Dining about the town some more

This week is the last week of Dine About Town so we decided to try to maximize and hit as many restaurants as possible. On Monday, we made reservations for the remaining nights of DAT - Fringale (4th and Brannan) on Monday, Asia SF (9th and Howard) on Tuesday, Azie (Folsom and 4th) on Wednesday, and Circa (Chestnut and Fillmore) on Thursday.

Of course, what immediately happened is that our plans ended up changing. My bf's 1-year anniversary at his company is this week and his founders wanted to take him out to dinner, so we cancelled Azie on Wednesday. When we got to Fringale for our 6PM reservation on Monday (only reservation we were able to get all week that wasn't as early as 5 or as late as 8), I was way too full to get three courses. After looking at the prices and the choices for DAT appetizers, I opted for going off the DAT menu and just getting an entree and a dessert. My bf did the same because he didn't like the appetizer choices (mussels, pate, butter lettuce salad) either. I got the coq au vin, which was quite decent. The rooster part itself was all right - tender meat, skin on, flavored ok. The noodles, mushrooms, and onions underneath were tastier. Overall I liked it all right. My bf got the ribeye steak off the menu which ended up looking an awful lot like the hangar steak off the DAT menu our neighbor got, but the waiter insisted it was the ribeye. He said the steak was "fine, buttery and salty, looked disappointing but it tasted fine." Dessert-wise, I got the hazelnut and almond mousse cake, while he got the almond torte (it has a French name, I forgot what it was). My cake I liked just fine - I'm a big fan of hazelnut - though nothing really stood out. For me, the sauce of his dessert made the dessert - the torte itself was very lightly flavored. Overall, it was a nice meal but nothing spectacular.

Tuesday, we went to Asia SF. We were originally supposed to go with friends on Friday but we ditched them to go skiing instead (Heavenly sucks - too much flatness, too much traversing, not enough good black runs - most of their black stuff seems to be skiing through the trees, which I do not like). We decided to try it ourselves - made a 6:30 reservation through OpenTable, only to get a call that morning saying that OpenTable was a bit messed up and they didn't start seating until 7:30. So..7:30 dinner. The place wasn't quite what I expected - a smaller space, and less swanky than I would have thought. We were seated at a small table towards the back corner of the room (right next to where the "girls" went up onto the bar), next to the red bar/"stage" they use for performances. The seats were stools, there was nowhere to put our jackets (we ended up sitting on them) or my purse (it ended up on my lap for most of the meal). Our "waitress" was also one of the performers. We ended up once again not getting the DAT menu b/c that night, they had their "Menage a Trois" menu which was essentially the same thing - one first course, one entree, one dessert for $31.95 - with more options (you could select from the entire menu). We ordered the Asia-dilla and Tamarind Chicken Satays for appetizers, the "Baby Got Back" Ribs and the Filet Mignon for entree, and the Banana Beignet Split (it was for 2) for dessert. Then we sat. And sat. Finally, the tamarind chicken satays came out. These were just ok, IMO. The chicken was a little dry. The sauce was a bit different - supposed to be a spicy peanut sauce but it wasn't spicy and didn't seem very peanuty, but it tasted fine. I've had better satays and I don't think that was by any means a $12 appetizer (its price on the standard menu). When we finished that they took it away. And then we sat. And sat. And sat. Finally, after we'd been there for an hour, my bf flagged down the manager guy to try to tell him nicely that we'd been there for an hour and only gotten one appetizer so far, and he didn't know if that was part of the "dining experience" or if we should be getting our food. The manager more or less apologized and said he'd make sure the rest of our meal came out faster. This would have been ok if 1) we weren't sitting on uncomfortable stools without backs (well the stools were comfortable except the lack of backs) or 2) if there was entertainment. But none of the girls had started performing yet so we were just sitting there waiting. The manager was as good as his word, though. Our next appetizer, the Asia-dillas, came shortly after. These were like quesadellas, but stuffed with smoked duck, some spicy cheeses, and came with a cherry creme fraiche (I think) to spread on top. Pretty yummy, though nothing incredibly spectacular. We had barely finished these when our meal came out. And within a couple minutes of our meal, the first performance started. So we went from an hour of nothing, to everything arriving all at once. The performance was kind of interesting - with the exception of one of the performers who was very clearly male and not very attractive, the other "girls" really did look very feminine (though, my bf thought something was off - they were a bit too OTT or something) with very slim, female figures. They mostly wore these big wigs (or big hair, not sure which) that went half over their faces, so the focus was mostly on their bodies. There has to be at the very least hormones involved in these people, though, b/c just the limb shapes -the shoulders, arms, waist, bellies - seemed to be growing in a more feminine way. Men and women gain weight differently and muscles form differently. The performances themselves were mostly the girls slinking around to music on the bar - nothing spectacular, though one was clearly a lot more talented than the others in terms of actual dance moves and flexibility.

As for the food, which I continued to munch as I watched them - I got 4, I think, ribs in my dish. These were flavored strongly, a tiny bit spicy, and pretty good. Not awesome, but yummy enough. The dish also came with sweet potato crisps that weren't very interesting, and pickled carrots that were ok. My bf's filet mignon cooled off quickly b/c it was presliced, but it tasted pretty good and had a reasonable tender texture - a little chewy in places but overall fine. My bf and I have concluded, though, that we're spoiled by the filet recipe he does with the filets we get off the Costco tenderloin, b/c we've never been all that enamored with any restaurant's filet mignon since then. His came on a pile of Japanese eggplants which were pretty yummy, though I'm not a huge fan of eggplant. We kept smelling the warm chocolate cake whenever they were making one or bringing one out for someone, and my bf was craving it, so I think I enjoyed our dessert more than he did. It was four scoops of vanilla bean ice cream with a slice of banana on top topped with chocolate and butterscotch sauces, and then four pieces of banana fried in a Filipino lumpia so they were kind of like crispy banana spring rolls, and a slew of maraschino cherries. I like fried banana and vanilla and chocolate and butterscotch so I was quite happy with it. After our dessert, they had their "blowout" show around 9:30, where all five "ladies" performed and then the MC (who was also a dancer/waitress) thanked everyone and introduced all the performers.

As I said to my bf last night - I think I'm too dull for that kind of place. It was interesting to do once, but I was very happy to be seated more or less in a corner where the performers wouldn't try to involve us in the show or anything (though one threw her jacket at us). The food was decent, but not spectacular. Fun to do once, but I have no particular desire to do it again.

One big difference between Fringale and AsiaSF? I was way more stuffed after Fringale. The portion sizes at AsiaSF were quite small and I even had a small cookie after getting home without making my stomach unhappy.