not to steal cat’s thunder or anything…

August 24, 2007 at 7:18 pm · Filed under asian, boba, drink

Tapioca Express0816071237.jpg
1522 Fillmore St.
TapiocaExpress.ws

Yes, yes, yes, I’m reviewing a boba place. Before you can say, “oh no she dih’enh!” let me just say that no, I didn’t. You see, one of my most esteemed colleagues recently started a boba blog. I am so incredibly proud. She is super thorough. You’ll find a link to her site on the right with all the rest of the links (and here: BOBALICIOUS). I would be honored to have her review the place I went to, in fact, I’d even treat her. 🙂 In any event, I was excited to find this place, so reviewing it only seemed natural.

Moving on. I know there’s a Tapioca Express in Berkeley, but I never went. It was all the way on Shattuck near University (like, a million blocks away). I didn’t go to that part of town often and I wasn’t about to start. But if I had gone, I wouldn’t have been disappointed.

I think if you googled Tapioca Express and Quickly you’d get some crazy chart comparing the two shops on every single level. I’m not neurotic, nor do I have that much time and patience. They seem pretty comparable. The interiors are both modern Asian – bright colors, minimalist, funky but trendy furniture. Express has a number of menu items, but at first glance it didn’t seem to have as many as Quickly. Express offers a variety of teas, juices, “snows”, etc, but perhaps a few short from Quickly’s menu.

Express has food, which looks like a higher quality. While Quickly offers udon and a lot of fried foods, Express pushes their bento style lunch combos with teriyaki and whatnot. I’ve yet to eat at either of these places.

0816071237c.jpgSo let’s get to the important part: the boba. I’ve had both regular milk tea and thai milk tea at both places. Express’ thai milk tea was definitely heavier on the tea side, so much so that I had to shake the drink a little to get the milk distributed evenly. The tea alone is a deep brown/orange color, which was very pretty to watch mix with the milk. It made the drink a little more bitter, but I liked that since it reminded me that I was in fact drinking tea. It’s also probably healthier to have less condensed milk in your drink.

Regular milk tea tasted a little different as well. Express was a little chocolatey, just a slight hint of it. Maybe a result of less milk? It was well mixed, but I suspect there was less milk in it than what’s put in at Quickly. And now for the boba! Express’ boba is pretty good. It has a nice texture: chewy – not soggy or hard. Their boba is flavored to be a little sweet and even, dare I say, a little floral! Maybe it was the sample of jasmine milk tea I tried right beforehand, maybe the tail end of summer is making me nostalgic… Whatever it is, I swear it tastes a little like smelling sweet, fragrant flowers.

There are different types of tapioca you can order with your drink (not unlike Quickly). You can get different flavored jelly bits or beans or pudding. It’s nice that they’re all priced the same ($.25), which I think is a rare distinction from Quickly.

Sadly, this place isn’t really priced like Quickly. For a regular-sized thai milk tea with boba, you’re gonna drop about $3. Regular-sized milk tea with boba? About $2.50. That’s unfortunate. An upside (perhaps) is that the combo meals I mentioned earlier include milk teas for $7-8. I’m unsure if this is a good thing as I’m hesitant to eat the food from there.0816071237b.jpg

They have free samples usually, which is nice. Their red plum milk tea is pretty sour, but tasty. The jasmine milk tea was super floral and very pleasant. I’m open to visiting the place occasionally, but this isn’t really going to help my boba addiction.

Overall: A decent boba place, but not too different from Quickly… Except in price. It’s a little steeper, but when you’re without options, it’s not gonna kill you. Lots of food and drink choices, basically your typical boba cafe. Oh, and they call it tapioca, not boba. And they correct you when you say boba, which is weird.

Rating: 7/10

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welcome to japantown

August 22, 2007 at 11:08 pm · Filed under american, asian, breakfast, brunch, hawaiian, japanese, sandwiches, sushi

May’s Coffee Shop08150712352.jpg
Kintetsu Mall, Japantown
1737 Post St. (near Buchanan St.)

So as stated in the last post, I got a new jobbie. Whoo hoo! While I’ll miss working in Chinatown (because, face it, where else will you get a nice lunch for under $1?), Japantown is my new love. I knew going into the area would be dangerous, it always is. You can lose an arm and a leg out there what with the good, expensive food and all the stuff you could buy! Never have I been so sad to have my cell phone – it doesn’t have a place to hook on a charm! And here I am, amongst a gazillion amazing charms. Life is rough.

