Prospect Visited 1/17/2012 4 Forks

Prospect 300 Spear St., (between Folsom St & Harrison St), San Francisco, CA 94105

One of the nice things about work dinners is that you get to try out places that you would ordinarily never go to. Prospect is one of those places.  The clientele is definitely more on the swankier and formal side.  It seemed like almost everyone who was there was on a corporate account and/or 50 years old.  But that doesn't mean that I didn't have a great meal there.  On the contrary, I actually had a lovely meal there, I just don't think this is the type of place that I would necessarily come back to.  

The table started with the foie gras torchon ($12) which came with toasted banana bread, pineapple, and nuts.  Serving the foie gras with something sweet was an interesting touch and actually worked really well.  It definitely made the foie gras taste less "earthy" and metal-y. For my appetizer, I got the Handpicked Local Dungeness Crab, which was served with Fresh Hawaiian Hearts of Palm, Oro Blanco & Ruby Grapefruit, Brokaw Avocado, Green Goddess Dressing, Arugula  ($14.50).  As I stated in my last post, when I'm in SF, I always want to get seafood and what's more SF than dungeness crab??  The dish was delicious and there was lots of crab to go around, it wasn't just all arugula.  Everything worked well together, the crab, the avocado, the dressing and the arugula.  Those are all ingredients that I love on their own, so together, they were even better.

For my main dish, I got the Storm Hill Beef New York with Mustard Mashed Potatoes, Bloomsdale Spinach, Caramelized Cippolini Onions, Beer Battered King Trumpet & Maitake Mushrooms, Beef Jus  ($31).  I struggled between this dish and the scallops because I normally never get scallops and what better time than when someone else is paying for it?  But in the end what won me over was the fact that the beef came with mashed potatoes and maitake mushrooms.  I asked for it medium rare and it was cooked perfectly - nice and pink on the inside and the outside was a nice brown color.  I put the knife in and it cut straight through without any difficulty.  The potatoes were nice and smooth (clearly with 5 sticks of butter in it) and the spinach and onions gave the dish some nice texture and flavor - even though to be honest this is the first piece of meat I've had in a while that could have totally been served on its own with nothing and have been just as good.  Sadly the one thing I didn't love were the mushrooms because of they were beer battered.  It just didn't need to be battered and fried, it would have been much better on its own in the jus.  The table then ordered almost one of every dessert - the one I really liked was the ice cream sandwich (nice and soft outside but hard ice cream so that it didn't melt too quickly - $8).  Overall, it was a very satisfying meal and although I didn't pay for it, I think the bill was around $600 without tip for 7 people.  Again, even though I really enjoyed my food, the atmosphere was a bit too business/corporate-y for a regular outing.  

Photo Credit: Yelp 

Kiji - Visited 1/16/2012 4 Forks

Kiji Japanese Restaurant and Sushi Bar 1009 Guerrero St., (between 22nd St & Alvarado St), San Francisco, CA 94110

When I think of San Francisco food, I think fresh seafood and sushi is no exception to that rule.  After a long and fabulous day in Napa Valley, Neera and I went to Kiji Sushi which was right around the corner from her house.  Despite being a quiet long weekend, she was only able to get a 6:45pm reservation on a Monday.  But once I walked in, I noticed that there was probably 10 tables tops (there may have been a back room but I'm not 100% sure), so then I understood why it was hard to get a table. 

