Fantastic Food Weekend in San Francisco!
Jul 25th, 2011, 04:56 AM
#21
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sf7307...I did contemplate trying to plan a Fodors GTG while we were there, but with so few days, we were really just "on the ground" for 3 days, I didn't think I'd really have enough time...maybe next time!
Thanks for following along. I'm going to try and wrap up this report tonight..stay tuned!
Thanks for following along. I'm going to try and wrap up this report tonight..stay tuned!
Jul 25th, 2011, 07:56 AM
#23
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iamq,
Making the reservation wasn't difficult, getting the time we wanted was. I first started trying on the Opentable.com website about a month before the date we wanted. When I plugged in July 1st or 2nd I was getting a response no tables available until July 18th. Then we called and spoke to a person and were able to get a 10pm slot on the day we wanted, then we showed up early and they were able to seat us at the bar about an hour before our actual reservation time.
My recommendation would be to either call and talk with them and be flexible on the day/time you want a reservation for, or, go very early on the day you want to dine there (I'm talking as soon as they open) and you will probably get a table right away since they leave half the restaurant available for walk-ins.
I will mention this, since I forgot to in the original post. When we arrived at Flour + Water at 7pm to see if we could get in early, the place was packed to the gills, there were even people hovering in the bar area between tables where people were seated and eating. When we finished our meal around 10pm the place was still buzzing and people were continuing to come through the door...the place was packed, but rightly so, the food was excellent (IMHO).
Making the reservation wasn't difficult, getting the time we wanted was. I first started trying on the Opentable.com website about a month before the date we wanted. When I plugged in July 1st or 2nd I was getting a response no tables available until July 18th. Then we called and spoke to a person and were able to get a 10pm slot on the day we wanted, then we showed up early and they were able to seat us at the bar about an hour before our actual reservation time.
My recommendation would be to either call and talk with them and be flexible on the day/time you want a reservation for, or, go very early on the day you want to dine there (I'm talking as soon as they open) and you will probably get a table right away since they leave half the restaurant available for walk-ins.
I will mention this, since I forgot to in the original post. When we arrived at Flour + Water at 7pm to see if we could get in early, the place was packed to the gills, there were even people hovering in the bar area between tables where people were seated and eating. When we finished our meal around 10pm the place was still buzzing and people were continuing to come through the door...the place was packed, but rightly so, the food was excellent (IMHO).
Jul 25th, 2011, 08:00 AM
#24
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iamq...btw, I read your recent Umbria trip report and you had me salivating not only at your food descriptions but that pottery is absolutlye to die for! Your photos were fantastic too! I was thinking I needed to do a trip back to Tuscany in a year or so, but now I'm completely turned around and thinking Umbria is the place I need to go next in Italy! ;-)
Jul 25th, 2011, 06:39 PM
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Sunday, July 3rd
I have to admit, for me, this day had it's ups and downs. I had booked the Sonoma Experience Wine Tour with Wine Country Tour Shuttle, but on Friday I got a call from them saying we were the only 2 people booked on the Sonoma tour and they were "upgrading" us to their Napa wine tour.
I really was not pleased with this for several reasons. Reason #1 was that while looking for a wine tour to do, this company said the Sonoma tour was no more than 12 people, while the Napa tour would be 40 people. Reason #2 the Sonoma tour had a later start time, 10am as opposed to the 8am Napa tour start time. Reason #3 the Sonoma tour would visit 2 wineries and would give us 2.5 hours free time in the town of Sonoma to do as we liked, so it seemed like it would be a bit more laid back tour. But when I ran the change of plans by mom, she said, "Why not? Let's do the Napa tour" so we did.
I also have to mention here that when I woke up on Sunday morning I was not feeling my best, I thought maybe the raw oysters from Thursday were catching up with me. I truly don't know why I wasn't feeling well, let's just say, whatever it was that I had it lasted all Sunday, all Monday (yes, flying home was not a treat!) and I missed 3 days of work when I returned home. Tests run by my doctor's office at home showed negative results for 4 different types of typical food poisoning, so it's still a mystery what hit me, but let me tell you it hit me hard for 7 days.
