San Francisco Restaurants - Many thanks! Short Trip Report
Feb 3rd, 2004, 09:17 AM
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San Francisco Restaurants - Many thanks! Short Trip Report
To SAB, dovima, and others - First and foremost many many thanks for your wonderful recommendations!
We had either a sampling of San Francisco restaurants or a feeding frenzy, depends on your point of view.
Friday night we started out at Chez Papa's in the Potrero District. As suggested, we sampled the small dishes rather than order the larger ones, a French tapas session if you will. The food was exquisite: lobster bisque, salads, stuffed calamari, fried whiting paired with fried lemon slices (!!!???)- surprising good, and heavenly lamb chops. We were stuffed as we kept using the wonderful sourdough bread to wipe the dishes clean! Three glasses of medium priced wines, a Vouvray is all I can remember, Great!
Saturday morning - breakfast at Scala's Bistro, a step back to a more gilded and gentile age. The Sir Francis Drake was being renovated, but it still retains its grand dame look. Great omelettes! Even greater coffee!
We walked to SF MOMA, but it opens at 11am in the winter, so back to Union Square and - how wonderful it looks after the renovation! I stepped into Lush and had to be dragged out!
We then went to visit Xanadu Gallery on Maiden Lane, right off of Union Square. Maiden Lane - another Union Square gem - YSL lettering curling around, Gucci, and the fabulous, Frank-Lloyd-Wright-designed Xanadu, which was like a miniature Guggenheim. We spent far too much time in Xanadu, wishing we were the Donald Trumps and could afford those prices. Fabulous, fabulous art. A terrific art books collections also, every volume for sale - for a good price! We bought several volumes.
Saturday noon - time to eat again! Around the corner to Farallon for seafood. Into the glittering world of Captain Nemo we walked and asked to be seated "in the back please". ("How come there are so many Asian yuppies here?" Even the men were coiffeured and perfumed...) Our waitress was very understanding - breakfast had filled us up and we didn't want too much lunch. A wonderfully well-cooked, medium done wild salmon and a slab of Atlantic skate paired with a masterly selection of vegetables to go with each fish. Two different wines, one very good and one so-so. See, told ya! I'm not much of a wine connoisseur: if it's good, it's good; if it's so-so, it's so-so. However, in a good restaurant, the wines are usually good too, so with a bit of advice from the waiter, I'm fine with whatever wine comes to the table. Great San Francisco sour dough bread again!
After lunch, we waddle our way to the Asian Art Museum. It's a gorgeous day, not a cloud in the sky, and even the homeless on Market Street are singing and laughing. Such a vibrant city!
In the Asian Art Museum, I get through only the first two rooms. There is too much to see and each piece of sculpture has so much to it that it takes a long time to see the different carved objects, their inherent detail, and the art style.
Two hours in the AAM is all we can afford. Time to move on. We return to our hotel by taxi, get our stored luggage, and drive off to the Metreon parking lot on Mission. Then it's a short walk across to the the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. We had to leave the Asian Art Museum because we wanted to catch the Diane Arbus show which is in its last week at SF MOMA. Frankly, black and white photography is my greatest love, but the show was fascinating for its ground-breaking photography. Even more fascinating were the numerous notes and descriptions scattered around the exhibit.
We stayed until 5:45p when the museum closes. I, for one, am arted out. From the Xanadu Gallery to the Asian Art Museum to the SF MOMA, been one heck of a art day!
Time to eat again! We decide not to go too far and we're still not too hungry, so we opt for "a little something" at Lulu's. YES! You all are exactly right - noisy and not the greatest food, but we found the "Wine Flights" a terrific idea. Four different wines are grouped together and we got 2 oz of each of the four wines. We tried two groups. We tried the Fruits de Mer - very fresh clams and oysters, but we wished we had had room for the pizza and the rotisserie chicken which looked great in that huge rotisserie in the back. Oh yes, great mushroom soup - another wipe the plate clean with bread dish!
Time to go home! It'll be another year before we try to forage our way through San Francisco again! LOL! Not really! We'll probably be back to SF long before that! There are still a whole bunch of restaurants to try, such as Plouf's.
Firstly and lastly, thanks to all for your wonderful recommendations! Our favorite? Chez Papa's.
We had either a sampling of San Francisco restaurants or a feeding frenzy, depends on your point of view.
Friday night we started out at Chez Papa's in the Potrero District. As suggested, we sampled the small dishes rather than order the larger ones, a French tapas session if you will. The food was exquisite: lobster bisque, salads, stuffed calamari, fried whiting paired with fried lemon slices (!!!???)- surprising good, and heavenly lamb chops. We were stuffed as we kept using the wonderful sourdough bread to wipe the dishes clean! Three glasses of medium priced wines, a Vouvray is all I can remember, Great!
Saturday morning - breakfast at Scala's Bistro, a step back to a more gilded and gentile age. The Sir Francis Drake was being renovated, but it still retains its grand dame look. Great omelettes! Even greater coffee!
We walked to SF MOMA, but it opens at 11am in the winter, so back to Union Square and - how wonderful it looks after the renovation! I stepped into Lush and had to be dragged out!