Anyway, back to the food. Japanese food is a hardcore favorite of mine. When in doubt, Japanese will do just fine. Sadly, it’s almost always pricey. It would be a challenge to find an affordable lunch place…. We’ll see how I fare.

My first day consisted of a tour of the several different office buildings my organization is housed in. On the way from one to another, my supervisor took me on a detour and showed me a few things. We walked by May’s Coffee Shop and it looked less pricey than the rest. Sweet.

At lunchtime, my first official “working” lunch in Japantown, instead of opting for Denny’s (probably the most affordable place in the area, but not, uh, up to snuff for the area), I went back to the mall and checked out May’s menu. Lo and behold – they serve eggs! May’s became my new favorite spot.

The place isn’t really a restaurant.  It’s a little like an eatery with a counter you order at and picnic style tables surrounding it.  It’s nice in that it’s under skylights so it’s bright and sunny.  Not so great when it’s warm out, though.   You get the mall foot traffic walkin by and looking at you, but whatever.  This place is much better than any food court in any mall.  Ok, well, except for maybe the Westfield mall downtown.  It’s quaint and not intimidating at all (compared to the fancy Japanese restaurants throughout the mall).

Let’s back up for just a second. Last week bbg and I went to Mazatlan, Mexico for vacation. While there I had an epiphany: breakfast is my favorite meal. I love scrambled eggs with tons of pepper and a little bit of ketchup. Other than that, who doesn’t love sausage and pancakes and waffles and potatoes and everything else that comes with breakfast? Part of it has got to be sentimental. When I was growing up (and even today, though I don’t live there anymore) my dad would always make breakfast on the weekends. We’d have eggs and fried rice or potatoes and sausage or pancakes or whatever. So it’s a bit nostalgic for me. But seriously, most of it is because it tastes great. And it’s really difficult to mess up, so it’s always gonna be pretty satisfying.

Anyway, so yeah. For just under $5 you can get a combo with the following: eggs how you like them, toast, potatoes as you like them (hash or home fries with peppers and onions) or rice, and your choice of meat (sausage, spam!!, ham, bacon). Pretty amazing, I think, so I order that. The wait is about 10 minutes.

Beyond what I got, there are a variety of other combos to choose from and breakfast is served all day (again, hella awesome). You can order other breakfast items like waffles and omelettes. And of course, there are lunch items, the usual diner fare: sandwiches, salads, and hamburgers. There are Asian things like curries, Asian type sandwiches, hawaiian stuff, different udons, shaved ice (!), and spam masubi! There are specials everyday like spaghetti and stews, so basically it’s pretty hodgepodge (note the plethora of tags).

Like I said before, breakfast is easy, so no big complaints here. It was a bit greasy, so the shop on the whole is more of a diner than anything else. Or I guess coffee shop. Go figure. The eggs weren’t really fluffy, but they were good and cooked well. The home fried potatoes come cooked with slices of bell peppers and onions, which I tend to avoid in general. I tried a couple of the veggies, blah. Skipped the toast and the meat (I wasn’t that hungry), which was probably smart since those items would’ve increased my grease intake. Strangely, I couldn’t find any black pepper around for my eggs. I thought it’d be in the shaker next to the salt, but its contents turned out to be sesame seeds. Huh. Didn’t matter, they had ketchup and that’s just fine with me.

Overall: Probably your best bet in the neighborhood for lots of good-tasting food for a more than reasonable price. The menu’s filled with your basics, plus some Asian stuff, though a little greasy. But hey, I’m ok with that. I’ll be back. A lot.

Rating: 7/10

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new jobbie = celebration

July 25, 2007 at 10:17 pm · Filed under american, bar, irish

Kezar Pub and Restaurant0723072017.jpg
770 Stanyan St. (x Waller St.)

This week I was offered a jobbie, which is good because I’m in the market for a new one (seeing as summer camp is ending and all). To celebrate bbg took me out. Didn’t want to go far, so he suggested a bar near the Haight that he went to and got completely smashed at after law finals. Sounded like fun.

