Time to EAT!

Curbside Cafe is a very small and quaint little place located on Fillmore Street in San Francisco, Ca. And when I say small I mean small.  A few friends of mine and I got their around 11:30 am for a late breakfast craving some eggs! We sit down and I can see that the other guests have nice tall glasses of what looks like fresh squeezed orange juice, which I do not see often at restaurants. And when it is offered I ALWAYS order a large glass because to me there is nothing better than a great glass of sweet pulpy goodness in the morning. I flag the waiter as soon as I see this tantalizing spectacle, but something unfortunate happens that I did not anticipate: they were OUT! “Out of orange juice??” I asked myself. At 11:30 am on a sunday morning? Come on! So Imoved on and I chose a glass of water, which was actually a great glass of water. I ordered the Huevos Rancheros for my dish, and I would have to say I would give B+/A- if I were to grade it. They give you two eggs any style (I chose poached) on top a quesadilla, which I thought to be quite innovative. Another twist was that instead of just simply putting pico de gallo on the eggs they make a homemade ranchero sauce. The dish is also served with black beans and an insufficient amount of breakfast potatoes, but I might feel that way because I am used to going to Anne’s Kitchen in Berkeley where they are truly generous with the potatoes. The meal was great, but I would not say brilliant. On the other hand my friend ordered the omelette filled with spinach, scallions, and ricotta cheese (the dish I wish I chose). As you can see in the picture, this omelette was beautiful. Perfectly cooked eggs. They were light, fluffy, creamy eggs hugging a delicious center. I would have never thought to put ricotta cheese in an omelette, but it makes so much sense. Ricotta cheese is air and creamy, factors that seem to be such an obvious ingredient to be pared with eggs. My other friend ordered the avocado omelette which was good, but a very small portion. And she was not in the mood for the rich hollandaise sauce so she got it without it. I am not sure how to fully make an evaluation on this dish, because the sauce is such a key component in judging a benedict, for if the sauce is bad the dish is bad. I’m not totally sure if I would return to Curbside Cafe, but I did enjoy my time there.

Live to eat!

These dishes are from an extraordinary restaurant located in San Francisco, Ca called Wayfare Tavern, which is one of Tyler Florence’s restaurants. My two friends and I were in the city and were looking for a really neat place eat. We weren’t just looking for a meal, were for yearning for a culinary experience. I called around 7:30p on a Sunday to see I was going to be able to get a table. They were really polite and it almost seemed like they were going to make sure I was going to come. When I have found restaurants on Yelp in the past some of them are a bit sketchy, but I knew this place was going to be great right when we walked in. The inside is painted in a really interesting deep blue tone which gives a quite intimate feel. The hostess was so nice and got us seated almost right away. Right when you sit down and man will come to your table and bring a piping hot popover for you to nibble on as you peruse the menu. There are about ten entrees all with a different theme. You could order something light like a salad, or something rich and decadent like Pot Roast. This menu is impeccable. As I went down the list of dish after dish my decision became more difficult because each dish has a different theme or depth of flavor to it. First we started with the Escargot. I have only had snails one other time in my life but these were perfection! They were perfectly tender each swimming in their own pool of warm melted butter with sweet roasted garlic and parsley. And after the snails are eaten there was still butter in the dish waiting to be sopped up by yet another popover! Then came the Di Stefano Burrata. This starter is warm toasted sourdough bread served with braised mustard greens and dolloped with the silky and creamy burrata cheese. So simple, yet so perfectly executed. The meal really did not seem like it could have gotten any better…..but it did! Next came the entrees. I chose the 48 hour braised short rib. Absolutely sensational! There are almost no words to describe this. So tender and luscious I didn’t even have to use a knife to cut the meat. A light push of my fork on the piece of meat and it fell apart. This was gently placed upon a bed the THE smoothest mashed potatoes I have ever put in the mouth. And to top all of that off was beautiful mixture of truffled onion confit and veal jus. This was a savory, sweet, salty perfection that I haver never tasted before. Now the other dishes that we ordered were the salads. Now when my friends ordered salad for their main dish I thought it to be blasphemy, but was I wrong….I have used the word perfect and perfection so many times through out this review, but it is only because this was the perfect meal. I mean these salad were indescribably delicious! I couldn’t understand how something so simple as crab, crisp iceberg lettuce, a soft boiled egg, avocado, bacon, radish, beets, and apples could be harmonized together in such a way as they were. The roasted chicken salad was yet another stupidly simple dish. It had juicy roasted chicken, crisp potatoes, watercress, sweet dates, cucumber, served with a Meyer lemon yogurt dressing which was brushed on the bottom of the place as to not over-power the refreshing flavors of each other the other components. Now it is kind of a rule of mine that when I go to a really nice restaurant to ALWAYS try the dessert, because if a restaurant has bad dessert it can make or break it. But I experienced something in which I have never before: total satisfaction. I didn’t even need dessert, for the entire meal, service, and ambiance of Wayfare Tavern was perfect!