Father's Office

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The burger at Father's Office is touted as "the best burger in LA".  I had to check it out for myself.  There are two locations, but both are 21+ only.  So even during the day and for food only, its strictly for adults.  Anyone under 21 is pointed to the to go menus.  All orders are put in through the bartender then the food is brought to your table.

A lot of people rave about their sweet potato fries.  They have a nice crust and a sweet fluffy inside.  Not exactly the best ever, but solid sweet potato fries.  Its served with a blue cheese dipping sauce.  It wasn't the most traditional dipping sauce, but even though I'm not a huge fan of blue cheese, I found the flavor to be pretty good.

Finally, the main event - the burger.  The bun makes this burger look more like a hoagie or a sandwich.  Its lightly toasted and layered with arugula, blue cheese, caramelized onions, and gruyere.  The burger is juicy, but not oozing.  The meat is tender and flavorful, but not jaw dropping fantastic.  The taste of the burger is very sweet, which is from the very generous portion of caramelized onions.  While its not the best or most traditional burger, its still a good burger.  Nopa's burger in SF (see post HERE) outshines this burger by far.

Another ho hum dish - the bone marrow.  Again, with the sweet flavors!  The bone marrow, while fatty, was also a bit on the sweet side.  Nothing too memorable about this dish either.

Address:                 Father's Office
                                3229 Helms Ave.
                                Los Angeles, CA
 

Type:                       gastropub

Popular chomps:     burger
                                 sweet potato fries

Chomp worthy:        sweet potato fries    

Tribune Tavern

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Right below the historic Tribune tower lies the Tribune Tavern.  Dark and mysterious, but with some awesome outside and window seating, Tribune Tavern is great place to enjoy the upcoming warm summer nights.  Its best to come hungry with no plans to do anything after.  The food is heavy and filling, but exactly the type of menu when you think of a tavern.

Possibly the most generous amount of spreadable meats I've ever had.  The potted rabbit was creamy and delicious.  Even with a generous coating on each piece of toast, there was quite a bit of rabbit leftover.  A couple more slices of toast would have been perfect.

The grilled ox tongue was so tender it could melt in your mouth.  The sliced radishes brought some freshness and crunch to each bite.

The pork trotter and cheek fritter was kinda delicious.  Tender shreds of meat encased in a fried shell.   Its hard not to love anything fried.  The sprinkle of fava beans made you feel less guilty about eating something fried.

Chuck and brisket make this burger flavorful, but oddly it lacked any juiciness.  $2 extra for bacon, but at this point it was meat overload for me.  The fries were nice and crisp with a good amount of salt.

Its hard to find sheperd's pie in the Bay Area and Cheesecake Factory doesn't count.  Usually, I find that most are too salty or oily, but Tribune Tavern's was quite tasty.  Double meat filling made with lamb and braised beef .  I only wished the Parmesan mash had little more flavor and texture. 

Its a shame that TCHO chocolate was made into this pot de creme.  The marshmallow topping made it all too sweet and hard to enjoy the lovely TCHO chocolate. 

Address:                 Tribune Tavern
                                401 13th St.
                                Oakland, CA
 

Type:                       American/British/gastropub

Popular chomps:      guilty fries
                                  bangers and mash
                                  shepard's pie
                                  burger

Chomp worthy:         potted rabbit
                                  grilled ox tongue
                                  pork trotter and cheek fritter

Trick Dog

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I've been wanting to eat here since they first opened, but the stories of the lines out the door kept me away.  Possibly an urban myth, but I never saw any lines here and was able to be seated right away.  You can opt to eat at the bar or their upstairs table seating section.  Words of advice on ordering here:  the dishes are really well priced and portioned larger than your average SF food; get drinks since the food is a little on the saltier side (not a bad thing).

Fun and creative, Trick Dog puts their drink menu on a pantone menu.

I love pickles.  The more original the better.  This pickle platter was gigantic.  Various veggies with what tasted like three different types of pickling were fun to taste and try.  Most interesting was the jelly looking substance on the wooden plank.  After some poking and prodding, I discovered it was a jelly of pickle juice.  Very creative.

Whats a place in the mission without a nod to its Mexican influences in the area?  The chunks of pork belly are crispy on the outside and cooked with brown sugar, salt and spices.  The dipping sauce is haunting similar to Tapatio. 

