Santina Visited 6/8/2015 4 Forks

Santina 820 Washington St., New York, NY 10014

Santina has been getting a lot of buzz lately - it's no wonder because it's from the guys at Torrisi and Carbone.  I had been wanting to check it out since it opened but it's been impossible to get a reservation that wasn't crazy early or late.  But when Louise mentioned that she was coming to town and that we should get dinner on a Monday, I figured it was easy enough to go for the early bird dinner (5:45pm) on a school night and not look too lame.

As Louise told me, this place is definitely full of "well groomed" people - I mean, it is in the Meatpacking District and in a prime location next to the new Whitney Museum.  It's got a very summer time/Miami feel to it, which is perfect for now but I wonder how it will fare once it starts to get colder.  Regardless, it's a bright, sunny and cheerful spot.  The menu is new school Italian and instead of them having descriptions of what the dishes are on the menu, the poor waiter proceeded to spend 15-20 minutes with us describing every single dish.  I'm not kidding, every single dish.  And he did this with every table.  I'm not sure why they just don't add a few words to dish on the menu.

We started off with the tuna cecina and the squash carpaccio and then we split the rigatoni verde and the spaghetti blue crab.  The cecina is like a very thin pancake/buckwheat crepe and then they give you this delicious mild/hot green sauce and a side bowl of raw poke-like tuna to fill the pancake with. I loved the flavor of the tuna with the green sauce and the thinness of the pancake was just right where you didn't feel like you were eating something greasy or bad for you.  Next was the squash carpaccio and it was freaking amazing.  It was paper thin slices of delicious yellow/orange squash, drizzled with a sweet honey-like sauce and topped with ricotta cheese and herbs.  It was a perfect summer time dish.  On to the pastas. I was excited for them because they have this outrageous spicy vodka rigatoni at Carbone that is amazing.  The waiter did warn us before hand that the blue crab pasta could be very polarizing because its fishy but since Lou and I are from MD, we figured it wouldn't be an issue for us.  And it wasn't - in fact I loved this dish.  I can see how someone who isn't a fan of crab would find this dish fishy - they cook the sauce with the crab meat in it, so it's really infused in the whole dish.  But I was a huge fan of this dish and the pasta itself was nicely done done and definitely tasted fresh and homemade.  The rigatoni verde was also good but not as tasty as the crab one.  It came with a green basil-like sauce to it and was a nice summer pasta that wasn't too heavy.

Of course, we had to end the night with dessert and got the most popular one on the menu the lemon meringa which was very similar to a lemon meringue pie only they serve you a large meringue top and then press down a lemon cream filling on top of it with a spoon.  It was a great, tangy dessert and seemed fitting for the theme of the summer time theme here.

Overall, I really enjoyed the food here - even if it was a bit pricey and I'm generally not a huge fan of the MeatPacking scene in general.  But it's a nice addition to the Major Food Group family of restaurants and their outdoor patio is definitely a great place to spend some down time in the summer time.  Total bill:  $108/pp with tax, tip and drinks

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Mission Rock Resort Visited 5/31/2015 3 Forks

Mission Rock Resort 817 Terry Francois Blvd, San Francisco, CA 94158

When we first pulled up to Mission Rock, I was like where the hell are we?  It's located in a rather isolated part of SF but once you walk in and go upstairs, you get some killer views and you come to appreciate it's slightly remote location.  Jenn, April, Krush and I got there on the early side, just in time for happy hour.  We sat outside on the upper deck and even though it was a bit chilly, it was still just really nice to sit outside by the water and enjoy the views. 

Happy hour (3-7pm) consisted of $1 oysters and drink specials.  But the rest of the menu sounded great as well - it was all seafood, which is obviously my favorite.  Unfortunately, I was still pretty full from gorging on breakfast at The Pork Store, so I wasn't all that hungry.  We started with a dozen oysters ($12) and the mussels and fries ($17).  Unlike my all time favorite oyster place, Maison Premiere, this place doesn't have a selection of oysters to choose from for happy hour - there was just 1 kind and unfortunately I didn't catch what kind they were.  I usually prefer West Coast oysters since they are more plumb and meaty but sadly these were the opposite - smaller and very thin.  They also didn't do a fab job of shucking them as I found a bunch of shell bits in a few of my oysters.  They weren't the worst  oysters I've had before but given how spoiled and slightly snobby I've become, I didn't feel compelled to order more of them even though they were only $1.  Moving on to the mussels, they also seemed a bit thin and skinny as well which was disappointing.  But the great thing about this dish was that it was cooked in a very buttery bacon, onion, Dijon cream sauce.  It was delicious with the fries.  After a few more rounds of drinks, we started to get a bit hungrier, so we ordered the Ahi Tuna Tartare ($18).  It was served with avocado, soy sauce, scallions, sriracha and wonton chips.  This dish redeemed this place a bit as it was a really solid fresh tuna dish.  This was a dish that I would have ordered more of. 

