When you’re on vacation, it’s pretty easy to find out where the hip new restaurants are. You can pick up a local magazine, search restaurant review sites online, or just drive through a trendy neighborhood and watch for the overly-done-up-in-a-casual-way twentysomethings waiting outside the door.
But where do the real people eat? On a recent trip to California, we relied upon the advice of locals to send us places we would never have stumbled onto by ourselves. In San Francisco, the destination of so many pilgrimages, and a town where restaurants pop up on every corner, like tulips in the spring—and just like spring tulips aren’t very long lasting—it’s hard to keep track of restaurant openings even if you live there.
We started out by requesting a Chinese restaurant located in the nation’s largest Chinatown. Sure, it’s touristy, but plenty of locals eat there too. Grant is the main tourist street, but just a block over, away from most of the tourist shops, are a myriad of authentic places, both cheaper and homier than what is geared to the tourist trade.
We were sent two blocks off the main drag, and I’m not sure if that means the R&G Lounge (631 Kearny Street, 415-982-7877) was twice as authentic, but there were plenty of Asian diners, speaking other languages, and they seemed quite happy. Don’t be put off by the name. The R&G Lounge is not a bar, but a restaurant—two actually. Upstairs, you’ll find a more formal and extravagant setting geared towards mostly foreign businessmen on expense accounts. Go downstairs, and you’ll find a sprawling, noisy, bright multi roomed space, and a hostess waiting for you, since the front desk on the main level calls ahead as you descend the stairs. No time is wasted, as you are promptly seated, given tea, menus, and give your hasty order to hurried servers, who nonetheless take the time and patience needed to assist less savvy diners.
Pictures on the menu help, but diners will also find familiar dishes, like Kung Pao Chicken, Mu Shu Pork, and Mongolian Beef. But, go ahead, and be more adventurous. Our server steered us clear of too fried, slender eggrolls in favor of a minced, light Chinese Chicken Salad, and then on to the Diced Chinese Winter Melon Soup. A clear broth, the soup was filled with pieces of winter melon, shrimp, scallops, pork, crab, and dried scallops.
We were curious about so many of the entrees, from Prawns with Scrambled Eggs to Sya Sauce Duck Tongue and Ox Tail Stew in a Clay Pot, but opted for a lighter and healthier selection of Tender Greens in Supreme Broth, although the topping of shredded Virginia Ham was a tasty and guilty surprise. Roasted Chicken was an entire bird, roasted whole, and served with a sweet barbecue dipping sauce.
The next night, we wanted something more familiar, and more gay. Squat & Gobble (3600 16th Street, right at Market and Noe, 415-552-2125) was the immediate recommendation. While the restaurant’s name may conjure up an assortment of unappetizing images, the Castro neighborhood restaurant is really a comfortable hangout for a quick lunch or dinner, with plenty of healthy options. Atkins Diet fanatics can find an all-day selection of omelettes and other egg and meat dishes, like Huevos Rancheros, Eggs Benedict, and an oversized Croissant Sandwich, filled with scrambled eggs, ham, and cheddar, and served up with plenty of potatoes. The salad offerings include a caesar, Baby Spinach Salad with candied walnuts, Gorgonzola, and Poppy Seed Dressing, and an Oriental Chicken Salad, which mixes together bean sprouts, romaine lettuce, carrots, green onions, cilantro, peanuts, crispy noodles, and a sesame dressing.
If you crave a sandwich, your choices are mostly familiar, such as Tuna Salad, Turkey and Provolone, and Chicken Salad, but you can also find Roasted Eggplant with red peppers, mozzarella cheese, and pesto, served on focaccia, and even a Grilled Salmon Sandwich, topped with Dill Weed Aioli, baby spinach, and tomato. The best part of any meal is dessert, and the Squat & Gobble specializes in crepes. While you can order a savory crepe for your entree, with fillings ranging from Hawaiian (cheddar, onion, pineapple, ham, sweet and sour sauce) to Mediterranean (cheddar, onions, pesto, eggplant, red peppers, feta, olives, artichokes, tomatoes, pine nuts), dessert crepes are where it’s at.
Try Nutella Chocolate, Fresh Strawberry, Almond Peach, or Strawberry Blintz (ricotta and cottage cheese, strawberry preserves, orange zest, sour cream, strawberry sauce). Best of all, the highest-priced dessert crepe is $5.50, comes with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream, and has a boatload of calories that don’t count, because you’re on vacation.
Night number three was a challenge. We asked to be sent to a Chinatown destination that wouldn’t tempt us with anything familiar.
The Pot Sticker (150 Waverly Place, 415-397-9985) was that place. Sure, the name sounded awfully familiar, but as soon as we found the desolate two-block-long street that had only a closed barbershop with a cat in the window for competition, we knew we were in for a unique dinner.
While our server didn’t speak great English, she was able to assist with the selection of several dim sum offerings. We had to have pot stickers, so we opted for Pork and Vegetable. Eight plump, pan-fried greasy good treats later, we knew we’d ordered too much.
Nevertheless, we slogged through doughy Barbeque Steam Buns, Green Onion Pancakes (a flat dough stuffed with an omelet), and sticky, slimy Rice Balls filled with a super sweet spoonful of black sesame paste. No Chow Mein for us.