The bar itself is pretty great. You enter and there’s a standard bar on the right and tables and chairs on the left. High chairs and tables and then the regular kind, too. There are a TON of flat screen, HD tvs throughout the place. In the front area with the bar, probably about ten. In the back area where we sat there were ten different tvs playing four or so different things (soccer, then rugby, giants game, espn, and some auto show thing).

Past the bar and through an open doorway you come to the back area with two pool tables, a golf video game, and an updated jukebox. Yeah, classy. Plus more tables and chairs. The interior is a little dark, but not sleazy bar-like. The table was a little sticky, but not much more than your average Dennys. It’s actually pretty nice, like a nice Irish bar you’d see in a movie or something. There’s junk on the walls, but tastefully so. I enjoyed the old Niner pictures and photos of what Kezar stadium used to look like back in the day with the Niners played there.

There’s a wide variety of beers on tap. Sadly, the one that I wanted (hefeweizen) was all out. Blue Moon is just as good. I ordered the fish and chips, which I LOVE. While we were the only ones there eating a meal, the food took a little long to get to us. Not super long, just longer than I’d like. But it was worth the wait! The fish was yummy. The exterior was crunchy but not too greasy and not laid on too thick. Sometimes with fried food you get more of the fried stuff than the actual meat it’s covering. The meat itself was a nice cod – not very fishy, but tender and flavorful.

0723071925.jpgAnd the fries! They piled it on so much that I couldn’t finish them all – a rare occasion for me. The fries were a little under done, a little crispy and a little soft. Probably your standard frozen fare. I would have taken a nice little picture of the food, but I was in a daze from the beer and completely forgot until I had finished it all.

Unsurprisingly bbg ordered the pork bbq sandwich with fries and a sierra nevada. All were excellent, according to him. The sandwich was tasty and spicy so you’d order more beer. He couldn’t finish his fries either, tee hee.

Now, I haven’t had much bar food in my life time.  Call me dull, but it’s probably because I haven’t been to many bars.  My best comparison would be the nachos and pizza at Bear’s Lair, which sucks.  Sorry, but it does.  Against that, Kezar Pub is pretty excellent.  Hell, on it’s own it’s pretty good.  Beer’s relatively cheap, food’s good and at a reasonable price, atmosphere is pretty pleasant (ok, that last one’s just relative to other bars, not other restaurants).   The bar is a little noisy, especially with the Giants game over the PA system, but hey, it’s a bar.

Overall: A nice joint to watch the Cal game or Giants game and eat some dinner.  A fun change of pace.
Ranking: 8/10

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i’m back!

July 23, 2007 at 6:18 pm · Filed under date night, thai

I’ve been gone for awhile, so this might be rusty. While summer camp isn’t over– we’ve just finished week 5 (of 7 weeks)– I think we’re ok and a little sane-er now. We? The royal “we”, of course.

King of Thai Noodle House 2
346 Clement St. (x 5th Ave.)

No picture, sorry… I is lame. 😦

Ah, Clement, how I love thee. So full of cheap eats, it’s amazing. On this particular visit bbg and I agonized over where to eat. Lately I’ve been pushing to try new places instead of the same old spots. I vetoed the Red A Bakery and Hawaiian BBQ in general, so we were left to wander. We came across this happening spot that was still open a bit after 9 p.m. – which was getting to be our only requisite.

Enter the spot and it’s packed, tables mostly full. And damn, it’s noisy. The place looks like a cleaned up burger joint, but instead of ordering at the counter, you’re asked to wait by the door to be seated. The tiled floor, wall mirrors, and hard, pastel-painted walls bounce back every single word uttered in the place… It’s deafening. And obnoxious.

Tables are crammed together in the one giant room, all along the walls to seat 4-6 cats at a time, and in long tables in the center (seating probably about 10). While the family-style-serving restaurant is the hot new thing (so I hear), I’m not really keen on eating with strangers. Or moving out of the way as they try to shove past me. Oh well. At this point I’m thinking, it better be good.

The menu is pretty typical Thai with colorful curries and noodles and such. We order pad thai and cashew chicken, and two shakes later, there they are. Fast service? I’m beginning to like the place. The chicken is pretty tasty, although the sauce is thick, heavy, and a little too much of it. Good thing it comes with white rice. There’s veggies and plenty of nuts, your typical fare. The cashews add a nice bit of sweetness and the veggies are cooked to perfection: cooked but not soft, still a little crunch to them.

