Restaurant Review - Tomisushi (San Jose)

02.16.08

Tomisushi
4336 Moorpark Avenue
San Jose, 95129

It was an okay bento box - tempura and sashimi. The tempura wasn't as crunhcy as I would have liked. The sashimi was ok. I tried some of the nigiri and for some reason I enjoyed the nigiri much better.

The nigiri was great. Very enjoyable. Still have not yet found another place to enjoy uni.

Just a deep fried roll with pepper in the middle and a tempura dipping sauce.

Bottom Line: $60 for 2. Would give it a another try for other items on the menu. I would pass on the bento box.

Restaurant Review - Carnelian Room (San Francisco)

02.12.08

Carnelian Room
California St, San Francisco, CA

On the 52nd floor! Nice view.

Warm SCALLOP and organic leek salad with sea urchin vinaigrette. (scallop is not plural form) Other than the size of this dish, I actually enjoyed the one scallop.

Cherry wood house-smoked salmon and frisee salad (cippolini onions, quail egg, grapes, caper amulsion. It was alright. Nothing special. Smoked salmon was salty.

Double Lobster Consomme. I guess I'm not a fan of consomme.

Carmelian Room Filet - flambeed beef tenderloin medallion with calvados demi hand-picked local seasonal wild mushrooms, prepared table side. Cooked medium rare. Very nicely done.

Braised "American Kobe" boneless beef rib topped with pan-seared foie gras. accompanied by mirepoix vegetables and cotes du rhone jus. My favorite parts was the foie gras. The beef was very tender so I enjoyed that too.

Carmelian room tarte tatin - Washington state apples with caramel sauce and tahitian vanilla. Yum. I usually prefer chocolate desserts but this came with the price fixe. Enjoyed it very much! My favorite part of the meal.

Bottom Line: $140 for 2. Enjoyed the view a lot (52nd floor). Bring money for tipping in the Women's bathroom. A lady actually turned the faucet on and off, pumped soap into my hands, handed me a clean dry single use towel, and opened the door for me. They also had bread, which isn't pictured in our blog. The bread was very good!

Restaurant Review - Mandaloun (Redwood City)

02.08.08

Mandaloun Restuarant
Redwood City, CA

Carpaccio, horseradish aioli, crispy capers, frisee & waffle chips. The first carpaccio Aug had without fish sauce. He's favorite is still at Dragonfly in SF. My favorite is still homemade.

Boat Scallop Crudo - Cara Cara orange-mustard seed vinaigrette. Thought it was plain.

Brussels Sprouts, pancetta & grana. Decent. My favorite is still Aug's homemade brussels sprouts cooked in butter and a hint of salt.

Niman Ranch Pork Chop - Cannellini Bean, guanciale Brussels sprouts & roasted garlic-apple sugo. I actually enjoyed the pork chop. Thought it would be dry because of it's size but it was actually pretty juicy.

Molten Chocolate Cake. The best one I've had is still at Roy's.

Creme Brulee. A surprise. Once of the best we've had. The sugar crust on top was very thin and very crisp. Nice balance.

Bottom Line: Would go back for their creme brulee and to try other dishes on the menu. $70 for 2 people. They also served bread with a gralic oil dip. The dip was very good! Made the bread taste so much better (not that it was bad).

Tucker's Icecream (Alameda)

02.08.08


Tucker's Icecream
Park Street
Alameda, CA

In my search for custard flavored icecream, I decided to stop by this place that I heard was the best place in town. They didn't have custard icecream, but man, that's some good vanilla! Anneke had a frozen banana. So far, only Mitchell's in SF has custard icecream.

Restaurant Review - El Caballo (Alameda)

02.08.08

El Caballo
Bayfarm Island, Alameda, CA


This place is close to my (Augustin) work, and I occasionally order lunch to-go here, so Anneke suggested just sitting down and eating here. She noted that everything she orders lunch here, the service is wonderful and everyone is very friendly, and this was also the case this time.




We both had the clam chowder (right), which was very hard to describe, but delicious nonetheless. It was about 20% clam chowder flavor, & 80% of something else we can't describe.









Augustin had: Chile Rellenos San Francisco (left), which are 2 breaded Chile Poblanos filled with crab & shrimp meat coated with cheese. Delicious! But the seafood was very non-distinct--I couldn't even tell there was seafood in it. This place has the 2nd best chile rellenos--the best is a spot in Davis across from Lake Shore apartments




Anneke had: Red Snapper Al Mojo De Ajo covered in garlic sauce (middle). Very light texture and flavor.







