The Tonga Room, followed by Palace Steak House

[Dave MP]

Had drinks tonight with some friends at the Tonga Room - it was the first visit for all of us. I had a Greyhound, which was unobjectionable, while others had drinks off the tropical drink menu. Mai Tai was fine, Scorpion bowl was borderline horrendous, and the Zombie reminded me of drinks I tasted in dorm rooms during college...the kind of mixed drink you make when you have no idea what you're doing. I got shivers after tasting it, and it's amazing that a $12 cocktail could be this awful. I know that a Zombie is a common cocktail, so apparently some people like this stuff, but it's definitely not for me. The Tonga Room was cool - indoor pool, simulated rainstorms, nice big tables - but I probably would never go back.

After this, I wanted a snack, and ended up ordering some chicken strips from Palace Steak House, which has been the subject of lots of discussion in my La Lengua Chronicles thread: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/8386... - I'm probably the only person in the history of SF to get drinks at the Tonga Room, followed by chicken strips from Palace Steak House, but what can I say...I'm a trailblazer! I wanted *only* chicken strips (no fries), so the price was $6.00 instead of $8.00 for three medium sized chicken strips. These were pretty decent - batter was on the light side, sort of like what you'd expect on fried clams or fish, and chicken inside was moist. They came with packets of ketchup, but I brought them home and ate them with Thai chile sauce and some kimchi on the side. I probably won't rush back, since it wasn't quite good or cheap enough to be worth it, but it certainly wasn't bad for a fried snack.

Tonga Room is in the Fairmont Hotel: Powell @ California in SF
Palace Steak House is in the Mission: Mission @ Cesar Chavez in SF

Dave MP

[psb]

>I'm probably the only person in the history of SF to get drinks at the Tonga Room,
>followed by chicken strips from Palace Steak House
>
having also engaged in some unusal "flavor change" transitions ... e.g. "where can i get an affogato after ethipoian dinner" ... i was thinking similarly while reading your post. would be interesting to see something like a CKM matrix/transition probabilities for SF venues ... e.g. zeitgeist -> al hamara/pakwan/zante used to be a high probability transition. or to see the last state before jumping to el farolito/mission @3am.

[hill food]

oh Dave there is so much good stuff within blocks of the Tonga.... yes the drinks are $$$ and suck but that's not why one goes. (shit if strong tiki drinks are on the agenda hit Trad'r Sam's out on Geary by the Russian Cathedral and head over to Balboa for some pelmeni)