San Francisco Food Blog

ooluong/Flickr

You'll eat it and you'll like it, damn it.

​Friday, November 20, 2009

How many effing yogurts do you need to choose from? Choice is overrated, especially in the Whole Foods dairy aisle, when you wish somebody could just hand you the damn Wallaby Peach Passion and let you move on.

That's one of the joys of the $9 prix-fixe lunch at Jai Yun in Chinatown. You sit. The nice lady brings. You eat. And what she brings is pretty much an untarnished delight: A heap of enoki that look like filament-thin noodles, dressed up with feathery bits of frilly tripe; fluffy wedges of eggplant cooked Sichuan style.

It's all quietly delicate, and there's no telling in advance what you'll get. Which is the point.

Jai Yun 680 Clay (at Kearny), 981-7438

Roy C./Yelp

This is not a Brown 'n' Serve roll.

​Thursday, November 19, 2009

Thanksgiving. Another year of holding your tongue as your Ned Flanders of a brother prophesies the end of Civilization As We Know It thanks to the gays, and holding your gut after packing your duodenum with animal fats and starches. You need a bit of preemptive relief, a taste of anti-Rockwell. Like Indonesian food.

Swing by Borobudur and take a meditative chew through the flaky, buttery folds of roti prata, before savoring a plate of nasi gulai kambling, a heap of rice with coconut-milk-steeped lamb and potato curry. And guess what? No one will make you mumble some insincere cliché about what you're thankful for. Except you'll know that Indonesian food might well be right up there at the top of your list.

Borobudur 700 Post (at Jones), 775-1512

m1k3k1m/Flickr

The eerily quintessential Renzo Special.

​Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Waiting isn't always sucky. When patience yields something you've longed for, there's nothing quite so toothsome as delayed gratification.

At Mastrelli's in the Ferry Building, waiting is as inescapable as owning the fact that you're a sucker for a sandwich. And the sandwiches here are epic -- especially the Renzo Special, with its packed strata of just-sliced prosciutto, spicy coppa, oil-drenched sun-dried tomatoes, and fresh mozzarella. And in the time you'll spend between taking a number, choosing a roll from the bin, and handing it to the nice man who'll enable your desire, you might ponder how something as quintessential as a Renzo ever got bastardized as pre-made ham and cheese on wheat in the self-serve deli case at Safeway.

Or you could just wait.

Mastrelli's Delicatessen One Ferry Building # 47 (at the Embarcadero), 397-3354

pengrin/Flickr

Mandalay's first-in-the-nabe tea leaf salad.

​Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Maybe you've only had the tea leaf salad at Burma Superstar, after an hour and a half wait when -- honestly -- once you sat down, you could've been served a plate of compost from the restaurant's green cart. Would have eaten it just the same.

Sit down for a far roomier lunch nearby at Mandalay, which doesn't mince words about which Burmese restaurant was first to open shop in the Inner Richmond (in 1984). Check out the lap pat dok (tea leaf salad), lemongrass with seafood soup, and mango chicken (bring a couple bros), and spread out a little.

Mandalay 4344 California (at Sixth Ave.), 386-3896

msconnections/Flickr

You'll be able to pronounce everything on the menu. Swear.

​Monday, November 16, 2009

Cheese. And bread. Though it might be hard to believe in this pizza-lovin' town, they do come together in ways that have absolutely nothing to do with the Margherita. Take Melt!, the café in North Beach that feels like a place you'd be grateful to find in some second-tier French city, when all you want to do is drop your backpack, without having to navigate a menu packed with multivowel food words.

We like the open-face Welsh rarebit, sourdough doused with a sauce of tangy cheddar and ale. And it comes with greens tossed with balsamic vinaigrette, so all you need to do is drop the mental baggage that's the equivalent of a JanSport Big Bear and chill.

Melt! 700 Columbus (at Filbert), 392-9290

Jen Siska

No sense tempting fate.

​Friday, November 13, 2009

We're not saying we didn't pull on our lucky undies this morning, but still: Friday the 13th doesn't necessarily freak us out. Then again, there's no sense giving fate an excuse to kick your ass by mindlessly scarfing a sandwich, or polishing off a Spa Cuisine Classic at your desk while surfing Zappos.com -- the mealtime equivalents of walking under a ladder.

