San Francisco's Pier Side (Farmer's Market and Fisherman's Wharf) - Pt. 1

We visited the pier side on a Saturday and luckily for us, the weather was perfect, with close to no clouds found among the blue sky and a shining sun to keep us warm from the typical wind that is synonymous with San Francisco. It seems we chose the right day to do all of our outdoor activities. We begun our day by parking at the Golden Gateway Garage (268 Clay Street, San Francisco, CA 94111), which is mere 7 minutes walk from the Ferry Plaza building. For those who are planning to visit by means of driving, Golden Gateway Garage costs only $3 for the entire day if you receive validation from participating merchants (we received our validation at parking booths found at the Farmer's Market).

Nash Restaurant & Off Cut Bar

For weeks prior to their opening, I have been overhearing conversations amongst my coworkers and even strangers in the elevators, all of whom were looking forward to Chef Michael Noble's new restaurant, in anticipation for another NOTaBLE success. I was lucky enough to score a reservation this past Tuesday night at 5:30pm.

One thing I absolutely love about visiting a new restaurant is to feel the ambiance that is set from the carefully chosen decor. From the outside, Nash can easily be missed as it turns off from 9th avenue and is found peeking from behind the corner-spot that is Starbucks. Luckily, their red rustic sign glows in the dark.

Gordon Ramsay Steak

What better way to deal with my post-Vegas depression than by writing about one of the most highly regarded restaurants in Las Vegas. One of my girlfriends made sure to make reservations ahead of time. We had a table at 7:45pm, and were promptly seated at our arrival.

Walking in, I immediately felt the energetic vibe of the restaurant

My girls and I were in heels, but luckily there was an elevator from this shot's viewpoint that took us up to the second floor

We were brought into a private room that was shared with two other parties, so this made our dining experience a lot more intimate and personal. This was much preferred as it allowed us to enjoy each other's company throughout the night. As well, we were not disturbed by the high level of noise that many other reviews seemed to have mentioned.

Regular Menu

Hell's Kitchen Limited Edition Tasting Menu

Priced at $145 per person for a 5 course meal - must be ordered by everyone in the party

Different steak and their cuts presented on a wheel stand

Starting our night off with a glass of sparkling wine, which leaned towards a more citrus taste 

Then continued with a bottle of white wine to share. This wine had a subtle sweet finishing taste at the end of each sip.

Complimentary Bread Plate.  From top to bottom: Baguette with blue cheese and walnut, one porchetta layered roll (already consumed thus the missing status), two mushroom and white truffle layered rolls,  lemon zest and thyme focaccia. This was served with a perfectly salted and smooth butter.

Gnocchi (Blistered heirloom cherry tomatoes, royal trumpet mushrooms, iberico jamon, mushroom cream)

Seared Hudson Valley Foie Gras (Herbed goat cheese pop overs, gooseberry jus, pickled ramps). My friend who had this said it was amazing!!! (yes, that many exclamation marks from her!). The foie gras was crisply seared on the outside and super soft, almost jelly like on the inside. It had a super strong duck flavoured taste which she loved but warned that others might find it to be too strong.

Potato and Octopus Salad (Charred octopus, mustard vinaigrette, remoulade, pumpernickel soil, marbled fingerling potatoes). My first dish of the night was highly influenced on it being found in the Hell Kitchen's menu. I found the combination of the octopus and potato bites not only innovative, but the two items really complimented each other. This combination was paired extremely well with the plentiful pumpernickel soil. I made sure each bite had a dash of pumpernickel soil with it.

Break inbetween appetizers! We asked our server if we could be taken on a kitchen tour and he was nice enough to oblige. This is a view of the open kitchen/prep table.

Sides Station

View of the front entrance tunnel

Kurobuta Pork Belly (Cheesy grits, tomato jam, onion pork jus). My second appetizer of the night, the pork belly was so tender I barely had to chew. The tomato jam was a interesting addition to the flavourful meat.

Smoked Beef Tartare (Lemon zest, red onion, capers, white anchovy aioli, cured egg yolks)

Yukon Gold Herb Chips that accompanied the Smoked Beef Tartare

The long awaited (at least 45 minutes prep time as warned on the menu) Beef Wellington. Unfortunately, my stomach was filled to the rim at this point and I must not have taken any more than 5 bites - darn appetizers! I have to be honest and admit that I was merely eating for the sake of eating it, so I didn't taste anything to give this dish a fair judgement. I did, however, ask my friend her thoughts on it. She thought that the meat was tender from being cooked to a medium rare, but she personally thought that the beef was missing some flavour due to lack of fat. The pastry was nice and thin, not soggy but could have been more flaky.

Roasted Bone Marrow

The takeout bag that contained my leftover beef wellington. /ashamed.

