The Refuge

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The Refuge is a welcome sight along the Penisula and apparently everyone knows about it because this place is crowded!  Also, they just opened up a second location in Menlo Park.  Its hard to find a good pastrami place.  While the Refuge is good, its no where near LA's  Langer's (see post HERE) or New York Katz's.

The Reuben is the most popular dish here, but honestly dish here with pastrami is good.  Apparently, there's a secret menu item where you can order a plate of pastrami (aka the pastrami steak), which I think I would order next time I come back.  The pastrami slices are thick and chunk like Katz's, but a lot less salty.  While the meat is juicy with amazing flavor, it is missing the crispy edges.  My favorite is still Langer's where its perfection from the bread to the meat.  The bread here is sort of an afterthought, it really is all about the meat here.

I hate place that offer different types of fries.  It just makes it that much harder for me to decide.  I spent most of my time debating between the porky papas (french fries with bbq pulled pork, onions, and house made ranch), or the goofy fries (garlic fries topped with chopped pastrami and melted cheddar cheese sauce).  The porky papas are oddly addicting even though the fries aren't crispy and the pulled pork isn't very flavorful or plentiful.  I do like the tanginess of the ranch dressing.

Even with a meal that's as filling as this one, there is always room for dessert.  I rarely get bread pudding for dessert, but after many rave reviews about it I had to see what all the fuss was about.  The bread pudding came out a lot larger than expected with all sorts of goodies to decorate it with - chocolate sauce, bourbon caramel sauce, and butterscotch ice cream (your choice of ice cream flavor, but the only flavors left for today were butterscotch and coconut).  After drenching the bourbon caramel sauce all over the fluffy bread pudding, I have to say this is some pretty delicious bread pudding.    Fluffy in all the right spots with a nice crispy outer edge.  Bourbon caramel sauce is always awesome in my book, but this one had an added bourbon kick.  Originally, I had thought the butterscotch ice cream choice would be too sweet, but it wasn't at all and paired nicely with the bread pudding.

     

Address:                 The Refuge
                                963 Laurel St.
                                San Carlos, CA 
 

Type:                       sandwiches/American

Popular chomps:     reuben
                                 bread pudding
                                 pastrami salad
                                 garlic fries            
                                 Porky papas   
                                 burgers                       
 

Chomp worthy:        reuben
                                 bread pudding      

Heartbaker

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I had high hopes for this bakery in the Richmond District, especially after discovering B. Patisserie (see post HERE) recently.  This bakery/cafe serves a little bit of everything - quiche, pastries, sandwiches, and even has beer on tap.  Normally when I think of a cafe or bakery, I think of a sunny atmosphere, but inside its very dark and gives an almost romantic aura, which the total opposite of what I expect at brunch.

The bakery items look delish with constant refilling from the back.

The salted caramel brown (left) was teeny tiny.  The bite sized sweet didn't have much salt or chocolate flavor.  I've only had a couple bombolinis before this one, but the nutella bombolini (right) tasted heavy and dense.

If I hadn't read about Heartbaker's brunch offerings beforehand I would never have guessed they served sandwiches.  You have to ask the cashier for a menu of sandwiches, to which they hand over a clipboard of both brunch and dinner items.  Admittedly none of the sandwiches on the menu seemed very enticing so I had to go with the brie and fig (I added proscuitto), even though I've never been a huge fan of fig items.  The brie came out nice and gooey with slices of fig on top.  Not bad and definitely the better of the two savory items.  I did like the kale salad, which seems to come with all the savory dishes.

Nothing special about this dish.  A puff pastry filled with cheese.  Its totally forgettable that I actually forget what was inside besides the cheese.