The pad thai, I’m sad to report, tasted a little cheesy. I once made pad thai with my kids in the after school program and described it as thai spaghetti, which some of them got as an analogy and others thought I meant it was a lot like spaghetti. Anyway, the point is this: this tasted so much like cheese that it was like thai spaghetti. Pretty Parmesan-esque. While my date didn’t see my point or taste cheese, I stand by my interpretation. I was unimpressed.

While we ate, the front entrance door slammed open and closed, people shouted over their late dinners and I developed a headache. The service was super nice and super fast, the food was good but maybe a little off that night. Basically, a nice place for a quick bite (we were in and out in about 45 minutes – which makes sense because the place was so small they needed to hurry everyone out), but not date night quality by a long shot. I’d try it again, especially since it seems like the only place open at that hour. But if my parents are in town I’d be better off some place else.

Overall: A quick bite, tricky food (you never know what you’re gonna get), soooooooo noisy!
Ranking: 4/10

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hiatus

June 18, 2007 at 7:08 pm · Filed under Uncategorized

sorry folks, but until i adjust to the madness and chaos that is summer camp, i’ll be absent for awhile… 🙂 peas.

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the choicest!

June 7, 2007 at 10:10 pm · Filed under the choicest, vietnamese

Cordon Bleu
1574 California St. (x Polk St.)

photo: top is yelp.com, rest are mine

When bbg and I first started dating he told me about this hole-in-the-wall place and how it was his favorite restaurant EVAH! So of course, the right of passage into the relationship involved a trip out there. We BARTed over, went to a baseball game, then cable car-ed it up California St. to the restaurant.

I was impressed when we ate there together for the first time. It defined “dive” and the food was good. It holds a spot in my heart, so it’s the choicest.

What you see in the photo to the right is about all there is in the restaurant, if you can even call it that. The place seats a total of about 10 people – no joke! There’s a counter and behind it is the grill where everything is made. Since the grill is so massive and the counter is so close to it, you can actually feel a great deal of heat radiate off the thing. It gets pretty hot, especially if you’re not sitting by the door.

About three feet from the counter is the wall, so it’s a tight squeeze if you ever want to make it to the rear of the place. Towards the back are two small tables with a few chairs, but more than likely there’s stuff on the tables so you can’t really sit there (sometimes they’re empty, but I’ve seen large bags of meat on them once, and also a large meat slicer you see in delis). There’s also a bathroom that’s the size of an airplane’s bathroom. It’s usually pretty clean. Cordon Bleu overall is all about the food, so there’s nothing interesting about the interior besides the fact that it’s so damn small. I went there today and they had some photos on the wall, framed pictures of brightly colored flowers. Something you’d buy in a pack at Ikea. Otherwise, it’s just painted brick as far as the eye can see.

The staff is pretty quick to serve you. There are usually two people working the counter, and they’re always the same people! No matter when you go, there they are, so obviously a family business. There’s also an old guy who comes in and out of the mysterious back room with vats of meat and other supplies. It’s fascinating to observe.

There are 5 meals which include some combination of the following: beef, chicken, and imperial roll. All the meals come with rice topped with meat sauce and “country salad”. They have other stuff, like noodle salad and I swear I saw someone eat soup there one time, but it wasn’t on the menu today so I don’t know if that’s even close to correct. They’ve added veggie items like garlicky tofu and such, but seriously, eat the meat. Everything is cooked where meat has been cooked, so it’s not like it’s pure or anything anyway.

The meat sauce is tasty. It’s a little spicy and has bits of ground beef in it. You could make a meal with only rice and meat sauce, it stands well on its own, very hearty. The country salad is really just pickled shredded cabbage, but good if you like that stuff. The beef is sliced very thin and so it tastes like teriyaki beef jerky. It’s full of flavor and a little tough, but I like beef jerky so it’s pretty good chow. The 5 spice chicken is also good, but a bit dry since you get the upper part of the chicken (a breast and the wing, all attached). The imperial rolls are massive. They’re filled with meat, rice noodles, and pickled carrots. The rolls are wrapped in a crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside wrapper and deep fried. With the sweet dipping sauce, it’s heaven.

cordon bleu #5!We usually order the #5, which has a few slices of beef, a big piece of chicken, imperial roll, meat sauce with rice, and country salad. I can never finish more than half of the meal, so for $8 I get two meals! Not a bad deal at all. Like most of bbg’s favorite places, Cordon Bleu is big on quantity. But, it’s also very big on quality. While it lacks in atmosphere, it’s a meal I’m always up for and often crave. Sure, it may not be authentic Vietnamese food (I hear the owners are Chinese), but quit judging! They make good food and they’re nice people, I like giving them my money.

