Restaurant Review: Taqueria El Farolito (North Beach, 1230 Grant)

El Farolito is reputed to be one of the two restaurants in San Francisco that invented the Mission-style burrito. I live in Chinatown, so I can't really head down all the way to Mission to the original location, but I *can* get a burrito from their North Beach location. 

The door and the shop is a bit on the small side, and the door is facing Grant, not Columbus, which makes it a little hard to find. Got in. There are many seats available, but I needed to head back to work. So I ordered a superburrito al pastor to go. It took 5 minutes, as I did watch them cook it. I also ordered an horchata. I guess I was thirsty, and I finished the horchata before burrito arrived. The horchata has visible spice bits and was quite delicious. 

I got the burrito wrapped in foil, plenty of napkins, and small cups of red and green salsa, all in a nice and thick plastic bag with their logo and verbiage. 

Got back to my "office" (only a few minutes away), and started to unwrap the burrito by tearing off the foil on one end. Strangely, the inside seems a bit... dry, but then, that's why we have the salsa. It's wet enough with the salsa, then I started to worry I don't have enough salsa.   

Then I started to notice red oil dropping onto my desk... Huh? It seems the burrito foil wrap developed a leak at the bottom. I had to hold folded napkins against the bottom of the burrito, while I unwrap and consume the top. It is a bit dry without the salsa, as the pork seems overcooked and dry, or did all the juice went to the bottom? 

I ran out of salsa when I consumed 3/4 of the burrito. There was a little "crunch" with the pork... I seemed to have gotten burnt bits of the pork. Should I have ordered carnitas? As I was full, I dumped the rest into the trash. 

Overall, the superburrito is merely... average. The horchata was good, but it can't really raise the overall score. I probably should try Taqueria Zorro again. It's been a while since I've been there. 

Taqueria El Farolito (North Beach): 3/5

Restaurant Review: La Venganza in Ikea Saluhall San Francisco

 Decided to walk around a bit this Saturday, and decided to give Salut Hall another try, and decided to try La Venganza, a Mexican Vegan eatery. Ordered a Tostada de Barbacoa (simulated), which is actually made of mushroom, and an horchata. This is what I ended up with...

It's not bad, it's not really "barbacoa", and the jalapeno isn't distributed well. There's a little bit with the guac, and that's it. I was expecting a bit more salsa, but there's enough beans here so it's okay. It's a bit on the cold side. I probably should have ordered "carnitas" instead. 

The horchata tastes okay, but it's not really that fresh, the cap was on crooked, and it's not mixed well, with a lot of the cinnamon and stuff settled in the bottom. They did warn me to shake well, but I didn't realize they mean cocktail shaking vigor. 

The problem is... the price. For $16 for the tostada, and $6 for the horchata, there's really not that much food here. I guess that's the "vegan tax", eh?  

3.5/5

Quick Review of Zen Yai and its Boat Noodles

Got out of CPMC Van Ness and needed late lunch, and decided to try Thai food, and Larkin has a bunch of Thai restaurants. Picked the closest, which happens to be Zen Yai, at 771 Ellis St.

Sat down, staff recommended beef "boat noodles", reasonable price of $15. Take a look at its picture to the right. 

You're looking at pork skin (chicharones), meat balls, mixed meat (with beef organs?) thinner rice noodles (even thinner than typical pho noodles), and some slices of beef (not visible). 

I have never had boat noodles before, and my closest point of reference would be Vietnamese pho, and there are definitely some similarities. However, these boat noodles have more organ meat, more complex flavor, and a lot of water spinach/kangkong? Very dark broth with a lot of mixings, not very beefy (or at least, not the kind of Vietnamese pho broth beefy), and not that salty either. 

Will probably go back to try some of the other dishes they have.

They also have pork boat noodles, which I guess would have more pork-based stuff than beef-based stuff. 

Restaurant Review: Ikea Food Hall San Francisco, specifically the Ikea Cafe (will try others next time)

The Ikea Saluhall opened in San Francisco (5th and Market) back in April, and I've been inside Ikea before, but never visited the food hall. Well, I'm going in today, as I've read about it in both the SF Standard and SF Gate, and apparently it gets rave reviews... if you pay for the top-end entrees. Being a relatively poor guy, I want to see what the low end taste like. 

It's NOT great. 

Photo by Jueun Song on Unsplash

I went inside and walked around. The ground floor has 2 bars with food, and a soft-serve stand. As I don't drink and don't need a softserve, I headed upstairs... Only to find out that the elevators are back OUTSIDE. I had to walk up the stairs, yikes. 

Okay, got up to 2nd floor... Seems half of the food upstairs are vegan. I have no problem with vegan food, but they don't exactly come cheap. Fortunately, the lines to each are minimal, and choices are certainly eclectic... Vegan tacos, Sichuan noodles, open-faced vegan burger (made with Beyond Meat), mushroom nuggets... Indian street food curry, Algerian dish... But as I said, they ain't cheap. So I opted for the cheapest option... Ikea's own stuff. 

I was going to order the meatball, but in the end, I chose "pulled pork sandwich" with mac and cheese on the side, a diet pepsi, a regular hot dog, and a cinnamon roll, for about $12+tax. 

I think I made a mistake in choosing these items. 

