Report: 6 Days with my grandparents - Our San Francisco Food Marathon

[Dave MP]

My grandparents were in town for six days last week, and it was a non-stop eating marathon. I think we won.

My grandparents are both adventurous eaters (it runs in the family), and since they were visiting from Massachusetts/New York City, I wanted to take them places that are different from what they have there – we ended up eating a lot of Asian food. Hopefully this post will be useful for people who are visiting from NYC or MA, or those who are eating with elderly dining companions. We stuck to places that were quiet enough for normal conversation and places that had comfortable seating.

Here’s a table of contents:

Layaly – Middle Eastern, The Richmond, SF
La Ciccia – Sardinian, Noe Valley, SF
Larkin Express Deli – Burmese, Tenderloin, SF
Ferry Building Farmer’s Market –Embarcadero, SF
Pagolac – Vietnamese, Tenderloin, SF
Koi Palace – Dim Sum, Daly City
Sultan – Indian, Union Square
Shanghai Dumpling King – The Richmond, SF

Layaly – Wednesday dinner - This was a nice choice for my first meal with my grandparents. The restaurant had a few tables occupied on Wednesday night, but it was not very crowded when we arrived at 6:30 PM. I remembered that I liked the squash dip last time, and since my grandmother really likes babaganoush, we got the two of these as appetizers. Both are excellent, especially the squash dip which has a bright, lemony flavor and a beautiful orange color. Both served with pita bread. My grandfather had lamb shish kebab, I had chicken shish kebab, and my grandma had the stuffed eggplant, which had feta cheese and a homemade tomato sauce. I wasn’t a huge fan of the eggplant, but my grandmother really liked it. I thought both shish kebobs were excellent though, very nicely seasoned. All meals came w/ either fries or rice (their fries are very good), and a house salad (nothing special but not bad). Prices are on the high end for a normal Wednesday dinner for me, but since the service and quality of food are good, I think it’s a good value.

La Ciccia – Thursday dinner - When I first ate at La Ciccia last spring, I immediately thought of my grandparents, and I knew I would take them when they visited. I had a feeling they would really enjoy it, and I was right. My grandma’s comment was: “If this place was in New York, there would be a line out the door every night.” We had a 7 PM reservation, and were seated in the back of the restaurant. I was initially worried it would be too noisy, but it ended up being fine – the restaurant was close to full most of the evening, but never completely full. We started off with the octopus stew. My grandmother really enjoyed this, as this is one of her favorite dishes. Last time I had this, I thought it had a funny flavor, and I still think it does – I think it might be from the wine in the sauce– but I still thought it was pretty good, and my grandparents thought it was great. Octopus was perfectly tender. Next we shared two pasta dishes – the spaghetti with bottarga and the gnochetti with pork ragu. Both were very good – my grandmother and I preferred the pasta w/ bottarga, while my grandfather preferred the ragu. The spaghetti was cooked al dente, so it had a great bite to it. This is currently my favorite pasta dish in the entire city. I thought the pork ragu was delicious too, though more similar to something I would make at home. But in that way it was also very comforting. After our pasta course, we shared a house special: whole fish (sea bream) that was baked, stuffed w/ onions and bay leaves. The fish was presented whole, but then brought back to the kitchen for de-boning. After they had taken it away, my grandpa asked why they couldn’t do it at the table – he asked a passing waiter, and even though they had already started de-boning the fish, our waitress (who was extremely nice – not to mention skilled at de-boning fish!) finished it at our table, despite the somewhat bad lighting. The fish was really really good, and quite large. It was served along with a light tomato sauce, excellent for bread dipping, especially the parts that soaked up the fish juices and the generous amount of fresh black pepper. This was probably my favorite item of the night. Along with the fish, we had an order of stir fried spinach with garlic. This tasted just like something I would make – but I appreciated that it was not overpriced (5 dollars I think for a very large portion) and that it tasted very fresh. For dessert, we shared vanilla gelato with saba – delicious, presented in the three-sectioned dish, even though it was all the same flavor. Our total bill, with two glasses of wine (generous pours), was a bit over 100 dollars – not cheap, but very well worth it. Service here is stellar, with lots of personal attention from staff that clearly cares a lot about the food and their restaurant. This is absolutely a destination restaurant, and worth the trolley ride, bus ride, BART ride or walk from anywhere in the city. In fact, my grandparents took the 24 bus there themselves from Pacific Heights, and enjoyed the bus ride.