  

Address:                  Heartbaker
                                 1408 Clement St.
                                 San Francisco, CA
 

Type:                        bakery/cafe

Popular chomps:      salted caramel brownie
                                  fig and brie sandwich
                                  cupcakes
                                  bombolini

Chomp worthy:         fig and brie sandwich     

Gioia's Pizzeria (SF)

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I'm attempting to do Pizza Mondays in honor of football season (also, its a good excuse to try more pizza spots!).  Hopefully, I'll be able to scrounge up enough good pizza spots to keep it going.  Any suggestions are welcome!

I'm a week late into the season, but I figured the three pizza places in New York sort of made up for the first week.  First up, is Gioia's in San Francisco.  So Gioia's in Berkeley (see post HERE) is one of my favorite slices in the Bay Area (pies are also available to go at the Berkeley location), especially their Funghi (mushroom) pizza.  After opening up a restaurant in the city, its been on my list of spots to try, but somehow never got checked off.
Gioia's in the city is more of a sit down casual restaurant that reminds me a little of Pizzeria Delfina in the look and feel of the restaurant and menu.  Side dishes like meatballs, salads, and pastas are offered, but the pizza is the main attraction.  Like the Berkeley location, the funghi, cheese, and even the Julian are offered here.  Having my mind set on the mushroom, I was able to pick up an 18" pizza to go.  The prices do seem a little higher than the Berkley location, but that's almost a given being in the city.   

I was glad to see the pizza look the same with the thicker sliced mushrooms and golden thin crust.  However, the crust was on the soggy side and didn't have that nice crispness I fell in love with at the Berkley location.  Even with an extra toasting in my oven, the taste still seemed off.  Its a little sweeter either from the sauce or the actual crust.  I definitely prefer the Berkeley location over this one. 

Address:                  Gioia Pizzeria (SF)
                                 2240 Polk St.
                                 San Francisco, CA

 

Type:                        pizza, Italian

Popular chomps:      Julian
                                  funghi
                                  Salciccia
                                  Arugula/Prosciutto                                  

Chomp worthy:         nothing 

Bambu

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Its been pretty hot in the city and I'm always looking for ways to cool off.  With much anticipation, Bambu has finally opened a location in the city.  While boba/tapioca drinks are the most common sight around the city, its refreshing to see Vietnamese (dessert) che giving them a run for their money.

Bambu gives che a more approachable touch to these commonly Vietnamese dessert drinks.  With a mix of avocado, gelatin, coconut milk, coconut juice, and even basil seeds, I find that these drinks are a more refreshing and healthier option to milk teas (although there are sold here too). 

#4 - red tapioca, mung bean, jello, grass and pandan jelly, and coconut milk.  Since this drink has coconut milk, it is a little creamier than opting for a coconut juice option.  However, they allow for modifications if you wanted to switch them around. 

#1 - the Bambu special - coconut, pandan jelly, longan, basil seeds, and coconut juice.  The juice itself is layered really pretty, but you need to mix everything together to get the full flavor of the drink.  I love how there are so many textures of the drink - chewy, crunchy, etc.  I have to applaud Bambu for breaking che into the mainstream, but I think the San Jose locations have much fresher ingredients.  I found the coconut slices to be a little dry this time around and the drinks to be a little watery.  Also, the San Francisco location has higher prices than the San Jose locations. 

Address:                  Bambu Dessert & Drinks
                                 6050 Geary Blvd
                                 San Francisco, CA
 

Type:                        Vietnamese/ddessert

Popular chomps:      Bambu special
                                 Chè trái cây
                                 Chè 3 màu

Chomp worthy:        Bambu special
                                 Chè trái cây 

Zanze's Cheesecake

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Zanze's Cheesecake is one of those SF hidden gems that even some native SFers don't know about!  Its run by a friendly couple that lovingly puts out some of the best tasting cheesecake in the Bay Area.

Surprisingly, Zanze's doesn't have a website so here's the simple cheesecake menu above.

With every cheesecake order a small tutorial is given on how to properly cut the cheesecake with fishing line (which is included!).

