Good fish, boring rolls

Sebo is known to be one of the top sushi places in SF, so now that I am starting to get over my dislike of seafood, I wanted to check it out. The SF DICS decided to go all out and order omakase, so we didn't know exactly what we were going to get, but we trusted that it would be good. All in all, we ended up having about 9 rounds of different sushi, all of which were delicately prepared with incredibly fresh fish.




Now, I'm just a sushi noob, but I have to be honest that it just got a little boring after a while. All of the preparations that we had were pretty straightforward nigiri - just a slice of fish on some rice. Don't get me wrong, the fish was great, and even the rice was incredibly delicious. But I like getting the occasional "unusual" roll - like when a restaurant adds some jalapeno or tropical fruit or whatever to the fish. If it's done well, it often really works. And it mixes things up a bit from the standard fish-on-rice.




Our omakase plus a shared bottle of sake ran us about $90 per person, and given that I started getting bored of the sushi halfway through, I'm not sure that I would go back. However, I am not sure that all the other DICS share this opinion. I saw some pretty blissful expressions on J-dawg's face all the way to the end of the meal. He even enjoyed sea urchin for the first time, so that's gotta mean something.

Chapeau: so good until the last 5 minutes

This month the SF DICS took the Richmond by storm. Chapeau (on Clement @15th) delivered some amazing food and a comfortable atmosphere. There was a little snafu with the waiter at the end of our meal (the last 5 minutes referred to in the title of this post), but I am not going to let that taint my memories of the delicious food and the great company of my fellow DICS. 

Instead of describing the dinner, I'm going to just include some actual quotes along with pics: 

Ooooohhh! This asparagus soup is soooo good. 

(Complimentary starter).

OMG! Two giant slabs of foie gras? Mmmm. Wow, the presentation is great. Is there crack in this sauce? 

Yum. The reduction sauce on this steak is to die for. Um, no, actually I don't really want to swap any of it for some of your duck. Sorry.  

Whoa. What is this creamy custard stuff between the apples and the crust? That seriously makes this way better than regular apple tart. 

Ohhhh, warm and gooey. Chocolatey. 

Actually, these are mostly quotes from the other members of DICS. I didn't say that much because I was busy inhaling my food and scraping the sauce of the plate, and then trying to eat the shared desserts faster than the others. Suckers. I definitely got more than my fair share of the chocolate cake. And the bread. And the apple tart. 

Needless to say, my tummy hurt. But that is a price I am willing to pay. 

Tenderloin Two-fer

Ahh, the Tenderloin.... Walking through several blocks of urine-scented sidewalks, sprinkled with crackwhores and empty 40s makes arriving at your destination that much more special.

Since the DICS are the kind of people who can handle the trek, we journeyed to the Loin last week for some classy bourbon drinks at Bourbon & Branch. Of course, we had to make a pit stop at Shalimar to get some sketchy-yet-delicious Indian food to pad our stomachs beforehand. After that tasty prelude, we headed across the street to B&B, gave them our password, and were seated at a comfy booth in the dimly-lit (in a good way) establishment.

I have only recently discovered that I like bourbon, and for me, this trip to B&B was a big success. I think I might have to say that I love bourbon, especially when mixed into a sexy little cocktail. This could be dangerous. My fellow DICS were equally enamoured with the drinks at B&B, so I think we might need to visit again soon.

A housecall to Chez TJ

Belated Post - we went to Chez TJ in February, right before the Executive Chef left (to Meadowood in Napa where he is apparently kicking ass). Since the visit was several months ago now, I won't try to describe in any detail. Quick summary is that all of us were thoroughly pleased with the food, although the portions were a bit small for a 4 course menu. Feeling a bit unsatisfied with the overall amount of food, I suggested a post-TJ visit to In-N-Out, but was shot down by my dining companions. In the end, I survived without hitting up any other dining establishments, but it was tough.


Everything was presented beautifully and tasted delicious:








The DICS rejoiced:

Ducca was the shit(s)

Ducca, a new SF restaurant in 2007 was voted a top 10 restaurant by SF Chronicle's foodie Michael Bauer. Ergo, Julie got all excited and booked us up a rezzo so we can experience their "Venetian" fare ourselves. Honestly, I can't get excited about any italian restaurant, which by its very nature, removes about 80% of all new restaurants that are opening in SF nowadays. (I think the other 20% are classified as Thai noodle places. (poubelle))

Anyway, in this case, I had a prior engagement, so this guy did not attend this latest DICS outing. But to those that did go, I exclaim in your general direction a hearty "HA!" I'm sorry, do I enjoy seeing my friends eat bad meals? no. Do I enjoy successfully avoiding what I perceived would be a sure waste of time? yes!

Well, it's late and I've nothing else to do, so I'll paraphrase Julie's report on Ducca.
There were the four of them at the table, enough to order a sizable cross section of their offerings. The quietness and absence of other patrons was an ominous sign, but the diners went through with their original plan and ordered a large variety of dishes.

They all sucked.

Not knowing how this restaurant received a top 10 from the Chronicle, we surmised that Michael Bauer must be getting some sort of...of...what's the French word for "kickback"? So glad I am to have avoided this waste of time!

y'know, when it comes to food, I don't care how you decorate it, I don't care what kind of plate it sits on, I don't care if Owen Wilson came to this same restaurant 3 days ago, I don't care if Mario Batali is a part owner. All I care about when it comes to food from restaurants, because I believe these are organically evolved signs of a good place to eat, is that it fulfills more than one of the following conditions:

a) Cook is overweight. Not just average American overweight, but I mean goddamn Paul Prudhomme overweight (Hard to assess, cuz most cooks/chefs/sauciers/schiesters work behind closed doors

b) Appears dirty, but in fact passes health inspections. (eg. Shalimar is a good example. Another is Shanghai Dumpling King)

c) Is cooked by a mom looking figure (eg. Cafe Jacqueline)

d) Is busy. Hopefully surprisingly busy due to its forgettable location, or superficial displays of uncleanliness (eg. Tio Alberto's in Isla Vista, and again, Shalimar)

e) Remote. So remote, you know it has to be good to stay in business. This final qualification almost makes me want to take a pilgrimage to El Bulli.

