SF trip report
 

this weekend I took the wife to SF this weekend for a surprise birthday present. I have to say that SFO is one of the most convenient airports I've been to as far as getting from the terminal to the city with minimal hassle/time. My saying this may be colored by the fact jetblue flies into the international terminal, so all you have to do is hop on BART and boom, you're in SF in no time. much easier than JFK, LGA, EWR etc.

We stayed at the Sir Francis Drake hotel on powell near Union Square. for the price range, this hotel was a pretty great deal. right around 120/night, it has a lot of character and our room was small but nice (and newly renovated). Also, the bar upstairs (harry denton's starlight room) is a great place for a before dinner cocktail.

as soon as we checked in we walked down to the mission to check out the legendary el farolito. both of us got the super burrito and an agua fresca. my pineapple agua fresca was great, my wife had strawberry which was good but not great. The burritos were truly excellent, and had sliced avocados instead of guacamole. I ate mine and felt like I was going to die afterwards, my wife couldn't come close to finishing hers and still felt like she was going to die.

we then walked over to guerrero and walked up to alamo park, where we checked out the houses and sat on the grass. after this, walked back to the hotel and had a pre-dinner drink at the hotel's bar. I had an uptown manhattan which was good but a little too sweet for me, wife had a margarita which was great.

dinner was at the slanted door in the ferry building, so we walked down market to the ferry building. walking everywhere was a very common theme to our trip, we only took muni twice [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]. the slanted door was packed but we got a table quickly, and started with the imperial spring rolls and grilled squash fritter thing I am forgetting the name of. the imperial rolls were just ok, squash was amazing. shared a bottle of riesling off their gigantic-list-of-rieslings, and for dinner we split the vegetarian glass noodles, spicy japanese eggplant and halibut (3 dishes total). I thought all 3 were excellent, wife wasn't so into the eggplant but thought the glass noodles were amazing. The halibut was really excellent, I don't eat fish all that often but to me it was very light, flaky and had a lot of flavor. no room for dessert, the bill including wine was 107.

the next day we walked over to tartine for breakfast, both of us got egg and cheese on a baguette. we then walked over to haight st and over to golden gate park, and had tea at the japanese tea garden. japanese tea garden was nice, but I enjoyed the rest of the botanic gardens a lot more, particularly the fragrant garden. at this point we hopped on the muni and went to the park on the west side of fisherman's wharf. this was a really nice park, and we walked from here down through the wharf and over to check out the sea lions. only 2 sea lions, kind of dissapointing.

from the wharf we decided to walk down to north beach and visit city lights bookstore. a few hills later, and we stop at molinari's italian deli for lunch and had a GREAT sandwich with roasted peppers, pesto, sundried tomatoes, and fresh mozzarella. then went to city lights (picked up leonard bernstein's "the joy of music", great book!) and had several beers at vesuvio. this is a really great bar, def has an old school sf kind of vibe.

we had dinner at greens with some friends, really great restaurant. started with the corn griddle cakes, and then the vegetable enchiladas with chili beans and creme fraiche. for dessert we split the peach tart with buttermilk ice cream.

saturday we got up at 8, bought a picnic lunch at the farmer's market in preparation for angel island. bread from acme, 3 kinds of cheese from cowgirl creamery, and the most overpriced organic peaches ever (3.75/lb, 2 peaches were 5 bucks!). still, great market and surprisingly packed even that early.

once we got to angel island we decided to rent bikes, and rode the 5 mile loop. after getting back we went to hotel buena vista for irish coffee, and then back to the hotel. after some cocktails we headed to sushi groove south for dinner. this place is awesome and has a great vibe. the sushi was good but not mind blowing, but the great vibe, music and large bottles of asahi more than made up for that.

ok, that's probably long enough, the next day was uneventful as we spent most of it travelling.

Re: SF trip report
 

turnip,

SFD is pretty much the standard for "traditional quaint SF hotel room w/ character." Read: small! Nice SF hotels are pretty much either like that, modern boutiques (same as anywhere else), or business hotels (Hyatt, Sheraton etc).

I guess you must have gotten the vegetarian imperial rolls. No idea what those are like, but I love the regular ones! I'm also not a fan of eggplant. Was the vegetarian noodles the one w/ lemongrass tofu? That stuff is great.