Upon opening the box, the cheesecakes are notably less solid looking.  No graham cracker crust for this cheesecake, but instead graham cracker crumbs are sprinkled on the top.  Even more noticable is the texture of the cheesecake.  Not heavy or dense as a typical New York style cheesecake, this literally melts in your mouth with each bite.  The flavor is amazing with tiny hints of lemon.  Absolutely delicious and probably some of the best cheesecake I've ever tasted, but I did miss the dense firmness of what I associate cheesecake with.

"If you haven't tried the cheesecake before you need to try the original" was advised by the owners.  Little did they know I'm all about trying TWO cheesecakes!  Although the blueberry cheesecake is pretty much blueberry on top of the original, the blueberries were plump and juicy, not the usual artificial sweet berry topping normally found on fruit topped cheesecakes.  Hard to say which one is better, just get both!

  

Address:                   Zanze's Cheesecake
                                  2405 Ocean Ave.
                                  San Francisco, CA
 

Type:                         dessert

Popular chomps:       original
                                   blueberry

Chomp worthy:          original
                                   blueberry  

Takashi

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Anthony Bourdain's visit to Takashi seems to have made a decent impact on this Japanese and Korean grilling restaurant.  Takashi specializes in grilling meats of the offal kind. This literally no reservations restaurant has an average wait of 2 hours for dinner plus they ran out of the one dish I had my heart set on - the raw beef with uni (niku uni)

A couple small dishes ("panchan") are set on the table to start off the meal: kimchee, marinated beansprouts, and cabbage with a miso-vinegar type dressing.  Its not like other Korean restaurants that serve unlimited panchan dishes - this one costs $2 to refill.

Gorgeously presented, the yokke is made of raw beef, sesame seeds, seaweed and then mixed tableside with a raw quail egg.  An Asian take on beef tartare.  Really more pleasing to the eye, than anything exciting on the palate.  The meat was fresh, but had a couple chewy, stringy pieces.

All mixed up.

Its been a little over a year since my fois rampage (see post HERE) so I was a little excited to see a fois burger on the menu.  Unexpected.  It was more of a small patty in a tiny cast iron pan with a quail egg.  The chocolate sauce was not as weird as I thought it would be, but it was definitely chocolatey.  Somehow the sweetness of the chocolate sauce worked with the sweetness of the fois.  The quail egg, on the other hand, was a little misplaced and straddled the line of too cooked to be runny and to runny to be cooked so it ended up just sticking to the pan. 

A dipping sauce of sesame seeds and some sesame oil are provided for dipping your freshly grilled meats into.  I found that my meats were well seasoned enough and I didn't need any.

Takashi has a several "tasting" meat platters so its hard to pick which one to go with - tongue tasting, stomach, etc.  I couldn't decide so I went with the Chef's selection mixed platter (Horumon-Moriawase) that had a little bit of everything: first stomach, liver, sweetbreads, large intestine, and second stomach.  The meat quality was decent, but nothing spectacular.  Each piece was distinctly different in taste and texture with sweetbreads being my obvious favorite.  Am I weird to think it was kinda fun to try two of the four cow stomachs.

Bakudan is the Korean take on rice balls.  They are balls of rice sprinkled with sesame seeds then lightly wrapped with seaweed.  The rice was not toasted or grilled, but soft.  Didn't particularly love this dish, but with a dinner full of meats it was nice to have some starches to change it up.

Portions here are very small so in a last attempt to fill my tummy, I had to order another meat dish.  The ribeye (rosu) was the largest piece of meat from the whole dinner.  The servers suggest a 2 minute grilling time, but I found that taking it off the grill a little earlier gave it the more medium rare touch that I like.

The meal ends with a cup of barley tea, which is traditionally Korean.  The tea is earthy and strong, but soothing.

It made me laugh a little when the check was presented with pieces of gum, which is common when eating out at Korean restaurants, but I was surprised to see an acclaimed expensive restaurant provide Wrigley's gum. 