Our advice? Honor the lunch gods by seeking out something with the aura of tradition, like Moroccan food. We recommend paying your respects with a kefta meatball tagine and white bean tagine at Aicha Mediterranean Cuisine, 1303 Polk (at Bush), 345-9947 (note that the restaurant opens for lunch at 1 p.m.).

phxpma/Flickr

All eyes here.

​Thursday, November 12, 2009

It's the Tenderloin, for god's sake, not some food court in Danville. You expect a little atmosphere.

Once the food arrives, you won't notice anything you'd previously tagged sketchy, especially if you order the extra-succulent chicken tikka masala, saag dal (lentils and spinach), and garlic naan.

And it's all cheap as hell, which makes the whole Tenderloin divey thing seem downright charming. Pakwan, 501 O'Farrell (at Jones), 776-0160.

Chris Hardie/Flickr

No bees were harmed in the making of this menu.

​Wednesday, November 11, 2009

You don't have to be a vegan, a rawist, or a copyeditor to totally dig lunch here, though it certainly wouldn't hurt. Yeah, Alive! uses zero animal foods (including honey -- sorry for all the bowls of Honeycomb we've racked up, bees!), and nothing is "cooked" in the way your mom could wrap her head around. But this is also a restaurant with a particular reverence for the punctuation mark, from the exclamation point to inverted commas. Ponder that while tucking into raw avocado bisque, marinara "pasta" (i.e. vegetable ribbons), and apple pie topped with Tibetan goji berries and whipped "cream." Alive!, 1972 Lombard (at Webster), 923-1052.

acchen/Flickr

Are you serious? Proofing boxes made from American wood?

​Tuesday, November 10, 2009

To hell with your all-purpose unbleached: Tony Gemignani serves up pies for fetishists. Take the Margherita: that's San Felice flour in the dough, which rises in wood boxes likewise imported from Naples. San Marzano DOP tomatoes, olive oil from Campania -- and Tony's makes only 73 of these babies a day, no matter how hard you beg. Add an antipasto of Italian-style meatballs, and you've got a lunch that'll serve three Napoletana pizza geeks -- comfortably. Tony's Pizza Napoletana, 1570 Stockton (at Union), 835-9888.

Bonnie L./Yelp

Mmm, beefy.

​Monday, November 9, 2009

Think of it as the slurpable equivalent of the Double Deep Meat Lover's pizza, only without the cheese, the crust, or, for that matter, the corporate branding. Make your way to the silk-flower fabulousness of the Outer Sunset's Tay Giang, 2543 Noriega (at 32rd Ave.), 682-8886, for a bowl of pho dac biet (pho with brisket, tripe, tendon, Vietnamese meatballs, and rare steak), and get some animal protein in ya.

joeywan/Flickr

The beignets: Goths might wanna take a pass.

​Friday, November 6, 2009

Get a taste of wise-ass at this Dogpatch diner with a flair for sign-making (Your baby is so cute! And your stroller is so big). Thankfully, irony isn't the only tasty thing served up here. Order the Hangtown Fry (eggs scrambled with oysters and bacon) with a side of house-baked wheat toast: Just for You Café, 732 22nd St. (at Third St.), 647-3033. And since you'll end up wearing powdered sugar from the trio of thickly flocked beignets you won't be able to resist, promise us you'll strip down to your white tee first?

helenlikesyou/Flickr

Better than a Snuggie.

​Thursday, November 5, 2009

Holy crap, it's chilly. If you're like us, you're hitting work dressed in total denial (t-shirt, with maybe a wadded-up sweater in your manbag). That means lunch has to serve as a major source of warmth -- like the chicken porridge with rau ram and crispy shallots at Out the Door Bush, 2232 Bush (at Fillmore), 923-9575. And since it's probably a good idea to up your Body Mass Index while you're at it, throw in a side of Japanese eggplant with roasted chiles and coconut milk.

​Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Some days call for reheating spaghetti in the foul, tomato-sauce-spattered lunchroom microwave. Other days call for splurging on something altogether more civilized. Bury last night's leftovers deep in the office fridge and go for the scallop and clam chowder followed by a pork confit sandwich with salsa verde and braised greens at Absinthe, 398 Hayes (at Gough), 551-1590.

