More Pics from 1550 Hyde

1550 Hyde: Neighborhood Gourmet

I fear I've waited too long to enter our blog post for our November Dine About. It's a good thing this was a memorable dining experience! Now's the time for anyone to jump in and fill in details I've left out.

First - a new record for DASF, we had 16 people attend and we were turning them away at the last minute! We had to split up, as this is a small, neighborhood establishment and they only had one "group" table and that squeezed in 7. So mini tables were formed:

1) Table 1: "Some tie to Rhode Island or at least Walden": Rachel and Walden flying through SF from HI, Germaine, Steven G. and Zina.

2) Table 2: "The Peninsula locals": The Klinkees (John and Avis) and the still acting like newlyweds - Tim and Dani.

3) Table 3: "Everyone Else": Phu, Winnie, Mollie, Cecilia, Victor, and another strong showing from Mollie's folks, Jerry and Elna Brown (their 4th Dine About - all great dinners, they bring us good luck.)

Scores were generally in the mid 90s. Excellent all around - service, food and atmosphere.

Highlight was the excellent food - all local, organic ingredients. Also, they treated us well. The big table waited for 20-30 minutes past our reservation, but the owner was quick to comp a large, delectable antipasti platters. The olives and carrots were particularly good. (this is in contrast to our visit last fall to Zuppa, where we waited out in the cold for an hour past our reservation, with barely an apology and nothing comp'd.)

It's been too long to recount the specific dishes, but I remember each dish stood on its own with creative, but not overwhelming flavors. I also distinctly remember that dessert was excellent, especially the espresso ice cream concoction.

I will be going back to 1550 Hyde (and not just because Dr. Jon was home asleep after a grueling few days at the County.) Great, fresh, local food with friendly service. Perfect.

See you all in December!

Scott Howard - Worth a Return Visit!

Our October Dine About was Scott Howard, a restaurant that shares the same namesake as its talented chef! This month's DASF was a good come back after a Senseless DASF in September. Scott Howard occupies the space that used to house the Cypress Club and Jackson 500. It is an attractive space with an open kitchen and the place was packed with beautiful people the night we were there. They sat us in the center of the dinner room next to a large round table that has an impressive flower arrangement. Overhead is a huge wrought-iron chandelier.

The Group: We had a first timer in Lehmann Koo, a foodie in her own right! Jen and Errol, making consecutive DASFs!!! CC, you and Victor are lagging behind in attendance. Our newlyweds Ken and Maureen and the Phans.

The creative foods were well executed and all tasted fantastic. To start, we were all treated to an amuse bouche of intensely flavor carrot broth. I am almost tempted to put Scott Howard up there with Winterland but the service was only average for DASF standard. The staff was pretty attentive overall but we had to ask our waiter 3 times before he brought Winnie's drink.

Ratings:
Overall value - 85 (same caliber food as Frisson but at a much more reasonable price)

Atmosphere - 88 (nice warm open space with just the right accents)

Food - 92 (excellent Smoke Trout Truffle Egg Salad & Tuna Tartar; the Artic Char and Sea Bass were both perfectly cooked; the long braised Short Ribs was rich and silky; all three deserts were solid but the S’mores is a must try)

Service - 85 (Our waiter deserves a lower score but the rest of the staff help raise it by at least 10 points. Lehmann asked about a particular wine but all he would say was that “it’s good”. Luckily someone else was able to help out. The rest was the staff was very attentive throughout the evening).

Prior to opening his own restaurant, Scott Howard was the Executive Chef at the highly popular Fork Restaurant in Marin. I for one am happy that he has opened his own place in the city.

No "Jon On the John This Week" since both Johns were out.

Sparrow - Great Service Turning Average Food into a Great Dinning Experience!

Sparrow - located inside the ultra high end residential apartment of the Gramercy Towers, was a solid DASF choice. It is a beautiful and well appointted restaurant serving contemporary cuisine with Asia and French influences. They have a beautiful privite "Wine" room that could accommodate up to 12 guests but we didn't quite have the turn out this time around. The group consists of Jon (sans Mollie - who was in Kauai bonding with her sister), Sandi (welcome back after a long hiatus), Winnie and Me.

