Tyler and I recently took a long weekend trip to San Francisco, here are some of the best meals we had:
Calzone’s in North Beach
we picked this restaurant randomly after walking around North Beach and checking out menus. They had an open table on the patio and the food we saw on the plates of diners out there looked delicious, so we settled in for a great meal. Great food, great people watching. Loved the oval shaped tables facing outwards so people didn’t bump into us.

drinks: reisling

appetizer: bruschetta-garlic pesto toasted baguette topped with chopped fresh tomatoes and drizzled with basil oil
comments: not the best bruschetta we’ve ever had, but very tasty, loved the pesto.

Tyler ate: Roasted Fulton Valley Chicken, broccolini and zucchini mashed potatoes.
comments: chicken was kinda dry, broccolini was so-so, but zucchini mashed potatoes were PERFECTION.

Julia ate: Arugula salad with artichokes, garbanzo beans, oven-roasted tomatoes, Humboldt Fog goat cheese in lemon oil.
comments: great salad, could of used more artichokes and tomatoes, goat cheese was out of this world, needed more dressing as the salad was a bit dry.

Babs Delta Diner in Suisun City
We went to Fairfield, CA to visit the Jelly Belly Factory and stopped in nearby Suisun City for lunch. There weren’t a lot of options for restaurants but Babs was hoppin’ so we decided to try it out. We waited about 5 minutes for a table and after ordering our food came quickly. This place has been around for about 30 years and they have standard diner food, but everything looked good, not too greasy.
Tyler ate: a Reuben sandwich

Julia ate: corned beef and swiss sandwich

comments: both of these sandwiches were great! Thick pieces of corned beef made them hearty and the perfect lunch on a busy day. So glad we stumbled upon this place!
Mijita’s Cocina Mexicana at the Ferry Building
This was one of my favorite meals on the trip, but I am a lover of Mexican food, Tyler is not as big of a fan. We wandered the Ferry Building looking for a good lunch spot, so many great options but Tyler caved to my insistance that we try Mijitas. We were both happy! Small but dynamic menu, fast service, and DELICIOUS FOOD!
we drank: strawberry juice
comments: sadly not as good as it looked, didn’t have much of a punch to it, but it didn’t taste bad by any means.

appetizer: guacamole with chips
comments: great guacamole! excellent flavor, couldn’t get enough of it! Only complaint was that the chips were a bit burnt.

Tyler & Julia ate: 4 different kinds of tacos, including:
carnitas-

carne asada-

pescado (deep fried mahi-mahi)-

vegetariano-

comments: the vegetarian taco was nothing special, but the other three were fantastic! Tyler’s favorite was the steak, my favorite was surprisingly the pork (and I don’t usually care for pork!)
The Slanted Door at the Ferry Building
This restaurant was the only one we made reservations at, as we chose to not over-plan this trip like we have for prior vacations. Everyone recommends this restaurant, and for good reason, the food is outstanding! We made lunch reservations because 1) it’s cheaper and 2) it was all that was available by the time we got around to making reservations the week of our trip.
we drank: fresh squeezed lemonade and phoenix bird tea, sorry, no pictures!
appetizer: crispy imperial rolls
comments: these kick PF Chang’s lettuce wraps in the ASS. And I LOVE those lettuce wraps.

Tyler ate: north Vietnamese style halibut with vermicelli noodles, fresh dill, and pineapple-anchovy sauce
comments: absolutely fantastic, great balance of flavors, not too “fishy” despite the halibut and anchovy.

Julia ate: niman ranch flank steak with fresh ginger over rice noodles with roasted peanuts
comments: everything about this dish was wonderful, but the beef took the cake!

Wrapping Up: none of the meals on our trip were bad per se, but these are the ones that stand out as truly great, restaurants we would dine at again and again if we lived in the SF area. The best part (besides our happy tastebuds) was that we did not spend over $65 total (including 15-20% tip) on any single one of these meals! Our hotel had a wine hour from 4-6 pm so we had a couple of (free!) glasses of wine there before heading out for dinner, saving us money on drinks! That left some money for some fabulous sweets at various bakeries and gelaterias, which I will blog about in the coming days!