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Malik

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  1. I would guess it's more like a club/lounge on weekends, and hopefully more restaurant like on weekdays.
  2. I went by Sanafir on Saturday night, we were meeting friends that were already seated at a table. But the bouncer at the door decided that nobody else could go into the restaurant, even if you had seats ready for you at a table. He said that a liquor inspector had just walked in, so he didn't want it to get too crowded inside. Anyways, after about a ten minute wait outside, we gave up and our friends came out to go sowewhere else...
  3. Moscone is in a relatively expensive area of town, so most of the restaurants nearby would not qualify as cheap eats. But there's some good ethnic places within easy walking distance. King of Thai Noodles, a small local (SF-only) chain just opened in the Milano Hotel at 55 Fifth St (at Jessie, between Mission and Market), a couple of minutes walk from Moscone. It's the nicest decor of the King of Thai noodles, and unlike the other ones has a good selection of beer and wine. The specialties here are the noodle dishes and salads rather than curries. In particular, I like the beef salad and the larb, the noodle soups, the pad kee mao (stir fried rice noodles), and the gai gra prow (basil chicken). Another good choice would be Chaat Cafe at 320 3rd St just past Folsom, a stone's throw away from Moscone. They serve good Chaat (Indian street snacks), as well as some simple and relatively light curries (I like the fish one in particular). For the less adventurous, they also have Indian style wraps. Also Indian, a little further away, is the new branch of Naan 'N Chutney at 474 3rd St between Harrison and Bryant (under the freeway). They serve North Indian/Pakistani style food, with the specialties being the tandoori dishes and curries. Finally, if you feel like splurging just a bit, Farmer Brown just opened at 25 Mason St near Market, about a block further walk than King of Thai Noodles above. Check out their menu online. It's not very expensive, but you'll be hard pressed to spend less than $20 per person.
  4. I had a very disappointing dinner at Nu back in May on my last visit to Vancouver. Three of us shared a bunch of small plates and sides, and were not impressed overall. The worst dish of the night was the bone marrow, and that's one of my favorite things in the world to eat. But it seemed like they had taken the marrow bones straight from the freezer to the oven, so the bottom half of larger bone on the plate was cold and thoroughly uncooked! A lot of the other dishes were either bland or unfocussed (scallop ceviche, beef tartare, onion tart, etc). We did enjoy the fried olives and the matchstick potatoes, but that's not quite enough to make a meal unfortunately...
  5. Malik