Like I said before, it’s really cheap and they only take cash. And it’s popular. Sure, it’s incredibly small, hell, two people is crowded… but I’ve seen people wait in line to order take-out, as well as a dozen or so people call in orders and pick them up while I sat for an hour and ate.

Overall: Maybe not date night quality in terms of setting, but still quality food… Maybe take out? Not for veggie people, but if you like meat and starch, this is your place! They do it right.

Rating: 10/10

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we should TOTALLY open our own restaurant out of our apartment

June 7, 2007 at 6:40 pm · Filed under date night, thai

Ploy II
1770 Haight St. (x Shrader St.)

Photo: yelp.com (someday I’ll take my own pictures)

Combine a craving for Thai and the unwillingness to walk very far for it and you’ve got date night! Friday night we decided to eat out and a quick search on google showed that Ploy II was probably our best option.

The restaurant is above a shop, so it’s a little tricky to find. There’s a light up sign, but the entrance is literally the width of the door squished between an apartment entrance gate and a little shop. If you’re not paying attention, you might accidentally stumble into noodle house, which doesn’t serve Thai, btw.

Make it to the door and you’re met with a steep set of stairs. You end up in a hallway and instantly think, hey, am I in someone’s apartment? Answer: you’re in a restaurant that used to be an apartment. A Victorian style apartment, to be exact. It feels a little musty with the carpeting and wood paneling on the walls, plus it’s pretty tight on space. Tables are arranged every which way in order to maximize the place’s capacity. Homey. Or cramped. Because there are so many people in such a small area, expect it to be loud. Try not to talk about personal stuff, because everyone around you can hear… except for your date across the table.

The insides are decorated with the usual Thai artifacts, complete with animals made out of shells and scary wooden masks of dragons and stuff. The waitresses are dressed in long skirts with matching tops. I’ve been to a lot of Thai restaurants and I’m wondering if they all used the same interior decorator and had the same ideas about how to dress the staff. Maybe there’s a kit you can buy…

This particular date night we had trouble deciding where to go and what to eat. After much debate we found out about Ploy II and heard nothing but good things about it. Wandered in way after 8pm on a Friday night and we were seated immediately. The rest of the night the service was sloooow. The place was packed (almost all of the tables were occupied) and it looked like two or three staff were working the tables. It took forever to get the food, then to get it cleared, and extra forever to get the check. But the staff acknowledged the wait and apologized profusely. Sometimes places don’t care that they kept you waiting, so it was a nice change of pace and made us very less annoyed.

We ordered soup, pad thai, and black pepper beef. The soup was excellent! It’s a very tangy, slightly spicy soup with pieces of boiled chicken, mushrooms, and lemongrass. The chicken was dry, but the mushrooms were great. I’m not a fan of the mushrooms you get with Vietnamese food, and sometimes at Thai places they put those in the soup. Here we had plain white mushrooms, and they were yummy. Big thumbs up for the soup.

The pad thai was decent. It came with the usual stuff: bean sprouts, fried tofu, peanuts, lime, green stuff. There were too many sprouts and the noodles were a little more chewy than I would have liked, but it was pretty tasty. The black pepper beef was underwhelming for me. It was just beef smothered in pepper. I feel like I could’ve done better at home and on my own. Had to eat it with lots of rice. Blah. Their Thai iced tea was pretty good, though. A little on the sweet side, but you get to mix it yourself and that’s always fun.

Overall: Not really impressed by the atmosphere, the food is just ok. Don’t bring a big group, you’ll never get seated. The wait staff is nice, but that balances out with the long wait for service.

Rating: 5/10

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sweet or savory, i like ’em all

June 2, 2007 at 5:26 pm · Filed under breakfast, brunch, crepes, french, sandwiches, tea & coffee

Crepevine
*216 Church St. (x Market St.)
624 Irving St. (x 7th Ave.)
2301 Fillmore St. (x Clay St.)
*5600 College Ave. (x Ocean View Dr.), Oakland

*Locations I’ve been to

photo: yelp.com, Oakland location, but they all feature this menu.