I really like Vesuvio as well.

Now that you've tried Greens, you'll have to hit Millenium next time.

"the most overpriced organic peaches" - hahahahha, that's pretty much the story of the Ferry Building farmer's market. You definitely pay for that location. Most expensive farmer's market in the area for sure.

" the sushi was good but not mind blowing" - totally agree w/ that re: SGS. That place is solid sushi, but moreso I just like it for the overall experience, especially for getting a touch of SF-style ambience.

Re: SF trip report
 

Nice report.

I was in San Fran on Wednesday & Thursday (for work sadly) and stayed on at the Synxis Orchard Hotel a couple of blocks from Union Square. Sounds very similar to the place you stayed at.

Re: SF trip report
 

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Now that you've tried Greens, you'll have to hit Millenium next time.

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I forgot to mention this but have been to millenium several years ago. really great restaurant, but decided against it for this trip since my wife isn't a vegetarian. I love both places, although I think greens may be a little less scary for non-vegetarians [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]. also the view is great.

Re: SF trip report
 

Turnip - nice trip report, good read, sounds like you had a great time.

Re: Slanted Door - good to know, for some reason I trust your palette. Sounds excellent and actually not too pricey. We used to take clients there alot when I lived in SF (2000-2003), and I was always a bit underwhelmed by the food (well more accurately, it could be very good but was very inconsistent) and thought it was overpriced. I will remember to check it out next time in SF.

-Al

Re: SF trip report
 

el d,
veg imperial rolls were good, but squash dish was truly excellent and probably overshadowed the rolls. I did like the "wrap in lettuce then dip in sauce" as a way to eat them though.

glass noodles had tree ear and some other kind of mushrooms. really nice, deep flavor.

forgot to mention service was excellent at slanted door, our waiter really steered us right as far as wine and a good mix of entrees.

Re: SF trip report
 

I have to be in SF in early September for job interviews, and I planned on bringing the girlfriend and making a mini 3-day vacation out of it.

I could probably do the math, but if you don't mind sharing, could you let us know what the budget for this trip was?

I feel like just printing this out and using it and the other El D thread as my guide to SF.


Also, if anyone happens to read this that works for any big law firms in SF, please PM me. Thanks [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Re: SF trip report
 

I've stayed at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel. I believe Sir Francis Drake himself was the last person to have the room I had. The guy at the front desk asked me how many in my party, and when I told him "one," he told me the room was too small. When I opened the door, it broke the window. We're talking small.

That said, it is in a great location. I note that most of your report is about food and walking in great neighborhoods, which are indeed two of the great attractions of San Francisco.

Re: SF trip report
 

noah, here's a very rough breakdown:

hotel: 120/night

food: obv this varies wildly, but for us maybe 100/person or so? we ate pretty cheap breakfast/lunches and nice dinners.

activities: ferry to angel island was 15/person round trip, bikes were 20/person.

it really depends on what you want to do for most of the day. we really like to walk (obviously), but if you don't then it is easy to spend more on cabs and other activities. really easy to spend less or more if you so desire, SF has a big range of stuff to do. I made a google map of a lot of the stuff recommended in the SF thread, pm me your email and I will send it to you.

Re: SF trip report
 

Al, slanted door was a great value. I was very surprised at the bill when it came, I thought it would have been at least 150.

Re: SF trip report
 

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the next day we walked over to tartine for breakfast, both of us got egg and cheese on a baguette.


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BTW you missed out, their pastries and other stuff is so great. Hope you didn't run into the 30 minute line. The main thing I'm interested in is :

in my relationships, ordering two of the same thing is completely forbidden, we always order different things and share. The only exception would be if we really just both want the same thing and nothing else on the menu appeals. I'm curious how common this rule is, or if most people think I'm nuts.

Re: SF trip report
 

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in my relationships, ordering two of the same thing is completely forbidden, we always order different things and share. The only exception would be if we really just both want the same thing and nothing else on the menu appeals. I'm curious how common this rule is, or if most people think I'm nuts.

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That sounds pretty far from completely forbidden, but yeah, I'll frequently try to do this as well.

