In true Mama-Craig style, we wondered out into the streets of San Francisco with no dinner reservations. But thanks to a little bit of prior research I knew a few places I wanted to try. We headed up to
Sons & Daughters and the only time we could be sat was at 10:30. Our stomachs were already growling and we were not interested in waiting. I asked the host if he could recommend any other great places to eat, he suggested
Bouche, a small french restaurant about a half of block down the street.
We read the menu outside, and this looked like a great place to try. It was a cute little place with an open kitchen surrounded by a bar for watching the cook in action and then up a stair way was additional seating at tables. We requested a table upstairs. Once we were sat at the table my mother glanced at the menu suggested, "let's order one of everything!". That sounded like a lot of fun, but way too much food so we decided on three apps and three entrees and a cheese plate to start. Oh yes, and of course we ordered wine!
So here is what we ordered!
3 glasses of wine. Honestly, we had no idea what we ordered, we were not familiar with any of the French wines available on the wine list, so we asked the waiter to select 3 favorite reds. He brought us 3 and place one in front of each of us. We took a sip of each and strangely, we all liked the original one he gave us. Sorry I didn't write down the wine selections.
Cheese plate:
The cheese plate came with 3 different types, a goat cheese covered in rosemary, goat milk cheese, and a cows milk blue cheese. My favorite the goat cheese with rosemary, I love goat cheese!
Appetizers (listed from the top on the right):
Confit Duck salad with beets and walnuts. This was a shredded duck meat with a mayonnaise like sauce binding it together on a salad of mixed greens, beets, and walnuts. Great salad, but I must say I was expecting something else from Confit Duck.
Brown Butter sauteed carrots. These were delicious and intriguing. We smelled these while they cooked them and the brown butter aroma rose to the top level where our table was. There wasn't only brown buttered carrots, there were also thinly sliced vinegar marinated carrots. When you took a bite of both together, it was quite an experience, burst of sour from the vinegar, quickly then altered by the sweet savoriness of the brown butter. We enjoyed them so much we almost ordered another.
We also ordered the calamari, but it wasn't our favorite.
Entrees:
Herb Crusted Halibut (Top left). This was a light flaky piece of mild fish. I am not a big butter bean fan (one of the sides) so this wasn't my pick, but my mom loved it.
Filet Mignon with asparagus and mashed potatoes (Bottom left). The beef was cooked perfectly, exactly medium rare the way I like it. The mashed potatoes were to die for!!! They we silky smooth, creamy, buttery, and just right!!! This was my second favorite!
Marinated Salmon, Poached Egg and Creme Fraiche. This was my dinner selection and I could not be happier. The salmon was raw, which was a pleasant surprise. Once you cut through the edible hay, was a nicely poached egg and creamy yolk. The yolk spread through the creme fraiche, then I took each piece of salmon, gathered the crunchy 'hay' and dipped in the egg-creme mix...ummm yes, it was a truly wonderful and delicious experience (see picture 4).
This was such a great find. We had an amazing time through out the whole dinner and watching the chef through the railings. This place hasn't received much publicity on the big review sites, so it is easy to get a table, and you also get amazing service.
After dinner, we decided we needed a walk before dessert. So we wondered around for as long as we could bare the freezing cold breeze, and then headed back to our hotel. After yelping dessert within 2 blocks we decided on
Ame, in the St. Regis Hotel across the street. Because we were only having dessert they sat us in the lounge which was filled with comfy couches and classy adults enjoying a cocktail. I was tempted by the World's Greatest Martini for $125.00, but I think my real craving was really for dessert.
We ordered a flourless chocolate cake with Prune Armagnac Ice Cream and Armagnac soaked prunes. This may have been a little to prune-y for me, but I did think the cake was perfect. We also ordered the 24 Hour Apple Almond Tart with Almond Milk Ice Cream and Apple Balsamic Rosemary syrup. This is the dessert that helped us make our final decision on Ame. This was delicious. Almond flavoring is so light, but adds delicious comforting flavor, to a classic apple tart. Don't worry, nothing was left behind, we even ate the prunes!
We had such a great girls night out with more than enough AMAZING food and great laughs (thanks to Andrew) which was just what I wanted. Sorry this one is long, but I had so much to share!
Sarah
