Quick notes on some restaurants I visited while in S.F.

[ptrefler]

A few weeks ago I spent 10 days in San Francisco visiting relatives. We decided to try some restaurants we had not been to before. Michael Mina was a very expensive disappointment. The beef trio was not very good and one of the items was almost inedible. The pork was better but not that interesting. Had a root beer float with two cookies for desert - it was great but not worth the huge price tag. Asia de Cuba - well I hear it is closing, good. Roy's with Hawaiian Asian fusion, I am not sure how I got talked into that. My fish was cooked and cooked and cooked some more. RN 74 was nice but not memorable.

On the spur of the moment we went to Chiarascurra - (forgive the spelling) up by the Trans America building. We showed up with five people instead of four - we didn't realize how small the restaurant was. The service was great, they accommodated us, despite my failure to change the party size. My salad was a little overdressed but other than that we all really enjoyed the meal.

Boulevard was good, as usual, and I enjoyed Brandy Ho's - an old favorite and lunch at the Rotunda and Mocha on Maiden Lane.

In the East Bay we ate at Prima in Walnut Creek and had an excellent meal. I particularly enjoyed the pizza.

[Ruth Lafler]

Sounds like you had more misses than hits, which is a shame in San Francisco. I hope you'll come back and next time, get some recs from this board -- we might have warned you off Michael Mina, for example, which most people think is, as you said, an expensive disappointment.

Thanks for the comments about Chiaroscuro (I had to look the spelling up, too) -- it got off to a rocky start and people stopped paying attention to them, so maybe it's time to take another look -- do you remember what you ordered that was particularly good?

Asia de Cuba and Roy's are both chains and basically tourist traps ... well, not tourist traps exactly, but you know what I mean. Places where people who don't usually go to restaurants go because they've heard of them and they're successful and popular so they must be good.

[hong_kong_foodie]

Just went to Michael Mina recently and it was also a huge disappointment. Trio of fish sashimi was so plain and the lobster from the "famous" pot pie was overcooked. Unbelievable. And to complete the bad experience, the macarons from the petit fours were embarassingly dry and crumbly, just like they were at Masa's, another restaurant that was a huge disappointment. At this rate I'm just going to stay away from fine dining in SF - there are just way too many misses than hits.