Alexander’s Steakhouse 448 Brannan St San Francisco, CA 94107 Dining date: 11/25/12 I’ve wanted to try Alexander’s Steakhouse for some time. I love a good steak and Alexander’s is one of the more highly regarded steakhouses on the West Coast (and perhaps country). The original location, in Cupertino, garnered a Michelin star in the inaugural…
SPQR 1911 Fillmore St San Francisco, CA 94115 Dining date: 12/28/11 SPQR is a neighborhood restaurant in the Lower Pacific Heights area of San Francisco. A sister restaurant to also-notable A16, the cuisine is “Italian-inspired;” that is, Italian food based on seasonal, local produce. It’s sort of a merge of Italian and Californian cuisines. The…
Nopa 560 Divisadero St San Francisco, CA 94117 Dining date: 12/22/11 I’ve wanted to try Nopa for a while, a consistently highly-regarded restaurant since opening in 2006. The food is rather comfortable modern American and reasonably priced with starters between $5-15 and generously-sized mains in the $13-27 range. The food, combined with a trendy bar…
Atelier Crenn 3127 Fillmore St San Francisco, CA 94123 Dining date: 12/23/11 Atelier Crenn opened almost one year ago, last January. It was a hotly anticipated opening and seems to have met the hype, regarded as one of the top restaurant openings of the year (and awarded a Michelin star). The chef is Dominique Crenn,…
New England Lobster 170 Mitchell Ave South San Francisco, CA 94080 Dining date: 12/28/11 My dad is a big fan of seafood and will go to great lengths to find the good stuff, particularly if it’s crab or lobster. So, when he proposed driving down to South San Francisco for this ‘truck,’ I was intrigued. I’m pretty food truck…
Saison 2124 Folsom St San Francisco, CA 94110 Dining date: 12/27/11 Saison may have been my most anticipated meal in San Francisco in 2011. Chef Josh Skenes (Chez TJ, Stonehill Tavern) is cooking very modern French-Californian cuisine using locally sourced (including foraged) ingredients centered around a dining room hearth. A lot of restaurants are doing the local and…
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….