The ratings:

Service - 98 - I had to rate this category first because we received the best service to date. Our waitress, Leah Rae, was fun, knowledgeable and most importantly on top of her game!!! She made good recommendations on both the food and wine and had excellent pacing from course to course. She recommended the Calera 2001 Jensen Vinyard Pinot Noir that was incredible. Being a fan of bold and robust wines, I was a little skeptical at first but she assured us that we will like it and it did not disappoint!

Food - 88 - We thought all the dishes were solidly executed, taste pretty good and the presentation/plating was nice but nothing brought out the "wow" factor like the food at Winterland or seared Fois Gras and Tuna Tartare with cucumber melon sorbet from Frisson. Although the poached Lobster appertizer came close.

Atmosphere - 90 - See the introduction. The music was a nice mix of world beats without being too load.

Jon-on-the-Jon. Jon is back and will write his Jon review....see next comment!

Overall, we like this place but just like Winterland, it probably will not survive due to its location. It is on top of Nob Hill right across from the Grace Cathedral but it is in an area that is easy to miss from the street.

Dosa - Go for the Food!

Dosa - far from accomodating for a big group, but the food keeps 'em coming back!

Great turn out - in fact we had to turn a few folks away! Sorry about that (see below). In attendence: the newlyweds Tim and Daniella, our leaders Phu & Winnie, penninsula peeps Victor, Cecilia, and Mollie, love it spicy Germaine, and special guest Walden.

Dosa isn't our typical kind of place where we bring a lot of people and get special treatment because we have a blog (and we have Phu). In fact, let this be a lesson, we were limited to a table of 8 (we squeezed in 9) and those who didn't RSVP in a timely manner were shut out. Dosa would not expand the table. And, we nearly lost our table when some diners (namely me) were late. Picture soup nazi Seinfeld and you're starting to get the idea. And finally, our waitress was not happy to be serving a big group, and she stated her case early serving waters with scowls for all.

But, alas, the night did turn around. Phu let the waiterss know the drill - 1 person orders a lot of food and we all share. We had an agreeable happy waitress after that, who actually did a terrific job guiding our selections.

There's one reason to go to Dosa - for the food. So many delightful tastes with every dish. The chicken appetizer, fried bread, and curries were especially good. And, always welcome, Dosa provided very good value. Pacing was all wrong, and we couldn't hear each other speak, but nonetheless, happy diners we were.

On with the ratings:

• Food - 90 - matched the variety and flavor we've experienced at far fancier and pricier establishments.
• Serivce - ranged from 60-70 - The waitress did guide us to a great selection of plates, but scores remain low due to bad pacing, very cramped table, no new plates. Really far worse service than we've seen most other places.
• Atmosphere - 75 - HOT! Cramped! Loud!

Jon-on-the-Jon. Jon Carter was getting some shut eye and didn't make it to Dosa. Victor will be stepping in with a Jon-on-the-Jon guest poetry entry. See next comment.

Until August. . . when we'll be dining the 2nd Friday of the month! Happy eats!

Citizen Thai & The Monkey

June 2, 2006

Citizen Thai & The Monkey - Decent Thai food in North Beach but didn't impressed the tough DASF crowd!!

Small group for this for this month's DASF due to a few last minute dropouts. Avis, Alicia & the Phans were in attendance.

Ratings:
Food = 80
Service = 70
Atmosphere = 88

Jon-on-the-Jon: Once again, no Jon-on-the-Jon rating this month.

Service - The service was pretty poor at Citizen. The waitress was only there to take our order, serve the food and give us the check. She was MIA the rest of the time. Although she did made one lame attempt at replacing used silverwares but she only did it for Avis!! The service at their sister restaurant, Koh Samui & The Monkey was much better. What a big drop off from Clementine.

Food - Citizen Thai serves up inventive & pretty good Thai food. The appetizers were the stars. The Fried Sweet Corn Patties, the Mieng Kum, and the Crying Tiger Salad (first had this at Koh Samui) were all very good. Of the entrees, only the Mango Catfish stands out. Their Green Curry was a very average.

Atmosphere - Charming and intimate setting, very nicely decorated with plenty of neat arts from Thailand.