Overall, the Mission Rock was a really great place to relax, have a few happy hour drinks and some snacks.  While the food wasn't the best I've had in terms of either in SF or in the seafood realm, the general atmosphere and vibe was lovely and worth the trip, which is rather high praise for a 3 fork place.  Total bill:  $40/pp with tax, tip and drinks

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Pork Store Cafe Visited 5/31/2015 4.5 Forks

Pork Store Cafe 1451 Haight St., San Francisco, CA 94117

With a name like the Pork Store Cafe, how could this place not be the bomb?!  It's your classic greasy spoon diner with every imaginable kind of breakfast egg dish you can think of.  Jenn, April and I went on our last day in SF and for a random Monday morning, it was surprisingly crowded.  It's in the Haight Ashbury area so the crowd was a bit on the hippie dippie side.  

As you can imagine, the menu was super overwhelming.  So many choices between benedicts, omelets, pancakes, burgers, sandwiches, scrambles - the possibilities are endless if you are a breakfast fan.  And this being California, I loved that many options had avocado in it.  After much hemming and hawing I opted for Soutwest scramble with avocado and biscuits ($9.50).  The dish is a beast and when it came out, I said that there was no way I could finish it - famous last words although I restrain myself and didn't finish everything.  I'm going to be honest and say that I can't really remember everything that was in my eggs except that it was super delicious, perfectly scrambled eggs and they put practically an entire avocado on top of it.  Oh and there was a side of sour cream somewhere on the plate, so how could it have not been amazing?  The hash browns were also salty, fatty, crispy goodness.  I couldn't help but want to combine the hash, eggs and avocado all into one bite all the time.   Sadly, I had to draw the fat line somewhere and didn't get to try the biscuit although I'm sure that it was also delicious.  

Luckily for us, we ended up walking almost 3 miles that afternoon because otherwise, I probably would have had a coronary on the spot.  This food is most definitely not your health conscious California food.  It's also not anything fancy - just your good old greasy diner breakfast food, but sometimes that's really all you need to make you happy in life.  Plus the prices were very affordable here, but it should be given the type of food it is.  Total bill:  $37 for 3 people with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

The Front Porch Visited 5/30/2015 3.5 Forks

The Front Porch  65 29th St., San Francisco, CA 94110

When you think of San Francisco, one usually thinks of organic salads and other healthy foods.  But alas, places like The Front Porch also exist too.  It's a funky Southern divey restaurant in Bernal Heights with a menu you'd more likely find in New Orleans or somewhere less health conscious.  I met a bunch of my old high school and one college friend there while I was passing by SF.  

The menu has bunch of yummy sounding starters like deviled eggs with bacon bourbon jam, chicken gumbo,  crawfish hush puppies and frito pie.  We split an order of the mac and cheese ($7.50) for the table.  I had just come back from a gluttonous weekend of excessive eating and drinking so I didn't feel like I could dive into the bucket of fried chicken (no matter how much I wanted to).  So I opted for the shrimp and grits ($24) instead - even though grits aren't really super healthy, I figured it was better than eating fried food.  The mac and cheese came out first and it was a bit small (I guess it was a side order and not an entree) but it was gooey and cheesey like a mac and cheese should be.  It had a hint of jalapeño and heat to it as well.  As for our entrees, the shrimp and grits was served with andouille sausage and gravy.  There were several pieces of medium sized wild Louisiana gulf shrimp and they were cooked just right.  As for the grits, they were super buttery and garlic-y.  I think there may have used 50 cloves of garlic in it.  But it was creamy and paired really well with the shrimp and sausage.  I definitely enjoyed it and kind of wish there was more of it because I finished it quickly and still felt a bit hungry afterwards.  Jill did end up getting the fried chicken and it looked delicious and I would totally be game for it if I ever end up back here.   

For dessert, we all hovered around May's order of the beignets and I must say they were quite good. Warm, soft and sprinkled with lots of powdered sugar.  I'm glad someone had the common sense to order it.  

