San Francisco

By Monica on May 7th, 2008

This week I have an excuse for being AWOL - I was in San Francisco! So prepare yourselves for a slew of dark, blurry restaurant photos and commentary from a visitor who wasn’t quite ready to come back home to the very opposite state of Illinois yet:

The Boudin sourdough bakery on the wharf was a stone’s throw away from our hotel, so the smell of fresh bread lured us in more than once, and we even succumbed to a sourdough turtle.

The “California Veggie” sammich, sans cheese, and the roasted tomato soup bread bowl. I’m still skeptical, but the cashier vehemently insisted the tomato soup was vegan.

In China Town we stopped at Lucky Creation Vegetarian for lunch. It was a tiny place, absolutely packed, but the food was incredible and lunch for two only cost us about $20! Spring Rolls:

Ray’s fungus platter… (technically it was the mixed veggie platter, but contained more varieties of mushrooms than I knew existed.) As an avid mushroom hater, it was hard for me to watch this being eaten, but Ray said it was excellent.

And my Sweet & Sour Imitation Pork, which was gluten based. I hadn’t had a sweet & sour dish since I was a kid and this was like a nostalgic return to the Chinese take-out of my youth, except much, much better. I loved this place!

Saturday morning we literally stumbled across the Ferry Building Farmer’s Market. I saw the tents from our passing streetcar and we abandoned our plans and jumped off at the next stop. Given that my hometown farmer’s market is open for 3 months per year and features 6 or so vendors mostly selling sweet corn, you can understand my excitement over a real farmer’s market.

I would kill to have fresh herbs like this available locally, much less for a buck! Consider me thoroughly envious.

What I was not expecting was that we’d spend hours here, literally eating our way through the farmer’s market aisle by aisle! In addition to all the vendors offering samples of their produce (which we bought a ton of to snack on at the hotel), Alive! was there with some tasty raw selections:

I opted for the cucumber spritzer and Ray had a strawberry chocolate parfait:

And just to make sure we left good and stuffed, Asparagus Tempura:

Dinner was at Herbivore on Divisadero. Sadly, Herbivore is getting a pretty poor review from me. The service was horrendous; never before have I had a meal served in the order of entree, then salad, then finally the drink you ordered 45 minutes ago, then dessert with no silverware until the adjoining table of strangers takes mercy on you and gives you their unused forks. The food gets a solid C, unfortunately everything was extremely bland including this Gnocci with Basil Pesto:

And the Red Curry. Maybe it’s me, but I don’t expect “bland” out of any kind of pesto, nor any kind of curry?

Strawberry Rhubarb pie, my personal favorite variety of pie. Good, but nothing noteworthy.

And finally, the German Chocolate Cake which we also found disappointing. The saving grace of our Herbivore meal was the ice cream that accompanied dessert, made locally by Maggie Mudd. We agreed it was the best vegan ice cream we’d ever had - kudos to you, Maggie!

Lunch the following day was at Las Margaritas on Fisherman’s Wharf. After walking up and down the San Francisco hills for a few days, sometimes something quick and close to the hotel is appealing, even if it’s just a veggie burrito:

Or some veggie fajitas. Actually, Las Margaritas had a decent vegetarian menu selection for being in the middle of a tourist trap, and more importantly, they offer a 60 ounce margarita!

The last night we were in town, we trekked out to the Mission District and ate at Weird Fish, which could perhaps be described as a pescatarian restaurant? They serve only vegan food and seafood. Weird Fish, indeed! However, the service was great, the restaurant is quaint and comfortable, the food was phenomenal, and they even get bonus points for having the Joy Division discography playing in the background.

Buffalo Girls Wings. I am confident in saying that these are the best seitan ‘wings’ in the history of the world. Ever. (Also, I again apologize for the shameful photos.)

The Tofu Fish & Chips with Sesame Ginger Sauce. Note to potential patrons, the two piece order is plenty, three was obscene! (But we still ate it because it was amazing, heh.)

And lastly, Cheezecake with Raspberry Rhubarb Sauce. The trip to Weird Fish is worth it if for this alone. I never thought I’d say it, but they even have the Chicago Diner beat on their cheezecake.

I won’t bore everyone with the obligatory sea lion pictures and whatnot, but we had a great time. It is such a treat to visit progressive, green, veg-friendly places like San Francisco, but it does make it a bit hard to come home. While I re-adjust to the culture shock, I promise to catch up on all your blogs this week!