Bella Venezia - San Francisco (Mission)

We went early Sunday evening and were the first ones in for Dinner.The dipping sauce they serve with the bread is REALLY good. It's probably a few simple ingredients of tomato and garlic but it's quite tasty. Thinned down it could be a tomato soup.Prices are really great, and the people there are very friendly. The menu is quite basic but the dishes are prepared very well. The calamari is excellent! Not too much batter and nicely fried up served with tasty dipping aioli. The mussels are good.For dinner we had the veal parm. It's not that great. If it was I'd give this restaurant 5stars. But the shrimp w/garlic sauce is very yummy!! Feels like you're eating a stick of butter w/your shrimp. . .but it taste great.

Tofu House (Palo Alto)

Comes to you boiling HOT that pot of Tofu soup. Then you crack a raw egg into the soup when it comes to your table. It's very satisfying when you want something salty and fairly healthy.

You get rice and other side dishes like Kim chee, cucumber, potato, seaweed and noodles. Very satisfying.

Ella Restaurant - San Fransicso (Presidio)

Long wait indeed for breakfast. It's not so long if you go in, sign up, then circle around for parking for 15 minutes then come back and wait to be called.

However, brunch is worth it for a mass amount of food. Some interesting stuff on the menu which is home-eee good. Potato casserole, big slices of ham, melted cheese, yummy biscuit. Better than your average greasy dinner all right.

The blood orange juice and mocha is tops.

Universal Cafe - San Fransico (Mission)

I want to give 4 stars because the food was really good.

I'd have to go for dinner to see if it's worth the 4th star.I went for Brunch with friends and the wait was long. Over one hour later we finally got a seat. It's one of those contemporary, not overly comfy food places with hard seats.

The menu is not that extensive.I had a pork burger and it was really good. Came w/a salad, but seems like it was a bit over priced for a burger, and a mix salad. . .that was $13. David had a pastrami which was good, but again with just a salad for $13, was too little bit food.

I would expected at least french fries instead.The mango and banana shake was really good, not too sweet. And the coffee is good.

Forein Cinema, San Francisco, CA

We went again for brunch and the place was crowded at 2pm.

This time was not so impressed by brunch. The menu looked good, but nothing that extraordinary. Just American classic foods dressed up.

David had the french toast. The bread was really yellow and it was a cake like consistency.

I had a duck breast salad. It was tasty but soaked with dressing.

Kabul Afghan Cuisine

This is a nice middle of the road restaurant. Not too fancy but better than going to some chain restaurant. The only this is that if there are people waiting by the door they don't see you and you have to get the attention of someone yourself in order to be seated. Once you're seated service is alright.

We had the leek appetizer. It was good, but a little oily. The lamb and spinach dish was good. The lamb was really tender. The kabob combo with chicken and lamb was really yummy. The chicken wasn't dried out at all, and it was really flavorful. The lamb was not over cooked.





My friend had the vegetarian platter. The pumpkin was really great as well as the spinach. But the cauliflower was sweet which was kind of odd. I think next time I go back I'm just ordering the pumpkin and kabob because that was the exceptional dishes.




We had the pudding for dessert. It comes in a bowl, not a cup. I like the almonds in it which gives it a texture.

Naglee Park Garage - Santa Clara, CA

Very good menu that has so much potential. BUT. . .

Not enough salt. I had to salt every other bite. Service is not over the top friendly.

We went for Brunch and had Egg Naglee and some other Egg casserole type of dish. Not your ordinary dishes so it sounded really good. The Eggs Naglee was two poached eggs on a potato-meat hash with hollandase sauce. The other dish was rotisserie chicken and potatoes baked in eggs and cheese. The crust of the casserole is crispy and cheesy.

Forein Cinema, San Francisco, CA

This restaurant hit the spot. I think we've have been eating a lot of Asian food lately so this was a nice change. I wouldn't say it was classic french but it did have the classic protein dishes. There was a lot of variety, and it was not very oily like Californian style food. If you eat outside in the courtyard you can watch the movie on the brick wall, only you can't really watch it, it's just a backdrop. It was a cold night so we chose to sit inside.



For Appetizer we had the Thai coconut broth mussels. It hit the spot on the slightly chilly night as it was like a warm soup. The duck breast salad had an unusual spice and it was topped with some sort of watercress-type green. Slightly overdressed but nevertheless it was one of the best duck salads.



For dinner we had Salmon and lamb dish. I usually don't order salmon but this one sounded interesting. It was wrapped in a fig leaf and served with vegetable and beans. The salmon was really nicely cooked. I don't what flavor the fig leaf was supposed to add. The lamb was really tasty and well cooked. I can't even name spices anymore it seems, but it was smoked just right. Served over pollenta added a nice texture. I like the grilled grapes added nice sweetness.

Dessert was a crepe topped with creme fresh and strawberries. Dessert was okay, not that impressive in comparison with dinner, but it was good. It wasn't too sweet and a nice ending since dinner didn't make us feel so overstuffed.

LINK

Patio Filopino, San Bruno, CA

Oh yeah, if you want a lot of food and feel stuffed in that fatty way, then Filopino food does the trick.

We had Garlic rice, Fried Bangus and the vegetable thing flavored w/shrimp sauce. I like the Bangus prepared on the flat pan better I think. The Fried one tasted almost like KFC batter.

The dessert was very gooey. Ice cream with chocolate sauce and deep fried banana lumpia.






LINK

Fuzio, San Francisco, CA

Pretty decent restaurant but nothing that special. Located in the Castro area, so it's distracting (not in a bad way) staring at the gay guys tight shirts and muscles.