The restaurant is small and super cute and the type of higher end but not super fancy neighborhood sushi joint that I wish I had in my neighborhood. I was still a bit full from lunch so I opted to not get anything with rice and got the sashimi platter ($26) which came with 3 pieces of albacore, tuna, yellowtail and salmon and then your choice of the 5th kind, either surf clam, octopus or white fish.  Clearly I was going for whitefish since I'm not a huge fan of either surf clam or octopus - I think they're both too chewy.  Neera got 2 different kinds of rolls - I can't remember which ones they were but they were both pretty different since one was topped with a bed of seaweed and the other was topped with lemon slices - you don't see that too often.  I was a bit bummed that my sashimi didn't come with soup or salad, especially at that price point, but luckily in the end, I didn't really need either of them.  I really loved my sashimi platter.  Not only because there was such a great variety of the types of fish but they were cut just right (not too big like Yama where you can barely eat 1 piece in a bite and not too small where you are done with the entire platter in 5 minutes).  The quality of all the pieces of fish were top notch (literally melt in your mouth) and I just felt super healthy eating my meal.  I am still thinking about how I haven't had a great platter like that in a long time.  I didn't try either of Neera's rolls but she did mention that the lemon slices were a bit too thick and could have been a bit thinner.   It's sushi places like this (not super fancy like a Masa but not so cheap that you you're better off eating deli sushi) that make me wish I could have sushi everyday.

Total bill per person: $32

Photo credit: Yelp

Flour+ Water Visited 1/16/2012 3.5 Forks

Flour + Water 2401 Harrison St., (between 20th St & 21st St), San Francisco, CA 94110

You know what you get when you add Flour and Water? An hour and 30 minute wait, at 6:30pm during the long weekend.  To be totally fair and honest, Neera, Levi and I  knew it would be a long wait and we totally made the best of it by downing 2 bottles of red wine.  By the time we were seated, we were all ready to eat the napkins. 

Usually I don't ask the waitstaff on their recommendations, but this time we did and funnily enough, everything our waitress recommended was not on our preliminary list of ordering.  In the end, we opted for the funghi pizza ($18), the prosciutto pizza ($16), the squid ink pasta ($16), and the rabbit ragu pasta ($17) - this was the one waitress recommended dish we ordered.  I'm not sure if it was because we were starving or what, but the wheat bread basket was amazing..nice and soft but think and pillowy in the middle.  The funghi pizza came out first and I was originally excited about it because I love mushrooms.  But the mushrooms weren't really that much of a focus here.  Instead there was tons of this leafy green called nettles.  Even after eating them I still have no idea what a nettle is, but it seemed more plant like than a vegetable.  As someone who is not really a huge fan of thin brick oven pizza, this pizza didn't really make me love this type of pizza anymore.  Don't get me wrong, it  was totally fine and better than your typical greasy New York style pizza, but I wasn't dying of excitement about it.  Next came the 2 pastas and this is really where Flour + Water shines.  Both pastas were totally amazing and very fresh tasting.  We were all in agreement that the rabbit ragu was definitely the best.  The sauce alone made us want to get more bread and sop it all up.  It was a creamy almost tomato like sauce and the pasta were these cute "witch hat shaped pasta".  The rabbit meat was perfectly seasoned with just a bit of heat but not one that's overwhelming or distracting.  The squid ink pasta was also super fresh and the watermelon relish was a really refreshing touch to the dish.  Next came the prosciutto pizza and I actually liked it better than the funghi.  It was a nice mix of thinly shaved ham, potato slices, cabbage and red onion.   I know it sounds like a lot but the salty flavors all really went well with each other. 

For dessert we decided to go with the waitresses recommendation since it worked so well with the pasta and got with the candy mushroom cap bonet with almond ($8).  To be honest, it just tasted like a flan with almonds and there was no hint of mushroom, although I'm not sure if we were really supposed to.  Again, it was good but nothing earth shattering. 

All in all, I did like my meal and thank god for the wine.  The service was great there (apparently go with the waitress recommendations!) so at least they try to make the wait as painless as possible.  The review might be slight different had we not have to wait almost 2 hours for a table.  I wouldn't recommend it if the wait is that long, but I would recommend it if the wait is less than an hour. Total bill $58/pp without tip. 

