Another wonderful meal at The Progress but that is not newsworthy. I did finally deviate from my State Bird / The Progress rotation and tried Jules on Tuesday night for their Roast Chicken night! WOWSER!!! Pizza was excellent. And roast chicken was wonderful. I wanted to try both so I sat at the communal table (did a walk in at 5:00) and shared with others. Fantastic overall experience. I might start a 10 (State Bird / Progess) rotation to one Jules!
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Im still a sucker for Tadich Grill. It pleases me to sit at the counter and drink a beer over oysters rockefeller and cioppino
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My wife and I had a great trip in SF last week! By far the stand out of the trip was State Bird! That has to be one of our favorite meals in a long time. Itâs such a fun concept, executed so well. We tried just about everything that got passed on the carts, plus the âstate birdâ and a couple other a la carte dishes- no misses. Loved it all.
We also went to Kin Khao, which honestly i was a bit disappointed by. We were at Holy Basil in LA (and I went to Anajak last night) two nights before and Kin Khao just seemed like it was missing a flavor gear comparatively. Everything was well cooked but it just all seemed like it was missing a little something. Could have just been our orders but it didnt seem like stuff that should be subtle.
We spent a day bouncing around the city as well, so we also tried Jane on Larkin, Breadbelly, La Taqueria, El Farolito, Tartine, Devilâs Teeth Baking, and B Patisserie.. Tartine was out of a lot of things when we got there, but the chicken sandwich we got was good. I think my wife and I both preferred La Taqueria to El Farolito, we got three pastries from Breadbelly that were all fantastic, the chocolate chip cookie from b Patisserie was really good. Devilâs Teeth breakfast sandwich was really solid, and the baguette from Jane was great- i brought half of it with me to Yosemite the next day for trail snacks!
Not sure if this is the right thread for this but we also had several meals in Sonoma. El Molino Central blew my mind. Everything we ordered was so well done- you can tell its gonna be good from the fresh masa smell when you walk in. I actually bought some of their pre-made tamales to take with me to Yosemite as well- i have never had a better trail snack when hiking!! Valley was a stand out too. Their current tomato toastâŚ. No notes. So good.
Happy to provide pics if people want!
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El Molino is always a fun stop. I almost always have some of their tamales in the freezer, for dinner in a pinch. The Chicken Mole enchiladas (cold, from the fridge in the order area) are great.
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First mistake was to eat Thai in SF right after LA. The Asian food scene in SoCal is second bar none.
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I bet Shang Cafe, Taishan Cuisine, Boiling Beijing and others would compare to any in SoCal. San Jose has the largest Vietnamese population of any city outside of Vietnam.
You just canât make a blanket statement like that regarding Asian cuisine.
El Farolito is the truth. Will try La Taqueria on next trip home.
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We got the mole tamales(to eat there and to take to Yosemite) and the enchiladas suizas. I couldnât pick a favorite between the two
I would have totally assumed it was just as good in SF, so thats interesting. And considering Kin Khao had a star and seemingly pretty solid reviews from places like Eater and Infatution i was pretty confident. But one stop on a trip i feel like is always a bit of a let down.
We ate them both sitting there at El Farolito, so pretty direct comparison. I think the lack of rice in La Taqueria concentrates the flavors a bit more. But i would imagine sometimes id just be in the mood for the rice too. Regardless, both are great.
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I am definitely nitpicking here but itâs a somewhat misleading statistic. The San Jose total is larger but per capita, Westminster is far higher, with something like 40% Vietnamese residents. Maybe a better statistic is the county population, with Orange County about 100K more than Santa Clara County.
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Next time try Nari, Kin Khaoâs sister restaurant. IMO the cooking is at a level above, and I prefer the menu.
(It has a fantastic riesling program as well!)
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Ok, but the point of my post is the last sentence.
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Good to know! Im sure ill be back because we had so much fun. And because I definitely want to go back to State bird.
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Oh i should mention we also tasted with Chris at Bedrock, who took us out to the middle of Bedrock vineyard to taste. I know everyone here knows Bedrock, but if you havenât gotten to spend time with Chris he is just such a great person to hang out with. I love talking food and wine with him because his knowledge and love of both is so deep and apparent. Seeing the super old vinse at Bedrock was also very cool.
We also spent time with Hardy at Extradimensional, and again, just such a generous and kind person. We had never met in person before but my wife and I spent like almost 3 hours with him on our own, so generous with his information and his time. We really were lucky to have tastings with these two great people making such delicious wines, and get to spend so much time with them and getting to know them as people.
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Yeah. This statement also caught my eye. I guess as an individual city San Jose is the largest but most of my life Iâve heard it repeated that Little Saigon, which I live on the border of, was the largest concentration of ethnic Vietnamese outside of Vietnam. Its just that this part of the state is made up of many small to smallish cities. While the heart of Little Saigon is Westminster, many Vietnamese Americans live in the bordering cities like Garden Grove, Stanton, Fountain Valley and Santa Ana. Westminster itself is only 10 sq miles with a total population of 91k.
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I said this because my fresh of the planesâ assemblage of Asians friend group all agreed that the floor and ceiling of SoCal Asian food are higher than NorCal.
BTW, San Jose Viet food doesnât hold a candle to what we have in OC 
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Too bad about Khin Khao, havenât been last couple of years but loved it last time. Been there several times.
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We went there a few yers ago, it was good but we havenât gone back even though it is across the street from the hotel. Setting in a hotel off a busy corridor wasnât very attractive either. Decent wine list from what I remember.
Agreed. I had meals there that were good, never great, and I donât think of it much as an option despite being convenient to me.
Yeah the wine list is pretty solid. I got a 2010 Hexamer Spatlese there last year for a good price and it was excellent.
I donât rank Kin Khao in my top 10 of SF however I did think my meal there was excellent. Agree the vibe in the hotel is a little odd, but when I went the food was great.
Also re: the Vietnamese food debate, I havenât had a lot of SoCal Viet food but having spent most of my life in the Bay Area, I gotta say, Iâm very happy with our Viet options lol
As it happens, I went to Nari last night. My first time back in probably a year, and it was every bit as good as I remember. Maybe even better.
We had a decent-sized group so were able to order all my favorites â the fried branzino, squid and pork jowl, crispy rice salad (mushroom version), and the eggplant curry. The eggplant curry has been one of my favorite dishes in the city and it hasnât missed a beat. But the star of the show was a new-ish trout curry that I hadnât had before. While both are red-based curries, the diversity of flavors and added heat on the trout made them a great combo. The sole miss for me was the anchovy namprik, which is basically a super concentrated Thai relish that they recommend mixing with rice and serve with chicharrones and crudite. Interesting dish but not totally cohesive⌠maybe I didnât mix it properly? Regardless it wasnât totally cohesive and easily overshadowed by the rest of the menu.
We were also treated to an off-menu special⌠a new spin on Kin Khao wings built around veal sweetbreads. It was unbelievable! As decadent and perfect as you might expect. Unclear if theyâre still in the testing phase or if this is part of the tasting menu (we had ordered a la carte).
I had brought a bottle of Initial and we complimented it with a 2006 Fritz Haag Sonnenuhr Spatlese off the list, which was in great shape and just about perfect with the food.
Really cannot recommend it enough. Their lounge upstairs is also great to pop in w/o a reservation. They serve most of the menu (and probably everything if youâre nice).
Anchovy Namprik
Curries and roti
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