Broccoli & Chocolate

restaurants * food events * news

Review: Millennium for Thanksgiving

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What do you do if your family doesn’t do a big Thanksgiving anymore, and you don’t even eat turkey? Go to Millennium! Millennium is an upscale vegan restaurant near Union Square in SF, and mom was smart enough to make a reservation for Thanksgiving months ago when no one knew what their plans were going to be. I mean, you can always cancel the reservation, right? Good thinking, mom.

Schmancy salad!

They had a prix fixe menu for Thanksgiving evening, which included an appetizer plate for the table, soup, salad, choice of two mains, and choice of two desserts for $65 per person. An optional wine pairing was offered for an additional $28, in which our party did not partake due to being: a) cheap, and b) already sufficiently pre-partied. Sadly, since I didn’t snag one of their menus (or a picture of it — what was I thinking!), I don’t have the huge list of superfluous descriptions for each dish. In fact, I will probably barely be able to even describe what the damn things were since Millennium has a way of creating highly enigmatic menu summaries*.

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Review: State Bird Provisions

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For real, this time.

Ok, so, I may have gotten a bit frustrated with the reservation process and popularity of State Bird Provisions recently. But, in response to my sad/ranting/obnoxious blog post, my good friend and personal savior, Ms. Mala B. won the refresh-the-reservations-webpage game. The day after my “I’m so grumpy that I can’t get a rezzo at SBP” post, I received a text:

“Holy crap”

Ms. Bingham had won the culinary lottery; the stars had aligned to reveal a reservation at SBP the following Friday at 5.30pm for two people. And she, being the most kindhearted, loving, awesome, beautiful (not relevant, but still true) person ever, bequeathed this reservation to me.

Obligatory above the fold photo. Carry on.

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Review: Bottle Cap

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Update: Bottle Cap is now closed. But, The Square is now open!

Yeay, North Beach! I’ll stop pretending like there’s some lack of good restaurants here. But still, the majority are Italian. And while I LOVE Italian food, it gets a bit tedious. And, if I had to pick a favorite type of food, oddly, it would be American. Stars and stripes, baby, I love me some sandwiches and burgers and mac and cheese.

And they have all three at Bottle Cap, but, like, in good form (Humboldt burger and grilled cheese as “smallish plates”; cheesy shells as a side). But, still, the menu is “American”, which basically seems to mean anything that’s not already claimed by some other culture or country. Or, it can also kinda mean a mesh of a bunch of different things. What a great idea! I love meshes.

Bottle Cap Restaurant in North Beach

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Review: Salt House

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All lowercase lettering. Sandblasted brick walls. Exposed steel mezzanine. High ceilings. You know this SF restaurant.

Ok, you probably don’t; it sounds like lots of others. For which we can all be thankful: there are lots of chic, modern, schmancy, yummy restaurants in SF, yeay! Love this city. Moving on.

Inside the salt house

Salt House (or salt house — upper case is so 2009) is another restaurant serving classy American fare with their own special spin. A summary of my experience:… 

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Review: The Plant

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It’s so sad to me when people hear the names of restaurants like Plant and say something like, “Ugh, does that mean there’s nothing good on the menu?” When did plants become bad to eat? Why do meat eaters have to eat meat with every meal ever? I digress (and kinda apologize; you do what you want).

Plant is not a vegetarian restaurant. It is sorta healthy-ish, doesn’t have anything deep fried, and doesn’t have meat other than seafood and poultry. In fact, their website tells me they serve: all organic produce, all free range poultry, and sustainable seafood. Sounds good to me. And yes, they do have many meat-less dishes and some veggie-adventurous items (tempeh, anyone?). And it’s great! I love this place.

Inside The Plant on Pier 3.

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Review: Wayfare Tavern

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Wayfare Tavern = Awesome.

I guess that’s really all I need to say. I’m adding this to my wish list (for places to return with a camera); this place was birthday worthy!!!

