Hong Kong Lounge II 3300 Geary Blvd San Francisco, CA 94118 Dining date: 12/24/11 Hong Kong Lounge (formerly Hong Kong Flower Lounge) has been a popular dim sum option in San Francisco for decades. I haven’t been there in a long time (maybe over a decade), but it’s a consistently popular place capturing much of…
Marlowe 330 Townsend St San Francisco, CA 94107 Dining date: 12/22/11 Marlowe opened at the beginning of last year and has been a popular spot for its neighborhood bistro fare. Its consistent popularity has already led to another restaurant from the Marlowe team – Park Tavern, one of the bigger restaurant openings in SF this year….
The French Laundry 6640 Washington Street Yountville, CA 94599 Dining date: 11/27/11 Each year, my dad takes my grandmother and aunt out for their birthdays, usually in December. The food has always been good, with past years being at The Dining Room, Cyrus, Murray Circle, Quince and Masa’s. However, it’s never been this good. I…
Un Petit Porc Gram & Papa’s 227 E 9th St Los Angeles, CA 90015 Dining date: 12/19/11 Ludo has been popping up here and there while finalizing details of his LudoBites 8.0 to come in January. Last week I found him cooking paella at DomaineLA; this week I found him making his way across Europe,…
Drago Ristorante 2628 Wilshire Blvd Santa Monica, CA 90403 Dining date: 11/30/11 Downtown’s Drago Centro serves some of my favorite Italian food in the city. I’ve been there a number of times, but never to sister restaurant Drago in Santa Monica (one of chef-owner Celestino Drago’s first restaurants). The upscale Italian menu is fairly similar…
Yank Sing Rincon Center 101 Spear St San Francisco, CA 94105 Dining date: 11/26/11 Somewhat surprisingly, I didn’t eat a whole lot of dim sum growing up (it’s a pretty regular occurrence nowadays). I’ve tried a limited number of dim sum spots in the city and unfortunately I can’t say I’ve found one I’ve really…
Delfina 3621 18th St San Francisco, CA 94110 Dining date: 11/26/11 It’s hard to believe that Delfina has been open for 13 years. It’s as popular as ever, still being a very busy restaurant and oft-difficult dining reservation. Its popularity as a quintessential neighborhood Italian restaurant has helped Craig and Anne Stoll open up two…
Paella by Ludovic Lefebvre Domaine LA 6801 Melrose Ave Los Angeles, CA 90038 Dining date: 12/11/11 I’ve been to DomaineLA a few times, a wine shop located in Mid-City/Hollywood. It’s a smallish shop but there’s enough variety to indecisively look at bottles for hours. I’ve found the wines to be both interesting and rather reasonably…