Spruce

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It's been a while since I've been out to restaurant where I have to dress up.  Spruce is tucked in a sleepy part of the city, but even on a weekday night this restaurant is bustling.  I hoped to just slip into the bar, where they serve full service, but even at 9p on a weekday there was a wait!  Definitely come a little dressed up here, you will stick out if you are in jeans and t-shirt.  

I love places with bread service!  The last time before this was Joel Robuchon (see post HERE ), where I was in bread heaven.  Two choices of butter at Spruce: maple cinnamon (above) and Regular (below).  Maple cinnamon was my favorite.  A sweet start to the night. 

 Likewise with the bread, there were two bread options:  cranberry sourdough (above) and dinner roll (below).  Both went quite well with both types of butters.  The dinner roll was soft and fluffy.

Hudson Valley Foie Gras with Vadouvan wafffle, strawberry, and pistachio.  A playful twist on a waffle dish.  Also, I had to get my last tidbits of foie in before the ban (insert sad face here).  The foie is served two ways:  as a torchon and the standard seared presentation.  I was pleasantly surprised that the sweetness of the foie went well with the seasonal strawberries and the waffle.  Overall, very impressed with this dish and loved how it wasn't the same ol' foie dish.  Just the perfect balance of sweet and savory without feeling like you are overdoing the richness of the foie.

Burger and Fries at Spruce - #37 on 2012 7x7 SF's Top 100 Eats

The burger and fries are probably the most popular and well known dish at Spruce.  Its actually served on the dinner menu as well as the bar menu.  Rich and flavorful Nieman Ranch beef served between a buttered English muffin.  Not a juicy burger, but the meat is well flavored.  You have the option of 3 cheese:  blue cheese, gruyere, and cheddar.  Served with a side of zucchini pickles, which I loved, and crispy duck fat fries.  Not exactly #1 in my book ( Nopa's burger is still the standard for me see it HERE), but overall an excellent burger and well worth the $16 price tag.

Spruce burger (medium rare) with cheddar cheese.

Frozen Key Lime Pie with Macadamia nuts, strawberry guava puree.  Light and refreshing dessert that wowed me.  Just the perfect touch of tartness in the key lime with a frozen, slushy center. 

 Dark chocolate cake with mint chip ice cream and toasted marshmallow.  Rich and chocolately.

A sweet goodbye treat.  Not sure exactly what it was, but tasted like a bite of almond cookie.  I'd be avoiding upscale American restaurants for a while because the menus were starting to bore me, but I was surpringly impressed by Spruce and a little upset that I hadn't made it out here before, but I will definitely be back. Absolutely deserving of its Michelin star.

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

updated - Working my way through the 2012 Michelin list (Bay Area)

Address:                       Spruce

                                             3640 Sacramento St.

                                             San Francisco, CA

Type:                               American

Popular chomps:  burger and fries

Chomp worthy:       burger and fries
                                              foie gras and waffles     

Asian Box

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This quick service Vietnamese spot in Palo Alto's Town & Country Village is headed by Grace Nguyen of Out The Door (Bush Street).  It definitely has a lot of logistical kinks to work out.  A huge line out the door, but not because its so popular.  More like all the orders were getting messed up and having to be redone.  Took a couple tries to get my orders in my hands, only to find out that they left out something, but I was already over it by then.

 The semi customizable checklist menu allows you to choose your own meat, and vegetables along with special toppers.  Overall, a nice array of options, but no description of ingredients are listed.  This left most of the people in line to ask themselves what each item was.

 A pretty pricey lunch box option even for Palo Alto.  With a couple of add ons, this came out to almost $10.  Short grain brown rice + chicken (six spice blend) + wok steamed vegetables + all box toppers + carmel egg (extra $.95) with  Miss Jones' Sriacha.  The chicken was surprisingly tender, juicy, and flavorful, but the special sriacha wasn't nothing special.  It was very similar to the hot sauce found on tables in Chinese restaurants.  Carmel egg possibly had a hint of sweetness, but I couldn't really tell.

The shrimp spring rolls were located at the front refrigerator and was more of a grab item than a freshly made roll.  The shrimp rolls were nothing special, albeit quite small.  I wasn't a fan of the peanut sauce - much too creamy and bland.  

Rice noodles +Garlic Soy Glazed beef + wok steamed vegetables + all box toppers.  The beef was tender and flavorful.