Larkin Express Deli – Friday dinner - I planned this meal a few days in advance with the owner, since I knew we would be a large group – my grandparents and I ate with several of my friends. We shared lots of items:

Tea leaf salad – excellent as usual. I’ve been to Burma Superstar recently, and the version at LED is, in my opinion, much better.

Ginger salad – Very similar to the tea leaf salad, but with pickled ginger. Excellent as well.

Rainbow salad – Pretty good, though not as delicate as it sometimes is. The flavors seemed more muddled than usual, but it was still tasty.

Fried tofu squares – This is one of the new appetizers, and it was very good. Many of my friends, as well as my grandmother, liked these the best.

Samusa – Another new appetizer….I think it’s called samusa, but I’m not sure. These were little fritters that looked like falafel but tasted like samosas. Quite good as well.

Chicken Biryani – Very good.

Fish cake curry – Good

Fish w/ tamarind sauce – Good

Beef with lemongrass – Didn’t try this on Friday, but it’s one of my favorites.

Pumpkin – Pretty good, served in a nice curry sauce.

Long beans, sauteed – Good but nothing too exciting. But it was nice to have a vegetable side dish.

Semolina coconut cake – dessert – this was very good, not too sweet, which I liked.

Overall, a great meal, and it was fun to try a few new items at my favorite Burmese restaurant.

Ferry Building Farmer’s Market – Saturday Brunch – Since I had a car for the weekend, I drove to the Ferry Building, which I had never done before. The parking garage at 75 Howard is a great deal – 4 hours for 5 dollars on Saturdays. This made getting to the Ferry Building a breeze. It was a crowded day, and after roaming through the stands for a bit (spotted some beautiful scotch bonnet peppers), my grandparents sat down while I got us some food. Based on a friend’s recommendation, we tried the open-face sturgeon sandwich from the stand that sells smoked fish. Thinly sliced bread was topped with cream cheese, sturgeon, capers, tomatoes and onions. It was very good, but at $12, pretty expensive, considering it was only 8 bites of food. We may have ended up with small slices of bread compared to others that I saw. Meanwhile, for $8, we got a plate of “huevos con todo” from Primavera. I was disappointed they were out of chilaquiles, which I guess wasn’t surprising for 12:30 PM, but the huevos were still good – the plate had avocado, scrambled eggs, black beans, cheese, chopped onions, and sour cream. I topped the eggs with their delicious and slightly spicy red sauce – and we ate this wrapped in their homemade, fresh tortillas. Usually I’m not a fan of corn tortillas, but these were delicious. We also had a lime-melon agua fresca which was good, but nothing too special.

After eating, we roamed around a bit more, and my grandparents enjoyed several samples and looking at the different shops and stores. The Ferry Building is crowded, but outside there are plenty of places to sit and rest, which we all appreciated.

Pagolac – Saturday Dinner – We met some friends for dinner who chose this place – I hadn’t been there in over a year, and I was excited to try it again. Some things were better than others:

Fresh spring rolls – These were good, but nothing very special. My grandparents had eaten some of these the day before at the new science museum (at the café that’s related to Slanted Door).

Sugarcane Shrimp – Wrap at table rolls – The pieces of shrimp were tasty. Again, fine but nothing special. I liked the service and setup though – individual bowls of sauce for everyone.

Chicken Salad – This wasn’t that good compared to two versions I had recently at Yummy Yummy and Lotus Garden. There was hardly any chicken in it! And no fried garlic, which adds a great flavor. And no shrimp chips to eat it with!

Beef pho – This was pretty good. Nice rich broth.

Chicken soup – pho ga – This was very good. It had a light taste – very flavorful, but not too salty. I would order this again if I returned.