I had the potato and leek pasta with mushroom sauce. Really good. David had the pork dish and it was pretty tasty and spicy. It was nice with the sour cream on top. Pasta is well cooked.


LINK

Shabuway, San Mateo, CA

At first I though, it's kind of boring. Geeze just meat, flavor water and veggies w/dipping sauce and water.

But then later on I was craving the simple rice and meat thing, and it's very healthy.

Don't get the pot stickers. Yuck.

LINK

Assab Eritrean Restaurant, San Francisco, CA

We had the 3 meet combo, lamb, beef & chicken and the chickpea mash. (sorry I don't know the exact name). It was really good and we ate everything up in Ethipoian style with our fingers. Nicely seasoned and tasty but not too oily.

The samosa is a flat piece, not that great I think.

The Meta Beer, that was really good. It has a sweet after taste.

Service is slow, there were two people here serving 7 tables.


LINK

Kabob Palace, Arlington VA

Searched for food near my hotel near Washinton DC, Radisson. Near by was a kabob place and the reviews looked good. So I walked a block and a half down the way. Place is not fancy and the guy taking the orders is great multi-tasker.

I got the lamb kabob. Served with rice and nice soft garbanzo beans, and side salad (nothing special). Also served with bread. Very chewy, hardy and good. There is a really good dipping sauce that taste like yougurt and lemon and some other spices.

The meats are all cooked after you place the order. When you walk in you can see trays of meats


www.mykabobpalace.com

Daphne restaruant

Pretty Good. Food isn't gourmet but it taste good.

The pita bread is hot.

The lemon chicken is pretty good. The plate of food will fill you up and the salad is good. But only one olive? ;-(

Tamarine Restaurant - Palo Alto, CA

We had 2 apps, 2 entrees and 1 dessert. . . result Full and satisfied.

Had the Calamari and Hamachi-Tartar. Tartar was great with chopped up onions, and something slightly crunchy and sweet like jiacama, cilantro, lemongrass, tons of flavor. The Calamari was good but I think I like it better w/o the batter fried. The cilantro emulsion was a very tasty dipping sauce.


The dinner entrees said "small plate" but I thought it wasn't that small. We ate the lemongrass bass. Nice portion actually. I like the side of noodle since it had sliced mango on top. Nice touch as I like a little sweet. The 5 spice duck was cooked very well, but it was just Okay. We had two orders of jasmine rice. Rice comes in these cute baskets wrapped in a banana leaf.



I was full but since the waiter slipped the dessert menu to us ever so cleverly. . . we shared the tapioca w/ passion fruit and lemon grass sorbet. Sweet but not too sweet, ahh nice ending.


Pretty pricey place, but food was good.

http://www.tamarinerestaurant.com/

Cliff House, San Francisco, CA

We went out to dinner for my Birthday at the "Cliff House". The restaruant is located along the sunset district of San Francisco and the restaurant is situated along the cliff of the water. Over looking the water, there are large rock formations.



We go to the restaurant around 7pm and sunset was at around 8pm so we got to view the sunset. They asked if we wanted to wait for a window seat but it was okay the booth was comfortable and I was hungry and didn't want to wait.

The menu is largely sea food. I over heard that they change their menu every month so the selection was not vast. For appetizer, David got the salmon slivers (i.e. house smoked salmon arranged on the plate) and I got dollops of oysters. Was good.






For Dinner I got the scallops and David got the filet minion & lobster tail (surf and turf) with risotto and mushrooms. The Scallops were nicely cooked. There were 5 big plump ones. The salad was a fresh spinach salad with sautéed mushrooms and avocado slices.






The filet was also good but not great. But it's nice to have a piece of meat.

Since it was my birthday I got a free dessert. I picked the cream trio. A sampling of pistachio crème Brule, orange glazed flan, and butter scotch cream in a shooter glass. David's chocolate cake was uneventful and too dense. The chocolate gelato on the side was good however.





We left the restaurant stuffed. I think it was because I drank a whole bottle of iced tea.

Cafe Boronne - Menlo Park, CA

The cafe food is pretty good. That day we order the specials which were a chicken panini w/avocado and ham and asparagus sandwich. Both were really good. However, it's cafe food, even at it's best it's nothing that blows your socks off.

Minus a star because our bill was $30 for just cafe food (mind you it was a step above Panera), however we found a thick metal wire curved into a half moon and about 3 inches long on the plate while we were eating. Whoa, gotta watch it there.

Chaat Paradise - Mountain View, CA

I had the Spinach and chick peas dish, was good, but salty. The kofta curry. .yummy sauce but what were those hard t balls inside? The bateta vata (i think) which were deep fried balls of potato w/spices. That was pretty good!

However, the service guy is very pushy. I said I just wanted rice w/my meal and he suggested rice w/ vegetables. Okay, so I think about his suggestion and it's 6.99 vs. 2.00 for my plain rice. "I'll just have plain rice."

Then he suggested bread. I look at the menu, and again he pointed out the most expensive ones and said " very nice, taste very nice". Hey, man I just came in for lunch and I already ordered 3 dishes w/ drinks so stop it. But, we ordered the bread and he pushed for two but I said "one order is enough". It wasn't the nice fluffy naan that I like and we ended up leaving 1/2 of it behind.

Food is good. . . but not *that* good and not *that* cheap, so I probably won't return. I don't like to feel like a used car sales guy is selling me food.

Darn we haven't found a good Indian restaurant like the one in Berkely (Tandor Kitchen).