Munch munch munch

More eats from last week, which was probably one of our most satisfying weeks for eating out yet.

First up, one of my bf's former coworkers notified us kind of last minute that he and his wife were going to be in town a week ago Friday night, so we acted quickly to locate a Nob Hill restaurant (where there hotel was). We came up with Fino Restaurant (624 Post St btwn Taylor and Trader Vic Alley) in the Andrews Hotel. This ended up being a cute little Italian restaurant that had pretty decent food. Apparently the bolognese sauce on the wife's pasta was a bit overly sweet (I suspect I would have liked it) but they seemed to enjoy their Fettucine Carbonara, Caprese Salad, and Caesar salads... My Polla alla Saltimbocca was delicious, though I've never had it with avocado on top before. My bf seemed not to enjoy his Salsicce e Penne as much as he had hoped, but that may have been due to a high stuff:pasta ratio - I think he wanted more pasta. Overall, I wasn't blown away but it was a good meal.

Saturday, I got my hazelnut milk tea and Chinese pastry fix down in Mountain View, and then went to a friend's place for her Halloween pumpkin-carving party. We got lazy and didn't bring a pumpkin, but it was fun watching everyone else's pumpkin take shape. There were some pretty cool ones, especially a very cool Bowser (doubly cool 'cause he designed it himself instead of using a pre-existing pattern). I always thought of jack-o-lanterns as just being a face but we got a pirate ship, a tropical island, a Pikachu, and a haunted house/castle...pretty neat! Evidentally I stuffed myself too full of pastries and milk tea and didn't have much appetite for dinner, but there was a pumpkin cake-thing there that was super delicious. Had a layer of something like pumpkin pie filling on top of a yummy cake. Kept sneaking bites of that all night.

I have no memory of Sunday, but I think Monday was the day I got an urge for pho, so we decided to check out Pho Clement (239 Clement between 3rd and 4th) in Inner Richmond. That was a happy meal. They have an extensive pho menu, but like most pho places, for some reason did not offer a combination of brisket, steak, and flank. However they said you could create your own pho combinations, which I promptly did. Based on my bf and my experiences, medium is just about the perfect size there - the large was too big, the small looked tiny, but medium was nice and filling. I got a pineapple shake which was very yummy (if a trifle strong with the pineapple) while the bf got a mango shake which was great. Both our bowls of pho really hit the spot - good tasting broth (I actually didn't have to add the plum sauce or whatever it is they leave on the table for once), yummy meat, good noodles... It was just good, basic pho. The place is nothing fancy to look at - as someone on yelp says, standard Vietnamese pho cafeteria setting - though they do have a nice big flatscreen which was showing the football game. To my pleasure, it also wasn't particularly full, so we got very fast service and seating. Sometimes nice restaurants are what we're looking for, but sometimes something warm and comforting is really the way to go.

Thursday was my bf and my 11th (eep) anniversary, so we decided to get a nice dinner to celebrate. After House of Prime Rib and NOPA both said they only had reservations available after 9, we turned to Zoya (465 Grove between Gough and Octavia), a restaurant we had previously tried to go to on a performance night (it's near the opera and all the other performing arts venues on Van Ness) and weren't able to get in. That turned out to be a great choice, and a near-perfect meal. The venue is a little odd - it's a little almost tower/turret like thing stuck to the end of a Days Inn. There is a bar on the first floor with some seating but the small dining room is actually on the second floor - up some fake green grass covered stairs which also leads to the upper floor of Days Inn rooms. However, once you go through the curtain covering the door, the dining room itself is in a cute little round room, with nicely set tables (though not too many of them!), little candles flickering, and windows around looking out on Grove St. The service is a little bit slow, because there is only one very sweet waitress who had to go up and down the stairs to carry up all the food, drinks, etc, as well as to check if anyone was there and bring them up to seat them. However, as I said, she was really nice, and we weren't in a hurry that night anyway. We don't typically get appetizers, entrees, AND desserts in the same meal, but we decided to splurge that night, and it was definitely worth it. I got the butternut squash soup with creme fraiche - I love butternut squash soup and while this wasn't the best I'd ever had (it was a little on the bland side), it was still a nice starter. The bf got their poke - ahi tuna with all sorts of stuff mixed in and fried wonton skins to scoop it all up with - and absolutely loved it. My aversion to cilantro made it hard for me to enjoy it, but it did seem a good appetizer. For entrees, I got the roasted chicken breast quarter with marsala pan sauce and porcini risotto (or something similar - that's what's listed on the website) and it was absolutely delicious. The chicken was moist, tender, and flavorful, the broccoli rabe tender and not at all bitter, and the risotto flavored just right - not bland, and not overpowering, just delicate and yummy. My bf got the Australian lamb loin chops with pomegranate molasses and pearl couscous with cumin herb oil and his only complaint was that there wasn't enough meat - they gave him two smallish chops and when he'd eaten it down to the bone, he would have liked more. But the flavors he said were very good. The dessert menu looked great so we decided to go for that as well - I got the chocolate pot de creme with strawberries, which was quite yummy, with the strawberries blending beautifully with the chocolate rather than seeming a bit too tart. The bf got the blueberry in grand marnier with graham crumbles, and one scoop each of Tahitian Vanilla and Scharffen Berger Chocolate Gelato, which was also delicious. Just a happy meal overall, and one that didn't leave us feeling too stuffed, which was nice. I definitely recommend this restaurant, though make sure to go on a non-performance night, or make a reservation ahead of time, because the space really is quite small.

On Friday, we weren't in the mood for anything heavy, and decided to go for sushi. A quick browse on Yelp turned up Wayo Sushi (1407 Van Ness), which got very good reviews. Wayo Sushi is definitely not a high-selection sushi place - the roll menu was quite limited and the nigiri was limited to the standards - but the prices were very reasonable, and the fish was quite good. We ended up getting 3 sets of sashimi (6 pieces each for about $9-$9.75) - hamachi (which reminded me strongly of amberjack, which I love), maguro (fine), and shiro maguro (as usual melt in your mouth). We also got a mango salmon roll - I only had one piece b/c I had stuffed myself with the wakame salad (yummy, good quantity for only $3.75) but it was quite good. Overall, I thought it was a reasonably good sushi place - nowhere you'd go if you're going for exotic, but a nice place to stop for reasonably priced, fresh fish.

Afterwards, we walked down like 10 blocks to Grove St to go to Citizen Cake (399 Grove St at Gough) since the bf felt like some dessert. I thought I was too stuffed to get anything, but as usual couldn't resist. I ended up getting a scoop of the banana toffee peanut butter (and possibly some other stuff) ice cream, which was quite good. My bf got the lemon meringue tart, which was also good. He also brought home a giunduja (sp?) something or the other, and a mexican wedding? cookie... I got to try the first which was kind of like a nestle crunch but with hazelnut overtones - pretty yummy. I think he enjoyed the latter?

Beyond that, we've actually been cooking and eating at home for the most part. But that was a good week for restaurant choices!