I first went to Crepevine because my friend Nancy demanded me to. We went with a group of friends to the one in Oakland, not too far from Rockridge BART. At the time I thought it was a nice little local spot with some good food.

When I moved to the City and started exploring, I discovered a Crepevine on Irving St. and thought to myself, “Hey! They have one in SF, too!” As I made my way to other parts of the City I soon discovered that Crepevine is a small chain, with two additional locations in the Fillmore and the Castro. I felt silly.

But that hardly mattered since Crepevine offers some quality food. The restaurants are usually in busy streets, snuggled between small shops and coffee spots. All of the SF locations make sense: Irving, Castro, Fillmore…. all popular hangouts for city folk, places that you’d probably go to looking for brunch.

Crepevine has a pretty large menu of sandwiches, salads, breakfast foods (pancakes, french toast), and coffees. The draw, though, are its crepes and omelets, so it sells itself as a breakfast/brunch/lunch spot. There are lots of options and the combinations are somewhat predictable for all the food, but I suppose you go with what works. Both times I went I ended up ordering the Santa Fe crepe, and both times it was great.

Crepes come with a side of salad and a large portion of potatoes. The salad is a simple green salad with a light, vinegarette/thousand island kind of dressing that’s good if it doesn’t drench the greens. The potatoes make the meal look good, but fall short of impressing me. The potatoes are warm and soft on the inside, but unfortunately they’re overcooked on the outside, rendering them too tough and chewy. They’re flavored, but it was hard to figure out with what since they had a strange other taste, maybe from the fat or whatever they were cooked with. They’re ok, but I love potatoes and if I couldn’t bring myself to finish this portion, they must not have been so great. What I did manage to eat, I ate with lots of ketchup.

The crepe itself, however, was excellent. The crepe is thin, soft and a little crispy at the edges. The Santa Fe comes with apple sausage, cheese, salsa fresca, and scrambled eggs. Everything inside was well portioned and tasty. The sausage was a nice blend of sweet and salty, very juicy. It mixed well with the cheese. The eggs were also very good and went well with the salsa. Usually I eat eggs with ketchup (it was how I was raised, sorry if it’s strange) and pepper, but since everything mixed so well, I didn’t need any of that, which surprised me.

One of my lunch mates had an omelet and from where I was sitting, it didn’t look that great. I expect omelets to be eggs mixed with its ingredients and then cooked. Apparently here the egg is cooked and the ingredients are folded in, sort of like an enclosed pita. The egg “shell” was thin and wrapped a large serving of spinach and whatever else was supposed to come with it. On the one hand it’s great that the omelet was stuffed to the brim with her favorite things, on the other, the proportion of egg to insides upset me. Maybe I’m just sensitive.

The sweet crepes are difficult to screw up. They serve them large and heavy on whatever it is that makes them sweet: whip cream, strawberries, chocolate, apples and cinnamon, bananas, caramel, whatever. You’ll find the usual sweet crepe combinations here, they all seem good. When I went to the restaurant in Oakland, my dinner mates and I (about 6 of us total) split two of the sweet crepes, and that was more than enough. Very decadent, which is how desserts should be.

The interior is like a large coffee shop, with wooden floors and plenty of tables. You order at the counter and they’ll bring your food to you, so long as they remember to give you your number. Most of the places are on nice main streets, with windows you can look out and people watch. Spacious and homey, a nice place to hang out for some grub.

Overall: Great main dishes, side dishes leave something to be desired. Sweet crepes are excellent. Wide variety, so you should find something you like. Good combinations, nice place for brunch.  But, at $8 a pop, not some place super necessary to visit.

Rating: 7/10

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too cool for school

June 2, 2007 at 3:28 pm · Filed under american, burger

Taylor’s Automatic Refresher
1 Ferry Building (on the Embarcadero)
taylorsrefresher.com

photos: yelp.com

I’m such a huge fan of burgers and fries. If I could have my way, I’d eat a nice big ol’ burger with tons of greasy fries all day, everyday. When in doubt, you can never go wrong with a burger. It’s safe, it’s tasty, it’s so incredibly bad for you. But, we should indulge every once and awhile.

