Must order at Aziza?

[danikm]

Thanks to much SF-board guidance, the SO and I have planned a meal at Aziza during our trip to SF this weekend. Any dishes that we must be sure not to miss?
Thanks!

[mofo313]

I went last night with the SO, her mom and sister. First time there since Maldonado came over from Grand Cafe. Food is still very good, I thought the spreads were better than last time we went, the summer beans were great and the cocktails were fantastic. The octopus app was very good as well. The sauce that it comes with is sneaky delicious (the flavor is not at all what you'd expect when looking at it.)

The Aziza Couscous is still very good but no longer has the lamb sausage with it. The squab was outstanding and the beef dish was very good. The halibut was the weakest of the 4, a little bland but I didn't get to try any of the sides it came with.

I felt like the bastilla was different from last time, a little sweeter and I don't remember powdered sugar being on it last time around.

Service was a little spotty last night - it looked like we had only one server (but plenty of support staff) for our entire section. Plus the server mentioned he had just returned from vacation which might have explained his struggles in discussing some of the dishes.

Overall, I still love the place and look forward to visiting them again soon.

[Ruth Lafler]

Maldonado came from Cafe Majestic, not Grand Cafe.

Bastilla often (traditionally?) has powdered sugar on top -- I believe the version at Aziza has in the past. Presumably you could ask for it to be left off if you wanted it less sweet.

[danikm]

Trip report. I couldn't get the SO to sign on for the tasting menu (the pizza at Delfina's for lunch was too lovely to leave any behind, and he just wasn't hungry enough) so we sculpted our own tasting by sharing lots of different courses. We tried two of the salads, one of which was beet and avocado, one of which was watermelon with honey and parmiggiano shavings. Neither of them were special in any way, although both of them were tasty. My biggest complaint with the salads was that the melon and avocado were both left in large pieces (reminiscent of Marcel's watermelon "steak"), when both dishes would have benefited from the blending of ingredients that smaller pieces allows.

We had the spreads (with extra flatbread) which I adored. The yogurt-dill dip was especially nice: light and refreshing while still being more robust in flavor than the average yogurt dip. The breads, which come oiled and marked from the grill yet still quite soft, were heavenly.

As a main course, I had the couscous Aziza, which was wonderful. It comes with prawns (which i could have done without, as I'm not a huge prawn fan), chicken, lamb sausage, and braised lamb. The braised lamb was incredibly tender, although not very flavorful. The sausage on the other hand, was flavorful, but the texture was not great (a little bit rubbery). The vegetables were tender and, most importantly, the harissa was outstanding. Very flavorful without being too spicy to enjoy. Even though the individual components of the dish were only "good" the overall combination was fantastic.

We were also surprised by the wonderful cocktail and beer selection. I had a champagne-apricot cocktail that was very refreshing, and a lovely class of red wine (although the by-the-glass wine selection was quite limited). The SO had 2 rare, delicious beers, one an unfiltered wheat beer that I loved.

If I lived in SF, I would definitely be back. As a visitor with short trips, I'm not sure I will be able to pry the SO away from chinese or dimsum next time (it was a battle to get him in to aziza when we had to walk 3 blocks full of chinese restaurants from our car to the front door). Thanks to everyone who made recommendations.

[rworange]

I agree that the spreads and couscous are must orders.

Note that everyone a the table must participate in the tasting menu. Ordering a la carte is pretty comparable in price. Looking at the current menu you might consider ...

mediterranean spreads
smoky eggplant, pomegranate-almond, yogurt-cucumber-dill, flatbread

herbs & citrus marinated olives

grilled flatbread with sumac

wild mushrooms in phyllo (if you don't order the basteeya)
wine forest's shiitake & king oyster, manouri cheese

county line harvest arugula
knoll farms fig, humboldt fog cheese, almonds, extra vecchio balsamic

basteeya

northern halibut claypot
saffron broth, parslied little organic farm potatoes, green

seared hokkaido sea scallops
warm brentwood corn salad, beet reduction vinaigrette, marash pepper

couscous aziza
grilled chicken, prawns, spicy lamb sausage, stewed lamb

grilled wolfe ranch quail
cumin-orange glaze, frisée & purslane, grilled bread salad, brandied currants & dried prunes, pine nuts

almond pound cake, spiced black mission fig compote, lebni yogurt ice cream

You can order extra bread with the spreads.

Hope you will report back.

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-----
Aziza
5800 Geary Blvd., San Francisco, CA 94121

[danikm]

thanks to all who replied. I am definitely a big eater, so I think the tasting menu with spreads might be in order.

[dinnerout]

Their spreads are great. I also like the bastilla, though many don't. Enjoy!

[TopoTail]

They are the extremely rare restaurant that does a good job with espresso. They use Blue Bottle, and the bar tender takes his barista duties very seriously.

[prettypithy]

Mushrooms in Phyllo! Cous Cous Aziza! Merguez with frommage blanc!!

[Pei]

Second on the spreads. Absolutely a must have! The bastilla is hit or miss. It has a lot more raisins and other sweet things in it than other bastillas in the city, so you can decide if that's up your alley.

[Carrie 218]

Their couscous is hand-rolled and blows me away. Lately, I have been enamored with the rabbit, lamb shank, and tuna dishes.

Order the tasting menu and specify you want the spreads - stunning.

[Dave MP]

The spreads are awesome.

[charliemyboy]

Their lentil soup is great. I wasn't impressed with their bastilla (which they spell basteeya) but I'd order it anyway. For my money even so-so bastilla is a great dish.

[Ruth Lafler]

Some people don't like sweet-savory dishes, though, so if you're one of those, basteeya may not be for you. A recent visitor reported that she found the tasting menu to be heavy and too much food. Is is a lot of food, so if you're not a big eater, order courses a la carte and share and/or choose your options with an eye toward a balance of lighter and heavier dishes.

[Robert Lauriston]

I usually dislike bastilla, but liked Aziza's since it wasn't sweet, or barely so. None of that gross powdered sugar.

If you don't like sweet meat, skip the lamb shank.

[Carrie 218]

Another option in making the tasting menu lighter is to order several vegetarian-based dishes.

[Robert Lauriston]

http://www.chow.com/search?search%5Bq...

[danikm]

Thanks for the link. I did think to search "aziza" (which yields a lot of posts where it is named but no dishes are recommended) before I posted, but I didn't think to use all of those search terms. I appreciate the help.