 

Address:                    Takashi
                                   456 Hudson St.
                                   New York NY 
 

Type:                          Japanese/Korean

Popular chomps:        kalbi
                                    niku uni
                                    tongue
                                    shabu shabu
                                    yooke
                                    fois gras kobe beef burger

Chomp worthy:           fois gras kobe beef burger   

Roberta's

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In a random, middle of nowhere location, and a small discrete door, you would never think that it would be a 2 hour wait for a table!  It's defined as a hipster spot, but I think that the Mission is more hipster than this place.

The spacious inside isn't the only misleading this when stepping up to the doorway, its the sweet outside bar area.  If you opt not to wait, you can get mini pizzas made with day old dough outside, as well as some bar snacks.

At two hours, I sort of expected more from this place.  The pizza is very chewy and doughy so great if that's your thing, but I like my pizza crust with a little crunch.  This one had none at all.  It did have nice charred marks on the dough, but the smokey flavor didn't transfer onto the slices.  Fresh basil, tomato sauce, and fresh mozzarella topped the pizza, but they didn't stand out. 

I attempted to make my own Purgatorio (from Pizzeria Delfina) using Roberta's Amatriciana and then adding an egg.  With the tomato, pecorino, guanciale, onion, and chili plus runny egg, I was hoping for something gooey with a little kick.  Purgatorio has easily become my favorite at Pizzeria Delfina, but this New York substitution didn't come close.  The egg was barely runny and each slice tasted like only of onions.

      

Address:                  Roberta's
                                 261 Moore St.
                                 East Williamsburg, NY 
 

Type:                        pizza

Popular chomps:     margherita
                                   
Chomp worthy:        nothing

Pies and Thighs

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Originally, I had hoped to bike to Pies and Thighs in Williamsburg, but this New York humidity is too much for a Bay Area girl like me.  I'd probably recommend biking here since the streets are quite flat and the bike ride would work off the heaviness of this Southern brunch.  As most brunch places go, Pies and Thighs does not take reservations, but since most of New York doesn't seem to do brunch until after 12, anytime before 12 you should be able to walk right in and sit down.

Most of the main plates come with a choice of one side:  mac and cheese, baked beans, cole slaw, biscuits, grits, etc.  The fried catfish was well seasoned with a good crispy crust.  Each of the macaroni pieces were nicely coated with gooey cheese.  Really good flavor on the mac and cheese with a nice splash of hot sauce on top.  The cornbread was just ok.  It wasn't as moist and flavorful as other I've had.

With a name like Pies and Thighs, the fried chicken is an obvious must order.  The chicken is lightly battered and rips apart to uncover steamy, tender chicken.  The chicken is absolutely delicious, but the waffles were strangely soft and somewhat soggy.  Also, the flavor was kinda strange to me.  I'd probably stick with the chicken box if I came back, which does not have the waffles.

It's hard to save room for dessert at dinner, much less at brunch!  Dessert here is a definite must.  The bourbon pecan pie is sweet and crumbly.  Surprisingly, not as heavy as I would have thought, but it was nice to end the meal with something sweet.

Address:                   Pies and Thighs
                                  166 S 4th St.
                                  Brooklyn, NY 
 

Type:                         brunch/Southern

Popular chomps:      fried chicken
                                 sugar donut
                                 pecan crunch donut
                                 fried catfish
                                 biscuits
                                 bourbon pecan pie

Chomp worthy:        fried chicken
                                 fried catfish
                                 bourbon pecan pie        

Talde

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Talde was my sole reason for my first trip into Park Slope.  Having watched Dale Talde on Top Chef, I was pretty excited to get to taste his food.  Talde's quirky twist on Asian Fusion was fun and whimsical.  I only wished I could have made it out for dinner to try more of his dishes.

Inside of Talde.

The pretzel pork and chive dumplings are one of the popular dishes here.  Its served with a sauce that reminds me of the Chinese spicy mustard sauce popular with dim sum.  The dumplings are made with wrappers that taste somewhat like the outside of a pretzel.  The bits of salt and dry texture of the outside does a good job of mimicking the outside of a pretzel.

