33883 Mon Jan 24 00:44:19 -0800 2005 8 1 San Francisco Bay Area 0 152049 Melanie, Ruth, and I had dinner at Colibri. It wouldn't have been my first choice, although I've been curious about the menu and am always looking for Mexican food resembling anything I've eaten in Mexico. (Also I found an extra $20 in a pocket this morning.) Drinks were excellent; they also are not cheap. Many of the margaritas are $11-12, which I found hard to stomach. We ordered a house margarita (with fresh lime but no Cointreau), a Pisco sour, and a caipirinha, all $8 and delicious. A wide variety of high-end tequilas is available, including flights. You'd better have deep pockets. The front room is dominated by the large and beautiful bar; I'm not sure I'd want to sit out there for dinner, though, especially on a busy night. There isn't really a waiting area, which was a problem on a freezing night, as we all huddled for warmth and contemplated icy cocktails. The larger back room where we sat was warm and inviting, with comfortable booths. Tables for two seemed a little small. Service was friendly without being pushy. Three salsas were served with fresh tortillas. I wasn't impressed by any of them; no kick at all. Ruth thought the tortillas were a little cake-y. A side of guacamole costs $9! (Couldn't do it.) We ordered four big plates, a bowl of pozole, and an antojito-sized plate of assorted sopes. To our surprise, everything came at the same time, filling the table and completely overwhelming us. It also meant half the food was cold by the time we got around to eating it. The portions were not especially small, so I think the tapas business is a little overdone. At least three servers explained the small plates concept to us, as if it were a novelty. Maybe it's to get you to order more $12 drinks, although no one came back and encouraged us to. Or asked why half our food was left on the plate. Or even if we wanted dessert. Maybe they wanted the table. They have a DAT menu that doesn't seems like a good deal: $32 for mole poblano and flan? Highlights: Pozole was excellent, and I don't like pozole. Flavorful slightly peppery broth, perfectly fluffy hominy, a thoughtful arranged side plate of shredded lettuce, radishes, and onions. The bowl was rather small, but they did bring us two more bowls and spoons to share. We finished every bit, unlike virtually all the other dishes. Pata en pipian, duck in ground pumpkin seed sauce, was decent. Breast slices were tender and flavorful. We left the leg behind. Sopes were good, or at least they were interesting. There were three, one pork, another chicken, and a vegetable one, which was the best. They were tiny--miniature corn muffin tiny--which didn't make it any easier to share. The menu is short on non-starchy vegetables. Aside from a few salads, the only green options were a stir-fry of zucchini and a side of nopales, each $5-7. The rest: Mole poblano was a thick sauce on three pieces of dried-out chicken. Carnitas were three cylinders of tasteless pork. Made me long for the $2 carnitas taco at Taco Loco, which is nearly as generous a portion and vastly superior. Shrimp in tamarind "mole" had an overly sweet, gloppy sauce that worsened as it cooled. The best part was the corn muffin. Mexican rice was nothing special. A couple of peas and carrots. Doña Tomas, this was not. It was more like the old days at Guaymas; the food was never spectacular, but it was pleasant enough, on big pretty plates. Colibri felt like Mexican food with prices doubled and flavors dumbed down for Union Square tourists. I'd go back for happy hour if they'd get some chips, and someone else was buying, but that's about all. So, we're a hard crowd to please. Total came to $120 including tip. We had fun anyway and then crashed the crab feed at the Elks Lodge. (Loved the boy scouts, but I'm still coughing from the cigarette smoke.) Colibri Mexican "Bistro" is at 438 Geary across from ACT and the Curran. Valet parking next door at the Hotel Diva is $30(!). Mon Jan 24 00:44:19 -0800 2005 0 Windy 1 152050 when I ate there shortly after they opened, my experience was better, although haven't made it back either. We didn't get all the food at once, which would have bugged me. I actually thought the tortillas were very good, but then I wouldn't have described them as 'cake-y' on that visit. I am trying to picture what you mean by the carnitas as 'cylinders'? was it a pork loin still whole? on my visit I didn't try the carnitas but saw it go to a neighboring table and thought it looked and smelled delicious: it was loose shredded pork in a bowl, a generous portion, and not served in a 'cylinder' at all. Mon Jan 24 00:59:49 -0800 2005 152049 0 susancinsf 2 152090 After having read several positive comments in old threads, I found the carnitas particularly disappointing. I don't know if I would call them cylinders, but the carnitas came in three large, firm chunks (more like wedges cut from a cylinder, now that I think about it). They were tough and dry. We just looked at each other with amazement when all the dishes arrived at the same time -- doesn't this sort of defeat the whole purpose of tapas or "small plates" which is to get you to order multiple rounds of drinks to go with an ongoing procession of