I say all this, because my description of this Napa wine tour may be slightly skewed because of how I was feeling.
We arrive in front of the Ferry Building just before the 8am start time. I knew things were going to be bumpy when the girl checking everyone in didn't have our name on her list and she told us to stand to the side. There was a call made to their main office and we were finally placed on the last of 3 buses that were doing the Napa tour.
The bus sat 40 people and every seat was full. The bus was not what I would call the "big-strato-cruiser" type of bus, but more like an extended small bus/van. The guide was knowledgeable, but from our point of view he had very little personality, very different from the 2 other tour guides we had over the last couple days on the Gourmet Tour & Mr. Toad's Tour.
The drive into the Napa Valley from San Francisco was about 1.5 hours. The first stop on the tour was at the Domaine Chandon winery. We tasted 4 different types of their sparkling wine for a $10 tasting fee (above the price of the tour). I'm a huge lover of the bubbly stuff, and of the 4 we tasted there was one that I liked and would have again. The winery itself is lovely and the winery guide we had really knew his stuff. If I was back in the area, I wouldn't hesitate to stop here again.
The second winery stop we made was a the V. Sattui Winery. We had never heard of this winery before and for good reason, they only sell their wines at the winery or online. This was a very nice setting with lots of picnic tables outside. We had about 1.5 hours here and we did the $10 tasting and got to have 6 different wines. We did buy a case of wine, half the Sattui chardonnay and half the Sattui Gamay Rouge, it was a good deal at 20% off if you bought a case. We had it shipped home and it arrived about a week later. After tasting the wine here we perused their terrific deli shop. The prepared foods here looked terrific and tasted great. Our eyes were definitely bigger than our stomachs when we ordered a chicken pesto sandwich on foccacia bread and a huge stuffed portabella mushroom. At that time I didn't realize how this might contribute to my discomfort, but it sure did taste good as we ate it!
After lunch we had 2 more wineries to visit and I was fading fast. The 3rd stop was at the Rutherford Grove Winery, they mostly sell red wines and I'm not a huge red wine fan and by now nothing was tasting very good to me. Mom liked the sauvignon blanc here, the only white they make, and bought 2 bottles of it. The last winery stop was at the Rutherford Ranch Winery and it was a lovely tasting room, but I couldn't even muster the stomach to having anything here and didn't even pay the $10 tasting fee.
By the time we left Rutherford Ranch it was sweltering hot and the airconditioning in the bus was not the best we'd ever experienced. We had about a 50 minute bus ride to the ferry in Vallejo that we would take back to the Ferry Building in San Francisco. The ferry ride was about 1.5 hours and thankfully it was smooth sailing with pretty scenery. We arrived back in San Francisco just before 5pm and we headed back to the hotel to start packing our bags for our return home.
We left the hotel just before 7pm and walked to The Slanted Door restaurant at the Ferry Building to meet my friends RM and J for dinner at 7:15. RM and J live in the Bay Area and I had traveled to South East Asia in March this year with them. Prior to getting to San Francisco we had made plans to have dinner and I thought what better place than The Slanted Door so we could re-live some of our Vietnamese food experiences. Mom had met RM once before but this was the first time meeting J and I knew we would all get on well (I was right!).
RM and J were waiting for us when we arrived right at 7:15pm for our reservation and we were seated immediately. The Slanted Door has terrific views, and just like the last time we were there, it was packed to the gills and buzzing with lots of activity.
We decided to share all the food family style and started with the Slanted Door spring rolls and the green papaya salad. Both dishes were great. Mom never had green papaya salad, the rest of us had lots of it while traveling in Vietnam and this version was fantastic. RM ordered a bottle of sauvignon blanc and our server "warned" us it's a "rustic" wine, which meant, it was unfiltered and bottled in a metal recyclable bottle, similar to a metal water bottle. I'd never seen wine bottled that way before and the date it was bottle was written right on the bottle. We really enjoyed this wine and I wish I could remember the name of it! It was crisp and refreshing.