Overall, a decent Thai restaurant but tough parking location would sway us to choose other good Thai restaurants in the city.

Clementine - Classic French, Tres Bon!

Clementine pleased the senses and palettes of this month's Dine About crowd, living up to its billing as a delicious neighborhood French bistro.

A good showing from the usual suspects and a few folks who seem to be turning into regulars! Pat drove in just in time from Berkeley; Son, a 2nd-timer charmed the crowd with stories of Nebraska; Phu and Winnie - ensuring we were well taken care of (Phu even tried speaking French!), The Browns from Phoenix timed their trip to hit DASF; and me (Mollie) sans Jon (Jon back from Costa Rica, but sick after working all night).

Ratings:
Food = 90
Service = 94
Atmosphere = 88
Jon-on-the-Jon = stand-in Son has been fired from any future Jon-on-the-Jon ratings, instead being delegated to rating the female wait staff (with the Garcon staff still top-of-mind.)

Service is the reason to return to Clementine. Every detail was attended to and the pacing was perfect.

Food received a healthy 90 rating with all dishes executed extremely well. The blue cheese tart and shrimp citrus appetizers were favorites and the duck with mushroom sauce and blue nose sea bass with risotto were wonderful. And, the French know dessert - highlights included the special of the day - fresh strawberries over moist tart with "(H)azelnut D'ough", and French toast with caramelized ice cream.

Atmosphere. Charming and intimate setting, plenty of room, and soft music allowed us to converse easily. Very comforting, but avoid if possible the toilettes which were obviously decorated by a man (see Jon-on-the-Jon notes above.)

Overall, a solid neighborhood restaurant I could see returning to. Good value; and better value if you can make the prix-fix menu from 5-7pm M-F.

Looking forward to seeing the other posts!!

Annie's Bistro - A Good Pac Heights Neighborhood Joint

By Winnie Phan:

For the first time in the history of DASF, we dined on the second Friday for the month of April. We dined at Annie’s Bistro – a Cal-French bistro. This lower Pacific Heights neighborhood joint is small but quaint. The attendees for this month’s group: the Klinklees and the Phans.

It’s been a couple of weeks, but this is what I remember for the ratings.

Food: 83
There were some good dishes and some that were just so-so. For appetizers, Phu ordered the beef carpaccio, mussel Marinière and the open mushroom raviolis. Avis ordered the soup du jour, white navy bean soup. The white navy bean soup and the open mushroom raviolis were really good. The beef carpaccio and mussels Marinière wasn’t very memorable, they were “okay”. For entrees, Phu ordered the Crispy Duck Confit, Rack of Lamb, Pan Roasted Blue Nose Sea Bass and side sauté spinach. The duck was really good. The pomengrate sauce complemented the duck very well. The lamp was cooked perfectly and the accompany port sauce was very nice. The blue nose sea bass could have been better. The pearl onion red wine sauce was too heavy and overpowered the natural favors of the sea bass. The side spinach was a very small serving. It was barely enough for John, Avis and I to split. For dessert, we picked the Ginger Crème Brulee and the Tarte Tatin. The was definitely the better of the two. The texture of the crème brulee was very custardy, too dense and cake like.

Service 88:
There were a hostess, a bartender and a waiter. Our waiter was really good considering he had to service the whole dining room. He was on top of it.

Atmosphere 82:
Quaint, cozy, small, intimate, neighborhood joint. Seats by the door got drafts of the wind every time someone came into the restaurant. Poor Avis had to put her jacket back on to stay warm. No Jon on the John rating this month. John thought it wasn’t worth a Haiku either.

Overall, Annie’s Bistro is a good neighborhood restaurant, offering decent food at decent prices.

Winterland - A Hidden Treasure

After a disappointing Feb. dine about, March came in and blew our socks off. This little known place in Pac Heights was phenomenal! We hear it's not attracting big crowds, and we hope to spread the word about this top of the line dining establishment. After Quince, this is my top DASF experience to date (and that's after 23 months of doing this!)

Go check it out at: www.winterlandrestaurant.com

Everyone was so excited and tickled by the food and experience, we started a new tradition of making up Haiku. (maybe this was a result of the Hemp seed in the dessert.) See the next posting.