​Tuesday, November 3, 2009

This is pretty much that moment, when the possibility of 70-plus degree weather is on the verge of yielding to days when the rain falls horizontal and all you crave is soup. And cocoa. And your sweaters start to smell like dog bed, thanks to constant wear. Before all that happens, have your last picnicky fling of the season with a Juicy Lucy cheeseburger and sides of bacon tater tots and slaw at American Box at Fish & Farm, 339 Taylor (at O'Farrell), 474-3474.

​Monday, November 2, 2009

Funny story: pan bagnat means, literally, "bathed bread" in Provençal dialect -- something about smooshing together a bunch of salad-y ingredients in a split baguette bathed with oil and vinegar, and then weighting the damn thing while you go play boules. In a beret. SF Weekly restaurant critic likes the version with tuna, anchovies, hard-cooked egg, and peppers at Chez Papa Resto, 414 Jessie (at Fifth St.), 546-4134. No, you won't be able to throw a game of boules. But if you have the balls, feel free to show up in a beret.

​Friday, October 30, 2009

What, there's like a law that says you can't get a jump on weekend brunch? SF Weekly restaurant critic Meredith Brody suggests showing up for the New England flannel corn beef hash with a green onion cheese biscuit at cash-only Kate's Kitchen, 471 Haight (at Fillmore), 626-3984. And who knows, the act of picking corn beef fibers out of your teeth afterwards just might feel so altogether Saturday, you may end up blowing off work for the rest of the afternoon.

​Thursday, October 29, 2009

Don't squander your meat karma on deli turkey -- save it for flesh that's seriously evil, like pork belly or beef cheeks. Meantime, bank your PETA credits as SF Weekly food critic Meredith Brody suggests, with a roasted eggplant sandwich on focaccia with Asiago, sun-dried tomatoes, basil, and arugula, followed by a slice of pear galette: Greens to Go, Fort Mason, Building A, 771-6330.

​Wednesday, October 28, 2009

So the bridge is jacked up: Doesn't mean you can't make the best of it. Swing by the Ferry Building, be very still, and you'll be able to hear -- nothing at all. Enjoy the lack of traffic noise while it lasts, and celebrate with one of SF Weekly food critic Meredith Brody's favorites, the muffuletta panino (mortadella, cotto, salame, and Provolone with giardiniera tapenade) at Boccalone Salumeria, One Ferry Building #21 (at the Embarcadero), 433-6500.

​Tuesday, October 27, 2009

These days, you can damn near drop a 20 for a lunchtime sandwich and sides -- and you'll be balancing it on your lap, perched on a curb somewhere, wielding a SpudWare fork. For only a bit more cash, you can be sticking your legs under a tablecloth and breathing in the heady whiff of that new Michelin star at Luce. Show up for the $20.09 three-course Power Lunch, which offers choices. SF Weekly food critic Meredith Brody sort of likes the lentil soup with Cypress Grove Truffle Tremor goat cheese; short rib pappardelle with wild mushrooms; and Nutella pot de crème: Luce in the InterContinental Hotel, 888 Howard (at Fifth St.), 616-6566.

​Monday, October 26, 2009

What the hell is a "vivande"? It was an Italian takeaway food shop in the Middle Ages, long before restaurants existed. Carlo Middione's Fillmore Street food shop has been around almost since the Dark Ages -- well, since 1981, which is plenty dark for us. Get an O.G. taste of Upper Fillmore in SF Weekly food critic Meredith Brody's pick of Boscaiola, a sauté of fennel sausage, potato, peppers, and mushrooms with white wine, at Vivande, 2125 Fillmore (at Sacramento), 346-4430.

​Friday, October 23, 2009

So maybe the service is patchy, and the bathrooms aren't exactly springtime fresh. Deal. Focus instead on the roving dim sum carts, and grab the shrimp and chive dumplings and char siu sou (flaky pastry pork buns), and -- when you can flag a server -- order a half soy sauce chicken, SF Weekly restaurant critic Meredith Brody's picks at Gold Mountain, 644 Broadway (at Columbus), 296-7733.

​Thursday, October 22, 2009

Maybe the best cooking is impromptu, like a soul-detailing drunk tweet. Or maybe it's only menu-writing that benefits from some last-minute inventorying of the best stuff to show up with the produce truck. Now, we can't tell you exactly what'll be on offer today, but, says SF Weekly food critic Meredith Brody, whatever the kitchen is making, you'll want: Bar Jules, 609 Hayes (at Laguna), 621-5482. By the way, yesterday's menu listed sunchoke and potato soup, and a halibut sandwich with radishes, cucumbers, and tarragon. Keep checking the restaurant's Web site for today's offerings.

