Won Thai Cuisine

20160331:
For dinner I ordered a chicken pad see ew. It tasted simple and there was not that much sauce. I was, however, surprised upon seeing various cubes of tofu. Maybe every Thai resturant uses tofu in their pad see ew, but I can't say I ever noticed it until today. 6:31PM PT

To drink I got a Thai iced coffee.* Probably heavily mixed with condensed milk/sugar, the drink was sweet and the half-and-half/cream helped reduce the overall sweetness. 6:53PM PT

Overall, the food was good, and the service was good as well.

*At some point I wondered what goes into making a Thai iced coffee and what goes into making a Thai iced tea. However, that will be a post for another day. (Actually, one has been drafted, but I should take some pictures to accompany it. :D)

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Won Thai Cuisine

Relevant Links:
Won Thai Cuisine (Facebook Page)
Won Thai Cuisine - Hercules, CA (Yelp.com)

Hai Ky Mi Gia

20160321:
Having yet to explore all the neighborhoods of San Francisco, I was surprised to learn that there was a set of Vietnamese restaurants located in a neighborhood called Tenderloin. While the stores only take up a small portion of the neighborhood, the short strip is nevertheless given the name Little Saigon.

In any case, among the various results for "noodle" in San Francisco, Hai Ky Mi Gia returned as the top hit and so I thought I would give it a try.

Looking through the menu, I decided to go with the first item (usually the restaurant's signature): Hai Ky Won Ton Egg Noodle Soup - dry with thick noodles (comes with a small bowl of broth).

While I didn't take any notes, I recall the bowl was reasonably good and felt like I would return. I was, however, a bit surprised that they only accepted cash.*

Although requiring cash only would deter me from coming frequently, I would consider returning here for food one day.

*Technically I shouldn't be surprised, many Asian establishments often accept cash only.

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Hai Ky Mi Gia

Relevant Links:
Hai Ky Mi Gia - Tenderloin - San Francisco, CA (Yelp.com)

Darn Good Food

Darn Good Food

Lamb Sandwich (20160315)

Relevant Links:
Darn Good Food Website
Darn Good Food - Financial District - San Francisco, CA (Yelp.com)

20160308:
Looking through the menu, I ordered a pulled pork sandwich which comes with salad and potatoes. Unfortunately, the potatoes were beginning to cool by the time I got to them. They were, however, well seasoned.

As for the sandwich, the pulled pork was juicy with a sauce whose flavor was dominantly tomato with a bit of salt. Actually, it tasted a bit like V8. The bread was a bit tough. Overall, I liked it. 5:44PM PT

Menu Description:
10-Spice Pulled Pork Sandwich $9.50
10-spice pulled pork, mild chipotle sauce, coleslaw (no mayo). Served with mixed greens and oven roasted potatoes

Pulled Pork Sandwich (20160308)

20160315:
Eating here last week, I decided to come back and try something else. Between the tri-tip sandwich and the lamb sandwich, I decided to go ahead and try the lamb. While the meat on its own mostly tasted overcooked, the onions were good. Unlike last time, I found the bread was a bit chewy.

As for the potatoes that came with the sandwich, I was a bit disappointed to find they were once again cold by the time I got to them. To be fair, I was in the restroom and the food was ready when I was done, but are potatoes supposed to get cold that quickly? Well, I'll happily take cold potatoes for restroom usage any day.* 5:33PM PT

Menu Description:
Oven Roasted Lamb Sandwich $11.00
Oven roasted leg of lamb, braised kale and onions. Served with mixed greens and oven roasted potatoes

Lamb Sandwich (20160315)

Overall, the portion was reasonably sized considering I'm eating less. However, I would consider the meal overpriced, because the quality was barely above average while the quantity was lacking.

I should also note that the place has plenty of places to sit - most customers seemed to order delivery or get their meal to go.

*The restroom is downstairs and has a keypad which requires a 4-digit code so remember to ask for it before going downstairs.

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Blue Bay Thai Cuisine

20160307:
With the Thai restaurant near my home closed on Mondays, a quick Yelp search pointed me towards Blue Bay Thai Cuisine. Looking to have a drink, my friend and I wanted to have Singha, but the restaurant was out. So then we wanted to try Chang Beer, but they were also out. Thus we settled fro the Blue Moon, but thankfully that went well with the pork pad see ew I ordered.

