Ebisu Visited 5/08/2011 3.5 Forks

Ebisu 1283 9th Ave., (between Irving St & Lincoln Way), San Francisco, CA 94122

 I was super excited to try this place because it had gotten great reviews on Yelp.  SF is known for its great fresh seafood and sushi is no exception.  I was actually a huge fan of the neighborhood...it seemed really low key and laid back and not in the trendy parts of the city.  It kind of reminded me of Brooklyn a bit. 

The inside of the restaurant was quite nice.  Fancy but not to the point where you felt like you were out of place in jeans and flip flops.  We started the meal with scallops wrapped in bacon (not very Japanese but who doesn't like bacon wrapped anything?).  They were a bit small and just ok.  I mean it's hard to go wrong with scallops and bacon but there was nothing that wow'd me.  We then ordered 4 different rolls.  The #29 roll ($13), the cherry blossom roll ($11), the QP roll ($7) and the crunchy roll ($8).  The QP roll was supposed to come spicy but it barely registered on my spice palate.  I did like that it had very fresh and large pieces of raw scallop in the middle but there was hardly any mayo or spice.  Next the cherry blossom roll came with lots of large salmon roe on top, which I personally love but Dan wasn't a fan of.  I will say that there was so much roe that it was pretty salty with each bite.  The crunchy roll came wrapped in a thin soybean paper and it was made with a bit too much rice.  Each mouthful was like eating an entire spoonful of carbs.  Lastly the #29 roll was just huge (pictured).  I forgot that the menu said that it was yellowtail, tuna, and salmon deep fried.  I just saw the fish part and totally blocked out that it was fried.  I wish that I had paid more attention because the deep fry totally made it taste not fresh and clean like what I normally associate with sushi.  It tasted warm and cooked, which is not what I like to think of when I have sushi.  


Overall, it would be a great neighborhood joint and they apparently also own the sushi place across the street, so I could see myself coming here often if I lived nearby.  But it's definitely not a destination sushi place, which is what I thought it would be.

Le Garage Visited 5/7/2011 3.5 Forks

Le Garage 85 Liberty Ship Way, Ste 109, Sausalito, CA 94965

While my friend's wedding was in Sonoma, a bunch of us decided to check out Sausalito for brunch on Saturday.  I had always wanted to go there and a good friend of mine was renting a house out there, so it made sense to meet up there.  Before I left for SF I had done a quick search of brunch places in Sausalito and this place kept coming up.  It sounded like it was right on the water and had a fancy brunch menu so it seemed like the perfect fit.  


Getting there is a bit difficult.  While there is a main downtown drag, this place is in a ship yard away from all the main action.  The parking was weird in that even though there is tons of parking, it's all private, so you are forced to do valet ($3), which was annoying.  But the location of this place was perfect.  It was literally right on the water and surprise, surprise, inside an old garage.  It's a great open air restaurant and really gives you that California feel.   Another great perk was that despite being a group of 8, we were seated immediately since another large group in front of us weren't all there.  So it pays off to all car pool together!


The menu looked promising with classic brunch items such as french toast, eggs benedict, croque madams/monsieur and fancy omelets.  We ordered hand cut fries for the table and I had to get the eggs benedict ($14).  Sadly they don't have a liquor menu, so they don't have bloody mary's or other fun brunch cocktails but you can get mimosas and some beers.  Having fun cocktails is kind of half the fun on a day like this.  The fries came out first and they were were kind of skinny for hand cut fries but they came with a great side of aoli (does anyone restaurant not serve aoli these days?) but they just needed to be thicker and crisper.  Our main dishes came out shortly later and they were just ok.  The benedict did not come out on an english muffin but thick french cut bread and they were kind of small in size.  The hard french bread just wasn't an adequate substitute for a soft english muffin.  The egg was nicely poached but there was just something off about it.  I did enjoy the potatoes as they were roasted just right but I would have preferred more benedict and less potatoes.  Dan's croque madam looked good but a bit bready and Aarti didn't seem to love her Oeuf  a la coque, she mentioned that the thick bread with heavy butter was extremely dense.  I was glad that everyone else seemed to like their food, but I just wish that the food matched the great ambiance.  But I was glad that we were all able to all sit together in a restaurant by the water on a beautiful Saturday afternoon.  Total $23/pp.     

Swan Oyster Depot Visited 5/6/2011 4.25 Forks

Swan Oyster Depot 1517 Polk St., (between California St & Sacramento St), San Francisco, CA 94109

 As soon as I found out I was going back to SF, I knew I wanted to go to a seafood joint.  There just aren't that many fresh seafood places in NYC.  We headed over to this place as soon as we landed in SF.  It's in the Russian Hill area of SF and it's super tiny.  There is only counter seating and there is about 18 seats total.  Unfortunately, we got there at exactly noon, so right during the lunch time rush. 


