My new plan is that during the week I'm going to save money. I'm bringing my lunch to work every day and eat in for dinner. Of course there's rationale behind this, that because I'm saving all this money, on the weekends I'm now allowed to splurge and treat myself to absolutely amazing dinners. This weekend I ate two absolutely delicious dinners and two restaurants I definitely would be fine going back to.
Friday night I went with a friend to Absinthe Brasserie & Bar in the Hayes Valley neighborhood. This more upscale establishment offers traditional and modern spins on flavors from Southern France and Italy. The interior has a very French feel, with a lot of prints from the art nouveau period, leafy large ferns and red undertones. The bar, per the name, features cocktails made with absinthe that have a fun 1920s retro feel. I actually tried one without absinthe (perhaps too nervous about seeing the green fairy), the citron lemonade. It was crisp and refreshing, strong but not overwhelmingly tasting like liquor. The dinner menu offers snacks, soups, salads, a raw bar, domestic and imported cheeses, share plates and entrees. I'm on a huge oyster kick right now, so we ordered a couple of the Beau Soleil oysters. I'm still new to my love of oysters, so I'm not going to pretend I'm a connoisseur or can tell the difference between oysters from various regions. These oysters from New Brunswick were perfect sized and easy to such out of the shell. They were served with a peppercorn mignonette sauce, which had a spicy kick that mignonette sauces usually lack, providing additional flavor. For dinner I was a little bit difficult but it all worked out. I wanted the bistro filet but I'm trying to eat low carb, so while the cabbage-onion whipped potatoes sounded amazing, they definitely do not fit with the diet. The pork rib eye dinner had delicious sounding sides that included braised red cabbage and jalapeno-cheddar grits (not low carb but better for you than mashed potatoes), so the chef allowed us to get steaks with the pork rib eye sides substituted. I'm so glad we did this because I got my steak fix and the cabbage was braised to well and the grits were full of flavor. The menu is a little pricy but there are some options to come in a little cheaper. I got the bistro filet, which was $10 cheaper that the filet mignon and still was quite tender. All in all, an amazing dinner at a restaurant I would be fine revisiting.
Saturday night I went with a friend to Luna Park, on Valencia in the Mission. This place is so much fun. It's a trendier feel and they serve creative, whimsical food. They describe their interior as "kitschy flea-market chic," which pretty much sums it up. There's a bar area near the front, featuring fun tiki style drinks, complete with umbrellas and little plastic animals. While I had the sangria later, which was great, I started out with the Pisco Punch, which ended up being syrupy with a weird cinnamon after-taste that I unfortunately was just not a fan of. The dinner menu is fairly reasonably priced and we opted for the three course price fixed option for $33. For my appetizer I got the grilled artichoke with lemon aioli. I think this may be a matter of preference, but while it was soft near the inside, the outer leaves lacked that crispy char that something truly grilled would have. For my entree I had the grilled "Rocky Jr." half chicken, with roasted butternut squash and brussel sprouts. I can't resist a dish with brussel sprouts. The chicken did have that crispy grilled skin and smokey flavor on the outside, while being tender and moist on the inside. Now it's time for the best part of the meal, the dessert. I totally killed my low carb diet with this, but it was completely worth it. We saw a lot of tables around us getting the much touted "make your own s'mores" desserts, which looks really fun and kitschy. However, I've done this kind of dessert (yes Minnesota readers, good ol' Chino Latino) and while its fun to do, its not actually that tasty. Real s'mores over the fire pit are much better. I got the chocolate chip bread budding, which was possibly the best bread pudding I've ever had (although in strong contention with the giant brick of bread pudding you get at Rose Anglais in Chicago), somehow tasting like warm bread pudding while also tasting like chocolate chip cookie dough (it comes drizzled with chocolate and topped with vanilla ice cream, which I promptly scraped off and gave to my friend). My friend got the coconut creme pie, where the slice looks like a fifth of the whole pie, so I got to try a bit of that as well and it was quite wonderful. I would definitely come back to Luna Park, even if it was just to get that amazing bread pudding....
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