Photo Credit: Yelp

Tertulia Visited 1/12/2012 3.5 Forks

Tertulia 359 6th Ave, New York, NY 10012

Tertulia has been on just about every "hot" restaurant list lately, so naturally I had to check it out for myself.  They don't take reservations so I would definitely advise anyone to get there early (and they don't seat incomplete parties).  Jenn and I got there at 6:30pm on a Thursday which was the perfect time because it was crowded but we were immediately seated.  Within 30 minutes the entire place was full.

I love Spanish Tapas but it is a bit difficult to order with just two people.  Granted Jenn and I were both hungry but there's only so much we can order.  The waiter suggested about 4-5 plates which I think was the right amount.  Everything looked great and THEN the waiter reads off the specials and we were totally thrown for a loop.  All the specials sounded amazing but the one that really got our mouths salivating was the Tosta Bogavante which was lobster toast with charred Burrata cheese ($11).  I mean what the hell could be better than LOBSTER and BURRATA CHEESE?!?  Then we ordered the Tosta huevo roto y jamón ibérico ($11) which is crushed egg, potato and Iberico ham on toast, the Coles de bruselas ($9) which was Brussels sprouts and pork belly, the Chipirones Rellenas ($14) which was squid stuffed with black rice and sausage and served with roasted peppers, and Croquetas de Jamón Ibérico ($11) which is Iberico ham croquettes.  The lobster toast came out first and there was just 1 piece.  In hindsight, I wish I had ordered 10 of them.  It was totally amazing.  There was a lot of chopped lobster on a bed of charred cheese.  Heaven.  Then the crushed egg toast came out (there were 2 of them) and that was also totally delicious.  The potato was almost mashed in texture and the ham was thinly sliced and tasted like butter.

Based on these first two dishes I probably would have given this place close to 5 forks.  So I had really high expectations for the other dishes.  All three of them came out at the same time.  Immediately I noticed that the Brussels sprouts looked totally charred and seemed overcooked.  They were practically black but I was still willing to give it a try.  And well, they tasted like charred sprouts and they were over salted as well.  Also, there was like 1 piece of pork belly, I barely saw any of it. The croquettes were fine but very creamy and I didn't really taste the ham.  I was really excited about the squid but they seemed pretty small and the rice didn't have a whole lot of flavor - this dish actually could have used more salt.  Despite all that, I still had a craving for sweets.  For dessert, we ordered the Torta de Manzana ($7) which was apple cake, rum ice cream, and cider caramel.  The cake was slightly toasted on the outside and warm and soft on the inside.  The ice cream definitely tasted like rum and it was a great combination to the cake.  The dessert was great but didn't quite make up for the 3 other dishes that were a bit lacking.

I do want to mention that our waiter was great and super sweet.  Also, if you are going there to have a conversation with someone I would strongly suggest you go somewhere else.  The place is LOUD and only gets louder as it fills up.  At one point I felt like I was screaming at Jenn when she was only 1 foot away.  Our total bill with 3 drinks each and tax and tip: $85/pp - even though we got lots of drinks and dessert, that is a bit steep per person, especially given that each plate was only a couple mouthfuls.

Photo credit: Yelp.

Gwynnett St Visited 1/8/2012 4 Forks

Gwynnett St 312 Graham Ave., (between Ainslie St & Devoe St), Brooklyn, NY 11211

I was so excited to hear that Gwynnett St opened because it was within walking distance from my apartment and I definitely need more go-to place within a 5 block radius.  I was even more excited when I heard that the people behind it were from wd-50 and Esca, which is really gives it some street cred.

I went for brunch on Sunday at 11:30am and it was pretty empty at first but by the time I left, almost the entire restaurant was full.  One small pet peeve is that the menu online was slightly different from the one in the restaurant.  It turned out not to be a huge deal but sometimes I've already picked out what I want to eat (in this case the braised oxtail, whipped potatoes and poached egg) and it's a disappointment when it's not available.  Instead, I got the pork with fried egg and sauerkraut ($17) and Dan got the steak tartare with egg, pickled beets and horseradish ($12) and we split the pork sausage gravy with whiskey bread ($6).  As you can see from what we ordered, the menu here is pretty unusual.  The dishes weren't your typical eggs benedict or steak and eggs.  Instead they had dishes like parsnip yogurt, pork, chicken dumplings and duck scramble.   They also made their cocktails different: their bloody mary's were made with home smoked tomatoes which gave it a different taste to it.  As Dan said, it tasted fresh and not like V8 juice with vodka.

