Bistro Aix, Marina

Last week, my parents were in town and I wanted to book some reservations for while they were here. Finding restaurants for my parents is a semi-daunting task: it can't be too loud, it shouldn't be too trendy, they should serve Diet Coke, and the food needs to be very accessible (read: American or "red sauce" Italian) for my dad.  

I didn't know much about Bistro Aix, but it had been recommended on the Top 100 Places to Eat list, and although it is considered French (not American or Italian) everything I read about it, including the menu, seemed to fit the above description.  I booked it.  We sat in the front room which was comfortably chatty, so that was perfect (the back room however, is quite noisy, so make sure to request the front if you don't like noisy).  The bar accommodated everyone, with both Diet Coke and this awesome beer. Love the label. 

We ordered a couple of appetizers: burrata on crostini with arugula and pea shoots, which doesn't fall into the "accessible" category for my dad, but wow, was it good.  The cheese was super creamy and the whole thing was seasoned really well,  in a light vinaigrette.  There was some coarse salt on it that added a little crunch that I liked. More accessible was the spaghetti with San Marzano tomatoes and basil.  Everyone loved this, and I'd be tempted to order it next time as my entree. 

Kev ordered another pasta dish, as recommended by our waitress, for his entree. This was tagliatelle with shrimp and clams in a spicy tomato broth.  It was a good dish, but not quite as good as the spaghetti.  My mom ordered the duck, which was great - juicy and tender. 

My dad and I both ordered the crispy chicken breast with baby red potoates: he was sold on "crispy" and potatoes; I was sold on the Patricia Unterman review describing the chicken.  It lived up to the description: the skin was really crispy and the meat was really juicy.  I was also eyeing the burger at the table next to us, which looked amazing. As good as the chicken was, I was having food envy.

At this point we were all pretty full, but they had tarte tatin. I had been thinking about tarte tatin just before we went to dinner, because I had read this Smitten Kitchen post and was thinking 1) I want to make that and 2) mmmm, tarte tatin.  And it really was lovely - warm and gooey and perfectly caramelized.  Even my dad ate it, and that is saying something (no warm desserts, either).

Moral of the story: bring a date or bring your parents.  And bring me, too.

Bistro Aix
3340 Steiner Street
San Francisco, CA 94123-2707
(415) 202-0100

Cafe Des Amis, Marina

Tonight we went over to the Marina to celebrate Britt's birthday with insanely good hamburgers at Cafe Des Amis.  The restaurant is a sort of French Brasserie in the American style - according to our waiter.  Like Spruce and The Village Pub, Cafe Des Amis has a masculine, old-money sort of feel, both in terms of the decor - red velvet walls, zinc bar, lots of highly polished surfaces - and the patrons. We were definitely on the younger side of the crowd in the dining room, but the atmosphere still felt lively and relaxed.

Our reservations were for 5:30 and the place was pretty empty when we arrived.  We got lucky and were seated on the mezzanine level, which was much more spacious, had an awesome chandelier and fireplace and best of all had french doors that let in tons of light and air.

We ordered a few appetizers to get started. My favorite of the three was the nettle and spinach flan, which included organic egg yolk, parmesan, truffle and potato vinaigrette. The texture was really smooth and creamy and the nettles gave it an earthy kind of taste. Plus I love truffles.

We also shared the stuffed zucchini flowers with salmon mousse and a tomato salad with feta. I really enjoyed the zucchini but was underwhelmed by the tomatoes. They weren't very flavorful and didn't have that just-picked-off-the-vine taste that I was expecting. 

Burger time! Between the 5 of us we ordered 4 burgers. You can add on carmelized onions, gruyere, bacon, or even an egg or roquefort. Or all of these if you're feeling insanely decadent.  The burgers are served on brioche buns which is very "fa la la", according to our waiter - I'm not quite sure what he meant by that but I appreciated his enthusiasm. Who doesn't love brioche? 

A couple weeks before this meal I had tried the Spruce burger for the first time and had declared that  to be my favorite burger, but this version is at the very least tied - which isn't all the surprising given that Cafe Des Amis is owned by the same people as Spruce.  It was incredibly juicy and the cheese and onions weren't overpowering - it just added some nice flavor. The bun was warm and soft - which is how I like it - and the fries were very... fried. There wasn't much in the way of potato inside the exterior but because they were cut a bit thicker it didn't bother me as much as it did at Absinthe.

For dessert we ordered the nectarine and blackberry tart and the profiteroles with warm toffee fudge sauce. I loved the tart - it was, well, tart, the pastry was light and the creme fraiche ice cream was a nice contrast with the tartness of the fruit.  I didn't love the profiteroles as much, but I never really love profiteroles so that isn't so surprising. I did enjoy the warm toffee fudge sauce though.

It was an enjoyable dinner overall, and I'm excited to go back again, particularly to order seafood from the raw bar.  Waiters kept appearing at other tables with huge tiered platters of "fruits de mer" - oysters, clams, shrimp, lobster.  They also have late night dining, serving a modified menu from 11pm - 1am and are about to start brunch service.  Something for everyone!

Cafe Des Amis
2000 Union Street
San Francisco, CA 94123
(415) 563-7700

Delarosa, Marina

I think there should be a term for a meal between lunch and dinner - the evening version of brunch - because lately we've been into eating dinner way too early for people our age.  We stopped into Delarosa at around 4:30 and pretty much had the place to ourselves, which was a-ok by us. 

Delarosa is owned by the same people that own Beretta, though that is not something you'd know by the look of the place. It's kind of like if Beretta had an identity crisis and went from being the gothy kid with the raven tattoo to the preppy cheerleader. 

All of the seating is communal, which I'm not sure how I would feel about if we were there when it was crowded. At 4:30 though - no problem.  

That's the salty dog above - vodka, elderflower, grapefruit juice, salt - which was very refreshing. I love drinks with fresh citrus. The salad was incredibly simple but amazingly tasty - just arugula, fennel and shaved parmesan. 

We also ordered the margherita pizza with burrata and added on some prosciutto.  It really worked well together - the sweetness of the sauce + the saltiness of the prosciutto + the creaminess of the burrata. I thought that the crust wasn't quite as good as at some of the other artisan pizza places. Kev disagreed. We ate the whole pizza.

SF Hot Chocolate: Cocoa Bella, Marina

We headed over to the Marina today to return some stuff over there. It was actually a really nice (no rain!) day, so we decided to wander around and we just happened to be walking past Cocoa Bella... so we figured we should try the hot chocolate.

I haven't been in Cocoa Bella before, and the display cases were impressive - really incredibly beautiful pieces of chocolate, more than I've seen in other chocolate shops.  For their hot chocolate, they let you pick what type milk and chocolate you want - dark, extra dark, milk or white. 

I picked the classic hot chocolate, with milk chocolate and skim milk (which I know, not really fair to compare a skim milk hot chocolate with the Christopher Elbow, full fat hot chocolate, but whatever). Kev got the raspberry hot chocolate with whole milk. They also had a bunch more flavors, like peanut butter and hazelnut and hot & spicy.

The drinks were slightly above average. The raspberry was interesting, but a little too much raspberry - just bordering on artificial. Mine was very chocolatey but also pretty thin - though not a fair comparison since it wasn't whole milk.

I have mixed feelings on this place. I feel like I should like it - the drinks were decent, the chocolates looked amazing. Something about it just seemed kinda off though.  The more I think about it, I feel like it is a cleverly disguised chocolate shop - where the prices, location and look of the store are trying to convince you it is a high end shop when really -  it's just average chocolate.