For main dishes we ordered the scallops, the dungeness crab cellophane noodles and the shaking beef. All were delicious. The shaking beef here was outstanding compared to the version we had at E&O earlier in the trip! The scallops were great, but I really liked the cellophane noodles the best. We passed on dessert, but mom and I had our espressos.
By 9:30pm we were saying our good-byes as RM and J got on BART to head home and we walked back to the hotel. So, for a day that had a rocky start, it ended on a very happy note, sharing a great dinner with good friends.
Monday, July 4th
It was a very early morning, and we left the hotel at 5am via taxi, since BART was not yet running. At that time of the morning, on a holiday it took 25 minutes to the airport and it was $40 plus tip. When we walked into the terminal I was glad we arrived early for our 7:30am flight, the lines were massive. Fortunately I had checked-in online and we only had to wait a few minutes to check our bags. The line for security was snaking down the hallway, and luckily we didn't have to wait in that line since we were able to use the Delta sky priority security line which was much shorter. This line used the full body x-ray machine, which was a first for us.
We found our gate and waited to board. The boarding process was smooth and we were happy to have been able to get 2 exit row seats. We arrived in Atlanta on time and had a 3 hour lay-over, which felt like an eternity (not feeling well while traveling is not my favorite experience!). Our flight to Savannah was delayed by about 30 minutes but we did get upgraded on that flight and from the moment I sat down in my seat I was asleep. When we arrived in Savannah I turned my phone on to find a message from Delta saying our bags had arrived in Savannah on an earlier flight (that was a first!), so we had no wait what-so-ever at baggage claim. We grabbed our bags that were sitting in front of the baggage office, hopped in the car and headed home.
I have to admit, for me, this day had it's ups and downs. I had booked the Sonoma Experience Wine Tour with Wine Country Tour Shuttle, but on Friday I got a call from them saying we were the only 2 people booked on the Sonoma tour and they were "upgrading" us to their Napa wine tour.
I really was not pleased with this for several reasons. Reason #1 was that while looking for a wine tour to do, this company said the Sonoma tour was no more than 12 people, while the Napa tour would be 40 people. Reason #2 the Sonoma tour had a later start time, 10am as opposed to the 8am Napa tour start time. Reason #3 the Sonoma tour would visit 2 wineries and would give us 2.5 hours free time in the town of Sonoma to do as we liked, so it seemed like it would be a bit more laid back tour. But when I ran the change of plans by mom, she said, "Why not? Let's do the Napa tour" so we did.
I also have to mention here that when I woke up on Sunday morning I was not feeling my best, I thought maybe the raw oysters from Thursday were catching up with me. I truly don't know why I wasn't feeling well, let's just say, whatever it was that I had it lasted all Sunday, all Monday (yes, flying home was not a treat!) and I missed 3 days of work when I returned home. Tests run by my doctor's office at home showed negative results for 4 different types of typical food poisoning, so it's still a mystery what hit me, but let me tell you it hit me hard for 7 days.
I say all this, because my description of this Napa wine tour may be slightly skewed because of how I was feeling.
We arrive in front of the Ferry Building just before the 8am start time. I knew things were going to be bumpy when the girl checking everyone in didn't have our name on her list and she told us to stand to the side. There was a call made to their main office and we were finally placed on the last of 3 buses that were doing the Napa tour.
The bus sat 40 people and every seat was full. The bus was not what I would call the "big-strato-cruiser" type of bus, but more like an extended small bus/van. The guide was knowledgeable, but from our point of view he had very little personality, very different from the 2 other tour guides we had over the last couple days on the Gourmet Tour & Mr. Toad's Tour.
The drive into the Napa Valley from San Francisco was about 1.5 hours. The first stop on the tour was at the Domaine Chandon winery. We tasted 4 different types of their sparkling wine for a $10 tasting fee (above the price of the tour). I'm a huge lover of the bubbly stuff, and of the 4 we tasted there was one that I liked and would have again. The winery itself is lovely and the winery guide we had really knew his stuff. If I was back in the area, I wouldn't hesitate to stop here again.