Ok, so this post really didn't have that much to do with Ducca, aside from the mentioning that it sucked. But then, I'm not in a position to elucidate on the whys & hows of it sucking. You'll have to wait for the other DICS to jive on that.

DICS Does Michael Mina

Tonight DICS dined at the very famous Restaurant Michael Mina located in the Westin St Francis on Union Square. To say the least, our expectations for the restaurant were very low considering we knew how pricey the menu was, and I think all of us expected to be let down, at least in some fashion. (If this is not foreshadowing, I don’t know what is.)

The night was off to a poor start when I entered the restaurant. I found Julie, Jessica, and Jeremy all huddled around a small cocktail table sipping on various fruity drinks. That includes Jeremy who was drinking something to the kin of grenadine and vodka. As soon as I sat down, each person at the table quickly described how bad their drink was. In fact, Jessica begged me for the next 15 minutes to help her finish it off. However, the drinks did do the trick as Jessica and Julie were quite toasty before we even ordered.

We were then seated and given our menus. Once we had our menus in hand, we quickly understood what made this restaurant so unique. It is a prefixed menu with three courses, however, each course is prepared in three different ways. So, it meant that in reality each person was able to get 9 different unique tastes throughout the evening. After we ordered, we started with a bottle of La Reve Sparkling White Wine from Domain Carneros and we were promptly presented with a special amuse-bouche; soft-shelled crab prepared in three different ways (in keeping with the general theme). There was a buttery smooth bisque, a bite sized piece of tempura fried crab, and a crab cake prepared with hummus. Each was very impressive.

At the same time we were presented with hot rolls and “the best better I’ve ever had” according to Julie on our own little butter plate. The waiter appeared a few minutes later with our appetizers. Julie and I both had the lobster and artichoke dish while Jessica and Jeremy both had the foie gras. The lobster was prepared in three different ways with an additional small lobster tail. The highlight for both Julie and I was the single tortelloni, which, when I bit into it, I said “This is the best taste I've ever tasted.” Julie followed with “I had a special moment just now.”

Jeremy and Jessica both said that it was the best foie gras they had ever eaten. We then moved on to our main course and opened up a 2003 Rochioli Pinot Noir. Jessica and Jeremy both had the lamb. It was presented medium rare with three distinctly different sauces, and during her main course Jessica remarked that is was “Heaven on a plate.” Julie had the “Three Little Pigs” which was a sampling of pork loin, ribs, and pork belly. At one point Julie leaned back on the couch to take a break and uttered “I'm a little warm right now.” At about the same time Jeremy picked it up a notch with this quote: “I am about as likely to go dancing as I am to lick the pork fat off of Julie’s plate.”

We then moved on to dessert that was, to say the least, epic. Julie and Jessica split the cheese plate and chocolate deserts. The cheese plate was a series of three different medium hard cheeses from a sheep, cow and goat. They were each paired with fruity morsels of deliciousness according to Julie. The chocolate dessert, which I also had, was a composition of chocolate mousse, ganache, and a molten lava cake. Hands down the scrumptuously melting chocolate combined with the chocolate ice cream was off the hook. The ganache paired with Jasmine Tea ice cream was certainly the weak link in the group because it seemed to be very dry and not had little flavor. However, the mousse made up for it along with the walnut flavored ice cream that was seated next to it. Jeremy’s tummy was “owwie” at this point in the night and we really considered kicking him out of DICS because he couldn’t hang. “I’ve never been so wrecked by a meal,” was Jeremy’s thought just before he started his dessert, the Citrus Plate, of which he only finished half.

At this point we figured we were done. However, we were presented with a final treat, a series of bon bons. The pear sorbet encrusted in chocolate and thinly sliced candied puffed rice was outstanding, although it was not out done by the strawberry ice cream prepared in the same fashion.

All of us agreed that Michael Mina was better food and a more enjoyable restaurant than any other restaurant we’d been to in the city, including Gary Danko and Quince. In fact, we’d go so far as to say the Michael kicked Gary’s ass. Till next time,

The DICS

DICS goes to Gary Danko

We finally had our long-awaited thrice-postponed trip to Gary Danko, the most gourmet DICS outing yet (or at least we hoped it would be). We arrived feeling celebratory, and decided to have a glass of the delicious-looking pink bubbly that other loitering patrons were enjoying. When our server presented us with two confusing-sounding French champagne options, we tried our best to look like we knew what we were talking about, and ordered the rose. That ended up being a $32 per glass lesson in being comfortable looking ignorant (but damn, it was good!).

Julie, Jeremy and I started with the foie gras, which was slightly disappointing given what Julie described as the liver-like veins running through her too-large piece. Brian went with the lobster risotto, which we all agreed was cheesy goodness. Second course was lobster with morel mushrooms, which was definitely my favorite and Julie's, who licked her plate clean...literally.

Dessert was slightly underwhelming, but probably because I had built up the cheese cart to godlike status and was only allowed to try four kinds instead of all twenty-six. The souffle everyone else ordered looked amazing but I've decided I'm more of a molten chocolate cake gal - the richer, the better. All in all, definitely a worthwhile trip and even better company. Satisfied BK?