Dining about town

I think my bf and I are just about the least favorite DAT customers a restaurant might have - we come in carrying our bike gear, dressed in jeans and a polo (for him) or a slightly nicer than t-shirt long-sleeve shirt (for me). We order off the DAT menu and get nothing extra, besides a coke for him. No alcohol, no coffee... And we may never revisit the restaurant again to pay full price. Ah well.

We hit three DAT restaurants in a row this week.

Tuesday, we went to Le Colonial (20 Cosmo Pl, btwn Sutter and Post/Taylor and Jones). It's an upscale Vietnamese place located in a bit of an alley (with a parking lot in the alley) which evidently turns into a dance club at night, though we didn't see that part of it. Looking at the menu, I have the feeling the place is rather overpriced ($30+ entrees) so the DAT was definitely a deal for the place. My bf and I both got the DAT - I got the Kurobuta pork belly (with a savory caramel sauce, white truffle oil, Hosui pear, pickled bok choy and quail egg) and he got the um..I think the spring rolls? (The DAT menu on the website is not what we had to choose from so I'm going on memory). The pork belly was very yummy, IMO, the spring rolls were fine but nothing special. Then we both got the beef short ribs (braised Niman Ranch beef short ribs with leek, shiitake mushrooms, and wild rice served with a star anise broth). This was very tender and nicely textured - I thought it was too bland, my bf appreciated its "subtle" flavor and really liked it. For dessert, they had the pineapple upside down cake with coconut ice cream, which was very yummy (of course, those are some of my favorite flavor combos). The service was nice and prompt, the ambiance nice (we were definitely the least well dressed in there), and the food fine. I personally still think it was overpriced but my bf quite liked it.

Wednesday we hit Chaya Brasserie (132 The Embarcadero, btwn Mission and Howard), a French-Japanese type place, which basically seemed to mean they served both sushi and steak. Also not a cheap place. We both got the DAT again but this time got totally different stuff. My bf got the hamachi carpaccio for appetizer (quite yummy), I got the shrimp tempura roll (totally not a $12 roll, I've definitely had better shrimp tempura rolls for less elsewhere). For dinner, he got the prime beef done two different ways (a NY steak and a short rib) while I got the petrale sole. He said his beef was fine (I think he preferred le Colonial's), my sole was fine but nothing outstanding. Reasonably tasty and fairly well presented, but it just didn't stand out. Then again, my standards when I go to more expensive places tend to get pretty high. For dessert, he got the Meyer lemon sorbet which he really enjoyed, and I got the chocolate croissant bread pudding which I thought was absolutely delicious. The croissant aspect of it lent it an interesting texture in places and that kind of buttery croissant taste that I really enjoyed. So I guess I'd say dessert was my highlight in both places.

Thursday, we went to Maverick (3316 17th St btwn Hoff and Mission) with one of my bf's coworkers and his girlfriend. The prices here were lower, so DAT was just about worth it (basically you saved $4). The DAT menu had no choices, but we thought it looked good and went for it - "Little Gem Salad" to open (pretty basic blue cheese, pears, lettuce salad), fried chicken ($21 on the regular menu) with yellow grits, collard greens, some other stuff, and walnut chocolate chip cookies with milk to dip them in. The salad was fine, nothing special, nothing bad. The fried chicken was good, but not $21 good. The chicken meat itself was very tender and juicy (though the breast still wasn't very tasty), the fried part was a fairly thin crisp dark brown layer that tasted fine but nothing special. Wasn't the super-greasy type of chicken you get from KFC or Popeye's, that's for sure, and the chicken was good quality, but somehow it just wasn't that exciting. The cookies, no matter how good they might be (and they were yummy though not the best ever) were not worth $8 for two cookies (which is what they were on the regular menu, though maybe they give you more than 2 if you order it regularly - our salads were smaller than the one someone in our party got as her main meal, even though she ordered the same salad). I think the milk they gave us was whole milk - I only did a bit of dipping but no drinking due to lactose-intolerance - and the cookies were the crisp texture kind. Yummy, as I said, but not so exceptional I'd go to Maverick just to have them - or pay that much to have them again. I guess basically overall, we found Maverick a bit disappointing and probably wouldn't go back. Which is funny, b/c of the three, it's the highest rated on Yelp...

And that was our DAT experience for January 2009.