We then went to visit Xanadu Gallery on Maiden Lane, right off of Union Square. Maiden Lane - another Union Square gem - YSL lettering curling around, Gucci, and the fabulous, Frank-Lloyd-Wright-designed Xanadu, which was like a miniature Guggenheim. We spent far too much time in Xanadu, wishing we were the Donald Trumps and could afford those prices. Fabulous, fabulous art. A terrific art books collections also, every volume for sale - for a good price! We bought several volumes.Saturday noon - time to eat again! Around the corner to Farallon for seafood. Into the glittering world of Captain Nemo we walked and asked to be seated "in the back please". ("How come there are so many Asian yuppies here?" Even the men were coiffeured and perfumed...) Our waitress was very understanding - breakfast had filled us up and we didn't want too much lunch. A wonderfully well-cooked, medium done wild salmon and a slab of Atlantic skate paired with a masterly selection of vegetables to go with each fish. Two different wines, one very good and one so-so. See, told ya! I'm not much of a wine connoisseur: if it's good, it's good; if it's so-so, it's so-so. However, in a good restaurant, the wines are usually good too, so with a bit of advice from the waiter, I'm fine with whatever wine comes to the table. Great San Francisco sour dough bread again!
After lunch, we waddle our way to the Asian Art Museum. It's a gorgeous day, not a cloud in the sky, and even the homeless on Market Street are singing and laughing. Such a vibrant city!
In the Asian Art Museum, I get through only the first two rooms. There is too much to see and each piece of sculpture has so much to it that it takes a long time to see the different carved objects, their inherent detail, and the art style.
Two hours in the AAM is all we can afford. Time to move on. We return to our hotel by taxi, get our stored luggage, and drive off to the Metreon parking lot on Mission. Then it's a short walk across to the the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. We had to leave the Asian Art Museum because we wanted to catch the Diane Arbus show which is in its last week at SF MOMA. Frankly, black and white photography is my greatest love, but the show was fascinating for its ground-breaking photography. Even more fascinating were the numerous notes and descriptions scattered around the exhibit.
We stayed until 5:45p when the museum closes. I, for one, am arted out. From the Xanadu Gallery to the Asian Art Museum to the SF MOMA, been one heck of a art day!
Time to eat again! We decide not to go too far and we're still not too hungry, so we opt for "a little something" at Lulu's. YES! You all are exactly right - noisy and not the greatest food, but we found the "Wine Flights" a terrific idea. Four different wines are grouped together and we got 2 oz of each of the four wines. We tried two groups. We tried the Fruits de Mer - very fresh clams and oysters, but we wished we had had room for the pizza and the rotisserie chicken which looked great in that huge rotisserie in the back. Oh yes, great mushroom soup - another wipe the plate clean with bread dish!
Time to go home! It'll be another year before we try to forage our way through San Francisco again! LOL! Not really! We'll probably be back to SF long before that! There are still a whole bunch of restaurants to try, such as Plouf's.
Firstly and lastly, thanks to all for your wonderful recommendations! Our favorite? Chez Papa's.
Feb 3rd, 2004, 11:10 AM
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Glad you had a good time and that you enjoy Chez Papa's, etc. and yes, you have to come back sooner and try more places. Sometimes I think it is very sad that first time visitors (not you I know) to SF limit their restaurant choices to the Wharf when the real beauty of SF dining is in small places like Chez Papa.
Feb 3rd, 2004, 02:54 PM
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SAB: You are so right! San Francisco is such a foodie's paradise that one could round a corner and find some little gem of a restaurant - reminds me of Europe and Paris in particular.
Guess if one is from some other part of the States or the world and is not used to fine dining, then the SF tourist restaurants are fine. In some other place, they probably would be considered as "gourmet".
dovima: My waistline expandeth as wide as my smile!
rjw: tsk! tsk! I have a picture of the plaque in Montmartre which gives the supposed origin of the word "bistro": Russians soldiers, who were stationed there and who needed a drink but didn't want their superior officers to find them drinking, would urge the bar owners to bring them wine "bistra, bistra (quickly! quickly!)" - ergo, the birth of the bistro, a place for a quick drink.
lanacan: If you go to Chez Papa's, go early and wander around the neighborhood. Funky little stores - a bookstore about the size of my bedroom, a knick-knack store with strange, dated merchandise which always leaves me wondering who all buys this stuff, a great little wine shop with an incredible selection, and other teeny-tiny neighborhood shops. After dinner, stand on the corner of 18th and Mariposa (where the Bistrot is situated) and look downhill along Mariposa at the superb view of downtown SF spread before you.
Chez Papa's is tiny also. You really do go for the food. The service is superb.
Ah! San Francisco! Next week! Next month! I can't wait to get back again! Thanks again, Fodorites!
Guess if one is from some other part of the States or the world and is not used to fine dining, then the SF tourist restaurants are fine. In some other place, they probably would be considered as "gourmet".
dovima: My waistline expandeth as wide as my smile!
rjw: tsk! tsk! I have a picture of the plaque in Montmartre which gives the supposed origin of the word "bistro": Russians soldiers, who were stationed there and who needed a drink but didn't want their superior officers to find them drinking, would urge the bar owners to bring them wine "bistra, bistra (quickly! quickly!)" - ergo, the birth of the bistro, a place for a quick drink.
lanacan: If you go to Chez Papa's, go early and wander around the neighborhood. Funky little stores - a bookstore about the size of my bedroom, a knick-knack store with strange, dated merchandise which always leaves me wondering who all buys this stuff, a great little wine shop with an incredible selection, and other teeny-tiny neighborhood shops. After dinner, stand on the corner of 18th and Mariposa (where the Bistrot is situated) and look downhill along Mariposa at the superb view of downtown SF spread before you.
Chez Papa's is tiny also. You really do go for the food. The service is superb.
Ah! San Francisco! Next week! Next month! I can't wait to get back again! Thanks again, Fodorites!
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