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.