicy and incredibly tasty. We started with a single order and requested 2 more orders. And we had 3 non-meat-eaters in the group who weren’t eating these.
• veggie dumplings I didn’t have these, but they disappeared quickly. Non-meat-eaters seemed to enjoy them a bit.
• veggie soup very rich tasting.
• spinach & tofu soup w/ pork This was supposed to be the vegetarian soup until we noticed bits of pork in it. The restaurant apologized, said this one was a mistake and on them and promptly brought out the vegetarian soup. Bonus for the meat eaters, this soup was also very rich tasting and hearty.
• chicken wonton soup another great soup version. This one had plump wontons (pork filled), chunks of chicken and rustic mushrooms. Could easily have been a meal in itself.
• salt and pepper crab December is dungeness crab season in San Francisco so we always try to get crab in Chinatown. Salt and pepper is my favorite preparation. Basically fried whole crab (shell and all) and dusted with salt and pepper (and likely other seasonings). The crab this season is particularly sweet; this was a great dish and really showcased the crab.
• general tsao’s chicken sure, it’s on almost every Chinese restaurant menu. Doesn’t mean it isn’t good and this one was a winner. Deep fried chunks of chicken in a tasty and not overly sweet sauce.
• shangai duck I didn’t try this but everyone who did liked it. The skin is different than on a peking duck preparation. Still comes with the yummy Chinese “bread”.
• garlic eggplant Another crowd pleaser at the table. Folks clamored for a second order (we didn’t place it).
• pea shoots This was a great balance to all the hearty dishes. Really delicately seasoned and perfectly prepared.
• shrimp with egg and chives This dish really resembled a shrimp omelette. Very light dish and not overly saucy. This went FAST.
• braised pork shoulder Think a Chinese version of a slow cooked southern style pork shoulder. Slow braised meat with really rich flavors. This arrived closer to the end of the meal and was probably too rich a dish to end with. Was quite substantial and filling.
• sea bass with salty cabbage They tried to steer us away from this dish thinking we wouldn’t like the salty cabbage. We stuck with the order, tho, and were well rewarded. The dish was delicate and flavorful though not a substantial portion. We could have easily had more of this.
• dan dan noodles oooh. Spicy shanghai noodles. These were really good. Noodle in a flavorful broth that were a bit hard to eat as a shared dish, but very satisfying.
• shrimp fried rice tasted like shrimp fried rice. Nothing exciting. Nothing wrong with it. Not my thing but others liked it.

I would happily go back here. The dumplings were outstanding and worth a return visit; the other dishes were all quite tasty and well prepared. Still, next year the rules stand: we can’t return for XMas eve.

We’ve had some of best meals in Chicago along with some of our worst for us meals (cheesy beef anyone? tater tots with squeeze cheese?). This past weekend was no exception.

Dinner at Mexique We startled our local friends with a request for dinner for 7 people on a Friday night. We were heading from bluesfest so requested casual with good food. They delivered with Mexique.

With our large group we had the opportunity to try many things on the menu. For appetizers at our table we had:

Appetizers

• French onion soup with roasted poblano this was a rich and hearty soup with amazing flavor and not overly oniony. I got to taste and I went back for more.
• TRIO OF SOPES which was: Escargots & Chimichurri Butter, Shrimp Provencal with Avocado Mousse, and and Sweet Plantains, Young Coconut, Xico Mole. These were three separate sopes, or little boats with things in them. the escargot was overly garlicky and passed along to another diner, but the shrimp was tasty and the plantain one my favorite. I loved this dish for the variety.
• Beef tartare which was quite good. Strong mustard flavor but very flavorful.
• Ceviche of the night, which was ahi tuna. I didn’t get to try this but those who ordered it seemed happy.

Entrees

• Asada served with a goat cheese souffle. My friend who ordered this asked for rare but his steak came between medium rare and medium. This was one of the dishes recommended by the server but it was one of the weaker dishes of the evening (to be fair, it was weaker because the rest of the competition was so fierce. The food was quite good overall).
• Puerco Alcaparrado roasted pork with a bunch of interesting sides. Two people at our table ordered this and both were pleased. I tasted it and thought it was good but I preferred my dish and one other to this.
• Pato al Tamarindo duck breast — served rare — and duck confit. I didn’t try this but those who did raved about it and listed it as one of the stronger meals on the menu.
• Cordero herb crusted rack of lamb — also served rare — and slow roasted coffee braised lamb shoulder. I loved the lamb chops but wasn’t blown away by the lamb shoulder. Other people really enjoyed this, tho, so I do believe it was prepared well. I loved the eggplant that came with this dish and overall thought it was one of the better and more hearty plates.
• Costillas ahh, the best, most memorable for last. Braised short ribs with a slaw and truffle fries. I loved this dish and kept stealing bites from it. If I went back to Mexique I would order this one.

We were too full for dessert and and we were in Chicago so we had other friends to meet up with.

Overall thumbs: Up. They were great at accommodating our large group, the food was great and the chef came out to meet our table.

Tastiness rating: High. Their food is really good. Would go back if there weren’t so many restaurants in Chicago I want to try.

Service rating: Very good. Our server greeted us from the minute we walked in and sat at our bar and continued once we were seated. The chef came out to meet us and talk about the meal.