Service was friendly, and the atmosphere was nice (though crowded). I might return, but there are so many other good Vietnamese restaurants that it wouldn’t be very high on my list. But maybe I’d go back for the chicken soup. It’s also nice if you want a slight step up from other nearby restaurants, mainly in terms of service and atmosphere. I wonder if anyone has any thoughts on how this compares to Bodega Bistro?

Koi Palace – Dim Sum Breakfast – Following Daveena’s strategy, we arrived 10 minutes after Koi Palace opened, at 9:10 AM. By this point, the restaurant was already 2/3 full, and by the time we left at 10:10, there was a wait.

If you are willing to wake up early, and if you are willing to go to Daly City, Koi Palace is definitely worth it – the food is clearly a notch above all other dim sum I’ve had in the United States. I might not like it as much if I had to wait 1 hour for it, but I am willing to wake up early when I know there’s a good breakfast in store.

We ordered some things from the check-off menu, and other things we grabbed as they passed by:

Shanghai pan fried dumplings – Very good. They passed by
XO Spicy dumplings – Really good, I really like these. Had to order off menu.
Sugar egg puffs – Awesome, served very warm. Ordered off menu, but also saw them passing by.
Crueller in rice noodle roll – Great, served w/ sesame and hoisin dipping sauces, topped w/ sweet soy sauce. Had to order off menu.
Dried scallop dumpling – Ordered off menu, these were good, but didn’t taste like scallops.
Shrimp and vegetable dumpling – Passed by. Very good. Lots of good interesting dumplings going by in general.

We might have had one other thing too, but I don’t remember. My grandparents were impressed by the non-hectic nature of the restaurant, and the huge room filled with Chinese families.

Sultan – Sunday Dinner – We had dinner with two of my friends, and the five of us shared several dishes. This was my first time having dinner at Sultan, and it was very very good. My grandparents, who eat a fair amount of Indian food in NY and MA, were also impressed.

The dinner menu is new/different than before – no more South Indian dishes, but there are still some unique items on the menu, some of which we ordered.

Chaat – Instead of serving chaat in a bowl, the chaat was presented as a line of 8 puri, each filled w/ potato curry and topped w/ chickpeas, tamarind sauce and yogurt. Beautiful presentation, and delicious.

Veggie Samosas – My grandparents really liked these, and I thought they were pretty good too. They were deep fried, which I don’t love.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a copy of the menu with me, so I don’t remember the names of all the main dishes we ordered. I’ll do my best to describe them. Everything was great:

Lamb – the 2nd lamb dish on the menu, which says the sauce contains caramelized onions. This dish was really good – lamb was tender, sauce was flavorful with lots of onions. I would definitely get this again.

Chicken – South Indian preparation, I forget the name here too. This was actually quite spicy! The sauce contained coconut….it was good.

Daal – Their daal was very nice – not mushy. It consiseted of several colors of lentils, and had a light flavor.

Okra – This was a dry-stir-fried dish, and was also spicy and excellent. Everyone really enjoyed this as well.

We tried some of the rosemary-potato naan (I’d skip this next time), regular naan (good), rice (fine), mango chutney (yummy – I couldn’t tell if it was homemade), and raita (very thick – my grandfather said it was “a delight.”) There were other people in the restaurant, but it wasn’t very crowded at all. Service was excellent, presentation of food excellent. I would definitely recommend giving dinner here a try. I saw tourists walking into Naan and Curry next door and wanted to bang on the windows to tell them to eat at Sultan instead.

Shanghai Dumpling King – Monday Dinner – For our last dinner, it was time for more Chinese. At Shanghai Dumpling King, we shared: one order of XLB (perhaps I was just hungry, but these tasted better than ever), eggplant with garlic (large serving, very good), mu-shu pork (also good, though not as much pork as last time I had it…served w/ very large flour wrappers), and Szechuan Beef (this was slightly spicy, and my least favorite. The beef itself was tender and flavorful, but the sauce was a bit goopy and I thought some of the onions were undercooked – vegetables in this dish were just onins and peppers). This made for a great last meal, and the hot tea was nice for the cold weather.

So all in all, my grandparents had a great visit and I got to eat some great food. I didn’t try any new restaurants with them (I had been to all of these places at least once), but it was nice to try new dishes and re-visit old favorites. Even though some of these meals were better than others, I would recommend any of these restaurants.