Overall, this place was a nice and pleasant and not what I expected from California.  It's kind of nice to know that you can still get a heart stopping Southern meal in a hippie town like SF if you want it. Total bill:  $54/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

El Dorado Kitchen Visited 5/24/2015 3.5 Forks

El Dorado Kitchen 405 1st St W, Sonoma, CA 95476

Sonoma and Napa are known for lots of great restaurants all over the region and many people come to Sonoma Square to get their eats on.  It's convenient and has a bunch of great options in 1 block. Luckily our house was only 5 minutes away from the square and we were able to get a dinner reservation for 9 people at 7:30 on a Friday night.  That would never happen in NYC!  El Dorado is the epitome of California dining.  It's bright, sunny, and has a great outdoor space.  We even got our own cabana outside which was so nice.  As you can imagine the clientele in Sonoma overall is a bit high brow and older and it was no different here.  It was a very refined yet relaxed atmosphere.

The menu has a variety of classic American dishes - some salads, pastas and steaks.  Since our table was so big, we kind of split the table up into 2 sections.  I was sitting with Jen, Jenn and Krush and we opted to start with the beet salad ($13) and tuna tartare ($15) and then we all had a massive carb craving so we created our own pasta tasting menu - seafood paella ($32), spring vegetable risotto ($24), fettuccine ($22), and ravioli ($22).   The beet salad was fantastic and fresh and served with horseradish puree, grapefruit, fennel, arugula, orange, yogurt and pistachios.  There were a ton of beets in there and could have almost been a meal in itself.  The tuna was also very fresh and delicious, it was served with avocado mousse, super intense wasabi salmon roe, and wonton chips.

Next came the line up of pasta.  I started with the spring vegetable risotto which had peas, asparagus, king mushrooms, lemon, spinach pesto, parmesan and a touch of truffle oil.  Sounds great, right? It could have been a really fabulous dish but it was incredibly salty.  I was sad that the salt was so overpowering because I couldn't really taste all the delicious sounding vegetables in there.  The texture of the risotto was pretty good - not too watery and not too undercooked.  Meanwhile, the fettuccine didn't have enough salt in it.  It was served with a lamb bolognese, mushrooms, peas, parmesan and breadcrumbs.  This also had a lot of potential except I could have used more seasoning on it.  Perhaps I should have just mixed the two dishes together? Next I tried the ravioli which was filled with lemon and ricotta and served with marinara sauce.  I'll be honest and say that while I love lemon, I don't love it in my pasta.  I just prefer a more hearty/meatier flavor with my pasta.  But given that, it was a nice homemade pasta and unlike many places where if you order ravioli they only give you like 3 pieces, this was a very large and filling dish.  Lastly I tried the paella which had shrimp, mussels, clams, scallop, fish, chicken, chorizo, and crispy saffron rice.  It's basically everything I love to eat in 1 sizzling plate.  While some people like their paella rice super crunchy, I don't, I like it a bit softer and it was a bit too hard for me here.  But I did love all the seafood and meat flavor together in this dish and it was also an enormous portion, enough for 2 people.

Of course we had to end the night with lots of dessert, especially since it was a belated birthday for our friend Amy.  We got the drunken sundae ($10), upside down banana cake ($10) and the chocolate caramel tart ($10).  Of the 3, the upside down banana cake was my favorite - it was a moist cake/bread like dessert covered with salted caramel and lemon ice cream.  It was rich from the cake but refreshing from the ice cream.  I then ended the night with a mind blowing scotch trio of Glenfiddich, Oban and Lagavulin ($30) - I might have died a bit because they were all really great high quality scotches, 2 of which I had never had before but had always wanted to try. At $30, this is actually an incredible deal to try all three of them.

Overall, it was a nice dinner with fabulous friends.  I was kind of expecting a bit more with the food and thought each of the pastas had definite room for improvement, but if you put the wine, scotches, decor and service together with the food, you have a pretty solid outing.  Considering all the food and drink we had, the price of the experience was well worth it.  Total bill:  $84/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Park 121 Visited 5/29/2015 4.5 Forks

Park 121 23584 Arnold Dr., Sonoma, CA 95476

Ahh, California.   How can you not love it?  It's sunny, everyone is nice and the food is amazing.  I was on a girl's trip to Sonoma with some good friends and after a lovely hike in Marin Headleads, we stopped for lunch at the first place we saw in Sonoma which happened to be Park 121.  This place was perfect because it was casual, had outdoor seating and most importantly had lots of wine. 