The second winery stop we made was a the V. Sattui Winery. We had never heard of this winery before and for good reason, they only sell their wines at the winery or online. This was a very nice setting with lots of picnic tables outside. We had about 1.5 hours here and we did the $10 tasting and got to have 6 different wines. We did buy a case of wine, half the Sattui chardonnay and half the Sattui Gamay Rouge, it was a good deal at 20% off if you bought a case. We had it shipped home and it arrived about a week later. After tasting the wine here we perused their terrific deli shop. The prepared foods here looked terrific and tasted great. Our eyes were definitely bigger than our stomachs when we ordered a chicken pesto sandwich on foccacia bread and a huge stuffed portabella mushroom. At that time I didn't realize how this might contribute to my discomfort, but it sure did taste good as we ate it!
After lunch we had 2 more wineries to visit and I was fading fast. The 3rd stop was at the Rutherford Grove Winery, they mostly sell red wines and I'm not a huge red wine fan and by now nothing was tasting very good to me. Mom liked the sauvignon blanc here, the only white they make, and bought 2 bottles of it. The last winery stop was at the Rutherford Ranch Winery and it was a lovely tasting room, but I couldn't even muster the stomach to having anything here and didn't even pay the $10 tasting fee.
By the time we left Rutherford Ranch it was sweltering hot and the airconditioning in the bus was not the best we'd ever experienced. We had about a 50 minute bus ride to the ferry in Vallejo that we would take back to the Ferry Building in San Francisco. The ferry ride was about 1.5 hours and thankfully it was smooth sailing with pretty scenery. We arrived back in San Francisco just before 5pm and we headed back to the hotel to start packing our bags for our return home.
We left the hotel just before 7pm and walked to The Slanted Door restaurant at the Ferry Building to meet my friends RM and J for dinner at 7:15. RM and J live in the Bay Area and I had traveled to South East Asia in March this year with them. Prior to getting to San Francisco we had made plans to have dinner and I thought what better place than The Slanted Door so we could re-live some of our Vietnamese food experiences. Mom had met RM once before but this was the first time meeting J and I knew we would all get on well (I was right!).
RM and J were waiting for us when we arrived right at 7:15pm for our reservation and we were seated immediately. The Slanted Door has terrific views, and just like the last time we were there, it was packed to the gills and buzzing with lots of activity.
We decided to share all the food family style and started with the Slanted Door spring rolls and the green papaya salad. Both dishes were great. Mom never had green papaya salad, the rest of us had lots of it while traveling in Vietnam and this version was fantastic. RM ordered a bottle of sauvignon blanc and our server "warned" us it's a "rustic" wine, which meant, it was unfiltered and bottled in a metal recyclable bottle, similar to a metal water bottle. I'd never seen wine bottled that way before and the date it was bottle was written right on the bottle. We really enjoyed this wine and I wish I could remember the name of it! It was crisp and refreshing.
For main dishes we ordered the scallops, the dungeness crab cellophane noodles and the shaking beef. All were delicious. The shaking beef here was outstanding compared to the version we had at E&O earlier in the trip! The scallops were great, but I really liked the cellophane noodles the best. We passed on dessert, but mom and I had our espressos.
By 9:30pm we were saying our good-byes as RM and J got on BART to head home and we walked back to the hotel. So, for a day that had a rocky start, it ended on a very happy note, sharing a great dinner with good friends.
Monday, July 4th
It was a very early morning, and we left the hotel at 5am via taxi, since BART was not yet running. At that time of the morning, on a holiday it took 25 minutes to the airport and it was $40 plus tip. When we walked into the terminal I was glad we arrived early for our 7:30am flight, the lines were massive. Fortunately I had checked-in online and we only had to wait a few minutes to check our bags. The line for security was snaking down the hallway, and luckily we didn't have to wait in that line since we were able to use the Delta sky priority security line which was much shorter. This line used the full body x-ray machine, which was a first for us.
We found our gate and waited to board. The boarding process was smooth and we were happy to have been able to get 2 exit row seats. We arrived in Atlanta on time and had a 3 hour lay-over, which felt like an eternity (not feeling well while traveling is not my favorite experience!). Our flight to Savannah was delayed by about 30 minutes but we did get upgraded on that flight and from the moment I sat down in my seat I was asleep. When we arrived in Savannah I turned my phone on to find a message from Delta saying our bags had arrived in Savannah on an earlier flight (that was a first!), so we had no wait what-so-ever at baggage claim. We grabbed our bags that were sitting in front of the baggage office, hopped in the car and headed home.