I went to Taylor’s with bbg and his family as a bon voyage dinner for his uncle. We met up after work for some good food since it’s not too far from where I work, it’s a short walk from BART and bbg’s dad’s office. What better way to start off a summer long bike ride across the country at 60 years old than a nice, heavy, fattening burger with a root beer float? Exactly what I thought.

Taylor’s represents the City well: it’s a hip, stylish, probably healthier version of something that’s probably not good for you. They take an ordinary hamburger and put a city spin on it while the restaurant itself is a modern, cooler version of old burger joints and malt shops you see in movies. It’s hipster. Taking what’s old and not-so-great and making it the thing everyone else wants. Such is the City, in so many ways. But I don’t mind it, especially when the food is good.

The interior of the place is much like a diner. There are stools to sit at high tables and counters. There’s a lot of metal to make everything sleek and diner-esque. There’s even a giant neon sign reminding you what you came to the restaurant to do, in case you forgot. Very smooth. There are large windows to let in tons of light, or maybe they’re there to let everyone walking on the Embarcadero see you eat at such a happenin’ place. Outside is where it’s at, though. There are tons of wooden picnic tables fenced off from the sidewalk where you’ll see dozens of twenty or thirty-somethings with stunna shades gather for a beer after work while the sun is still out. Very cool, like I said.

What’s great is that this isn’t a sit-down place. You order at a counter with some cool-talking cats, and wait for your number to be called (or buzzer to buzz). You pick up your food at the pick-up station and condiments at the condiment counter – no tip required! I’m a fan.

The food itself is great, but not so cheap. While most burger places have some kind of combo meal, Taylor’s ain’t no McDonalds. Everything is bought separately, which makes your meal deceptively pricey. It’s true that burgers are only $6 – $8, but when you had $2 fries and a $4 beer, your bill adds up pretty quickly. $15 for a meal? For burgers and fries? What?

so amazingly beautifulWhile you wouldn’t want to make this place a nightly affair, it’s more than worth splurging on every once and awhile (once a week, perhaps?). I opted for the Texas burger, which comes with jack cheese, guacamole, salsa fresca, and jalapeños on an egg bun. Man, that was tasty. The burgers are on the small side, but you’re paying for the guilt-free meat (natural, hormone free, that is). My burger was amazing. There was plenty of guac, which I think is the draw of that burger, so it makes sense. The guacamole was thick and a little spicy, but like most guacamoles, wasn’t much more than glorified mashed avocados. The salsa fresca was bland and watery, so basically little pieces of tomato. There were plenty of jalapeños which made my meal very spicy and therefore delicious. Overall, very nice.

There are lots of other burger choices like burgers on sourdough with bbq sauce, burgers with bleu cheese, burgers with bacon, and on and on and on. While there are about 10 different fancy burgers you could get, Taylor’s stays true to its Americana roots (or is it just inspiration?) and features plain burgers and cheeseburgers as well.

We also got side orders of regular fries and sweet potato fries (which are SO in right now). This being San Francisco and all, you can also order garlic fries. Other favorite sides include chili cheese fries and onion rings. I’m a fan of the sweet potato fries, which are sliced very thin so the fries are really crispy. They’re a dark, burnt orange color and very flavorful. The menu describes them as “dusted in chili spice”, but I didn’t notice. Maybe because of all the jalapeños. Regular french fries are of shoestring descent, so they’re pretty crispy too.

Besides burgers there are soups, sandwiches, salads, and of course, being on the Embarcadero, seafood. No one in my group got them, so I don’t know much about those. I’m going to be bold and say that if you don’t get a burger here, you’re an idiot. I mean, burgers are the whole point here, duh.

I appreciate that Taylor’s goes all out with the burger/diner theme and sells soda fountain drinks like shakes and root beer floats. The shakes can be simple (chocolate, vanilla, strawberry), but being SF, we gotta throw in flavors like espresso bean and white pistachio, too. I also like that Taylor’s has hot dogs and CORN DOGS!! I had a hankering for corn dogs a while back, but alas could not find any place that sold them (where’s a wiener schnitzel when you need one?). Sadly, I didn’t have a chance to try one, so I have good reason to go back.