To end this post, I want to take the time to give a special thanks to my grandparents (get ready, here’s the heartwarming part….) for coming all the way out to visit me, and also thank them for mailing me the New Yorker article back in 2001 about Jim Leff and Chowhound. If it wasn’t for them, I might not be posting this right now!

That’s all for now….

Dave MP

[gordon wing]

Great report! thanks for all the updates & details.

[sugartoof]

Fun read.

I've had La Ciccia's pork ragu twice now and I stil don't really get the rave reviews. I think you hit the nail on the head with it tasting like something one might get at home. In this case I found that more boring then comforting. The pizzas are also incredibly avoidable in my opinion. Poor ingredients.

[Dave MP]

What do you mean by "poor ingredients?"

[susancinsf]

I love, love, love La Ciccia but do think that their pizzas are less lovable than the rest of the menu. But then, I generally avoid pizza, don't even like the best versions. All that said, La Ciccia has had pizza with their own proscuitto as a special once or twice when I've been there: and whenever proscuitto is on the menu at La Ciccia, I order it. Heavenly stuff, and about as far from 'poor' as one could imagine. (ditto for their salumi, although I don't remember it ever being offered on the pizza. no worries, it needs no pizza to support it. More heaven.)

[susancinsf]

great report, as always Dave, thanks, and double thanks to your grandparents for giving you that link to CH! And thanks also for putting Layaly on my radar. How strong is the feta in the eggplant? If it isn't overpowering (I am not a fan of strong feta) it actually sounds pretty good to me.

Can't believe this, but I don't think I've ever had the chicken salad at Lotus Garden. I must be in a crepe rut (not that there is anything wrong with that). Time to get back there and check it out!

[farmersdaughter]

The chicken salad at Lotus Garden is delicious and is a good dinner for one for a solo diner too.

[Dave MP]

I agree. When I had it there recently, I was dining alone. I remember back at the chowdown in 2007 we had the chicken salad and the beef salad, and I liked the beef salad even better.

I thought the chicken salad at Yummy Yummy in the Sunset was even better than L.G., but overall pretty similar.

[JasmineG]

Wow. Great post! You had so many great meals, and I definitely need to make it to Larkin Express Deli. I share your love for that spaghetti at La Ciccia.

[Mari]

Thanks for the update on Sultan. I still havne't gone there, but I'd like to go next week. Could you tell me how much you spent (approx) on dinner? I am trying to find a place for decent Indian that is not too expensive (eg. Amber India).

[Dave MP]

It's not as cheap as many of the places in the Tenderloin, but it's not expensive. I'd say that entrees are between 8 and 14 dollars....appetizers are 5-8 dollars probably.

So if you went with two people, and had one appetizer, two mains, and some bread and rice, and maybe a drink (beer or lassi?), you'd have a total of under 40 dollars (before tip). Obviously some items are more expensive than others.....but the restaurant in general is not very expensive, and considering the quality of food, it's a very good value.

My aunt and uncle were recently in town and based on this report, they went to Sultan with a few friends (I was unable to attend). They were incredibly impressed with the food, and my aunt (from NC) thought it was the best Indian food she'd ever had. They also really liked the lamb dish I ordered, as well as the okra and the chaat.

[Mari]

Thank you! This should fit our budget. I am excited to finally try it. The last time I tried to go they had just re-opened and were closed on a Saturday evening - that was about a year ago.

[rworange]

re-linkifying

[Dave MP]

*Sigh* no matter what I do I can never get the links right. It's weird because I swear my links weren't marked as duplicates before....but apparently they were.

Thank you rworange for always following up with links. CNET should be paying you for your time!

[rworange]

It is usually Melanie who spots those duplicates.I am in awe. I only usually spot them when I'm doing searches and make corrections. One tip is to use the shortest name that gets results ... such as Ferry Plaza. If it is a well-known place, there is probably a place record already out there. When I know something is out there but isn't showing up in the list, I'll search through the main Place link
http://www.chow.com/places/regions/1

It is more forgiving. I'll cut and past that name into my post.

Don't get me started about what Lists is doing though.