The most amazing restaurant in the Mission!

Last Friday night we had dinner at my new favorite restaurant in San Francisco. My new love is Lolo in the Mission district, located at 3230 22nd Street. The restaurant serves contemporary spins on Latin inspired food. They have wine on tap, sparkling sangria, small plates of amazing food, oh and did I mention WINE ON TAP?? The ambiance is fun, lively and colorful.

Getting to the food (oh the food), for veggies dishes we started with the grilled artichokes, coated in olive oil and Hawaiian black salt, with a mint aioli for dipping. The simple salt seasoning with the grilled flavors was absolutely clean and perfect. The other veggies dish we got was fried brussel sprouts, shallots and hazelnuts in a zinfandel vinaigrette. They were maybe some of the best brussel sprouts I've ever had and I like my brussel sprouts. The whole hazelnuts added a great crunch. On Yelp, everyone raved about the sparkling sangria and the crab tostadas, so of course we had both. The crab tostadas were Chris's favorite part of the meal, with chorizo, leeks, fried dungeness crab, sandia aioli and avocado puree on a crispy shell.We also had the taco tropical, which I think may be my favorite, although it's hard to choose. It consists of panko and spice-dusted shrimp, topped with tropical mango relish and spicy aioli. Instead of a tortilla, it was served on a slice of leek which added the perfect watery crunch. Last but not least we ate the gorditas, blue corn masa pockets filled with braised short ribs, roasted three chile sauce and pickled onions. For dessert we had the apple wontons, drizzled with strawberry sauce and a side of Mexican vanilla ice cream.

Everything is pretty well priced, although with small plates and so many options, it's definitely easy to run up quite a tab. The only downside was that the service wasn't terribly attentive. The people at the bar next to us got this amazing looking dish, so we inquired what it was and found out they had a nightly special that we were never told about. In fact it turned out only one couple in the area near us had been told about the special. Also, it gets pretty busy, so get there early, have a reservation or be prepared to wait. But it is definitely worth the wait...