Sol Food at SF Food Lab - anyone been/can compare?

[vulber]

SF Food Lab recently started doing pop-ups in the Renoir hotel (former site of Joe's).

Was excited when I saw Sol Food of San Rafael was there for the first month, having heard a lot about. Went today, got the pollo al horno, coconut pudding, and iced espresso. Iced espresso tasted like a watery Vietnamese iced coffee, the other two i thought were very good, but not as incredible/mindblowing as everyone had made that place out to be.

Has anyone been to both? Or are my expectations too high?

[hyperbowler]

I'm curious to stop there. Does anyone know if they cook anything in pork fat? Amongst others, the lack of pork fat is my biggest complaint for Parada 22.

[Robert Lauriston]

Highly unlikely they cook anything in lard. Their fried dishes are vegan. Even their "mofongo" is vegan.

[Malcolm Ruthven]

I've only been to the San Rafael place (many times). I'm certainly no expert on Puerto Rican food and I've read here that it's not "authentic", but I like it a lot and that definitely includes their pollo al horno. Did they have bottles of their hot sauce available? Here's an article about the San Rafael place that pretty much describes it as I see it.

http://seriouseats.com/2010/05/puerto...

[vulber]

bottles of hot sauce are available

[Robert Lauriston]

Who made Sol Food out to be mind-blowing? It's kind of surprising that there's decent Puerto Rican food in Marin, but it's not Brooklyn. Frutilandia in the Mission might be better.

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/438117

[vulber]

admittedly, just miscellaneous peopel i've talked to; but it seems to have a bit of a cult following, which i don't quite get.

i thought it was about on par with parada 22

[Melanie Wong]

I suspect that part of the following is due to that there's not that much in Marin to get worked up about. Small pond.

[The Librarian]

I agree with Melanie - the Marin pickings are slim. I've always enjoyed the things I've had at Sol Food, but it's nothing I would go out of my way for.