Jul 26th, 2011, 12:17 PM
#28
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Judy...thanks for that tip, yes mom would qualify, but we only needed one ticket for BART and it was $8.10 it worked in our favor to buy single tickets.
yk...thanks for hanging in here with me and thanks for the writing compliment. It's always nice to hear when someone enjoys what I've written.
yk...thanks for hanging in here with me and thanks for the writing compliment. It's always nice to hear when someone enjoys what I've written.
Aug 20th, 2011, 04:52 PM
#30
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What a hoot! I live in Savannah too and am traveling to San Francisco over Labor Day. I enjoyed your report and appreciate your suggestions of new things to do. I used to live there but its been years, so it nice to get some different ideas of things to do and places to eat. Thanks!
Aug 21st, 2011, 07:32 PM
#32
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Oh my goodness I'm drooling, that all sounds so amazing! A couple of years back my husband and I started working our way through 7x7 Magazine's "100 places to eat in SFO before you die", did we ever have fun doing that 
Aug 22nd, 2011, 03:37 AM
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I enjoyed reading this over my coffee this morning. Sorry I didn't see it before. We were just in San Francisco last week and ate well. Just to satisfy your curiosity, we did make a repeat visit to the RoliRoti truck (previous was two years ago), and the porchetta sandwich was just as good this time!
Aug 22nd, 2011, 11:47 AM
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sf7307, we did and thought it was great! I'll update my other thread when I get a chance. We found out that friends from New York City were also in San Francisco that night, so it ended up being a very last minute decision. Everyone liked it (and we didn't think the area was that bad). Thanks for the recommendation!
Aug 22nd, 2011, 05:40 PM
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ms_go...
My mouth is watering just reading your Roli Roti repeat was as good as last time! I was watching a show (Eat Street) on the Cooking Chanel and they were featuring the Roli Roti...ahhhh...good memories!
My mouth is watering just reading your Roli Roti repeat was as good as last time! I was watching a show (Eat Street) on the Cooking Chanel and they were featuring the Roli Roti...ahhhh...good memories!
Aug 22nd, 2011, 06:42 PM
#37
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The Roli Roti truck (just the chicken rotisserie) is at my local farmers market every Sunday, lucky me! I figured out that by the pound it doesn't cost much more than buying a whole chicken and making it myself. It's really good.
Sep 1st, 2011, 06:19 PM
#38
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I have never used Hotwire, but after checking a few times, there are no deep discount hotels. How did you get the $120 rate for a 4 star hotel? Any advice on how I can go about getting that? We are traveling to SF on 9/22.
Sep 2nd, 2011, 08:40 AM
#39
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ahje...
I just check hotwire frequently to see what kind of deals are available and if I see a 3.5 or 4 star property offered at a rate I can live with I book it. Once I've provided my credit card info, and Hotwire has charged my card then I find out which hotel it is. I've been lucky in using this in some other cities too. But I usually only use it if I can get a 3.5 star property or higher and I tend to only use it when I'm going to a city I've been too before and know a little about the area the hotel is listed in.
You might want to try checking TravelZoo, I've found good deals there too.
I just check hotwire frequently to see what kind of deals are available and if I see a 3.5 or 4 star property offered at a rate I can live with I book it. Once I've provided my credit card info, and Hotwire has charged my card then I find out which hotel it is. I've been lucky in using this in some other cities too. But I usually only use it if I can get a 3.5 star property or higher and I tend to only use it when I'm going to a city I've been too before and know a little about the area the hotel is listed in.
You might want to try checking TravelZoo, I've found good deals there too.
Sep 2nd, 2011, 03:43 PM
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ahje.... www.betterbidding.com has a hotel list with amenities that will help you decipher what those hotwire hotels are. I would stay away from those with low customer satisfaction no matter how tempting the price is.
