Walter K.'s Profile

8 / 10 tastiness of club sandwich, 9 / 10 friendliness of staff, 3 / 10 ventilation on an 85-degree day for table service.  But boy that bacon was freshly cooked, crispy, and hot!  The focaccia bread also very memorable.  Highly recommended, and will be back ASAP.

My favorite Thai in SF thus far, though I like Marnee Thai as well.  Having spent eight years on and off living in Seattle, WA, where Thai is their equivalent of Chinese in SF volume- and popularity-wise, I feel well-positioned to pass some level of judgement upon those in SF.  Kwanjai delivers to us, and the food always arrives steaming hot.  Their Tom Kha Gai is excellent.  Try it!  You'll like it.

This place wins big-time on location, easily walkable from my place.  My girlfriend declared it "baja-style", and I agree.  Very different genre of Mexican when compared to the places in the Mission, Gordo's, Papalote, and the like.

We were really excited about the chicken soup, but found it to be flavorless with ingredients that weren't even entirely cooked (e.g. the onion).  To me, it tasted like they  had just run out, then we ordered it, so they threw some water and ingredients right out of the fridge into a pot, heated it up, put some boiled shredded chicken (with no fat) in, and then served it with a couple of slices of avocado.  It wasn't bad, it just had no flavor, which is, I suppose, bad for some definition thereof.

The steak nachos were good.  Beans are like refried with pinto chunks sprinkled throughout.  Steak was tasty, one of the highlights of the place.  The steak mixed with beans was my favorite thing about the meal.

The steak burrito, similar to nachos re: beef with bean mix was good.  The cheese was the thin-grated type and I enjoyed it but something strange happened to the tortilla, wherein it was gummy and slick along one side.  It stuck to my teeth as a result and was pretty unpleasant.

I'll come back due to proximity, and we look forward to trying the many other items on the menu such as tortas.  Unfortunately, I'd rather eat at Gordo's or Papalote most of the time, even if they're somewhat farther away.

Fabulous crispy egg roll things (more like mini imperial rolls), and an unbelievably upscale ambiance for a pho restaurant.  The pho is indeed clean, organic, and high quality ingredients.  All non-American-compatible items are removed from the menu (no tripe, intestine, stomach, feet, etc.).

However, and I feel guilty saying this -- the pho itself just doesn't taste flavorful to me in comparison to the dingy places I frequent more often.  Pho Clement, for instance.  Maybe it's the lack of MSG.  The noodles in Pot de Pho are also unusual -- wide rather than skinny.  Fun, but different.

I wanted badly to love the pho, and it wasn't bad, but it didn't really have much taste.

In summary, my friend and I concluded:

1. this is the place to take people who want a unique, never-before-had Vietnamese Pho restaurant experience.  It's so upscale it belies the contents of the menu, and the atmosphere is very enjoyable as a whole.

2. next time I'd order 40 of the crispy rolls.  Unfortunately it's about $6 for a plate of 4 small pieces, so that's like $60.  Doing that every few months might be worth it though.  They're really good.

Great lunch here, high quality ingredients, attentive and speedy staff.  My compatriot required no ginger in anything, and they happily obliged and delivered on their promise.

Won Ton Soup -- excellent.  Dim Sum including steamed pork buns, shrimp dumplings, siu mai, all fabulous and piping hot served in bamboo carriers.  House Special Beef made with Angus Beef, flavorful rich brown sauce.  Fried rice with a great mix of pork, shrimp, and vegetables, and not the leftovers as is used in many establishments.

A bit pricey ($30 per person, at a meal with two of us, essentially gorging ourselves) but IMO it's worth it for the experience.  It just means one might not want to eat here as often as one otherwise would.

I believe there is some affiliation between Harmony and Ton Kiang in SF, and it shows.  I love this place.

New Haven White Clam Pizza with garlic is the bomb.  We'll keep coming back for that alone.  I had fettucini with meat sauce and meatballs and it was beyond my expectations, quite good -- pasta in particular wasn't overcooked as it so often is at pizza-oriented establishments.

Even the Diet Coke was served in a large glass, refills offered in advance of glass running dry, and had a good ratio of syrup to soda water.

I miss the old Amici location on Union St. but food-quality-wise, this place is as good as ever.

Surprise Taiwanese food discovery!  My beloved curry chicken with the fluorescent yellow sauce, and containing naught but chicken and onion.  No green peppers, mushrooms, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, or other nuggets of anything to clutter it up.

Pork chop on rice (pai gu fan) extremely tasty, missing the brown sauce my friend was seeking but apparently it's prepared in many different styles of which this was one.

Low, low prices!  I am going to go back again and again.

A standout location in the Clemental region.

Not bad, but not that great.  Given the five hundred other taquerias in the area, I'd check one of those out before heading back.  Carnitas was a high point, it was the soft kind with no crispy bits -- to be clear, I like all kinds of carnitas, so I viewed this as a particular genre.

Chicken quesadilla was ok, nice that it was not greasy as they use a hot press to melt the cheese, but didn't have a ton of flavor.  Plus I ordered a corn quesadilla but they gave me flour.

The restaurant was freezing cold, minimal to no heating and the front door wide open, so that was a bit of a minus.

My friend had a carne asada burrito and said the beef wasn't too flavorful, he didn't think they marinated it like some other places do.  And we agreed that the chicken is better at La Taqueria.

A hearty noodle shop that delivers the goods.  The deep fried potstickers have rice dough wrappers (going purely on a texture-analysis basis).  The spicy seafood soup is rich and flavorful.  The deep-fried sweet and sour pork was served piping hot and crispy (REALLY hot, temperature wise.  Look out!).  Za zang myun was high-qual, both the spicy beef and the regular pork (I only ate the former but my compatriots enjoyed the latter).

I'm really happy to have found this place so nearby my house.

Great carne asada burritos, quesadillas are extremely tasty.  Horchata and a no-frills dining experience complete the picture.  Come here to eat if you're hungry and looking for a good time, baby.