Address:                       Asian Box

                                             855 El Camino Real

                                             Ste 21

                                             Palo Alto, CA

Type:                               Vietnamese

Popular chomps:  chicken
                                              beef

Chomp worthy:      chicken
                                              beef        

Tony's Pizza Napoletana

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A little freaked out that I possibly wouldn't get one of the 73 award winning pizzas made fresh daily, but on a gorgeous weekend day Tony's was hardly busy at opening.  Tony's menu is a pizza connoisseur's dream come true.  Different pizzas made with different ovens (gas, electric, wood fired), different temperatures (550 to 1000 degrees), different toppings, and different crust.

The complimentary foccacia was soft and fluffy and hard to resist filling up on.

Three dipping sauces for the foccacia bread, but I found that they were too sweet and it was better without.

 Only 25 of these giant meatballs made daily with 3 types to choose from:  marinara, sea salted burrata, and wild mushroom, pancetta, robiola.  With a blend of veal, pork, and beef, this meatball was flavorful and juicy right down to the core.  Possibly also one of the best marinara sauces I've ever tasted.  It was the perfect balance of sweetness and spicy without overpowering the meatball.  Good to the last drop, no marinara was left in the dish.

As if eating bone marrow wasn't tedious enough!  The fire roasted bone marrow coppa fondue suggested eating method was adding the bone marrow to the small toasted breads, then adding a slice of coppa, and then dipping into the fondue.

Toasted bread, pieces of apples, and slices of coppa for dipping into the fondue.

 Cheese fondue for dipping.

The finished product!  It took a little bit of work to get a couple pieces going, but after that I found that I preferred eating it without the cheese fondue.

 Tony's world pizza cup winner in Napales, Italy with a limit 73 per day.  The dough is mixed by hand usign San Felice flour then heated in a 900 degree wood fired oven.  Its topped with San Marzano tomatoes, sea salt, and mozzarella fior di latte, fresh basil, and extra virgin olive oil.  Similar to pizzas I had in Southern Italy with a slightly chewier and fluffier crust.  The flavor is well balanced, simple,  and light tasting.  Even though this pizza is delicious, I still prefer Delfina's Margarita pizza with a slightly crispier crust. 

Address:                         Tony's Pizza Napoletana

                                               1570 Stockton St.

                                               San Francisco, CA

Type:                                 pizza/Italian

Popular chomps:   margarita pizza
                                               meatball gigante
                                               honey pizza
                               

Chomp worthy:        meatball gigante with sea salt and burrata      

                                               margarita pizza  

Papalote Mexican Grill

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Papalote is one of the popular taquerias chains in SF.  Made even more popular by being featured on Food Network's throwdown with Bobby Flay, where they beat him in a burrito throwdown.  If squeaky clean and vegan menu options are your thing, then Papalote is the place for you.  Personally, I've never saw the appeal of this place (its a step above Chipotle to me), especially the one in the Mission, where there are much better (and cheaper) burritos within  blocks of the Mission location.  I've had a couple of their burritos and found the meats to be dry and flavorless.  In my tiny protest of an Amercanized burrito (soy chorizo?!) and only vegan bean option, the only thing I could get here was the guacamole and chips ($7.50). 

Even at that price I was expecting a little bit more than the handful of chips they gave me.  Possibly the first time ever that I finished off the whole bag of chips with half the guac left to spare, and no that's not because the portion of guac was generous.  To be fair the guac was mostly avocado and none of that tomato/salsa filler some places usually give you.

Chips and salsa at Papalote - #46 on 2012 7x7 SF's Top 100 Eats

People sware by the salsa here.  Its so popular that Papalote now sells it by the jars.  It somewhat creamy but with a slight salsa texture.  If you've had La Victoria's orange sauce in San Jose, its a varied take on that with Papalote's being a little sweeter and less creamy.  Although, Papalote's orange sauce has nothing on La Vic's orange sauce.  La Vic's orange sauce is just magical. 

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

Address:                       Papalote Mexican Grill
                                             3409 24th St.
                                             San Francisco, CA

Type:                       Mexican

Popular chomps:  salsa
                                              black beans
                                              carne asada burrito            

Chomp worthy:       nothing      

Gott's Roadside

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Gott's (formerly Taylor's Automatic Refresher).  They mostly known for their burgers, but they have a selection of random items like tacos.