True to any place in Sonoma, they had a great wine menu but they also had very lunch friendly food options like fresh sounding salads, sandwiches, cheese plates and pastas.  We were all starving so we started with a meat and cheese plate ($16) and I got the grilled chicken croissant sandwich ($12) and of course, we ordered a chilled bottle of pinot noir rose to kick everything off.  What I love about food in California is how fresh and simple everything is not to mention that they put avocado on everything! Heaven.  The meat and cheese plate was simple but delicious.  We got manchego, camembert, and prosciutto and it came with a bunch of warm bread, breadsticks and a yummy quince paste and spiced almonds.  It was a wonderful start to our meal.   On to my sandwich - I'm trying not to eat so many carbs these days but there's something about a warm buttery croissant that gets me every time.  Not to mention this one had super juicy sliced chicken breast, melted pepper jack cheese, avocado, fresh ripe tomato, daikon sprouts, and an outrageously addictive chipotle aioli.  Everything about this sandwich screamed California as its best.  I inhaled the entire thing in a matter of minutes. The chicken was incredibly moist that I felt like I was eating chicken that just came out of a rotisserie.  I also have to give a shout out to the salad too.  The dressing was out of this world good - it was great tangy citrus vinaigrette.  Everyone at the table commented how delicious it was and the couple at the table next to us asked if they bottle it because they wanted to take it home.  

The rose was also great and the service was friendly.  My review might be a bit gushing and overboard but it was such an idyllic way to kick off a wonderful weekend in Wine Country.  It's hard to compete because there are so many fabulous places to eat in Sonoma but if you are looking for a very casual and relaxing start to your trip, I definitely recommend making a pit stop at Park 121.  Total bill: $27/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp  

Taipei Cafe Visited 5/23/2015 3.5 Forks

Taipei Cafe 802 Hungerford Dr., Rockville, MD 20850

Usually when I go home to MD, I only have enough time to hit up the usual line up of restaurants (pho, dim sum, and sushi) but since I was home for a bit longer, I ended up trying a new Chinese/Taiwanese place down the street from my mom's house. 

This place is in this non-descript strip mall next to a furniture store, so you can easily drive past it without ever knowing it was there.  The inside is your typical Chinese restaurant - kind of low budget furnishings and loud and chaotic service and diners.  The place was packed to the gills on a Sunday night and it was a mix of Asians and non-Asians.  At places like this, I always just let my mom order because I can't really read the menu here and you don't come to a play like this to order beef and broccoli.  You order the off menu stuff, the specials written on the walls or ask them what's good that night.  We ordered clams in black bean sauce, sauteed eggplant and string beans and this huge bowl of food (not pictured) that is apparently unique to this restaurant where they basically throw in the kitchen sink and make it super spicy - it's got veggies, seafood, tofu and noodles all in a bowl that could probably feed 4-5 people. As typical of Chinese places, the food comes out fast and furious here.  Everything came out in about 10-15 minutes.   The clams in black bean were good - I've had them before in other places and the key is to use plump clams and these were pretty juicy and the black bean sauce was nice and salty.  The eggplant and beans were your typical Chinese dish of veggies soaking in a brown sauce - it's totally not a healthy dish despite being vegetarian but sometimes you just need a good brown sauce on your veggies.   Lastly, I tried this random giant bowl of food - dear god.  I have gotten much better about eating spicy food but this was something that almost took my breath away.  It's INCREDIBLY spicy, with full on giant read Chinese chili peppers and then sprinkled with even more mouth numbing chili powder.   I had to take bites of white rice in between eating this dish because my mouth was totally on fire and at some point I couldn't tell the difference between what ingredient was what because my mouth was on fire - but I did really love the noodles they used.  It's a thick broad clear noodle and it really soaks up all the flavor of everything that is in the bowl.  There was something about this dish that was incredibly addictive despite its spiciness.  I kept going back for more even though I was in pain.  Even though 3 of us where slaving away at this dish for a while, we still had enough for for at least 2 more meals at the end of the night. We ended the night with a traditional Taiwanese dessert of shaved ice with red bean, peanuts and condensed milk poured on top of it.  It was a nice way to cool down and this dessert definitely brought back memories of my childhood of eating this stuff instead of typical ice cream.

Overall, I was really glad to try a new place and the food seemed pretty authentic here.  It's by no means fancy or high end, but sometimes, you're just not in the mood for that kind of food.  It's a good place to go if you don't feel like cooking but want to eat a ton of really flavorful food for a fairly affordable price.  It would most likely help if you speak or understand Chinese here as the service is nice but in that loud pushy Chinese way.  Total bill:  $60 for 3 with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp