New dining experience

On the recommendation of the bf's coworker, we decided to try something different last night. Mr. Pollo is a tiny little hole in the wall, a quite run-down little space dominated by the kitchen, with seating for no more than 4 parties, and no more than 12 people. It's run by a young Columbian/Venezuelan man who says he's driven by just loving to cook, not trying to make a profit. He goes to the local farmers' markets and picks fresh ingredients, and then basically invents his menu based on the ingredients he has. No, correction. There is no menu. There are a few set things you can order - arepas (which are yummy sweet white corn fried cakes with stuffing- he compared them to pupusas), for instance - but for the most part, it's chef's choice. You can tell him how much you want to eat and he'll basically just keep whipping up dishes until you're full. At the time he went, he had gotten a whole goat that he'd broken into different pieces, so he was offering one menu which was five different parts of the goat (shank, tenderloin, leg, rack, and I think chorizo made of goat), while another was comprised of beef, pork and chicken (since I didn't think I liked goat). For $15, we ended up with 3 courses, a fresh fruit juice and a fairly large "amuse bouche". The "amuse bouche" was a cheese arepa, about 3 inches in diameter, which was all crispy sweet fried yummy goodness that left us wanting more. I got the pineapple juice, while my bf got the strawberry juice (he also had mango and several Columbian fruits), which were also good. First course for me was tender grilled shredded chicken with potatoes and some peppers and onions in a savory sauce, while my bf had pieces of tender goat shank with the same preparation style. That was quite tasty. The second course was several small medium rare slices of beef on a bed of lentils, with some parsley-based chimichurri or something similar on top, fresh arugula arranged over, and some kind of seasoning for the lentils. The beef wasn't the best I've ever had texture-wise but it was quite tasty. My bf had essentially the same dish, but with some pieces of goat chorizo, which was quite good, and a few pieces of yucca. The third course for me was crispy fried pork pieces around a delicious rice with fresh market vegetables (including brussel sprouts, fuji apples, and some other veggies), while my bf had the same rice with a small piece of goat tenderloin, a couple ribs, and a small piece of goat leg. By then we were pretty much stuffed, so we called it a meal. I got the impression he would have fed us more if we wanted, but I'm not sure what. While we were there, another woman came in and just ordered the large $6.50 arepa, which was stuffed with a variety of meats and veggies and looked pretty good. He also told us that if we wanted, we could get a single dinner plate with meats and veggies and rice for $10 - again, his choice on preparation. It seems that if you go multiple times you'll get different foods depending on what he's bought and feels like making that day.

It's definitely an interesting experience, especially since the space is so tiny - completely dominated by the kitchen/cooking area - and so run down - the door had a broken top hinge and required special manipulation to even close properly. But the food was quite good, especially at the price - a really excellent deal. The restaurant is located on Mission and 24th, right next to the McDonald's and by the BART station. I'd definitely recommend it for the experience and the food, but don't be surprised at what you find when you get there! Oh and don't go in a rush - this is literally a one man operation. He takes your orders, cooks your meals, plates them, serves them, busses the dishes, and takes your payment. There is nobody else there at all. Though, I think despite all that, and the fact that he was serving two other parties at the same time as us (he staged it so we were basically all at the same time for each course), we still finished our 3 courses and amuse bouche in less time than Cafe Andree took.

And a quick note on another meal - ate at Ana Mandara with friends tonight. The restaurant is a rather large, beautifully decorated space at the corner of Beach and Polk in Ghiradelli Square. Definitely has character and a nice use of space - good feel to the restaurant. It's not cheap at all - they offer a 3-course "comfort menu" for $35 (which was suspended due to their participation in DAT - which had different 3 course options) and a 4-course menu for $55, both of which seem like reasonably good deals given that entrees range from $23-39 (or so) and appetizers tended to be $12+, while desserts were $5-10. My two friends and my bf all got the DAT, starting with either the spare ribs or crispy spring rolls for appetizer, the hangar steak or jumbo prawns for entree, and the banana boat dessert. I didn't find any entree I wanted in the DAT menu, so I ordered the duck entree off the regular menu ($29), and the mango soup dessert ($9). I thought the food was all reasonably good, some better than others. The spare ribs were eh - I tried one, thought it was fine but nothing special. I'm told the spring rolls were the same way. The meat all had a good texture and was cooked well - I particularly liked the tenderness and taste of my duck. I felt the sauce on my duck (a pineapple-pinenut based sauce) was a little over-salty, but the overall dish was good - had long beans and daikon cakes on the side. The hangar steak I tried was also tender and quite good, and came with kimchee, yucca gnocchi, and some other unique sides. My friend said his jumbo prawns were really good, in a kind of sweet chili sauce. The banana boat dessert with caramel walnut sauce and vanilla ice cream was pretty good. The mango soup, which was the specialty of the chef, was excellent. It was a mango puree which I think must have been mixed with coconut milk or evaporated milk or something, for a thick, sweet, light mango taste, with strips of fresh mango ("mango noodles") and a scoop of durian sorbet. The durian sorbet was ok, but not to my taste, so I scooped it out and my friends ate it. The strips of mango were fine, but the puree was truly delicious. Ana Mandara is a bit pricey and the food doesn't quite live up to the price, IMO, but it has some interesting dishes and flavor combinations and is a nice dining experience, so I might still go back under the right circumstances. Might be an interesting, if pricey, place to have a party - they had an upstairs space with loungey-areas, an outside deck with tables and seating, and it looked like possibly private rooms as well.