Main points:

  • a roving bread monger with freshly baked, croissant-like bread aplenty (and salted butter… oh lord, I could have just eaten this)
  • a small “American-food” menu with all kinda cool stuff that my dad would call “art food” but that was totally rad
  • a bar-like atmosphere, totally packed with well-dressed peeps at 10pm on a Thursday
  • GOOD ASS FOOD — I shared the deviled eggs and the ahi tuna carpaccio with a friend  — delish!
  • I wanted to order all of the sides. yum.
  • a tiny plate of cookies with your check! do they know me?

In short, I LOVED this place. I want to go back. With a camera, like a tourist. Whatever. Totally delicious, a little pricey, totally worth it. W00t!

Review: Cafe Divine

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Update: Cafe Divine is now closed. 🙁

Welcome to North Beach. We have lots of food to eat here.

If you’re looking for breakfast or brunch (or lunch or dinner), we have Cafe Divine. It’s pretty amazing. Also, their website has lots of over-saturated photos of people grinning hugely. A must-see.

Three egg scramble: Italian sausage, bell peppers, scallions, mozzarella. And the delicious biscuit. (and potatoes)

Let’s talk breakfast/brunch. I love brunch. It’s just such a happy meal*. Cafe Divine is pretty accurately named, as far as I’m concerned. Can I start with homemade chive and cheddar biscuits? I seriously wake up on the weekend and have to bargain myself out of getting one of these every day. Slap some jam on that puppy and your day is pretty seriously guaranteed to be amazing. And you’ll totally be ready for a nap afterward.

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Review: Greens

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Atmosphere: 4/5  ♦  Service: 4/5  ♦  Food Quality: 4/5  ♦  Value: 3/5
Times Visited: One  ♦ Will I Return?: Sure

Greens is a staple of bay area vegetarian cuisine located in Fort Mason in SF. It’s been there since the 70s and (per their website) has been an influence in the national prevalence of vegetarian cuisine for the last 30 years. Sweet.

The place is a converted warehouse in the Fort: high ceilings, giant steel trusses (yes, I look at the framing), and huge windows that face the marina and the GG Bridge. From the front it doesn’t look like much (in fact, we almost missed it), but inside it’s a great space.

Greens

Inside Greens

The menu changes seasonally and is always vegetarian. It’s not vegan, however; they put cheese on nearly everything, which made me happy. I think they’re vegan-flexible, however, and can change things up to suit dietary needs. They use fresh, local produce from a farm in Marin, and though their recipes are simple enough, they are made with culinary expertise that can’t help but show through. Put simply, food is good…. 

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Review: Ironside

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Atmosphere: 4/5  ♦  Service: 3/5  ♦  Food Quality: 4/5  ♦  Value: 3/5
Times Visited: One  ♦ Will I Return?: Sure

Ironside is a hip little restaurant on Second Street between Townsend and Brannan in San Francisco. It’s one of the (great many) places that makes SF what it is in terms of food and ambiance. The decor is a sort of modern wild-west: heavy timber framing (the stairway landing is a 4′ cube of solid wood pieces!) and steel connectors and accents fit in with the polished concrete floors and steel-railed mezzanine. Like other top SF restaurants, it looks great.

The order-at-the counter style adds a bit of casual-ness to your lunch (though they are also open for dinner, and brunch on the weekends), and the paper menu has lots of tasty things to choose from. The list itself is nothing particularly fancy: soups, salads, pizzas, and sandwiches; but the execution is key.

Inside Ironside

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Review: B

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Atmosphere: 3/5  ♦  Service: 3/5  ♦  Food Quality: 2/5  ♦  Value: 3/5Times Visited: One  ♦ Will I Return?: Unlikely.

No, my keyboard did not break one letter into writing the title of this post. The proprietors of B Restaurant in Oakland apparently decided their time could be better spent on things other than coming up with an extravagant name for their establishment.

Bar and transom windows at B

B boasts floor to ceiling transom windows which give the space a modern open feeling. You can enjoy the view from the windows while sitting at the contemporary bar that serves a full range of cocktails…. 

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