When I think of pimento cheese, I think oddly colored cheese dip from the 80s.  This dip was addictively delicious.  Made with cheddar cheese, Spanish cherry peppers, garlic, and vermouth, this dip has a good kick.  Best are the guilt free vegetables provided for scooping into the rich, creamy, "this is so bad for me, but I can't stop eating it" dip.

Deep fried tempura avocados.  There is so many "wow" things from that statement that it was heartbreaking when I bit into the soggy avocado.  Such potential with this dish, but it just needed the battery crunch! 

Of course, beer nuts are a must when you have drinks in hand.  Spanish nuts candied in Miller High Life (yes, the beer!), espelette chili, Lyle’s Golden Syrup & orange.  The texture is similar to boiled soybeans, in other words, soft.  Takes a while to get used to, but they are quite snackable. 

Another item that I think needs to make more of an appearance on SF menus - beef tartare.  The sirloin is sous vide, but still rare and combined with an egg yolk, capers, and mustard.  Fresh tasting and flavorful, its the perfect spread for the crispy toast.

I was really excited seeing scotch egg on this menu.  Why are there not more scotch eggs in the city?  This one was creatively put together with crab meat surrounding the egg instead of sausage.  Crisp with runny insides, the order only includes one egg, so keep this in mind if you aren't the sharing type.

Not just your average hamburger.  Trick Dog's burger is shaped like a hot dog, but its actually a hamburger.  Its fun take on a hamburger almost made me feel confused when I ate it, but its full of flavor and juicy meat quickly had my taste buds recognize this is one damn good burger.

At first glance of this menu item, I almost didn't order it thinking the rice cake was more of the Korean style type rice cake, but good thing I did order it.  The crispy rice cake that reminded me of hash browns was probably one of my favorite items on the menu and made think how can I recreate this at home.  Chewy with crispy edges, its everything that I love about all things rice.  The rice cake soaked up in the lemon grass pork and the fish sauce vinaigrette flavors made it even better.

Giant Kennebec potatoes that are thrice cooked!  They are boiled & twice-fried.  An extra $2 turns these tubers into manimal style.  The tricky wordplay made me think of In-N-Out's animal style, but really its topped with cheese, a pickly vegetable that I think is spinach, and a secret sauce.

The ice cream desserts seem to change, but today's was the fruity pebbles cereal ice cream.  Fruity pebbles made me flashback a little and ask myself, "Do they even sell the cereal in the stores anymore?" The ice cream is creamy and smooth and reminds me of Frozen Custard's cereal milk (see post HERE) with the exact flavor of Fruity Pebbles cereal.  Also, more Fruity Pebbles cereal is crumbled and sprinkled on top, which answered my original question, "I guess they do still sell the cereal".  A pretty perfect ending.

Address:                 Trick Dog
                                3010 20th St.
                                San Francisco, CA

Type:                      gastropub

Popular chomps:     hamburger
                                drinks  

Chomp worthy:       hamburger
                                pickle plate
                                ice cream
                                pimento cheese
                                rice plate

Martin's West Gastropub

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If you saw the menu for Martin's West, you wouldn't believe it was located in downtown Redwood City.  The food is a mix of pub food and culinary twists in a gastropub setting.  It reminds me of a mix of Monk's Kettle (see post HERE) and The Alembic (see post HERE), which is the kind of food I love to eat.  There were lots of interesting yummy options here that I'll have to work in a second visit. 

At first glance, it looks like a mini corndog, but actually its haggis on a stick.  Haggis is a Scottish dish made of sheep's stomach stuffed wtih offal (heart, liver, lungs, etc).  This one is hidden in a deep fried golden cornmeal batter.  That's how you hide something, Jessica Seinfield.

As goes without saying, everything fried always tastes good, but the haggis was seasoned well and flavorful.  There was no funky aftertaste from this haggis, which is common with many offal dishes.  So unnoticeable, I wouldn't be surprised if kids wanted this instead of chicken nuggets.

The Scotch egg was a lot smaller than I've had them before. 

 

The scotch egg here is sausage meat wrapped around a soft boiled quail egg then to top it all off - its deep fried.  So delicious and I wish more places served scotch eggs...

Of course, bone marrow is one of my favorite dishes, but at Martin's West its just a little above average.  A sparse amount of parsley leaves are sprinkled on top of the buttery bone marrow.  I did love the buttered mini toasts to spread the rich bone marrow on.

Mac and Cheese.  A little too al dente corkscrew pasta mixed with melted cheese and topped with a generous sprinkling of toasted bread crumbs.  The corkscrew pasta is a refreshing change from the usual elbow pasta and its nooks and crannies held the melted cheese well.