When my dish came out, it looked like a dinner size meal.  There were enough pork slices for 2 dishes.  The pork was amazing...thinly sliced and cooked almost medium rare.  It was pink and tender on the inside and seared just right on the outside.  The eggs were actually duck eggs, which I've never had and while it tasted the same as a regular egg, there is just this more gooey texture that might scare some people off.  The sauerkraut was tart and tangy but didn't hit you over the head with sourness.  The one part of the dish that I didn't like were the potatoes..they were a bit too heavy handed with the salt and I could only eat one of them.  I also had a bite of the steak tartare and it's amazing how you could taste the steak, beets and horseradish individually and it made for a great combination at the same time.  I was so full from my pork dish that I barely had room for the sausage gravy and whiskey bread.  From the 1 bite I had, it was pretty damn good but I'm not quite sure where the whiskey comes in since I didn't taste any alcohol.

The waitstaff was super attentive and friendly to talk to.  While I don't necessarily think this place is the right place for an everyday meal, I'm really happy that these more high quality and unique places like these are opening up so nearby.  Total price with coffees and tax: $54

Photo Credit: Yelp

Pylos Visited 1/7/2012 4.5 Forks

Pylos 128 E 7th St., (between 1st Ave & Avenue A), New York, NY 10009

I had been to Pylos years ago and all I could remember was that it had these clay pots hanging from the ceiling.  This was before I was "all into food" but I have always been meaning to try it out again.  So I was thrilled when my friend Vid suggested that we try it out for dinner on Saturday.  She used to live in Astoria and therefore had been accustomed to great Greek food.  So she wanted to try this place out in the city.  I also love Greek food but it doesn't really seem to be too prevalent in the city or Brooklyn so I haven't had Greek food since probably when I went to Barbados last year (weird, right?)

I was shocked to see that even after all these years Pylos was still super crowded.  In fact, when I got there the hostess said that if we didn't have a reservation, the next table would be 10:30pm.  But the beautiful marble communal table is first come first served.  So luckily, Vid and I pretty much got the last 2 seats at the communal table. 

They describe the menu as rustic, home cooked Greek food.  You won't find lamb sandwiches or gyros here.  Instead you'll find lots of small plates with lots of cheeses, veggies, and yes they also have whole fish.  Vid and I ordered 5 different small plates:  fried zucchini and eggplant ($10), grape leaves ($12), trio of dips ($11), Greek salad ($12) and spinach rice pilaf ($6).  I just want to put it out there that everything was fabulous and re-invigorated my love for Greek food.  The trio of dips came with tzatziki (tangy yogurt), a fish roe type dip and a grilled eggplant/olive oil dip.  They were all thick dips and to be honest, you could also just order this and 1 other dish and be full.  They all tasted homemade and made with fresh ingredients.  Next came the Greek Salad and while it was pretty basic, it was delicious.  There was no lettuce but it was full of fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, red onion, and huge beautiful chunks of feta cheese.  The dresssing was a perfect combination of olive oil and herbs.  I could eat this salad all day.  The fried zucchini and eggplant was also really enjoyable.  They were extremely thinly sliced and lightly battered to the right texture so that you could still taste the crispiness of the batter but the meat of the veggies.  If I had to express one disappointment, it would be the grape leaves.  It took me years to get on the grape leaf bandwagon, but now I love them.  This one came stuffed with veal which I thought would be a nice addition.  But unfortunately, I didn't really like the addition of the veal.  It was a bit too much and made it too heavy tasting.  The rice pilaf was light and fluffy and was a nice side addition to everything we had.