There was a line when we got there but luckily we didn't have to wait forever, maybe 30 minutes? The place is definitely filled with locals and tourists alike.  The menu is listed on the wall and there's basically seafood salads, seafood cocktails, oysters, chowder, and cracked crab.  I had read on 7x7's 100 things to eat before you die in SF and their cracked crab was listed as #100 so that was on my mind the whole time.  In retrospect, I kind of wish I had gotten something else instead.  That's not to say that the crab wasn't good but I ended up not having room for a seafood salad, which looked delicious and what everyone else was getting.


We split a bowl of clam chowder ($5) which was extremely creamy and buttery tasting but it wasn't that "chowder" in texture.  I would have liked it to be a little more thick and meaty in texture and perhaps with more clams.  We then got a dozen mixed oysters ($26) which were amazing.  I don't remember all the different types but there were some that I loved, some that were too salty and some that were just ginormous in size.  But it was great to be able to try so many different types of super super fresh oysters in one sitting.  If they weren't expensive, I would have gotten another round.  Next we got the half cracked crab ($18) and as someone who grew up with bushels of blue crabs, the size of this half crab was pretty sad.  It was literally 5 legs and some of the body that was pre-cracked and it came with side of louie sauce (pretty much 1,000 island dressing).  I will say that the crab was extremely fresh but I just wanted more. It was such a tease to get such a small portion. I looked over next to me and everyone had gotten a seafood combo salad, which was a bunch of fresh shrimp and crab on a bed of lettuce drowning in louie sauce.  Yum.  But the salad was another $20, so we opted for the seafood cocktail instead ($9) which was a handful of oysters, shrimp and crab in a small cocktail glass with cocktail sauce in it.  It was good but after seeing everyone else eat something else, I made me kind of sad.


I give this place really high marks for ambiance.  It's just old school and everyone who works there is old school as well (except for the high schoolers working there).  They were all super knowledgeable and made you feel like an old friend. I could see how locals keep coming back.  The guy next to me had said that he goes there once a week, so jealous.  Next time I go, I will know exactly what to order.  Our total bill with beers was $98 (cash only). 

Adour Visited 5/4/2011 3.5 Forks

Adour The St. Regis, 923 K St NW, Washington, DC 20050

 Talk about fancy.  This is the first Alain Ducasse restaurant I have been to, so I was pretty excited to see what he is all about.  He is an extremely well-known French chef and holds a 3 star Michelin restaurant in London, so there were high hopes for this place to blow my mind.  My initial reaction to the ambiance and service was that it took fine dining to a new level for me.  It was almost too high brow.  First, the restaurant was carpeted! It takes a lot of balls to go with white carpeting in your restaurant...I can only imagine all the cleaning and shampooing that rug must undergo each day to keep it as clean as it was.  Our waiter was wearing a very fine business suit and was just so serious that it made me feel like I was a kid at an adults only party.

I believe the menu is French inspired but it didn't scream French food.  There were several fish main entrees and a few cuts of steak and then the tasting menu.  We started with the cheese plate and then I got the Wagyu beef cheek ($37) and we also all split mac and cheese ($8) - which I thought was a bit weird to have on the menu.  They start out with giving you these small cheese puff pastries, which were quite warm and delicious and then an amuse bouche of ginger carrot soup.  The soup was more of a gazpacho since it was cold and it was topped with a bit of chili oil to give it some heat.  You could definitely taste the carrot and ginger but I'm generally not a huge fan of cold soups.  It kind of seems like an oxymoron to me.  Next they offer you your choice of bread, but I didn't see any butter.  Not sure if that was intentional or not, but probably better for my health anyways. Our cheese plate came out and I thought that in a place like this they would stand there and tell you about the cheeses and jams. Instead, they just put the plate down and walked away.  One was definitely a blue cheese and one was a light brie, but I wasn't sure about the other 2 (both hard mild cheeses).  Cheese is always tastes great to me, so no complaints there.  I wasn't a huge fan of the jams actually.  One was very bitter tasting and the others just didn't add anything to the cheeses for me.  They also served the cheese with this really fabulous toasted bread, but it just didn't seem to be the right vehicle for the cheese.  It seemed more appropriate for butter and jam since it was a very thick piece of bread. 