Stop the presses! We've just learned that today's lunch offerings include lentil soup, a wood-grilled poussin with roasted eggplants and peppers, and a fried egg and pancetta sandwich...

​Wednesday, October 21, 2009

It's not easy to turn soup and grilled cheese into anything other than homey, especially when homey is usually way more than enough. But the guys at this Outer Sunset café in the city's fog-shrouded outback have a knack of steering homespun into cheese-gilded transcendence. SF Weekly food critic Meredith Brody suggests grabbing the daily soup and grilled cheese at Outerlands, 4001 Judah (at 45th Ave.), 661-6140. But you'll have to call to find out today's particulars.

​Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Remember how you felt when you tasted your first Nuevo Peruvian? Ah, good times. Relive the magic of that first hucatay aïoli, says SF Weekly restaurant critic Meredith Brody, with a lunch of ceviche mixto (including calamari, scallops, prawns, and clams) and aji de gallina (pulled chicken stew with garlic and walnuts) at Fresca, 24 West Portal (at Ulloa), 759-8087. Locations in Noe Valley, the Fillmore, and the Sunset, too.

​Monday, October 19, 2009

The start of local Dungeness season is still a month away, but that doesn't mean you have to sulk, crab-less. Get a foretaste in the crab cakes with lemon mayo and shoestring fries, with a Little Gems and escarole Caesar with anchovy croutons, SF Weekly food critic Meredith Brody's recommendations at Nettie's Crab Shack, 2032 Union (at Buchanan), 409-0300.

​Friday, October 16, 2009

Who doesn't love freebies? The hotel pillow chocolate, or the bowl of mints at a restaurant's host station, irresistible even when you don't really want one. Banchan, the complimentary Korean galaxy of little pickles, kimchis, and nibbles, may be the ultimate in foodie freebies. Score your own taste of banchan love -- for the price of spicy tofu soup and a blistery seafood pancake (SF Weekly food critic Meredith Brody's suggestions) -- at Inner Richmond Korean gem Muguboka, 401 Balboa (at Fifth Ave.), 668-6007.

​Thursday, October 15, 2009

We're not eating enough raw food either, though -- sorry, rawists -- that doesn't mean we'll be in the office lunchroom today, blending up algae and pube-like clover sprouts into some khaki-colored slurry and calling it lunch. Instead, we'll take SF Weekly food critic Meredith Brody's advice and seek out the classic steak tartare with cornichons, capers, egg yolk, mustard, and shallots with (what the hell) a side of pommes frites at Café Claude, 7 Claude Lane (at Sutter), 392-3505.

​Wednesday, October 14, 2009

What, it got down to, like, 60 degrees yesterday? Not exactly Snuggie weather. Still, you can be forgiven for feeling like you've been living a scene from Fargo over the past 24 hours. Get a whiff of the frozen steppes for real in the Meredith Brody-approved meat piroshki and cheese blintz at Moscow and Tbilisi Bakery Store, 5540 Geary (at 20th Ave.), 668-6959.

​Tuesday, October 13, 2009

First storm of the season. You had to fish out your grotty anorak, and smell the funky wet cardigan on the guy next to you on Muni. You need comforting, the kind that comes from clotted cream, the flickering flames of a TV fireplace, and a room as intensively girly as a Taylor Swift sundress. Do as SF Weekly food critic Meredith Brody suggests -- wrap yourself in the tea for one (sandwiches, scones, crumpets, and sweets) and a pot of Marie Antoinette at Crown & Crumpet Tea Salon at Ghirardelli Square, 900 North Point (at Larkin), 771-4252.

​Monday, October 12, 2009

Columbus: what a tool. Sailing all that way and, instead of bumping up against the East Indies, lands on a stretch of beach that's about as Asian as the pina colada palapa bar at a Sandals resort. On the day devoted to his rather dubious achievement, take the Asian trip old Cristoforo didn't -- or, since we know you have to get back to the office, voyage all the way to the Tenderloin. Follow SF Weekly restaurant critic Meredith Brody's advice and plant your flag in the special soup and salad combo (fish chowder or chicken coconut soup with gin dok, ginger salad) and organic tea at Burmese Kitchen, 453 Larkin (at Turk,), 474-5569.