    Sushi Ino

    I agree with Melkor, Ino can be quite snarky with non-Japanese customers. Aside from that, there are definitely some things I don't like about his sushi. I agree completely with you on the Ankimo, which is definitely the best I've had in San Francisco. But his shiny fishes tend to be over marinated, though the Aji is often good. For example, I had kohada at Ino and at Kiss a few weeks apart, and Ino's was definitely not in the same league. Also, Ino has a tendency to put too much wasabi in his nigiri, this seems to be a frequent complaint that I've heard from lots of sources. This is compounded by the fact that Ino does not seem to have fresh wasabi (maybe that's a regulars only thing), only the fake green horseradish. At Takara, the Ama Ebi is to die for thanks to the live tank and high turnover of a larger restaurant. I've always gotten fresh wasabi (I've only eaten at the bar, at Yuki-san's station) without having to ask for it. And I've definitely had some sublime pieces of fish there. On the last visit, the Hamachi Toro was incredible, much better than any I've had anywhere else. Also, the Hirame Usuzukuri was defintely better than the one I had at Ino a couple of months before.
  6. While you can certainly get better food if you're willing to hop on BART, you also have plenty of good options in downtown Oakland itself. There's quite a few Vietnamese restaurants nearby for Pho (such as Pho 84, which may have changed names recently) or Bahn Mi (BC Deli for example). Other good choices include Tamarindo for modern Mexican and Luka's Taproom which bills itself as a Californian Brasserie (be sure sample the fries, but everything I've ordered there has been good). And there's an outlet of Top Dog, a local mini chain that serves the best hot dogs I've had anywhere, you should have lunch there at least once. If you're willing to take BART at dinner time (and the downtown Oakland station is right by your hotel), then you open up quite a few more possibilities. My first suggestion would be to take BART to Rockridge, where there's quite a few good restaurants within very short walking distance of the station. Places I would recommend in particular there are A Cote for French small plates and Pearl Oyster Bar for great seafood, in particular oysters and raw plates. Uzen or Tachibana are good choices for sushi, and there's also Zachary's for Chicago style deep dish pizza. I haven't like Oliveto much in the past, but now that Paul Bertolli is gone, the food is supposed to have gotten better. If you combine BART with a short walk, the Temescal area which is halfway between the Rockridge and MacArthur stations (about 10 blocks away) has many worthwhile restaurants. My top pick would be Pizzaiolo for really good Napolitan style pizza. Dona Tomas is an old favorite, one of the first high end Mexican restaurants in the Bay Area. There's also quite a few Korean restaurants around there, including Sahn Maru which has a great black goat stew (heuk yum so tang). Finally, if you feel like having North African food, Tanjia is a pretty good Moroccan restaurant. The last BART station worth checking out would be Downtown Berkeley. The area immediately around the station mostly consists of cheap eats that are popular with the student population. Of those, my favorites would be Top Dog (but there's a branch in downtown Oakland too) and Pie in the Sky for gourmet pizza slices. A short walk down University you'll find Chaat Cafe for good chaat and North Indian food, and Udipi Palace for top notch South Indian food. But the more interesting restaurants are in the Gourmet Ghetto, a pleasant walk up Shattuck Ave from the BART station. The standouts there are Chez Panisse (I prefer the cafe over the main restaurant) and Cesar. Have a slice of the daily special pizza at the Cheese Board across the street before dinner.
  7. I had a very good dinner at Tres Agaves a couple of weeks ago, the Carne Asada was particularly memorable. I'd definitely recommend it. The other modern Mexican restaurant I like a lot is Tamarindo in downtown Oakland. I would recommend avoiding Tamal in SF though, we ordered seven different dishes there and every single one was disappointing.
  8. Only a few dishes, like the Rendang Beef. But it's mostly just for show, as the banana leaf lines a real plate, so it's not serving much purpose. In Malaysia, it's not unusual for small restaurants to serve you the food on just a banana leaf, with no plate in sight.
  9. Yup, there's a ton of Malaysian/Singaporean restaurants in the Bay Area. In additions to the ones mentioned already, there's the various Straights Cafes (SF, Palo Alto, San Jose, Burlingame), plus a few more in the mid peninsula (Mango Bay, Banyan Garden, Island Cafe), the East Bay (Raffles Cafe, Red Kwali, Banyan Tree) and SF (Singapore Malaysian and Penang Garden). I haven't been to Singapore Malaysian yet but have fairly high hopes for it. I have liked my meals at Banana Leaf, though I haven't been back there for a couple of years as I'm rarely ever in that area anymore. Straights Cafe in the city used to be good (I was not a big fan of the Palo Alto version), but it went downhill a few years ago and I haven't been back since.
  10. Kelly's Burgers definitely hits the spot after a night of drinking, especially since they're open until 3am on Friday and Saturday nights. I've wondered in there many times on my way home after a good night of drinking.
  11. Yes, Hamako has been mentioned a couple of times on this thread already. I don't know if I would call the couple very kind and personable. The wife is lovely, but the husband/sushi chef is definitely temperamental, especially with new customers. But the sushi itself can be very good, and his saba is definitely my favorite in town. Note that he's been talking about retiring imminently for the last couple of years, so if you like the place you should get over there soon. Ino is also solely a husband and wife operation, as is Tekka in the inner Richmond. The nice thing with Tekka is that the wife also makes cooked dishes, which are often better than the sushi. But there's no English menu for them, so you have to prod her to get the list of dishes for that night. And they only open weeknights, usually not until 7:30pm, and there's almost always a wait for a seat. It's quite possibly the smallest restaurant I've been to in San Francisco.
  12. Tokyo Go Go is indeed a lot of fun, and the food is surprisingly good. It's hard to compare it to Ino, which does traditional sushi (nigiri and maki) a lot better than Tokyo Go Go. I think of the latter more as a fun outing on a weekend night to go drinking and eat light, rather than a proper sushi restaurant. Kiss is indeed quite good as well, though I tend to prefer the cooked dishes there. But I have on occasion had an incredible piece of nigiri at Kiss, on the last visit it was the Kohada (gizzard shad). I had Kohada at Ino a few weeks later and it was nowhere near as good. Ino is great for Ankimo (monkfish liver) and Aji (spanish mackerel). Another good place for traditional sushi is Takara in Japantown, right next door to Ino. Much larger place than Ino, be sure to sit at the sushi bar at the old guy's station for the best experience. The Amaebi (live prawn) comes straight out of the tank outside, and is really amazing. Hamako, which has been mentioned on this thread, can also be quite good. His specialty is Saba (mackerel), which is the best I've ever tasted anywhere.
  13. Shhh! It's my neighborhood favorite, and although I really want it to prosper, I also want to be able to drop in a find a seat whenever I want. ← Definitely one of the perks of Incanto is that one can actually get in there with little notice. The prices are a notch above Delfina, which may be part of the reason why it's not as busy. And they tend not to schedule reservations as close together as a lot of other restaurants. One of the things I really like about Incanto is the way the wines are chosen to match the food. I almost always sit at the bar, and if the wine director is there, I always ask for a recommendation on which wine to get, because I'm not very familiar with Italian wines. Sometimes he has a definitive answer ("This is the wine to get") and sometimes he has a couple of ideas, but he's never steered me wrong. ← I totally agree with you on Ed (the wine director)'s advice. One of the reason I like Incanto better of late is that I think he's a vast improvement over the Italian sommelier they had before, who was more interested in upselling than in recommending the right wine. I've never been unhappy with a bottle of wine that Ed has recommended. That's indeed a really nice touch, I'm surprised more restaurants haven't caught on to this. Heck, I've never even seen this in a wine bar, where such a system should be mandatory.
  14. I've heard very good things about Uncle Frank, and have been awaiting for it to reopen to finally give it a try. Thanks for the update. The other BBQ place in the Peninsula on my list of restaurants to try is Jimmy's Rib Shack in San Bruno. In the past, I've gone to Everett & Jones in the East Bay for BBQ, and I really enjoyed it (I've only been to the Berkeley location).
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