There was a significant lag between our cheese dish and main entrees but luckily I was pretty full from the cheese.  One of the reason I got the beef cheek was because it came with polenta.  But when the dish came out, the beef cheek was on the dish with a garnish of lots of sauteed onions and the polenta was in a side dish.  I guess maybe it's an Asian thing but I like to have my main entree on a "bed" of something or at least on the same plate so that I can combine them into one bite.  But that's not really a huge deal breaker or anything.  I will say that the beef cheek was extremely tender and soft.  I've never had beef cheek before so I'm not sure what I was expecting but it almost looked like a small pieces of steak but with a more pulled meat texture. The meat was fabulous but I didn't really care for the onions on the dish.  My co-workers got the lobster (which looked AMAZING.  I wish I had gotten that) and the cod (also looked very tasty but small).  The mac and cheese came in these small pots and while they were definitely good (how can you really go wrong with cheese and pasta?) it didn't taste any different than mac and cheese I've gotten in less fancier places.  At a place like this, I would have expected a touch of truffle oil or something like that.  For dessert, we got the roasted pineapple and chocolate cake.  They also serve you complimentary macaroons (which they are apparently famous for) and chocolates.  They also had a great sounding souffle on the menu but it takes 20 minutes to make, so I wish the waiter had told us about it earlier so we could have pre-ordered it.  The pineapple dish sounded good because it said it came with rice pudding (which I love) but when it came out, the pudding was more like a thin decorative layer rather than an actual bite.  Both desserts were certainly sweet and beautiful looking and put me over in the edge in terms of fullness. 

The overall experience was just very adult.  Everyone there was clearly either super wealthy or there on business.  I got this feeling that I probably shouldn't have shown up in jeans and a t-shirt. :)  But they didn't make me feel bad about that, it was more of my own feeling.  The service was definitely 5 forks and very attentive, but the food wasn't 5 forks.  It was good but not amazing and I'm just glad that I was able to expense it.  Total bill was $330 (with tip for 3 people).

Niwano Hana Japanese Restaurant Visited 5/3/2011 3 Forks

Niwano Hana 887 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852

I came home for a quick business trip this week but since it was also Mother's Day weekend I figured I would treat my mom to dinner out while I was here. She originally was thinking Seasons 52 (I live in the 'burbs obviously) since it just opened by the new Whole Foods down the street but after looking at the menu, it wasn't really speaking to either of us.  It was basically just a lot of "organic" salads and pastas, so nothing really exciting.  We both love sushi and it was getting kind of late, so she picked Niwano since it was 5 minutes from home. 


I've been here before and didn't remember too much from it except that the spicy scallop roll came with hot scallop on top.  The place is not fancy at all, but a level above your local strip mall sushi.  Unfortunately they were out of the special farm fresh scallop roll that I really wanted.  We ordered the Choice of Sashimi ($23), a dynamite roll ($6) and a hot spicy scallop roll ($8).  The meal came with 2 salads, which was basically just some torn iceberg lettuce with tons of the ginger dressing poured on top.  I liked the fact that the sashimi was just tuna, salmon and yellowtail, so that "big 3" so to speak.  These are your traditionally decent types of fish and in especially in a non-fancy place like this I think it's a good bet.  I don't think I would have trusted the other, more fancier types of fish (like the ones we got at Hibino and Blue Ribbon) here.  You could just tell by looking at the fish that the quality was definitely much lower quality higher end places.  It's still completely edible but just the look and taste of the fish is a notch below.  The rolls were just ok too.  I'm just not a fan of the hot fish on top of my roll but it was the closest thing to a spicy scallop roll I could get.  The dynamite roll was a big disappointment.  They said on the menu that it was 4 pieces, so I assumed they would be 4 large wide pieces.  Instead they were 4 small but very tall pieces of sushi and you couldn't really taste the fish inside.  All you could taste was the spicy chili powder they put on top. 


The service was totally fine and the prices were reasonable.  If you're looking for a affordable but not the highest quality (but not deli level sushi) place in Rockville, this totally fits the bill.  Total bill with tip $48.

Hibino Visited 5/1/2011 4 Forks

Hibino 333 Henry St., (between Atlantic Ave & Pacific St), Brooklyn, NY 11201

 I had been craving sushi for the past few days so when we were out in the Boreum Hill area for afternoon drinks and Dan's friend had mentioned that this place was right down the street from the bar we were at, I got really excited.  It is located on a quiet, unassuming street and the inside has a really clean and modern feel to it.  This place seems slightly upscale but yet was very welcoming and comforting at the same time.  I heard that it was a pretty authentic Japanese restaurant and I definitely got that feeling as soon as I walked in the door.  There are tons of sushi places in the city that are run my non-Japanese people but this place, from the hostess to the waitstaff to the sushi chefs, were all Japanese.  I had also heard that the star of the food here is actually the tapas small plates, but by the time we got there at 9:00pm on Sunday they were all out of these dishes.  The rest of the menu is pretty streamlined and simple.  It's not one of those places where they offer a tons of '"fancy" sounding rolls.  They have very simple and basic sounding rolls and sushi or sashimi plates.  


