San Francisco: The Sweet

Previously: The Good and The Not as Good

There were many many delicious sweets to be found in San Francisco, here are the ones we sampled:

gelato at Naia in North Beach

divine!  fabulous fabulous gelato!  On the left, vanilla and pumpkin, on the right, chocolate and cherry chocolate chip

Jelly Belly Factory in Fairfield, CA

Tyler and I share a love of Jelly Bellies, in particular, the pear flavored ones.  We discovered them in the early days of our dating years and joked about visiting the “mothership”, well, on this vacation we did, and it was so much fun!  And we came home with tons of sweet loot, including lots of belly flops.

Stella’s Pastries in North Beach

Stella’s was recommended to us by our tour guide, who grew up in the area and frequented Stella’s as a child.  Per his recommendation we ordered the sacripantina, fitting as they are “the home of the sacripantina.”  I picked out an assortment of cookies, the macaroon was divine!

Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory in Chinatown

This was one of the stops on our city tour, and we got to sample fresh from the oven fortune cookies.  They tasted so good, nothing like the nasty styrofoam ones you get at restaurants!  Sorry for the terrible picture, food photography is tough in a dark alley.

TCHO chocolates

We didn’t make it to the TCHO shop/factory on the bay, but we did pick up some of their chocolates at a market at the Ferry Building.  I remember reading about them on food blogs sometime last year, they are supposedly great for baking.  They are also great when a chocolate craving hits you!

Miette Patisserie at the Ferry Building

The adorable displays and cute little sweets were calling to me from Miette, so we bought a few treats for our last night in San Francisco.  Madeleines and macarons, in vanilla, chocolate, raspberry, and rose flavors.  These were great, but would of been best fresh.

Kara’s Cupcakes at Ghiradelli Square

We had no ghiradelli chocolate on this trip, I just didn’t see the point when you  can buy it in the check out line at Walmart.  However, my friend wheezer monkey highly recommended Kara’s Cupcakes at the square and holy cow, these were yum!  So while lots of tourists popped in to Ghiradelli for overpriced hot fudge sundaes, we dined on pricey but oh so worth it cupcakes from Kara’s, chocolate raspberry and vanilla coconut.  The coconut BLEW MY MIND.

So there you have it folks, sugar overload in San Francisco, worth every cavity

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San Francisco: The Not as Good

So none of our meals in San Francisco were bad by any means, but a few were disappointing or just sub par.  But I photographed them and tried to make them look pretty!

In N Out Burger at the Wharf

We were so hungry when we first arrived at our hotel, so we walked a couple of blocks and stumbled into In N Out, one place we had been planning on trying.  It was crowded and the tables had not been cleaned all day, but what do you expect in the most touristy section of SF?  I could deal with all of that but the burgers just weren’t that great.  I was shocked, as I’d heard nothing but raves and Tyler and I both agreed that they didn’t taste much different than a McDonald’s burger, the patties were just so thin.  However, our tour guide told us a couple of days later that the In N Out’s in N. California do not hold a candle to those in Southern California, so we have to reserve final judgement until we try them there I suppose!  For now I remain a loyal fan of Five Guys, the East Coast burger

Cafe Pescatore, attached to The Tuscan Inn.

On the busiest day of our vacation we had spent the morning in Fairfield at the Jelly Belly Factory, the afternoon at Muir Woods, and had a limited amount of time to grab a bite to eat before our night tour of Alcatraz.  So we decided to eat at Cafe Pescatore, the very nice looking restaurant/cafe attached to our hotel.  We figured we’d have some good seafood and be on our way.  We both found our dishes underwhelming.  Tyler had gnocchi with tiger prawns and I had crab ravioli.  The ravioli was very thin with minimal filling, and the tomato cream sauce was more like a soup.  In fact in splashed on my blouse no matter how careful I tried to be as I ate (and I wasn’t about to wear my napkin as a bib…).  For almost $20 per plate we expected more, however the dishes just fell flat.

Steps of Rome Caffe in North Beach

We heard some of the other guests at our hotel saying good things about Steps of Rome in North Beach and restaurants were filling up on Saturday night so we grabbed a table on the patio just before things really started hopping.  Our service was only so-so, we were only given one menu as they had run out of them, which was inconvenient but not the end of the world.  The flop was our appetizer.  The homemade cheese was stringy, ohhhhh so stringy, and the flavor just was not good.  But our main dishes were great, I had pumpkin ravioli in a delicious white cheese sauce and Tyler had some kind of vegetable pasta mixture.  Plus it was an affordable meal and we left with full stomachs, so in the end, it was fine, I just don’t think I’ll ever be brave enough to try homemade cheese again!

the questionable appetizer plate:

the great entrees that redeemed the meal:

So three meals out of eight were less than fabulous, but not bad, it could of been much worse!

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San Francisco: The Good

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!

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