Dinings Around Town

Last weekend I was going to a show at the Bill Graham Auditorium by the Civic Center. We were looking for a place nearby in Hayes Valley to eat and tried to get into Absinthe, which of course was all filled up. We ended up headed to a place across the street which none of us had ever heard of but ended up exceeding expectations. The place I speak of is Dobbs Ferry. The place is surprisingly large, which you can't tell from the outside. It was a Saturday night in a hopping neighborhood and we only had to wait 5 minutes for a table. The inside is very clean, with white as the main color, complemented with rich wooden tones. There's a good Birch brand art piece in the front room and a glass encased mini-Birch forest in another one of the rooms. The food is American, with a slight Italian influence, and a focus on seasonal Bay Area offerings. I got the mussels and clams, which is listed under the appetizer and is available in two sizes. I got the smaller of the sizes and it was more then enough for dinner. The "frites" are actually fried pizza crust bread sticks, which were flaky wonderful goodness. The rest of the table's portions were equally as large. A friend ordered the prime rib special and it was the largest piece of prime rib I've ever seen. I also ordered a side of the brussel sprouts, which were sauteed in chili flakes, giving them a delightful spiciness.

Last week I also tried out Parallel 37, which is the newish restaurant in the Ritz-Carlton in Nob Hill. You have to enter the restaurant by first going through the lobby, so you are fully aware by the time you get seated that this is going to be a decadent dining experience. It's named for the geographical latitude passing under the Napa/Sonoma wine region. Based off this, you know they're going to have a good wine list. The list is so huge that each table is actually handed an iPad, where you can browse the bottle selection by varietal or region. Let's just say I've never seen a $16,000 bottle of wine on a menu. Their cocktail list is pretty fun too. I lean toward vodka when it comes to liquor (that's the Eastern European in me), so I got the Vaudeville Punch (vodka, dimmi, caviar lime and rose lemonade). It was refreshing and not too floral. Our table tries a variety of the appetizers to start, including the crab cakes, polenta fries, bat scallops, kampachi sashimi and shortrib ravioli. While everything was good, the crab cakes stood out as a favorite for most people at the table. For my entree I ordered the Sonoma duck breast, which was cooked a perfect medium rare and very tender. So would I recommend this restuarant? Yes, if you are prepared to spend at least $100 per person. I think it would be very hard to escape for under that.

Last weekend was a friend's birthday, so we had a girl's night out in the Mission, which started at the Morac Restaurant & Lounge on 16th Street. Morac serves Middle Eastern food, with strong Mediterranean and Indian influence. We started out with some hummus, yogurt sauce and baba ganoush plates. They came with regular pita, plus these delicious fried pita chips. For dinner I got the grilled prawn fattoush salad. Fattoush is a Arabic bread salad, mixing lettuce, chopped vegetables, Middle Eastern spices and fried pita chips. I'm usually a big fan (get the fattoush salad at Blue Barn on Chestnut) but this one was far too heavy on this red spice I couldn't identify. It was spicy, it just made everything chalky in texture. However, the lounge and bar areas had a great vibe and I had a blueberry champagne cocktail which was superb. I would go there again to drink, but probably not to eat.