 I had been eyeing this ahi poke taco for a while and finally ordered it because I wanted a lighter meal option.  Three tacos wtih a crunchy spicy slaw, a layer of poke, and a slab of avocado.  A little too much slaw and not enough poke in these tacos.  Plus, the poke wasn't well seasoned and tasted pretty bland.

 A handful of milkshake options here with a daily special milkshake as well.  Kept it classic with a strawberry milkshake.  Rich and thick with a solid strawberry flavor.  It sort of made up for the bland tacos. 

Address:                       Gott's Roadside
                                             1 Ferry Building
                                             Marketplace Shop 6
                                             San Francisco, CA                          
     

Type:                               burger/American

Popular chomps:  cheeseburger
                                             ahi tuna burger

Chomp worthy:      nothing          

Michoacan Produce (Pollo al carbon)

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Inside this little Mexican market is one of my favorite 2012 hidden gems so far.  Painted all over the small market are pictures of chickens, which hints at the yumminess going on inside.  When you walk in head towards the right side (the fish counter) and you can order up a pollo al carbon meal for $16.95.  Each meal includes a whole barbequed chicken, side of rice, beans, tortillas, and some salsa.  Not only is a ridiculously good deal, the chicken is superb! 

Check out that freshly barbequed chicken (carbon al pollo)!  It seems like it varies when they start grilling the chicken.  I've been here at 1:30p as well as 11:30a (weekdays) and they were grilling the chicken.  You can call ahead to see what time they are grilling that day.  The smell is heavenly.      

It's a generous portion of chicken and it seems larger than a whole chicken.  The meat, even the breast meat, is juicy and tender with hints of smokiness from the grill.  The crispy bits of skin is flavored with garlic and other seasonings. 

A huge stack of tortillas are provided for wrapping up the chunks of chicken.  The tortillas are nothing spectacular.  Tastes like the standard store bought flour tortillas.  La Palma tortillas make this meal even better, if you could get ahold of them.

The rice is fluffy, but a little bland.  Nothing special about the rice.

At first glance, these beans looks like nothing special.  Definitely the best of the included sides.  The beans are firm, but still tender.  They have a smokey flavor with a slight kick from the jalapeno bathing in the gravy.

The salsa they give has a sweet, smokey flavor.  I preferred it without the salsa.  It masked the great flavor from the chicken.

Address:                        Michoacan Produce Market

                                           3380 Middlefield Rd.

                                           Menlo Park, CA 

Type:                               market/barbeque

Popular chomps:      pollo al carbon

Chomp worthy:         pollo al carbon      

2012 United States Michelin List (Bay Area)

Pin It Now! I just realized I never posted the 2012 Michelin list for the Bay Area!  Check in blue for all my posts!

San Francisco (Bay Area):

3 stars:
     French Laundry
     Restaurant at Meadowood

2 stars:
     Baume
     Benu
     Coi
     Cyrus
     Manresa
     Saison

1 star:
     Acquerello
     Alexander's Steakhouse
     Ame
     Applewood
     Atelier Crenn
     Auberge du Soleil
     Aziza
     Bouchon
     Boulevard
     Campton Place
     Chez TJ
     Commis
     Dio Deka
     etoile
     Farmhouse Inn & Restaurant
     Fleur de Lys
     Frances
     Gary Danko
     La Costanera
     La Folie
     La Toque
     Luce
     Madera
     Madrona Manor
     Masa's
     Michael Mina
     One Market
     Plumed Horse
     Quince
     Redd
     Sante
     Solbar
     Sons & Daughters
     Spruce
     Terra
     Terrapin Creek
     Ubuntu
     Village Pub
     Wakuriya

Park Tavern

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Definitely bigger than their sister restaurant, Marlowe, it was still surprisingly difficult to score a table midweek without reservations.  Even all the famed Mission spots I had been to were able to do walk ins without a problem.  Park Tavern does have plenty of bar seating that serves full menu.  The menu is pretty similar to Marlowe and they also offer some of Marlowe's more popular dishes: Brussels sprout chips, Marlowe burger, and a similar chicken dish.  Check out my post on Marlowe HERE  

Paper thin lemon chips with burrata and pea tendrils.  I thought the lemon chips would be too tart for the creamy, delicate burrata, but they were sliced so paper thin that only a hint of lemon shone through the delicious burrata.  Not sure what was going on with the pea tendrils on the side of the plate.  It was neither attractive or necessary in this dish. 