Price: $23 for two.

Bottom line: Mid-range mexican food with excellent, friendly service. Great chile rellenos!

Mitsuwa Marketplace 2 (San Jose)

An update on a couple more snacks we purchased from Mitsuwa



Cabbage Taro Snack ($1.49)
This surprised me. I had no idea what to expect from a "cabbage taro snack". It tasted like curry to me. As for texture ... think of cheese puffs.

















JCC Choco Snack ($2.29)



The chocolate is very ordinary. What I do like about this snack is the extremely light and airy wafer you'll find inside. I can snack on this all day long. Just wish the layer of chocolate was a tad thinner.

Gekkeikam Zipang Sake ($5.99)

This is a sparkling sake. Very light. This for some reason reminded me of Martini & Rossi Asti. For this price, I'd rather go for the Asti.

More reviews will come later as we get to try more snacks!

Mitsuwa Marketplace (San Jose)

02.04.08

Mitsuwa Marketplace
675 Saratoga Ave
San Jose, CA

Today was such a nice day, so Anneke dragged me to a Japanese marketplace to look for the sake that we had at Yu-San Sushi Restaurant (see 02.02.08 blog). Well, we didn't find the sake, but instead, we found everything else we didn't need. We left happily with $60 worth of snacks, candy, chocolate, instant noodles, and cookies.

This place had a food court where I had a beef udon & Anneke had rice with pork katsu & egg. It was what you would expect from a food court, but it gave us energy to shop! Here are some of the highlights:

1) Potato chip Norishio ($1.69)--tastes like Lay's original, but with seaweed specks--tasty!

2) Fran Aromatier Rum & Vanilla Sticks ($2.99)--ummm chocolate + alcohol.

3) Wasabi/Seaweed Snack ($2.49)--OMG, sooooo good!!!! Deep fried pita chip (but thinner) with seaweed pressed on one side & infused with Wasabi (a lot of it!) A definate must try!

4) Asahi Mitsuya Cider Candy ($1.99)--Yummy candy that fizzles on your tongue.

5) Yama Moto-Yama Hot & Spicy Seaweed ($1.99)--Yum! I've tried a lot of these, but this brand is the crispiest & spiciest. I didn't realize that eating just 10 of them gave you 50% of your daily vitamin A, so yes please!

We will post more on the other products as we try them!

Toasty Girl Hoodie

02.04.08

I saw this hoodie on turntablelab.com and thought Anneke would look cute in it. It's a normal hoodie, except it has mittens sown in. Anyway, she likes it, and I saw a Japanese couple whisper to each other about it. Japanese people know cool things when they see it.

www.toastytime.com

Restaurant Review - Yu-San Sushi (El Cerrito)

02.02.2008

Yu-San Sushi
11866 San Pablo Ave
El Cerrito, CA 94530

A great sushi place! Eat at the bar. All the nigiri is top-notch! My brother and sister-in-law took us here for my brother's b-day. They've been meaning to take us here but we've always either been out of town or stuck at work. It's a small place so definitely make reservations to sit at the bar because there are only 10 spots for the bar. Very friendly service, reasonable prices, and fresh fish!

We let my sister-in-law do the ordering:

1. Clam miso soup - a little sweet, maybe because of the clams. Still good though.
2. White Salmon - fantastic! Tasted a little like white tuna.
3. Sweet shrimp and fried heads - very good and not too sweet. The heads tasted rich (Anneke's had eggs--yum!)
4. Unagi - fantastic! The best I've ever had. Freshly charbroiled. I've had this in the past where it was drenched in a sweet sauce. Here, however, the flavor was infused into the fish.
5. Uni - had better. I'm used to the very rich flavor of uni but here it was very subtle and too light for my taste.
6. Spicy scallop - haven't had one that I didn't like, yet.
7. White tuna - melted in your mouth. Don't need your teeth to eat this.
8. Yellow tail - really good and fresh (cuz they just took it out).
9. Giant sweet clam - first time we've had it and we loved it.
10. Sake - Very good sake. Does anybody know where we can find it? All I know is that the company that imports this has a branch in San Francisco.

Price: $120 for 4

Bottom line: Best place for nigiri in the Bay area (so far). We didn't have any of their rolls. The fish tasted very fresh and portions were very fair. Definitely recommened this place and definitely would come again. Very good nigiri at a very reasonable prices. Make reservations to sit at the bar.

