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Haha, that filet mignon Rossini seems like it'll be too expensive for us. Sounds delicious though!
I'll make sure to get the mushrooms. And I just love good cheesecake, so I think I'm getting some of that. Thanks again for the recommendations.
So I thought I'd provide a trip report of Harris' Restaurant for you guys. My friends Jim, Corey, Casey, and I went out to eat and then went to the IMAX in San Francisco.
Overall, my friends and I were satisfied with Harris'. We weren't blown away, but the food was pretty good.
We got there and the valets promptly opened the doors for us and took our car - no wasting time to find parking.
We were seated right away since we had a reservation, and got the menus quickly, but we had to wait a while before our drink orders were taken. A note on the drinks: I'm a big fan of real lemonade (especially strawberry lemonade) and since I'm not 21 and thus couldn't get an alcoholic drink, I decided to get a lemonade. I flat out asked them if it was real lemonade and not the fake Minute-Maid crap, and our waitress said "yes, it's real." We got our drinks (and not right away, either) and IT WAS THE FAKE MINUTE-MAID STUFF. WTF??? Our waitress lost big points for that.
The bread they gave us was nothing amazing. It was good warm, but once it cooled, became too crunchy. The servers quickly brought out more bread when we ate ours, so that was good. We all ordered salads but they forgot Jim's (they later brought it out without us reminding them, but this was after they had cleared our salads).
We got the fried mushrooms appetizer, per El Diablo's suggestion, and we all thought it was fantastic. They served it hot and fresh, and the dipping sauce complimented the mushrooms very well.
They food, once we ordered, came fairly quickly. I think we all agree that the food was delicious. Jim got the 49er cut, as did Corey, and Casey got the filet mignon. I got the surf and turf (filet mignon and Maine lobster). They were really big cuts of meat, which was nice, and the entrees included steamed vegetables and potatos (mashed or baked). My filet mignon was perfectly cooked, and very juicy and tender, although the flavor wasn't as bold as I might have liked. Corey thought his 49er cut was very juicy and flavorful, and definitely enjoyed it. Casey thought much the same of his filet mignon. All in all, the steaks were very good. They met or exceeded expectations.
My lobster was very good and pretty big, although nothing incredible. It came in the shell, although they cracked the tail open for you. I'd have preferred to have it cracked for me, but whatever.
As for dessert, they didn't have any cheesecake (El D said the cheesecake was good, so I was looking forward to that... wtf?) so we shared a chocolate timbale. Pretty small serving, and I wasn't blown away by it, but it was very good. Very rich and the rhubarb sauce was delicious.
Overall, we all thought the food was great. The service was quite another matter though. Our waitress was slow and didn't really seem to care about us. I expected much better from Harris' so I'm going to attribute that to a bad waitress and the fact that we are college kids, so maybe they thought we wouldn't tip and served accordingly. I was fully prepared to tip well, though, so her loss.
The busboys, water fillers, and other servers were outstanding though. Our waters were kept full, but the filler never interrupted our meal. He stealthily came around and did his job well. The bread guy kept our table stocked with bread, and the busboys cleared our plates quickly and kept the table cloth crumb free. Corey and Casey, who are both Asian, were disappointed to see that almost all of the busboys and water fillers were Asian, and none of the waiters and waitresses were. Overall, the service was good, but because the waitress did such a poor job, we cut the tip a little bit.
Overall, I think we were satisfied with where we went. Excellent food, but the waitress definitely hurt the experience. My total came to 110 before tax (85 for surf and turf, 10 for salad, 7 for drink, 3 for share of appetizer, 8 for dessert), Jim, Casey, and Corey were all ~70 each. About what we expected to pay, so that was good.
After the dinner, we went and saw 300 on IMAX, which was absolutely amazing... all in all, a great night.