Re: SF trip report
 

Nice TR. It really makes me miss SF. I love that place

Re: SF trip report
 

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I'm curious how common this rule is, or if most people think I'm nuts.

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Pretty standard for me. I'll avoid ordering what she's ordering

Re: SF trip report
 

we do this at dinner but not so much breakfast and lunch.

Re: SF trip report
 

When we tried a fancy restaurant for v-day, the only thing we recognized was filet mignon. It was also, easily, the worst dinner we've ever had. Now, we refuse to go to $75+/person restaurants.

As for SF, I've been thinking about making a short 1 or 2 night stay. I really don't want to stay in a room that looks older than my great grandma. How is the Hotel Diva? The price looks very reasonable.

Re: SF trip report
 

[ QUOTE ]
When we tried a fancy restaurant for v-day, the only thing we recognized was filet mignon. It was also, easily, the worst dinner we've ever had. Now, we refuse to go to $75+/person restaurants.

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lol. sample size?

Re: SF trip report
 

Diva is in a great location. Its a little odd, as its a little, um, shall we say "quaint" inside, but its also going for super-hip and various celebs stay there from time to time. So I don't know exactly what to say about it. The best part is the flag they fly out front... it reads, in big capital letters, "SEXY".

Re: SF trip report
 

This report definitely makes me want to do the same thing (and since my wife is also vegetarian maybe I'll try this Millenium place). I'd say my wife and I enjoy nothing more than walking around and eating. Any suggestions on what to do or what to avoid when you have a 2 yr old with you?

Re: SF trip report
 

My wife and I stayed at the Pan Pacific about a year ago. Decent sized room, nice bathroom, really clean. Think it was like $150 a night. Good location.

Re: SF trip report
 

greens and millenium are both musts for vegetarians, millenium is a bit like candle 79 in nyc but I think it's better. as long as you have a good stroller I don't think anything we did was particularly kid unfriendly.

Re: SF trip report
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
When we tried a fancy restaurant for v-day, the only thing we recognized was filet mignon. It was also, easily, the worst dinner we've ever had. Now, we refuse to go to $75+/person restaurants.

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lol. sample size?

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IME - for some reason a lot of really fancy restaurants seem to like their filets as tall or taller than they are wide. This makes it really hard to get a consistent cook all the way through. Usually you wind up with a well-done strip of over 1/2 inch all around, and the middle completely raw.

Sample size: several.

Re: SF trip report
 

Le Colonial is a must visit place in SF if you aren't vego and liked the slanted door (not sure how the menu is if you are). I think i went there like 10 times or something with TheBruiser in our brief sojourn in SF.

Re: SF trip report
 

Alfreds's>>>>>>>>>>& gt;>>>>Greens

I have friends that don't eat meat,
but I don't trust them.

Re: SF trip report
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

the next day we walked over to tartine for breakfast, both of us got egg and cheese on a baguette.


[/ QUOTE ]

BTW you missed out, their pastries and other stuff is so great. Hope you didn't run into the 30 minute line. The main thing I'm interested in is :

in my relationships, ordering two of the same thing is completely forbidden, we always order different things and share. The only exception would be if we really just both want the same thing and nothing else on the menu appeals. I'm curious how common this rule is, or if most people think I'm nuts.

[/ QUOTE ]

Duke: "I think I'm going to get entrée X."
Girl: "Oh I was going to get that, I'll try Y instead."
Duke: "Why would you do that?"
Girl: "I want to try more things."
Duke: "But I want to eat X."
Girl: "Fine." She gets into her pissed-off mood.
...
meal comes
...
Duke: "This is great. Wanna try it?"
Girl: "Oh ok, try mine!"
...
2 minutes later I'm eating whatever fetid stench she decided to try out, while she enjoys what I wanted to eat in the first place. And she's happy. I think this is because she likes making my meals less enjoyable. Note that she gets really pissed off if I ever even hint that I think it's a terrible idea to deviate from an order solely to try new things.

Re: SF trip report
 

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Al, slanted door was a great value. I was very surprised at the bill when it came, I thought it would have been at least 150.

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slanted door is the best restaurant in the usa....period. i like to go on saturdays so i can also hit up the farmer's market. i love norcal:)