Apparently so few people chose the pulled pork sandwich, they have to toast the brioche rolls from scratch, and that takes an extra five minutes. By the time I got the sandwich the rest of the items are cold (and the diet pepsi is warming up). 

This is what it looks like, BTW...

Pulled pork w/ mac and cheese,
hot dog, cinnamon bun, Pepsi
at Ikea Saluhall, San Francisco

The mac and cheese... tastes a little strange. The first few bites are okay, but the last half of it got a strange chemical taste to it I can't quite describe... a certain... funk? 

The sandwich itself... the roll is okay, it's toasted so the wet pulled pork didn't soak through, but they also squeezed quite a bit of liquid out of the meat so it's a little dry and thus, a bit short on flavor, mostly sweet, not much salt or spice. Pretty much tasteless. 

The hotdog was 6 inches long, and extremely thin. Like a fat-fountain-pen type of thickness, nowhere close to American hot dogs like Nathan's or Bar's or even Oscar Meyers. There's almost no snap to it, and when paired with tasteless hotdog bun, means there's also no flavor in the dogs. I ended up munching on the dogs alone, without the bun, and that made it slightly more palatable. I guess I could have tried to drown it with mustard and ketchup, but there's really no point to that. Sure, it's cheap, but Costco have no need to be concerned. They are are in no danger from Ikea dogs, regular, veggie, or plant versions. 

All in all, not fun to eat, but it does fill the stomach. Will have to go back and try the other places, even if they're vegan. 

Ikea Cafeteria: C+

Oh, and the cinnamon roll... It's tiny. While it's only 1.50, I should have just sprung for the cake. The rolls by that time is room temp and hardened up, sweetness barely showing, and icing no longer sweet. 

Restaurant Review: Tommy's Joynt (1 star out of 5, do NOT recommend)

I was at CPMC Van Ness, and for lunch, I decided to try Tommy's Joynt, supposedly a San Francisco institution with a 75+ year history. Never been there, and now I've tried it, never going back. 

(Tommy's Joynt is at 1101 Geary, cross Van Ness)

I decided to try a "slim dinner plate", which is a meat entree (I picked "brisket"), and 2 sides (I picked mashed potatoes and steamed vegetables). 

This is what I actually got: 

Instead of "brisket", what I actually got was shredded beef. 

The mashed potato gravy have sweet bits, doesn't taste like gravy. 

The dinner roll was COLD. COLDER than the butter it was served with. 

And the "steamed vegetables"? I got BOILED string beans (yes, I saw him fished it out of a steel vat.)

I am NOT going back, EVER. 

My Quick Review of The Halal Guys

Yes, I live in San Francisco, and no, I didn't know about the Halal Guys as I didn't have a chance to get to them until I happen to find them recently. This is a review of their O'Farrell location. 

I have a weird work schedule that often requires me to find a meal late at night, and this particular location is near one of my late break areas that are still open. I've tried the beef "Sandwich" and the Chicken platter. Keep in mind that if you go in at late night they often may run out of some items, and one night when I showed up at about 9PM they are closed!?!  

The beef "sandwich" is really wrapped in thick pita "bread" that's soft and fluffy, but being that big, is not ideal wrap material. Still the ingredients are reasonably fresh and pretty tasty, but the trick seems to be all in their signature white sauce, which is where most of the calories seem to be from. They'll throw in a packet or two and if you read the label, that 2 oz packet is 330 calories (!) 

And the chicken platter is basically the same things albeit packed in an aluminum "bowl" with chicken added then sauce dripped all over it, plus a few bits of pita albeit cut into large "chips". If you are cutting down on carbs, this is probably what you should order. That's quite a bit of food. 

You can then add "sides" like extra olives, jalapeno peppers, and so on. 

I haven't tried their falafel yet, and if I go back again I would give them a try. 

They are expensive for fast food, but not outrageously so. Expect to have your wallet dinged for 12-18 depending on the number of options you added and/or if you ordered one of their specialty drinks (packaged a bit like the boba tea places). I personally skip the drink. 

They apparently only work with UberEasts, but not Grubhub. 

All in all, Halal guys deliver a satisfying meal of chicken or beef (or falafel, not reviewed) and they open till late night for your midnight hungers. If you live in the area, definitely give them a try. 

Who Goes to Sushi Restaurant to NOT Eat Rice?

Image via WikipediaA self-proclaimed diabetic that's lawsuit-happy, that's who.

A man paid for "all-you-can-eat sushi buffet" at a restaurant in the Greater LA. He grabbed a plate of sushi, but instead of eating them, he picked off just the fish, at those, and tossed the rice. When he head back for seconds, he was refused. When asked why did he tossed the rice, he claimed he was diabetic. The chef offered to let him have 2 orders of sashimi (which comes out to be LESS than the buffet), the guy refused, paid, and left

Two weeks later he came back with a lawsuit. He wants $4000 for humiliation.

His lawyer claims that the restaurant is not "diabetic friendly".

The owner says the guy is abusing the "all you can eat" policy, because the restaurant is offering "all you can eat SUSHI", not all you can eat sashimi.

I am with the owner, and I am diabetic.

Who the **** goes to SUSHI restaurant for DIABETIC FRIENDLY cuisine anyway?

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-lazarus-20110218,0,1228883.column