A couple of reviews from my trip so far.

Monday night went to Limon for dinner. I'm from Peru so I always try to hit a Peruvian restaurant when in SF. Had the leche de Tigre (like a small ceviche), grilled octopus, and tres leches.

The leche de Tigre was very spicy but exactly how a ceviche tastes back home, so kudos to Limon for that. The grilled octopus was good, not outstanding. I got the tres leches dessert to go and it was a bit of a disappointment, I had better. But overall limon is solid Peruvian fare.

No idea how to insert photos in the right order, so I'll break my reviews in different posts.

Tuesday night had dinner at True Laurel. Overall good but didn't really blow me away. It also annoyed me that their cocktail list had pretty much no identifiable ingredients, nor a description of what they were. Felt like they were trying too hard to make drinks seem overly exotic.

I ordered the Pratatat, which was a pretty good sour cocktail. Then had the broiled oysters, which had a very good pesto taste, which was interesting. Then had the Patty melt which was very salty and nothing to write home about. They had a very extensive Amari list so I ordered a blood orange Amaro, very good.

The highlight of the meal was the fig leaf ice cream. A great combination of sweet and vegetable flavors. Overall it was a good meal, but I wasn't overly impressed.

Tonight I'm at Wursthall in San Mateo, will write a review later.

The town square is really nice and IIRC bigger than most wine country towns. Wider selection of nightlife and restaurants than many places I've stayed (Guerneville pops to mind, nice place but kinda sleepy) and not as pretentious as a lot of others (Napa).

Anybody have a good happy hour first date spot in FiDi/SoMa areas? I mostly avoid drinking dates so looking for somewhere half decent that won't be packed.

Ibav,

I generally like decent restaurant bars for that. Often a little more chill than a typical bar scene.

Or a hotel bar. The Palace has a great bar.

Hey EDF--

I'm a member at Kosta Browne and they send me invites to these dinners with big Bay Area chefs a lot. This is a little more than I wanna spend on dinner, plus I'm overseas currently. However I know a lot of you are into fine dining so I figured I'd throw it up to the group, let me know if interested.

No discussion of Korean food ITT! Y'all got any spots?

Jin Mi in the tenderloin. Been there many times. My Korean coworker always wanted to go so I suppose it was pretty authentic. Cheap too.

Dan,

Brothers and various other kbbq places in the Richmond are solid, but not as good as South Bay or NYC kbbq.

Foxsister in the mission is pretty good and a fun place.

Cheers!

I gave Hashiri a whirl last week. Tuesday-Thursday they offer a "discounted" menu of $175. Of course, it came to $300 after a glass of sake, hand roll, sparking water, tip blah blah blah.

I called the day of, and was a very easy res to get. Thought it was clearly the best I had in SF. My only gripe was they didn't adjust the pacing at all. I was eating myself at the bar, and would have preferred they sped it up rather than two hours and change. Still, definitely will go back (but not alone!) and thought it was great and mostly led up to the hype. Top places in LA/Vegas/NYC I think strictly better imo

Curious, where in Vegas did you like better? I liked Hashiri much more than Kabuto, though it's close if you take value into account.

I go to those places for nigiri mostly... and I think Kabuto just does it great. I love that I can go in and just crush 15 pieces of Nigiri with oysters and sashimi.

For cooked dishes I also prefer yui (they have insane wagyu beef). I think you can make the case that Kame Omakase is the best in town, in but it's in the "Cavier with Gold Flakes" sort of way.

Any recommendations for a barber around FiDi with an eye for detail? Been to The District Barbers a couple times and haven't been impressed for the price. A simple cut with a straight razor cleanup around the neck and ears is all I'm looking for.

I went to Fellow Barber up on Market and was satisfied. I got the card of a girl who cut my hair there and just kept going back. Idk if that’s the kind of place you’re looking for

Church Barber and Apothecary was a very solid shave, but it's ~10 minutes from FIDI.

Where's everyone watching football this year?

IMO Big Rec is currently holding the crown of best sports bar in SF. They are the sister bar of Crafty Fox, and as such they have a pretty great draft list. It's small, but they have lots of TVs and will put on whatever game you want.

Closer to home, I like Mad Dog in the Fog (where I opted to go today) and Danny Coyle's. Neither is close to Big Rec in terms of beer quality, though Mad Dog has a big bottle selection and you can usually find something interesting there.

Toronado has 1 TV so it's pretty solid for night games. I'll probably watch the Steelers there tonight.

Joe,

In SOMA:

Trademark is pretty good, though beer selection sucks and drinks aren’t very good either. Hmmmm when I put it that way maybe it isn’t that great. But good TV setup and solid food.

Tabletop has two rooms of great TV setups and a giant space but it’s simply a terrible bar in every aspect. But if you need a place for a really big group, it’s an option.

Chieftain is my favorite SOMA bar to watch sports but their TV setup is not that great. Man this is really not a great sounding list.

Tempest is a great bar and if they are showing what you want to watch it’s great but otherwise you’re out of luck.

Stef’s is a sports bar. That’s really all I have to say about it.

I guess your best bet in SOMA is prob near the ballpark. Polo grounds, Pedro’s, Petes, public house. Odd they all start with P. All big with solid TV situations, though Public House is the only one I really like.

Wow what a terrible list!

Thanks for the list El D (even if it's a little ambivalent)!

Steff's is the only place on your list I've been to and it is really something. Their food menu is one of a kind; I assume that their entire kitchen consists of 2 microwaves.

By the way El D if you're sticking to Soma, I might consider giving Coin Op some business. Solid draft list, decent amount of TVs, though I kinda forget how good the sightlines are and it might be a tough place to watch multiple games at the same time.

Anyone have a particularly good experience getting scuba certified in SF? Gonna give it a go next month in Hawaii and want to get the boring school parts out of the way here.

Joe,

Golden gate tap room is awesome for football. Great TV set up, awesome beer selection, good football food.

Coin op is a good bar, but not a good place for sports imo.

Pedro’s and Pete’s from my recent SOMA list both just shut down btw.

Thanks! I haven't been to GGTR in about 2 years, and I had the incorrect memory that their tap list sucked. I'll be back soon!

Agreed, GGTR is a good choice. Beer and food are really great.

Back in SOMA I like local tap, and it's where I usually end up after a Giants game because it's close by but not swarmed.

Curious if y'all think Benu is in the same class as French Laundry or Meadowwood. Snagged a reservation 6 weeks out, but deciding whether the overnight Napa trip is just a way stronger option.