We got to sit at the bar and watch them make all the dishes and so I knew they used all fresh ingredients.  We ordered the sashimi plate ($24), the spicy scallop roll ($6) and the yellow tail jalapeno roll ($5.50).  In retrospect I wish I had ordered the homemade tofu and seaweed salad too, but that's for next time!  As you can see, the prices are extremely reasonably priced for the quality of the food that you are getting.  It was almost a bit shocking to see such a beautiful place have food priced within reason.  My only complaint would be that the sashimi plate didn't come with a soup or salad, which is something you kind of expect these days.  The sashimi had about 15 pieces of fish: salmon, tuna, amberjack, yellowtail, white fish, scallop, and white tuna.  They were all really fresh tasting and the scallop was truly melt in your mouth.  The one slightly weird thing was that there was a small piece of beef? It was a very melt in your mouth small piece of meat but it was just a bit bizarre to see it on a plate full of sashimi. The rolls really hit the spot and were done well (although they were just as good as some other places I've been to).  The jalapeno definitely packed a punch and the spicy mayo on the scallop roll was done with the right amount of kick.  I would have liked just a bit less rice on the rolls but they were definitely not the monster sized rolls that you sometimes get at sushi places these days.  I saw a few other type of rolls that the chefs were making but I didn't see them on the menu, so next time I would definitely ask if there are any specials (and now that I am on their website I do see a few yummy sounding rolls that I didn't know about, damn).

The service was what you would expect from a well run Japanese restaurant.  Very nice and efficient.  Overall, it was a great meal but next time we go, I want to go early so that we can at least try some of their specials of the day.  Total bill with tip $52.

Trix Visited 4/30/2011 2 Forks

Trix 145 Bedford Ave, Brooklyn, NY

Dan and I had originally planned on going to the new Mole outpost in Williamsburg but as we were walking there we noticed that this place was open.  Now, the only reason why we even bothered entertaining the idea of eating here was because his friend Greg used to live right next door and for years we would watch as they took forever to build and open this restaurant.  I mean, seriously, we had watched for at least 5 years as they started construction, stopped construction and then started up again.  So we felt like it was almost our duty to check it out.

Given how long it has taken them to open this place, I should have known that it would be a bad experience.  Now, I understand that there will be bumps in the road when you first open a restaurant, but this place seemed like it could have really waited until they got their act together.  The decor was just weird.  The outside was covered in this "fake" metal ivy and then inside there are the metal "paintings" of strippers, which apparently is an homage to what this space used to be (a go-go bar).  They don't make good use of the space as there were no tables (the picture above is a bit mis-leading) in the middle of the restaurant, so it just seemed really empty.  Their menus were printed on resume paper and then stapled together which just seemed low brow. I mean you couldn't really have bought menu holders or something?

I couldn't quite grasp the theme of the menu...I think it was American bistro food? But then again there was edamame on the menu which was weird.  They had a beetroot salad, mussels, scallops, mushroom ragout, brick chicken and hanger steak.  Dan got the sea scallops ($19) with fennel salad and oranges and I got the brick chicken ($21).  We also each got a cocktail; I got the peach smash and he got the billionaire cocktail ($12).  It kind of bothered me that there were no prices for the cocktails (although I had guessed them to be around $10) and $12 is a bit steep for this place.  Plus they clearly had beer but it was not listed on the cocktail menu which annoyed me as well.  I will say that you could tell that the owners/chefs were nervous about opening because they kept walking around and talking to people.  They were really nice and I didn't really have the heart to say anything bad.  While we waited for our food that gave us a plate of raw chinese radishes and butter. Um, weird and not tasty.  I would have rather of just had bread and butter.

Our food came out and the presentation was just eh.  It didn't really feel like they put much time into making the food look nice.  Dan's dish only had 3 scallops and then a ton of fennel in the middle and literally 4 orange slices on the side.  I had 2 fairly medium sized chicken pieces (thigh and breast) and it was supposed to have come with spetzle but I couldn't really see it and it was mixed in with a tons of sauteed onions and grapes (also weird).  As I cut into the chicken I noticed that it was a bit undercooked but I could handle it, although I could definitely see some people not being able to handle it.  Dan's scallops were also undercooked, much more so than mine.  At one point it almost seemed like he was eating scallops sashimi-style.  I will say that the other piece of my chicken was juicy and tasted fine but there was nothing amazing about it and the spetzle was pretty much non-existent.  The best part of the meal was the cocktails.  They were actually pretty good and decent sized.  They would be better off getting rid of the food and just being a cocktail bar.  All in all, we ended up spending $81 which was completely un-justified for what we got.  I wished we had stuck with going to Mole instead.  But alas, after years of seeing it come together we just had to try.  Sorry guys, but Trix are not for kids or really even adults.