Restaurant Review - Korea House (Hayward)

01.24.2008

Korea House
Montgomery/A Street
Hayward, CA 94541

This place opened about 6 years ago down the street from my house. I went with my parents then, but hadn't developed a palate for food then. I thought I'd give it another chance. They brought out around 10 different "appetizer" dishes ranging from Kim-Che to pickled bean sprouts. Man I miss Korean food!

Augustin had:
Spicy Beef Bul-Go-Gi, which was very good. I also tried the Hite/OB korean beer which was very light with a slight hint of Budweiser. Overall I was extremely happy. When I was younger, my parents said Korean food was a little expensive. I guess I must have been really young!

Anneke had:
spicy tofu soup with mushroom, which was ok. I've had my fair share of tofu soup but this one tasted a little different. I don't know if it was because of the different seasonings or because of the mushrooms. It had 3 different types of mushrooms, which probably added to the flavor of the soup. The soup wasn't as rich as what I'm used to so it was just ok for me. It didn't even come with an egg for me to crack into the soup before my meal. I would still come back and try the other tofu soups just because everything else tasted pretty ok. Don't come dressed in nice clothes ... you'll come out smelling like food.

Price: ~$32 for two

Bottom line: Good place to go to for Korean food in Hayward. Augustin liked it better so might end up going back since it's close to home and we don't know of any other Korean restaurants.

Restaurant Review - Jonesy's Famous Steak House (Napa)

1.19.08

Jonesy's Famous Steak House
2044 Airport Rd
Napa, CA

We met a bunch of co-worker's here for a little get-together. Surprisingly, this place was at an airport for private planes--kinda weird. Everyone said the steak was "fantastic" here, so we were excited.


Augustin had:
12 ounce filet mignon with "special potatoes." It was a little too well done for being medium rare. I think I've had it with filet mignons. I think I'm only 1 for 5 with this cut; the best being in Carmel (see picture below):

The special potatoes was simply a hash brown with grilled onion rings and a slice of melted Kraft cheese on top. There was nothing special about it--it tasted like a chunk of meat.

Anneke had:
Medium rare ribeye steak with "special potatoes". The course came with either a soup or salad so I chose the soup -- clam chowder. I enjoyed the clam chowder. As for the the steak, it also was overcooked to be considered medium rare. I would not recommend this place at all. I was very disappointed.

Price: ~80

Bottom Line: A long drive to an over-rated and over-priced steak joint. Would not recommend at all. People said their roasted chicken was good ... let us know how it goes if you try it.

Restaurant Review - Pacific Catch (San Francisco)

01.15.2008

Pacific Catch
9th/Lincoln
San Francisco

Went there with our friend Son D. Had a lot of choices but went here instead because it recently opened.

Augustin had:
I usually go to Roy's restaurant for the Ahi Poketini, but now I don't have to! The Ahi Poke was fantastic and at half the price! I also had 2 fish tacos: one was the fish of the day (which i don't remember), and the other was red snapper. Both weren't memorable, but maybe I'm a little spoiled when it comes to fish tacos/burritos--btw, Alerto's in Orange County has the BEST fish burritos.

Anneke had:
Tokyo Salmon and a side of corn. It was just fish and chips but the description made it sound very interesting. It had a little twist with salmon and sweet potato fries. Not a big fan of sweet potato fries so can't really recommend it. The salmon was alright. I did enjoy the grilled corn though because it came with a good dipping sauce.

Son had:
Korean Barbecue...

Price: ~$67 for 3 people.

Bottom line: I can't seem to find a situation where I'd go just for the Ahi Poketini, otherwise, I'd find another seafood place--SF has plenty!

Restaurant Review - Las Palmeras (San Francisco)

01.15.2008

Las Palmeras Restaurant
2721-23 Mission Street
San Francsico, CA

We were too early for Charanga's so we went here instead. Not a straight-up Mexican restaurant--it also had Venezuelan dishes. Complimentary chips & salsa. Watch out, it's spicy!

Augustin had:
Horchata with a Venezuelan breaded palm dish. The horchata was different from what we've had in the past. This one had a hint of chocolate, almost as if it was infused with Butterfingers. The Breaded palm dish was bitter and weird. Good experience though. I wanted some flan, but they were out.

Anneke:
Mango drink with a chicken tamale and cheese stuffed chile combo plate. This was the softest and moistest tamale ever. The stuffed chile was very much like a chile relleno except this was not breaded. Also had a Mango drink, which wasn't very memorable -- definitely pass on that one.

We spent ~$25

Bottom Line: Good food at a clean hole-in-the-wall joint with good service at a good price. Would recommend going there if you're in the area, otherwise not worth a walk through the Mission.