More restaurants

It's DAT, so we're going out more.

Monday, we went to midi brasserie, located on Sutter right near Kearny, attached to the Galleria Park Hotel or whatever it's called. Restaurant upstairs, bar downstairs. It was a very cute space overlooking Sutter, decent service. The DAT menu was exactly the same price as the components on the menu totaled up, so I didn't try to stick to it. Got a pear and Belgian endive salad with blue cheese and candied hazelnuts in vinaigrette, which was decent. Nothing exceptional, but nice and crisp and fresh, and the candied hazelnuts were yummy. For entree, I got butternut squash ravioli - 4 ravioli for $20 =P. It was right about the middle to the upper end of the range of butternut squash raviolis I've had - I've had some truly nasty or uninspiring ones, and some really yummy ones. These were fine - pretty yummy, decent filling. Not the best and not the worst. The bf got the duck leg confit - he was starving so the quantity wasn't really sufficient for him - the duck was fairly small. He said it was decent. For dessert, I got the bittersweet chocolate pot de creme which is, as my bf pointed out, really just fancy chocolate pudding with whipped cream on top, but it was really chocolatey and I enjoyed it. He got the honey chai cake with cream cheese frosting which I found just odd tasting but he said was ok. He did say he probably wouldn't bother to go back to midi, though. I was curious about the braised pork short ribs on the menu they were out of, which would be the main reason I'd go back, but yeah there was nothing that really stood out.

On Tuesday, we went to Cafe Andree, attached to the Rex Hotel in Union Square (on Sutter near Mason). We went there mostly b/c the other DAT restaurants I'd looked at were booked up on OpenTable, while Cafe Andree had open reservations. No wonder, too - there were only 3 parties including us in the restaurant the entire time we were there. It was a smallish space attached to the hotel, kind of cute with a sort of old library theme to it. Service was quite slow, though very friendly. I got the DAT menu. Appetizer was butternut squash soup (sense a trend?) which was actually quite tasty, one of the better I've had recently. Entree was sesame crusted salmon with bok choy, a tempura pumpkin piece (nicely fried), on top of "forbidden fried rice" which was some sort of black rice. Tasted pretty decent - cooked salmon is never that good, I've discovered, but the combination of flavors was decently done (if a little heavy in the sauce). Bf got the pork loin with caramelized apples, braised chard, and sweet potato souffle - he was disappointed that it wasn't a tenderloin, but said it was pretty decent, liked the sauce, actually ate the greens b/c they were buried in the sauce, and liked the sweet potato souffle, which I found a little odd. Dessert for me was the white and dark chocolate molten cake with peanut butter ganache, and it was crap. Rubbery cake that didn't taste very good, with a somewhat warm, somewhat better tasting melted chocolate center. I still ate it all, being me, but I was very disappointed and fairly vocal about it. A neighboring table got it as well and I heard the guy more politely saying how it wasn't what he expected in a molten cake. Overall, appetizer and entree were decent, if unexceptional. Dessert was bad. Probably wouldn't go out of my way to go back.

One place I did go back to was the Live Sushi restaurant in Potrero Hill on Saturday night. Went with a vegetarian friend, who was pleasantly surprised that they actually had a fair number of veggie options (and were very open to substitutions - like edamame for the fish-based miso soup). My miso black cod was a bit disappointing (maybe I should stop getting it every time I go out) - the last time I got it there it was better. My Nemo - seared scallops wrapped in salmon with a garlic-based dipping sauce - was quite tasty, especially with the sauce. The sushi was all good. I like Live b/c the fish is quite good, there are interesting options, and parking is never an issue.

Cafe Claude - yum!

Haven't blogged in ages which means I haven't been keeping track of restaurants I've been to, which is annoying when I try to pick restaurants to go to and can't remember if I've been to one or what I thought of it.

So, making note.. went to Cafe Claude tonight (7 Claude Ln, a little alleyway off of Sutter right next to Kearny), and really enjoyed it. They have a small jazz band playing by the bar some nights of the week, they have outdoor seating with heat lamps (we sat indoors), and they have yummy food. I got a french onion soup that was good (not the best ever but more than good enough, esp on a chilly day), and Porc au Miel, which was pork tenderloin in a honey cream balsamic vinegar sauce, with caramelized apples and haricot verts. The sauce was delicious, the pork was tender, and I ended up sopping up the last of the sauce with the Acme pain epi bread they gave us at the beginning of the meal (yummy). There was some flavor I didn't love on occasion (the chives? rosemary or something? but for the most part it was just really yummy). My bf got the seared ahi tuna with onion confit, bacon, soy green peppercorn sauce (and lemon zest?) and that was quite yummy too, especially if you ate the fish and confit all together. The flavors really complemented each other well. Yelp and OpenTable says it's $$ - I'm not sure how they classify that. Soup was $8, my entree was $19, his was $20, I think...and it's casual. Definitely would go back.