Last best part of this place: local beers! If you’re eating red meat, real ice cream shakes, and deep fried potatoes, might as well go all out and drink some non-light beer too. They feature Anchor’s Steam and Fat Tire, plus other beers I can’t remember. If you’re feeling adventurous, try a beer called “Moose’s Drool” and let me know how that worked out for you.

Overall: A hip, stylish place to grab some amazingly delicious, American-style grub. A bit pricey, and possibly too cool for school, but worth the effort with all it’s great choices. Beautiful place to sit for a beer while the sun sets. Bring shades!

Rating: 9/10

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backyard berkeley

May 30, 2007 at 10:37 pm · Filed under brunch, thai

cimg4285.jpgThai Buddhist Temple – Wat Mongkolratanaram
1911 Russell St. (x MLK Jr. Way), Berkeley

In the four years I lived in Berkeley, I’ve heard of the Thai Temple Brunch and always wanted to go, but never managed to actually make it there. Places beyond the southside of campus were like another world: too far away to actually explore without great preparation. Sure, I was lazy and took things for granted, but I went eventually (with a little help from my friends) and that’s all that matters.

For a glorified backyard shindig, this brunch is put together very well. It happens only on Sundays, 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. and it’s really a sight to see. As you approach the place, it looks like just a regular temple swarming with people. Walk around back and you’ll find even more people sitting at tables crammed into every space, waiting in long lines, meandering, etc.

The temple has a great system set up. I’ve been to other community events selling food and sometimes, when it’s not well organized, it can be a disaster: People waiting in long lines while volunteers struggle to calculate change or explain menus, kids running around everywhere, people waiting for food to cook, blah blah blah. Here, all the money is handled by one counter where everyone needs to buy tokens. 1 token = 1 dollar. With tokens in hand, you’re ready to wait in a variety of lines for a variety of foods.

One line is dedicated to drinks. You can get a regular soda, but please, if you’re eating Thai, you need to drink a Thai iced tea, I’m insulted otherwise. The teas go for 1 token and are poured by pros. They make big batches and fill cups with ice quickly. Alls you need to do is drop your token in the basket and grab your drink, or wait 5 minutes while they prep the next batch.

There are lines also dedicated to desserts like mangoes with sticky rice, taro pancakes, etc. There’s a line each for papaya salad, vegitarians, meat dishes, and BBQ chicken. The lines were long, so I opted for the very short BBQ chicken line near the end, behind most of the tables and out of the way.

They gave me a ton of chicken! A whole leg, plus rice and dipping sauce. The chicken was flavorful, not at all dry. The woman chopped it up infront of me on a big wooden block with a giant cleaver. It was awesome. The rice is suuuuuuuper sticky, like one big blob sticky. Tastes like rice, just a different consistency than what I’m used to. The Thai iced tea was delicious. They pour big glasses, which is awesome. It’s a little on the sweet side, so don’t drink it if you’re looking to watch your girly figure.

cimg4286.jpgOther items like pad thai and tofu looked good. The mangoes and sticky rice are tasty. One of my friends had some spring rolls, but alas they contained too much cilantro and in inconsistent portions throughout the rolls, so he only ate about half. My plate was 4 tokens, plus another token for the drink. Total: $5, no tax and for a good cause (all money goes to the temple). Well worth waiting in line for, especially on a nice day with friends. Opt to sit outside on the grass, near the library on the corner… A great spot to people watch and munch. Be prepared to fight for a spot, though.

Any downsides? Sure. The place is pretty crowded, so word’s out that this is the happenin’ spot. You’ll run into a lot of UCB kids (I was with about 5 of them, plus I’m an alumna, so there you go), so if that annoys you, prepare to be irritated. There are a good number of locals, so it must be worth it. Seating is limited, you’ll have to sit next to strangers if you’re looking to eat a table. I also hear that they run out of food as they get closer to 2 p.m. We showed up around 11:30 a.m. and it didn’t seem like they were out of anything. Lastly, there aren’t really any signs for any of the lines. There’s one big one above the token booth telling you prices for different plates and identifying it as the place to buy tokens, but that’s about it. Check the front of the line before you start waiting, or if you’re not sure, ask the person infront of you. Otherwise, rely on your friends to direct you. 🙂

Overall: A great place to be with friends and sun for some excellent and cheap Thai food. There are crowds and annoying people, but you can get past that.
Rating: 8/10

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