Dessert Menu

 Sticky Toffee Pudding (Sweet pudding cake, brown sugar toffee, brown butter ice cream). The entire table ordered this to share just so we could each have one bite of the dessert found in the Hell's Kitchen menu. I'm personally not a fan of sticky toffee pudding because I often find it to be too sweet, but this toffee pudding delivered the right amount of sweetness without it being too sickly. We were all big fans of the brown butter ice cream

In terms of service, I must say that while it was attentive and politely delivered, it was not an out of the world experience. It wasn't bad, but it just wasn't proportional to the notion that is Gordon Ramsay's food. I've probably received similar service from a ordinary dine out in Calgary. All servers was friendly and answered all our questions (heck, one even answered our question about their breads three times because we kept forgetting), but it didn't seem like they were thoroughly enjoying their job since none really smiled often.

That being said, I may return in the future just so I could get a proper try of the beef wellington. But aside from that factor, although all was good, I probably wouldn't come back and spend another $150 on one meal. It was definitely a good experience, so I would recommend if you've never been.

And to end this post off, cheers to the best dining companions a girl could ever ask for!

Anju Restaurant

I've gotten the chance to visit the renewed Anju a few times since its reopening. I returned again this past Saturday with my family in celebration of my mom's birthday. To ensure that we wouldn't be placed on a insanely long wait list, I made a reservation nearly two weeks in advance. We arrived and was promptly seated in the booths found at the back. This was a different experience for me - the previous times I've came, I was always placed at the high top counters facing the street of 17th ave. I love those window seats because it gave my dining companions and myself the entertainment of people watching (whether it be those passing by or the bustling staff found in the kitchen). This time, we were placed in the "den", and while the seats were comfortable, the noise level was a bit too high for my party's liking.

Bolero Fire Grill

Ok... I lied. That was a longer departure than I had anticipated. My bad! I ended up spending the rest of my summer studying my ass off. That's a good enough of a reason right? To be fair, I spent so much of my time studying that I didn't get a chance to eat out (with the exception of getting fast food or take outs just so I could allocate all my available time to studying), so I'd say that's a pretty reasonable excuse for the lack of blog posts. No eating out = no restaurant to review. But alas! - I finally have time to eat (and blog) again! Now onward to the main point of this post..

AÑEJO Restaurant

I have heard of AÑEJO for some time now but was wary on trying out this place as there seemed to have been mixed reviews. I got a "taste test" from AÑEJO when I paid my first visit during the 2013 Poutine Crawl. I loved how the restaurant was designed, with its high windowed ceiling and how open the restaurant looked. I decided to go with a girlfriend of mine to catch up a couple of weeks ago on a Friday night. My friend had arrived early and was put on a wait list that would require a wait of approximately ~45 minutes. I was rushing to meet up with my friend ASAP when she told me she was early, but the wait ended up being shorter than what she was told and she had gotten a table before I had arrived. When I got there, the entire restaurant was bustling and busy. All the tables were filled up and people were everywhere. It was hard to believe that such a tiny restaurant could be so filled up. We quickly got down to business and scanned the menu together, discussing what dishes caught our attention. There were so many items on the menu that we wanted to try, but we were both not feeling all too hungry together, so we knew we had a limit on the number of dishes that we could order.

Cafe Momoko

It would be an understatement if I said I was ecstatic and counting down the minutes until Tuesday's dinner. My friend had recently switched jobs, and as a result his office moved from downtown core to the south end of town near Heritage. This change resulted in him having to drive to work on a daily basis, as well as forced me to lose a lunch buddy. After a month or so, we were finally able to schedule a dinner. With his new found commute, the possibilities were endless when it came to picking out a new restaurant to try. I began scouring Urbanspoon like a mad woman, trying to find high rated restaurants in locations that were out of the way and/or in the deep south of Calgary. I couldn't pass off this rare opportunity with just any restaurant. After narrowing down to a handful of choices, we settled on Cafe Momoko based on its high rating as well as the fact that it was found in section of Calgary that we would seldom go to.

Jimmy's A&A Mediterranean Deli

It isn't my first visit to Jimmy's A&A for their famously greasy yet satisfying donairs. Every time I visit, I ensure that I have brewed up an appetite to eat an entire cow. I am not joking. I highly suggest that you visit with the ability to eat eat. Jimmy's is known for loading up the donairs so that all who attempts to eat it will do so in a complete mess. Don't say I didn't warn you when I tell you that you will have sauce dripping down your hands and meat falling out of your pita. This is not the ideal place for a first date and most definitely not the place to "share" a donair with your significant other. With that being said, I highly suggest that you either take out your order to devour at home away from the public eyes, or if you cannot wait a minute longer, there is a tiny seating area upstairs. Just do not try to eat this "on the go" in your car. Personally, I have always ate my order on the premise of Jimmy's, and had never had a problem with finding a vacant table despite the size of the seating area.