Caribou Coffee

20150830:
Having received a Caribou Coffee gift card, I decided to put it to use and order a Turkey Bacon Mini and a cup of coffee.

Unfortunately the Turkey Bacon Mini was underwhelming and the coffee tasted a bit watery. 7:15PM CT

However, since it was only my first trip (and at an airport location), I'm willing to give the quality of Caribou Coffee the benefit of the doubt.

Menu Description:
Turkey Bacon Mini
Turkey bacon, egg and Wisconsin cheddar cheese on a toasted ciabatta.

About halfway down, I added some Kahlua and Baileys Irish Cream. This added a nice touch.

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Caribou Coffee

Relevant Links:
Caribou Coffee Website
Caribou Coffee (Wikipedia.org)

Perry's San Francisco

Perry's San Francisco

Relevant Links:
Perry's San Francisco Website
Perry's - San Francisco, CA (Yelp.com)

20150824:
I arrived early at the airport today, I'd rather arrive sooner than later, and decided to eat at Perry's.

Looking through the menu, I ordered pasta primavera with chicken and a house coffee, black.

Menu Description:
Pasta Primavera Linguini Served with Seasonal Vegetables in a Pesto Cream Sauce 15.25 (Grilled Chicken* add 4.50)

The coffee smelled refreshing and I proceeded to burn my tongue with it.

When the food arrived, I was surprised by the lovely shaped bowl and the presentation of the pasta. I could smell the cheese and got exited. I took a second deeper whiff and I could smell the tomatoes and the pasta sauce.

Eating the pasta with the sauce first, I found it tasted rich, creamy, and perhaps buttery. Having a taste of the chicken, I found it was actually pretty good as well. It was moist (not at all dry) and had a perfect amount of blackened flavor.

Unfortunately, the dish constantly switched between tasting delicious and tasting overly creamy or buttery.

I should not that while eating the dish, I made sure to toss the pasta in the sauce pooled at the bottom. I also had the chicken soak up some of the sauce. Maybe that's what made the flavor uneven throughout my dining experience. Overall, the food was delicious. 10:16PM PT

By the end of the meal, the coffee had lost all of its flavor. The food, however, was delicious. 10:25PM PT

Nucha Empanadas

20150815:
Today I went to a Robin Williams movie event and among the various food trucks, I decided to order empanadas from Nucha Empanadas.

Spanish Chicken (The one with a dash on it)
Board: Shredded chicken, bell peppers, chili flakes, tomato sauce
Website: Organic chicken, onions, green and red bell peppers, tomato sauce

: Delicious.

Spicy Beef (The one with a triangle on it)
Website: Organic beef, onions, red and green bell peppers, chili peppers

: Not as good as the spicy chicken.

Onions and Cheese
Board: Sliced onions, mozzarella cheese and oregana
Website: Mozzarella cheese, onions, oregano

: In between the previous two.

Bacon and Eggs
Website: Smoked bacon, eggs, onions, bell peppers, cheddar cheese, jack cheese

: This one hits the spot. It's really good.

??? (The one with an X on it)

: It had an onion taste to it. 9:08PM PT

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Nucha Empanadas

Relevant Links:
Nucha Empanadas Website
Nucha Empanadas - San Francisco, CA (Yelp.com)
Nucha Empanadas (Facebook)

Kiki Japanese Restaurant

20150813:
I've been eating sushi just about everywhere I go...

And today I drank a little bit of hot sake. Speaking of which, my friend got this peach sake cocktail with jelly. It had an awesome texture and tasted so peachy that I could hardly taste the sake.

Salmon Sashimi

In any case, we had several rolls and out of the various rolls, the Lady Gaga was the best. Containing eel and tofu, quite the combination, the Lady Gaga had an amazing texture (and I didn't have any negative reaction to the tofu).

Unfortunately, the soft shell crab wasn't as flavorful. In particular, the lettuce in that roll was the dominant texture and flavor.

On the other hand, the tiger roll was above average (somewhere between good and great).

Finally, the salmon sashimi was good, but not great. 9:45PM PT

Tiger Roll (left/top) and Spider Roll (right/bottom)

Kiki Japanese Restaurant is right next door to Ebisu Restaurant, another sushi place. Looking up reviews on Yelp, I was inclined to go to Ebisu, but the handful of people waiting beyond the doors and my hunger led me to walk past it and into Kiki. While there will undoubtedly be a difference in quality, I was happy with the Lady Gaga and sashimi at Kiki. In addition, with artwork from/inspired by Miyazaki films such as Spirited Away (2001) and My Neighbor Totoro (1988), Kiki Japanese Restaurant had a casual feel to it.

[20150910]

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Kiki Japanese Restaurant

Lady Gaga

Relevant Links:
Kiki Website
Kiki Japanese Restaurant - Inner Sunset - San Francisco, CA (Yelp.com)

Temari

20150808:
I didn't realize until today that sushi restaurants slightly vary the way they prepare a Dragon Roll. Some places place avocado and cucumber inside and eel with more avocado on the outside, while other places put the eel on the inside and just the avocado on the outside. Also, crab meat may also be found inside at some restaurants.

Here at Temari, the Dragon Roll was composed of eel in, avocado out. I thought it was good, but not great.

Furthermore, the service felt slow. 8:00PM PT

In addition to the Dragon Roll, my friend and I shared a Salmon Skin Roll. Unfortunately the pieces were small and the roll was underwhelming.

Overall, I wouldn't come back to Temari.

[20150808][20170113 Edit]

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Temari

Salmon Skin Roll (6 pcs)

Relevant Links:
Temari - West Berkeley - Berkeley, CA (Yelp.com)