We had the core group: The Klinkes, the ever loving Ceci and Victor, just back from Carnival Phu, and me. We missed Jon (asleep on the couch at home after a long call night) and Winnie (not feeling good after what must have been a great birthday.)

The ratings:
Atmosphere: 90
Nice, modern, nothing crazy, but pleasant. Love that it is a small, intimate place.

Service: 97
Outstanding! Salpi, our waiteress was very knowledgeable, as was all the staff, charming while not being overbearing. A great service team - they swooped in smoothly to deliver all our dishes at once, and cleared the plates all at once - perfectly orchestrated. Plus, nice extra touches, with an amuse at the beginning and nice peti fours at the conclusion of the meal (we love the freebies.) Usually this type of service is reserved for the very very top line restaurants (e.g., French Laundry).

Food: 95.
Wow. Wow. Wow. Tons of fresh ingredients and different flavors - but it all worked great together. Highlights: Octopus Ceviche and Chicken wings and gnochii with butternut squash puree to start. Light, smooth Alaskan Cod with infused mash potatoes, wonderful short ribs, creative lamb with spinach crepe. 2 out of 3 desserts hit the spot, with the rhubarb brioche and olive oil ice cream topping our list - sounds crazy, but unbelievably tasty.

I may have got the ratings a little mixed up - they were all in the 90s, so correct me if I'm mistaken.

More on the next post. . .a new tradition in poetry to tempt you to read on.

Garcon - Not up to Par (Feb's DASF)

Garcon, located in the mission, was pleasant, but not up to regular DASF standards. It's been a month since we went there, and I can't remember one detail - a sign of a not so memorable experience.

What made the night great was the company. We had a few first-timers: Jen Anastasoff - who has signs of becoming a real foodie. Son Tran, the new roommate upstairs from Phu, transplanted from New Orleans, was wowed by everything, as first timers usually are. And, Mark Uhlik, a friend of Jon's from high school in Colorado, in town for a meeting. A suprisingly great critic - hailing from Indianapolis, not usually known for cuisine. We also enjoyed the presence of Germaine - back after attending the very first Dine About so many months ago! All were great additions!

Rounding out the group were the regulars: Phu and Winnie, Victor and Cecilia, Jon and me.

Great group; not great food (this is a new bit of Haiku you will start to see in our write-ups. More on that with the next rating for Winterland.)

Restaurant itself was crowded, and we were packed into the back room. I do remember a particularly good chocolate dessert.

Anyone else remember anything?

Cheers,
Mollie

Ame - Food Pleases, Service Disappoints

On Jan. 6th DASF gathered at Ame - a fusion sort of restaurant in the St. Regis hotel at 3rd and Mission. It was another lively evening with good friends, good conversation, and interesting food. In attendance: The Klinkees - with both Avis and John making it out; Phu & Winnie - passing up mediocre steaks at the Old SteakHouse to dine with DASF instead; Mollie and post-call but just drank a gallon of coffee so I'm bright-eyed and ready to enjoy Jon; and our out-of-town, first timer, special guest - Walden!!

And the ratings are:
Atmosphere - 92
Food - 85
Service - 60

Appetizers were too small to share, with Avis trying to cut bits of tuna small enough to go around. Watermelon Radish stuffed with some kind of fish was delicious and fresh, but Tuna Five and the Japanese Custard failed to impress.

Main dishes were delectable - wonderful Black Cod, tender beef, fresh salmon, and very good risotto (Avis thought too Salty, but not as salty as the Risotto we sent back at Cafe Kate, so things are improving.)

Dessert was good with tasty key lime pie, but average pear crisp and chocolate cake.

Atmosphere was very cozy - has a modern feel, very high ceilings paired with nice dividers made the area feel spacious, but also cozy. We were able to hear each other and spread out a bit.

Service was severely lacking. Waiters didn't know the menu, forgot John's beers, didn't bring dessert plates - all such rookie mistakes we couldn't hardly give more than a 60 rating.

Most of us said we wouldn't return - not enough value and service really off the mark.

And there you have it - another installment of Dine About!! Always a good time. . . Join us in February!