From left; clockwise:  smoked rabbit, spiced lamb, duck liver mousse, venison pistachio topped with housemade mustard, spicy pork salami.  The highlights were the spicy pork salami and the housemade mustard and pickled vegetables.  The others were more mild in flavor.

Address:               Martin's West Gastropub
                              831 Main Street
                              Redwood City, CA 
 

Type:                     gastropub/American

Popular chomps:   haggis on a stick
                              chacuterie
                              bone marrow
                              burger
                              scotch egg

Chomp worthy:     haggis on a stick
                              scotch egg         

Monk's Kettle

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Monk's Kettle is a place you can take someone who appreciates beer.  It has a book full of beer options and menu items with suggested beer pairings.  They don't take reservations, but if you get here before 7:30p, you won't have to wait long.

A damn tasty pretzel.  A crisp exterior with fluffy insides.  The first pretzel I've tasted with this type of texture.  Most are usually either chewy or crunchy.  It came with two sauces:  a cheesey dip and a mustard sauce.  Both were delectable, but the mustard sauce was my favorite.  A slightly sweet, but tangy taste made it a pleasant dipping option.  I'm usually not a fan of mustard, but this is insanely good - note to Monk's Kettle - bottle it up and sell it. 

 Bone marrow charged by the canoe ($9 per).  The bone marrow came out rich and fatty just like I like it, but I wasn't a fan of the popcorn.

Whats a gastropub without the juicy burger?  Monk's Kettle's burger came out super juicy with ground beef, onion jam (more like a mound of grilled onions), aged white cheddar, all on top of an acme bun.  A side of super crispy fries (McDonalds meets Burger King) came with the juicy burger.  Definitely a juicy burger, but could have done with a little more seasoning on the meat.  The flavor of the aged white cheddar got lost somewhere between the meat patty and the onions.  Since it was an Acme bun, nothing could go wrong there. 

From top right, clockwise: boar salumi, rabbit pate, soft cheese, toasted breads, house mustard, rhubard jam, hazelnuts, dried currants, and olives.  Definite favorites on the board were the boar sausage and the olives.  The boar sausage was hearty and full of flavor.  The olives had a sweeter aftertaste than the standard salty brininess.

Almost didn't order a dessert because the food coma was coming on quick, but so glad I did.  A huge scoop of ice cream served with a stout beer from a nitrogen pump.  First bite was a shock to the tastebuds due to the bitter stout beer, but after mixing the beer with the vanilla ice cream, the sweetness really came out.  A little scoop of beer foam and some vanilla ice cream made a unlikely, but delicious combination.    

Address:                        Monk's Kettle

                                              3141 16th Street.

                                              San Francisco, CA

Type:                                gastropub/American

Popular chomps:    burger
                                               pretzel                               

Chomp worthy:        pretzel
                                               stout milkshake       

Comstock Saloon

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This prohibition inspired bar in the midst of the seedy part of North Beach serves up some fantastic libations and fare.  The simple dishes with a twist even lured Anthony Bourdain to visit on his Layover San Francisco episode.

The cheddar crackers were slighly cheesey with a crisp texture like wheat thins.  The bright red sauce that screamed sweet and sour sauce was actually a pepper jelly that packed a slight kick with sweet overtones.  The thick cream cheese alongside the pepper jelly on the cheddarcracker provided an unusal, but somewhat addicting flavor combination.

Corn fritters with a smoked pepper dip that reminded me of Frances's own bacon beignets without the bacon.  Not as crispy as I would have thought, especially when I think fritters.  More of a smooshy, pillowy, soft cloud.

The Rabbit 3-ways (from bottom right, clockwise):  terrine, griddled rillette, and chicken-fried.  The terrine overshadowed by the other 2 ways and never really given a second though after consumed.  It was a tie for which way was better between the rillette and the chicken fried.  The rillette, served on a crunch toast was almost like a corn beef hash.  Salty, but in a good way.  The chicken fried could have been a little more crispy, but the flavor made up for it.  Also, plated with a celery salad dressed in a pepper vinegar that helped cut out the salt and grease in your mouth.

A red sauce like tapatio meets tabasco only taken down a couple notches was provided for the griddled rillette.

#77 - Pickled egg (on the Hangtown Toast) at Comstock Saloon- 7x7's 2012 Top 100

A not too pickley egg on top of a dry toast and some even more dried up bacon helped inch my way towards completing the 7x7 2012 Top 100 list.  While it may have wowed the people of 7x7, I found the pickled slaw more interesting. 

