Out The Door, Fillmore

Out The Door is part of the Slanted Door family - it's the cheaper, more accessible version. I've been to the Out The Door downtown (yes, in the mall) a few times and it's a pretty good option if you are shopping and hungry. The menu at the Fillmore location seems pretty similar, but I did like the food better here - maybe because it was brunch, or maybe because... I wasn't in a mall. 

I started off with some peppermint tea. Heather was not impressed - and made the good point of, "I can't believe they charge $3 to put some mint leaves in hot water". It was good though, and now I know what to do with the mint leaves I have at home so I don't have to throw them away because they've gone brown. 

I always love going to brunch with Heather because I know she'll also want to get a bunch of things and share everything.  This was the vegetarian steamed bun which we both liked. I want someone to show me how they make the dough for a steamed bun.

The brunch menu is a mix of mostly Vietnamese options, with some standard American stuff thrown in, like pancakes and scones. We ordered the rice cake egg scramble, which is made of rice cake, bean sprouts, pickled daikon and soy.  My favorite thing at Slanted Door is the daikon rice cake, and this dish had very similar flavors.  It was a really unique egg dish, and I would definitely go back and order it again. We also ordered the ricotta pancakes with strawberry rhubarb compote. The pancakes were pretty good - and I love anything with strawberry and rhubarb - but they didn't compare to the pancakes at La Note.

I will definitely be back here for brunch - I'm still wondering about the coconut caramel roll which we didn't try.

Out The Door
2232 Bush Street
San Francisco, CA 94115 
(415) 923-9575 

Woodhouse Fish Co., Fillmore

Today was a day of lots of eating. Post hot chocolate, we headed over to Fillmore to walk around, and then wanted some lunch. First off: Is it just me, or does it seem like every restaurant is opening additional locations in the Fillmore area? Delfina Pizza, Dosa, Slanted Door, Kasa and Woodhouse Fish Co., to name a few.

Delfina was already packed, so we decided to go to Woodhouse. We have eaten at Woodhouse twice before: first here at the Fillmore location, and then another time at the original Market street location. The first time we ate here, I was pysched because they had Manhattan clam chowder on the menu. Why is this so hard to come by on the west coast? In NY, every diner on Long Island has Manhattan clam chowder on the menu. I grew up eating that and I just can't get into the New England version. The second time, we went to the Market street location because we were nearby, and after waiting 45 minutes for a table, we found out that they don't serve Manhattan style at that location. Big bummer.

Anyway, back to today. We ordered 2 big bowls of the Manhattan clam chowder, crab cakes and sauteed spinach. We got the chowder first, and well... it wasn't so good. What happened? Had I imagined it the first time, because I was just so excited it was on the menu? Or did someone accidentally knock the entire supply of pepper into the bowl, because that is all we tasted. I tried to persevere, but at a certain point, it was really just feeling like work eating this gigantic bowl of pepper. So I gave up, and moved onto the rest of the food.

The rest of the food, like this picture, was just not that good. The spinach was cooked totally unevenly - some leaves were barely wilted, others were way over done and the crab cakes were just too fishy. 

Maybe I got spoiled, because we had only just recently eaten at The Lobster Shack (where I forgot to bring my camera) and their chowder AND lobster rolls are out of control amazing, or maybe it was just an off day at Woodhouse. Either way, I think next time we'll stand in line at Delfina.