The AQ uni (today's price $18).  A creamy bite of uni, but nothing spectacular.

Deviled Eggs at Park Tavern - #91 on 2012 7x7 SF's Top 100 Eats

I'm not usually a fan of deviled egg, but these were savory and made me actually debate on ordering another.  The deviled egg with a sliver of bacon and a pickled jalapeno and generous sprinkling of chives was like breakfast summed up in one bite.

Having had both the burger and a similar version of the chicken at Marlowe, I decided on the grilled pork chop with baby turnips and carmelized apples.  Super tender, juicy pork chop.  Almost as good as Nopa's, but a little fattier than I like.

Park Tavern offers a whimsical dessert option - Birthday Cake!  Every month they change the type of cake they offer, but if you come at the end of the month or the beginning of the month they have the current and the prior month's cake as well.  This month's was cappuccino cake with coffee butter cream frosting.  Dense with a slight spring, this cake easily satisfies the sweet tooth without being overly sweet.

  Not sure what was more odd, the fernet float or drinking out of a metal straw.  One of two of their "boozy" floats.  Basically a adult version of an ice cream float with alcohol.  This one was fernet ice cream with ginger beer.  I love fernet and this is the first food item I've seen with fernet.  At first sip, the taste of fernet hits pretty hard, but the ginger beer starts slowly melting the fernet ice cream into a surprisingly delicious combination.  

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

Address:                        Park Tavern
                                              1652 Stockton St.
                                              San Francisco, CA

Type:                                American

Popular chomps:   deviled eggs
                                              "Marlowe" burger
                                               Brussels sprout chips
                                               lemon chips and burrata
                                               Poulet Rouge (chicken)                              

Chomp worthy:        pork chop
                                               deviled eggs
                                               lemon chips and burrata       

Giordano Bros

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It's not Primanti Bros, but it does serve up a version of their famed Pittsburgh sandwich. 

Assortment of condiments for your sandwich.  Yes, they have crystal hot sauce!

 Not exactly the largest portion of meat when you think of a hearty sandwich, but the coppa (cured Italian ham) packs a strong flavor.  You can add extra meat if you still feel unsatisfied.  At first the thick bread looks overwhelming, but the fluffy layer holds the tangy slaw, french fries, and meat together till the last bite.  The only downside was I wished the slaw had more tangy vinegar. 

Hot copicola with a fried egg (extra $.50). 

How can you make this sandwich any better or add more calories?  Add a fried egg.  Capicola (spicy cooked Italian ham) offered slight more meat than the coppa sandwich, but still had a nice salty flavor.  The sandwiches are definitely better with the fried egg, but some runniness in the egg would have been even better.  I'm not one to put extras on my sandwich, but I found that the Crystal hot sauce gave it a nice kick. 

Address:                          Giordano Bros

                                                3108 16th St.

                                                San Francisco, CA

Type:                                  sandwiches/sport bar

Popular chomps:    hot capicola sandwich
                                                coppa sandwich

Chomp worthy:         hot capicola sandwich
                                                coppa sandwich         

Mar y Tierra Taqueria

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 Mar y Tierra (sea and land) Taqueria is a little farther than the central Middlefield taquerias I've been visiting, but its definitely the busiest one I've encountered in the area.   

From right to left:  al pastor, carne asada, carnitas.  $1.45 each here for the standard meats.  Nothing special about any of the meats.  The pastor didn't even come spicy.  Although not the greatest, its one of the better tasting tacos I've had so far in the penisula, but that's not saying much.    

One of the daily specials was the barbacoa taco ($2.00).  The preparation was totally different than the regular tacos.  It came lightly fried and crispy.  Inside the taco was stewed shredded beef with a slight sweet sauce. Onions and cilantro were served on the side versus on the taco.  Totally worth the extra upcharged taco cost and the only thing I would actually come back and order here. 

For the mar ("sea") part, I did partake in a super shrimp burrito.  It tasted a little bland and felt like it was missing something.   

Address:                      Mar Y Tierra Taqueria

                                            1475 Broadway

                                             Redwood City, CA

Type:                               Mexican

Popular chomps:  super carne asada burrito
                                              lunch special (3 tacos, rice and beans)

Chomp worthy:       taco de barbacoa