All the portions were sized just right and honestly, I would have been just as full had I not ordered the grape leaves.  I wish instead I had ordered some kind of seafood dish instead (I mean how did I go to a Greek place and not order seafood?!).  They had a lot of yummy sounding shrimp, scallop, and squid dishes.  The waitstaff was friendly but I did feel a bit rushed when they threw down the dessert menu without asking us.  I mean on one hand I get that they need to turn over as many seats as possible, but I think it can be done in a bit more tasteful manner.  We each got a glass of wine and total meal including tax and tip was $45/pp...not bad at all for all that food!

Photo Credit: Yelp  

Blue Smoke Visited 1/6/2012 TBD Forks

Blue Smoke 255 Vesey Street, New York, NY

I was lucky enough to have been invited to preview the new Blue Smoke across the street from my office before it officially opened to the public.  They wanted to invite people from various nearby companies to try it out so that they would consider it when entertaining clients.  I thought that this was a great idea and way to introduce a new place to the neighborhood. 

I went with a friend of mine after work on Friday and didn't really know what to expect.  The inside was mostly cleared out except for the booths so that waiter could pass around food and wine.  The room was filled with people who either worked for American Express or Goldman Sachs.  The decor of the restaurant was like an upscale BBQ joint (which is pretty much was Blue Smoke is).  It's got a nice dark wood Texas feel but the it wasn't too honky tonk either.  I started with a deviled egg and who doesn't like a deviled egg?! This one was really well done and there was lot of filling piled up high in the egg white.  Next I had the chicken liver mousse on toast and well, it was definitely tasted like chicken liver.  While I don't hate it, it has a very strong indescribable taste to it and I must have liked something about because I had about 3-4 of them.  Then they passed around oysters! I was pretty surprised that they did that and I didn't get the name of the exact type, but they were great and were served with a vinaigrette. I also tried the chipotle chicken wings and it kind of reminded me why I don't really like chicken wings.  It was just plain messy and hard to eat without looking like you have food smeared all over your face.  But the sauce had a definite kick to it that was almost a bit too much for me.

While I was eating, Danny Meyer came out to thank us for coming!  He mentioned that he had been doing these previews for the past few days and that the restaurant would be officially opening for dinner on Monday.  It wasn't that I was star struck, but I do respect the fact that he's been a pretty successful restauranteur in such a competitive market like New York.  Then we met the General Manager,  Joel Steiger who explained that the menu would be 75% the same as the Blue Smoke uptown and that they actually smoke their food on site in a smoker behind the restaurant.  Interesting. 

Next what I was waiting for finally came out, the ribs!! They had Texas style (dry rub), Kansas City style (sweeter and covered with sauce), and the Memphis style (leaner rib and also covered with sauce).  My personal favorite was the Texas one.  It was a nice big rib and the meat completely fell off the bone and it was the least messy rib to eat.  The Kansas City one was juicier and fattier and the Memphis one was indeed a leaner cut of rib, but there was something about the Texas that felt like a real piece of BBQ to me. 

Somehow I still had room for 2 pork belly slides (AMAZING) and cupcakes.  By the time I rolled out of there at 8:30, I was extremely full and my belly was very happy.  I'm really happy that they are finally rolling out some great restaurants by my office, but obviously this isn't the type of place I would go to for lunch every day.  I hope they end up offer a good happy hour deal because that would do really well given that everyone in the building is pretty sick of going to PJ Clarke constantly.  The only reason I'm not giving it an official rating is because I didn't pay for my meal and I didn't have an actual sit down meal.  I did get a peak at the menu that the menu looked great and I would have loved to have tried some of the sides during the preview.  The staff on site was great, super attentive and really nice.  We even left with a goodie box filled with a chocolate cupcake.  Welcome to the neighborhood, Blue Smoke!  

Photo Credit: Yelp