Menu Description:
Pad See-Ew: Wide rice noodles sauteed with egg and Chinese broccoli in homemade soy sauce.

Overall, I finished the entire plate and enjoyed the meal. Furthermore, the oils and ingredients used agreed with my stomach (in contrast to dishes which use too much of a particular oil

[20160327 Edit]

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Blue Bay Thai Cuisine

Relevant Links:
Blue Bay Thai Cuisine Website
Blue Bay Thai Cuisine - San Pablo, CA (Yelp.com)

Truckee Tavern and Grill

20160305:
After getting some drinks at Pastime, we walked over to Truckee Tavern and Grill to get some food. Looking through the menu, I decided to go with the Trio of Sausage.

Menu Description:
Trio of Sausage, house mustard, fries 16

While the server told me the names of each type of sausage, there was too much ambient noise and the names were spoken too quickly for me to remember. In any case, eating from right to left, I first determined I liked the sausage in the middle more than that on the right, because it had more of a kick and spicy flavor. The one on the left was decent. Unfortunately, the fries were just okay (when eaten plain). Overall, it was a good meal.

[20160325]

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Truckee Tavern and Grill

Relevant Links:
Truckee Tavern and Grill Website
Truckee Tavern and Grill - Truckee, CA (Yelp.com)

Casserole House

Casserole House

Black Goat Junggol

Relevant Links:
Casserole House Website
Casserole House Website
Casserole House - Temescal - Oakland, CA (Yelp.com)

20160303:
I liked the variety of banchan and as a group of four we nearly cleared all of it by the end.

Possibly the best among the available banchan! (Fish Cakes/Eomuk Bokkeum)

Menu Description:
12. Kimchi Jeon $14.95
Korean-style pancake mixed with kimchi and vegetable.

The kimchi jeon was awesome. I could easily come here, order one of these for myself, and be satisfied.

Goon Mahn Du (Dumplings)

Menu Description:
Goon Mahn Du $9.95
Deep-fried dumpling with beef, pork, kimchi, tofu, and vegetables.

The dumplings were good, but not amazing. With that being said, the waitress mentioned something that might have been imperfect about them and asked us if they good regardless of the imperfection. Indeed they were still good and there definitely wasn't anything to complain about, but still nothing notable.

Black Goat Junggol

Menu Description:
6. Black Goat Junggol $29.95
Black goat with vegetables and noodles cooked in a special casserole.

The casserole was delicious and I definitely ate a lot of it, especially the meat - I enjoy the shredded texture. However, I still liked the pancake more.

Sungnyung

After our meal was over the waitress served us a complimentary drink which was deliciously sweet. At the time, the sweet flavor reminded of mung bean. However, I determined today (20160322) that it was almost surely a drink called "sungnyung" which is traditionally made by simmering water over scorched rice (Wikipedia.org).

Overall, I liked both the food and the service here.

Banchan
Gamjajorim????????? Kimchi... Gyeranjjim/-------\
Kongnamul FishCakes \......./ Dubu..... \......./
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Broccoli. Kongjorim Kimchi...
Side Dishes
Potatoes. ????????? Kimchi... SteamedEgg/-------\
BeanSprou EomukBokkeum ...../ Tofu..... \......./
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Broccoli. Soybeans. Kimchi...

[20160322 Edit]

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Pizza Gino

Pizza Gino

Relevant Links:
Pizza Gino - St-Jerome, QC, Canada (Yelp.com)

20160301:
While pressed for time, we decided to look for a place to eat. In hindsight, it probably wasn't a smart idea to order pizza due to the time it takes to prepare.

With that being said, we also ordered poutine and that was absolutely delicious. Of course, poutine probably tastes great everywhere. This, however, is my first time having it.

Overall, I didn't find any particular reason to recommend this specific pizza restaurant, but the pizza wasn't bad so it's probably worth a try.

Actually, two small pizzas and a large poutine would have been enough to feed three male adults, but the worker (possibly manager) convinced us to get one of the combos: two large (14") pizzas, a large poutine, two bags of brownies and a (2L) bottle of soda.

[20160320]

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