Tasting SF: Spork, Mission

After living in the Mission for two years, we have only just discovered Spork. We've walked by it countless number of times, but had never eaten there. I'll admit I was put off because we had heard that it was overpriced. But we wanted to go somewhere new (to us) and walkable, so this seemed like a good option. And it was! (though I do think it was kinda overpriced).

When you are seated, they give you a paper that tells you the story of Spork. Here it is in a nutshell: The space used to be a Kentucky Fried Chicken. KFC introduced America to the concept of the Spork. The people behind Spork wanted to "serve slow food in a fast food shell". The menu changes daily based on what is fresh and seasonal. Got it?

The first thing you are served are their "original pull apart rolls" with whipped honey butter. These are SO GOOD. The rolls are soft and hot and fluffy, basically everything you would want in a roll. We also ordered what is probably my favorite name of an appetizer ever: Cauliflower and Calamari Unite! I partly ordered this just so I can keep saying the name of it. I love that the calamari was grilled and not fried, and it was a really nice combination of flavors - one of those dishes that you really want to get a little bit of everything on your fork at once - calamari and mint and chili flakes and lemon aioli. I only could have liked this more if the calamari didn't have their freakish legs. I just can't make myself eat those. Luckily Kev doesn't mind them.

Kev ordered the In-side-Out Burger: basically a tower of a burger with caramelized onions on top and what they call "smashed fries". I would not call those smashed fries - they were more like roasted potatoes: crispy on the outside, creamy on the inside and very, very tasty.

I ordered the special pasta, which was fresh sheet pasta with ground beef, mushrooms, red onions, and chilis. It was good - but I liked the burger better. I think there were just too many chilis for my taste.

We followed up our meals by sharing the strawberry crisp, which was also really, really tasty. Our waiter was very nice and also let us taste one of the Humphry Slocombe flavors they had that day: chocolate covered potato chip, which was kind of weird but definitely good.