Bone marrow in a pot pie?  Bone marrow eats for the lazy!  No scraping or fumbling needed to spread the jelly goodness.  Each bite had a bit of flakey crust with melt-in-your-mouth beef.  A huge heaping of wild arugula salad that served nicely as a palette cleanser after each rich, fatty bite of pot pie.

Only three desserts to choose from with carrot cake being the automatic eliminating option.  Chocolate parfait plopped on top of a thick orange marmalade, espresso cream and chocolate cookie crumbles.  Even though the description read chocolate...chocolate...chocolate...it tasted more like espresso.  Not a fan of the huge serving of orange marmalade.  At times I felt like I just scooped up a spoonful of jam straight from the jar into my mouth.

Bourbon pudding?  So redundant and repetitive all over the city.  Wow.  Comstock's has got to be the best version of this creamy dessert.  Hints of bourbon flavoring in every spoonful.  Best is the banana cake hidden in the bottom with slices of banana mixed in.  Moist and delicious.  It's possibly one of my favorite desserts in a long time.

updated - Working my way through the 2012 7x7's SF big eat 100 things

Address:                        Comstock Saloon
                                              155 Columbus Ave.
                                              San Francisco, CA

Type:                                gastropub/American

Popular chomps:    beef shank bone marrow pot pie
                                               rabbit 3 ways
                                       

Chomp worthy:        rabbit 3 ways
                                               beef shank bone marrow pot pie
                                               bourbon pudding 

Hog & Rocks

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Another gastropub in the city serving charcuterie (hog) and oysters (rocks).  Hog & Rocks also takes a unique approach to the standard bar food.

 Hog & Rocks offers 2 sample plates:  a 3 or 5 meat tasting.  Each of the meats comes with a "topping" that compliments each of the flavors as well as some flatbread.  From left to right: Broadbent (aged 13 months) with Fresno chili syrup, La Quercia Picante (aged 9 months) with pickled grapes, Recla Speck with olives.  I really like how they paired a condiment with each type of meat.  Spain was the only other place I had seen this type of presentation.  Each of these pairings matched the tastes of the meats perfectly.  The La Quercia with the pickled grapes was probably my favorite of the three.  The flatbread was a little too bland and soft for the meats. 

I strayed away from my usual order of kumamoto (almost $4 each here!) and decided to get the Miyagis and test out the $1 oysters, which today was Hood Canals from Washington.  Intense, slightly sweet, with a hit of seaweed flavor.  The Miyagis were super briny, and crisp.  Super delicious, its been awhile since I've had oysters and I forgot how much I love them.

Baked oyster with piquillo butter, ham, and breadcrumbs.  I usually prefer my oysters raw and rarely order baked oysters, but having to go with the theme of the restaurant I found it necessary.  There was way too many breadcrumbs on this oyster.  A tricky little dish, you have to avoid inhaling the breadcrumb for fear of choking.  Think powdered donuts.  Still not a fan of baked oysters.

Herb butter fries with oyster mayo and spicy ketchup.  Oyster mayo sounded interesting, but I wasn't sure how that was incorporated into the mayo.  The mayo was creamy and looked like normal mayo, but tasted a little richer in flavor.  The fries were crispy and tasty. 

A unique twist on potato skins.  These were beef tongue potato skins with gypsy peppers, mornay sauce, and paprika cream.  I really liked this dish.  I thought the beef tongue was cooked really well.

Whisky bbq meatballs with cheddar grits.  This is a popular dish here and I'm not sure why.  There wasn't anything spectacular about it.  It was just meatballs with bbq sauce.  Nothing special and something I think you could make just as good at home.

Duck heart skewers with anchovy and basil puree.  The duck hearts were really juicy.  Almost too tender because they were missing that chewy snap you usually get when you eat hearts.

As if I haven't been eating enough ice cream!  These mini ice cream sandwiches were made with chocolate and white chocolate chip cookies and Blue Bottle Vietnamese coffee ice cream.  The cookie was a little too soft and the flavors of everything just seemed to blur together (not in a good way). 

Address:                          Hog & Rocks

                                                3431 19th St.

                                                San Francisco, CA

Type:                                  American/gastropub/casual

Popular chomps:    BBQ meatball
                                                 raw oysters
                                                 chacuterie plate
                                                 beef tongue potato skins
                                                 duck heart skewers 

Chomp worthy:        raw oysters
                                               chacuterie plate
                                               duck heart skewers