dishes? Considering we had a fairly extensive conversation with our server about what and how much we were ordering, he should at least have asked us if we wanted the dishes "coursed." With the vast majority of the line cooks in the City being Mexican (or from other parts of Latin America) it's really amazing that they can't turn out at least *decent* up-scale Mexican food. The drinks were pretty good, though -- better than Mangarosa a couple of weeks ago to be sure. Mon Jan 24 12:33:56 -0800 2005 152050 0 Ruth Lafler 3 152157 I had a good earlier experience at Colibri that brought me back a few more times. However, the last two times I went (one being only to appease hungry parents in the area that wanted to try it) were very mediocre. The mole was particularly bad/insulting (exactly as you've described it). The duck and carnitas I had were decent, mostly to make interesting fodder for the tortillas, beans & guac (the tortillas at last visit *were* cakey! This was not the case previously). I thought the portabello mushroom with huitlacoche was actually quite good as was the cevice. The first time I went there I had an $11 Cazadores margarita. It was horrible. Much too cloyingly tart, burning a hole through my esophagus. Since then, I've stuck with choosing a tequila neat, which is great since they have a good selection. However, the staff is very young and does not appear adequate enough to answer questions. So if you don't know your tequilas, you'll just have to randomly guess. Anyway, the lustre is off for me. It's a decent place but I probably won't go back. Mon Jan 24 17:07:17 -0800 2005 152090 0 steaklist 3 152212 Yikes! I was just telling someone about a recent trip to Portland and realized I had better carnitas (moister and more flavorful) at Red Robin than at Colibri. Mon Jan 24 19:50:33 -0800 2005 152090 0 Ruth Lafler 3 153225 Here's the shot of the food, brought out in one fell swoop of soup, appetizers, and mains. I found the carnitas doubly disappointing. You see, my favorite places in Salinas fry the carnitas in smallish hunks like the three pieces we were served. More crusty surface area, and they fall apart into moist shreds when you stick a fork in them at the table. I had my hopes up for something like that, but nope. Dry and un-tasty instead. Image: http://home.earthlink.net/~melaniewong/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/colibri.jpg Mon Jan 31 23:59:36 -0800 2005 152090 0 Melanie Wong 1 152057 Mexican food in the city is truly depresseing; it's marginalized by burritorias, lard pits, and half ass attempts at high end. It would be nice if someone had the guts to open an honest Mexican restaurant that showcased the true wonder of this underrated cuisine. Even Rick Bayless can't save Mexican food. I don't know how hard it is to screw up carnitas; but only a few places can pull them off correctly. The same goes for Mole, yet every restaurant serves some gooey sauce crap that tastes like tar. And I won't even bother ranting on restaurants that attempt enchiladas. I wonder if the owners of these places have the courage to try the lame food they serve to their patrons. Most Mexican restaurants I've been to lack passion about the food they serve. Mon Jan 24 01:56:01 -0800 2005 152049 0 Mil 1 152294 It was great of you to come crash the Annual Elks Crab-Fest after dinner and visit with me. Did y'all go on to Citizen Cake for dessert? My dinner was pretty good - $35 for all you can eat crab. We stated with a simple green salad, then came pasta & garlic bread (the most knowledgable of us passed on these items, leaving more room for the crab). Next came crab and more crab and more crab. I think Michael ate 2.5 crab, while I probably only had 1.5 crab. Since it was just fresh steamed crab, I was envious of people (previous attendees) that brought their own condiments (salt, pepper, butter w/ butter warmers, various dressings/dips) - I will definitely do this in the future. I thought the salad and pasta was good and the crab was excellent especially since it was a dinner for 300 people and that's gotta be tough to do. Really, it was only the garlic bread that suffered - the first couple of rounds were quite dry but the last basket was fresh, hot and tasty. And being served by Boy Scouts was so...odd? I'm used to seeing Girl Scouts at cookie time but given my neighborhood, work & leisure patterns, I can't remember the last time I saw a uniformed Boy Scout. I also loved the atmosphere, I had no idea that SF had an Elks Lodge much less that it is the oldest in the country and that its in a fab location and such a beautiful building. I recall the Elks Lodges having a somewhat different atmosphere when I was growing up in Texas. Tue Jan 25 12:04:17 -0800 2005 152049 0 Pssst 2 153224 Checking out the scene at the Elks Club dining hall was the highlight of my evening, even though I didn't eat anything there. Those kinds of community feeds, such as the Portuguese festas as well, were the main sources of entertainment in my growing up. I messed up on the closing time for Citizen Cupcake, and it was already closed by the time we got there. We were so frozen to the bone from the walk, we decided to go our separate ways then. Mon Jan 31 23:52:49 -0800 2005 152294 0 Melanie Wong