Ian M.'s Profile

I was going to give First Crush three stars and then I thought "no, I don't think I'd ever come here again".

Their menu is predictable California / Modern American cuisine. They've got all your standard mains, a fillet, a roast chicken, a leg of lamb, vegetarian pasta options, etc. Appetizers are similarly normal.

Everything seemed to be cooked competently, but nothing was actually tasty. I noticed my wife kept adding salt over and over again to try to get some flavor out of her fillet. My lamb in theory had a truffle-based sauce but I think they must have screwed it up.

On top of this, for four of us each having a main course, an appetizer and a glass of wine it was more than $200. Lame.

I've got a friend in town who moved to Israel a year ago and she's been missing Vietnamese food. On our way to her hair cut appointment in the Castro we noticed Zadin. On our way back we decided to try it for dinner.

The decor is cute, the staff are friendly and efficient and the prices are reasonable. The food is well prepared and beautifully presented.

Zadin bills itself as "Contemporary Vietnamese Cuisine" which is risky territory. Zadin largely manages to be contemporary while not being unauthentic and while remaining purely Vietnamese rather than being French Vietnamese like my dear departed Elephant Bleu.

I had the Imperial Rolls and the Pho Bo. The imperial rolls were stunning. The Pho was solid but not amazing. I spent a few of my college years living in a Vietnamese immigrant neighborhood so my standards are probably too high.

For desert we had their amazing Banana Rolls. Amazing.

Who are these people and what are they doing in my neighborhood? There's the could of fit gay guys next to us, the older couple on the other side. Guys in business shirts everywhere. I guess they came for this hip new restaurant.

And hip it is. They pour my water from a coffee pot, everything is funky orange and gray and the staff are in uniform. And food is pretty tasty. We had the cheese plate, the sashimi, the steak, the mussels and the pot brownie. All solidly executed, but after tip, tax and a drink each (try their japanese belgian beer!) it cost us $90. If it had cost us $60 or if the food had been amazing Spork would have earned 5 stars.

We'll be back, but probably only every couple of months.

I stopped in here for dinner one Sunday night. I'd been in the mood for Vietnamese but all my local Vietnamese places were closed. I had the egg rolls and BBQ duck won ton soup. The service was slow and confused and the food lacked flavor. Nothing I had was bad but nothing was impressive. There are plenty of better restaurants in the cheap-Chinese genre, even in the Mission.

My coworker Koshi dragged us in here with stories of a loud jukebox and amazing food. We only heard the jukebox a for a few seconds but the food was amazing. The service was a little slow, but it was cheap cheap cheap.

I'm sitting at Fiesta right now. And I'm on the frickin' internet!

The machines are well maintained, modern and generally fancy. The staff seem helpful. I love the swipey card system they use - no more Vegas-style cups of quarters. I only wish there was a little more seating. On the other hand, while your ass gets cold sitting on the counter you can sip a cheap cup of hot chocolate.

Do you ever think "I feel like a slice of pie, I think I'll go to my local pie shop." Neither did I, till my coworker told me about Mission Pie.

I went down there on the weekend with my brother who was in town. My brother is a great pie maker. He learned the art from my grandmother and can make a pretty damn amazing pie.

We both got the walnut pie and it was great. Not too sweet it came with freshly whipped cream. Exactly what I want from my local pie shop.

I'm eating vegetarian food this month after reading the reviews praising the fakechickenproduct I was excited to try it out. Last night my girlfriend and I ordered the two fakechickenproduct dishes on the menu, the sweet & sour and the kung pao. The delivery was quick and the portions were generous. The flavor however was only okay. I enjoyed the fakechickenproduct but my sweet and sour was boring. The kung pao was a little more exciting but nothing I could get too excited about. A lot of the most positive reviews mention the sesame fakechickenproduct and either it's not on the menu anymore or it's a secret unlisted item.

I want to try them again, perhaps in the restaurant, when I'm eating meat again. Particularly I'm excited to try their Basil Ostrich and their Dry Sauted Frogs Legs.

They have a wide variety of kitsch Australian souvenirs, the kind of thing you might buy at the airport if you realized at the last minute you owed a nephew a present from your rapidly ending vacation. They've also got a pretty good selection of Australian foods, focusing on the non-perishables like lollies (aka candy), biscuits (aka cookies) and condiments (you already know what that means).

NONE OF THIS IS RELEVANT.

THEY HAVE MEAT PIES!

When I lived in Australia (for 20 of the first 24 years of my life) I didn't think of myself as a big pie eater, but I've found that living in a world without pies is like living in a world a few shades grayer. Every time I go home I end up averaging about a pie a day. When I have a box of pies in my freezer from Australian Products Co I average one every couple of days.

Their pies are made locally and are pretty decent. They're the style that Jesters calls "aussie meat" as opposed to steak pies. They are neither too sketchy nor too gourmet. They're exactly what you'd expect to pick up at your corner deli as you're walking to the beach with some mates.

It's a block from my office so I've been for lunch with my coworkers. Right after we sat down they brought out freshly fried tortilla chips. The lunch specials were cheap and really tasty, there was a good selection of drinks and the staff were friendly and flexible to our growing and shrinking group.

It's now my favorite place to get slightly tipsy in the middle of my work day.