Blowfish Sushi to Die For

2170 Byrant St * San Francisco, CA

Ed took me here for a celebratory dinner to congratulate me on passing my exam. We got here early, which was good, because apparently our reservations was not found in their system. It's an unassuming place in a not-so-great neighborhood. (I've come to the conclusion that all the good restaurants are in not-so-great neighborhoods) The atmosphere was definitely different for a japanese restaurant.

It was a fairly quick meal, I think we were done in under half hour? Overall, the food was at par. A little pricey for the amount of food. quality was good. However, I still have my preferred sushi places.


Seabass Broiled sea bass in a sweet vinegrette soy sauce with zuchinni-squash medley, mashed yams, and string beans

The photo was not that great, but the food was pretty good. though the portions were not great. the fish was cooked to a good temperature. i enjoyed the sauce that they used to glaze the sea bass. The zuchinni squash "cake" (see photo below) was pretty well done, interestingly it had some cheese to bind it together. The other sides were nothing special



Sashimi Baby Hamachi and Tuna
Isn't it interesting how when you take the photo from this again it doesn't look as appealing. It rubs me the wrong way when I look at a picture taken from this angle. The fish was fresh, portions were small. I don't mind thin and small cut fish, but a few more slices wouldn't have been a bad thing...


Miso Soup with LOTS and LOTS of green onions

Overall, this place was interesting with good food. Unfortunately, it did not meet my high expectations.

Paws: 3

EastCoast WestCoast Family BBQ

A few weeks back, my cousin Felicia invited us all over to her apartment for an EastCoast WestCoast family bbq. We had family in town from both sides of the States, hence the name.

She marinated some meat, fired up the grill and we started chowing down.


Food on the Grill
Here's just a snipbit of the food that we had that day. Some drumsticks, hot dogs, carne asada..


Seasonings
Some grill side seasonings


ChauMian yes, i put chauMian instead of ChowMien bc i'm mandarin speaking.
The noodles were made for my grandma who isn't so keen on the bbq meats


Grandma!
Speaking of grandma, she was so happy and proud of my cousin. no one had ever had my cousin's "cooking" up until this day :)


Strawberries
Some fresh strawberries that one of the aunties brought




Alchie
And of course, no meal with my family is complete without some alcohol involved..We had our assortment of wines. there was one can of beer, that no one touched.


It was a fun time. great sunny afternoon. got to meet some new extended family members. Also got to see this little one again.

Ella's Restaurant

500 Presidio Ave * San Francisco, CA

We had been eyeing this breakfast joint for a while. decided that we would go on a breakfast date. Unfortunately, they only serve brunch on weekends, so the menu was not quite what we were hoping for. The food was pretty good. The restaurant was packed with people. We were able to get an upfront view of the chefs preparing all the food that went into our dishes and other dishes as well.


Chicken Hash
Shredded chicken mixed with potatoes and spices. two eggs. toast

We both ordered the Chicken Hash, only difference was how we had the eggs cooked. I found that the hash needed something extra to kind of give it alittle life. for me that was tabasco and some ketchup. The hash had some good size strips of rotesserie chicken with nice chunks of seasoned boiled potatoes. The jam that they had at the table was quite delicious and went perfectly with the toast.

We both had leftovers of the hash, it doesn't look that big but the potato fills you up. It was quite tasty when we reheated it.

paws: 3.5

SFO Marriott

1800 Old Bayshore Highway * Burlingame, CA

So, after a week of training and meetings at the SFO Marriott, i decided to talk about the food per a suggestion from my co-worker. The photos are not going to be great b/c they were taken on by phone, but they'll have to do.

I only captured two meals, but overall, the food was pretty good for hotel catered to 150+ people. the only exception would be the sandwiches, they could have been a bit more interesting. each day was a diff't theme buffet for lunch; breakfast was consistently your typical continental; the one night we had dinner was a pretty good variety...

Italian-Themed Lunch
On the second day, there was an Italian themed lunch with tomato/mozerrela salad, pasta, roasted veggies...


papa al pomodoro soup
creamy tomato based soup with a wheat ciabatta roll

This was a highlight of the week. well seasoned. good consistency. a friend of mine said "I'd totally pay $41 for another bowl of soup."



cappuccino bandecake
Cappuccino mousse on chocolate cake

This was interesting...from the picture it doesn't look very appetizing. even as we were trying this it didn't look appetizing. but it was surprisingly decent. the mousse was a pretty strong espresso taste. i liked the consistency of the cake.

Asian-Themed Lunch

Paul's Gourmet Chinese Plate
Chicken Potstickers, Veggie Eggroll, beef with peppers in a black bean sauce, Jasmine Rice, Lychee from Asian Fruit Salad

As the meals were all setup buffet style, Paul's plate was able to showcase almost all of the items served that day for lunch. The potstickers tasted like linglings from costco to me, the skin was alittle bit too hard| eggrolls were pretty good. however based on talking to others, it seems like they may have been inconsistent. some found it to be too salty, while others did not | black bean beef was also alittle inconsistent in terms of the degree of cooked-ness of the meat. however, i thought for a catered event and the amount of food in each tray, there was a consistent flavor and the bell peppers were good | Jasmine rice is rice, nothing special |the asian fruit salad was interesting, it had lychee, pineapple, melon, strawberry in a mint marinade.


Overall, I thought the food was better than some of the other hotel-banquet/catered events I had been to...though still not the best food I've ever had...

(if you were there, i would love to hear your feedback..on the food)

paws: 3

Good & Bad News

see updates in posts below

Bad news first...
I'm still waiting on photos to complete my review of the restaurants in limbo...

GOOD news!
i received a suggestion on putting ratings to the reviews. so I will now be tagging a rating of 1-5 paws to each review. 3 paws will equal meeting my expectations.
Ratings can be seen at: Restaurants Reviewed