Not your average bowl of ramen.  This butter toast ramen's broth is supposedly made with buttered toast.  Butter and ramen is actually quite common, but this buttery broth was not as rich as I thought.  Its buttery flavor was just the right amount of velvety richness and the large chunks of pork belly make this dish.

As most people say, bacon makes everything better.  This pad thai is mixed with large chunks of thick cut bacon and slapped with a runny egg on top.  I wished the runny egg would be a little more runny so I could mix the yolk around the noodles.  A good try at something funky and different with pad thai, but really its just a well made pad thai with bacon thrown in. 

Address:                   Talde
                                  369 7th Ave.
                                  Brooklyn, NY
 

Type:                         Asian

Popular chomps:       lemongrass chicken
                                  butter toast ramen
                                  pad thai with bacon
                                  pretzel dumplings
                                  roasted branzino
                                  captain crunch halo halo
                                  Korean chicken and waffles

Chomp worthy:         butter toast ramen

South Brooklyn Pizza

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There are hundreds and possibly thousands of pizza places in New York so its always hard to narrow down which ones to eat.  With the deliciousness of DiFara's square (see post HERE) on my tongue and mind, I ventured over to South Brooklyn Pizza, which contrary to their name was not in South Brooklyn. 

Its hard to not just get a slice of margherita.  The pizzas here are mostly premade and then reheated after you order.  The margherita slice had decent flavor with a crunchy bottom.  Overall, a good slice when you are in the area or for a after drinking noshing, but I still think Joe's (see post HERE) in the West Village has the best slice in NY.

DiFara has made me into a Sicilian square believer.  I've never really ate one with an open mind, but I was determined to try one in another popular pizza spot in the city.  The square at South Brooklyn was thick and full of toppings, but it didn't have that magical touch and fresh flavors that DiFara's did.  I actually prefer the regular slice here over the square.

     

Address:                   South Brooklyn Pizza 
                                  122 1st Ave.
                                  New York, NY 
                                      

Type:                         pizza

Popular chomps:       square
                                   margherita slice    

Chomp worthy:          margherita slice     

Levain Bakery

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Levain Bakery in the Upper West Side is a little farther than I would normally trek when I'm in NY, but I had a little time to kill while waiting for the Guggenheim to open.  Not surprisingly, this popular bakery had a small line of people waiting for them to open.

This place is so tiny that it can probably allow maybe 3-4 people inside at most while everyone else waits outside for their turn.  Once inside there is a small counter displayed with breads, cookies, and pastries for you to choose from.  

While it seems like everyone choose a little bit of everything, the thing Levain Bakery is known for is their cookies.  They are giant!  At almost 1,000 calories, I'm sort of glad I didn't know the calorie count until after I devoured them. 
Their cookies resemble a drop style cookie similar to Specialty's back home (see post HERE).  Its the perfect combination of crispy outside with a very soft and gooey center.  I was a little surprised they didn't have a plain chocolate chip cookie.  The closest was the walnut chocolate chip.  Although, I'm really not into nuts in my cookies, this one only had a small amount of walnuts and gave a nice crunch to the chewy cookie. 

The insides of these cookies are soft and full of chocolate chips.  Even hours after these chocolate chips on these cookies stay gooey.

The double chocolate chip is literally a chocoholic's dream cookie.  Chocolate on even more chocolate.  These cookies are rich and full of sweet goodness.  The only thing that could make these cookies even more perfect is milk, which oddly Levain Bakery does not sell. 

       

Address:                  Levain Bakery
                                 167 W. 74th St
                                 New York NY

Type:                        bakery

Popular chomps:      chocolate chip walnut cookie

                                  dark chocolate peanut butter

Chomp worthy:         chocolate chip walnut cookie
                                   dark chocolate chip