Sunday, July 27, 2008

Food, Walking and More Food

San Francisco: Day 2

One thing we knew we wanted to do before leaving San Francisco was to have Chinese dim sum. If you've never had dim sum before (we hadn't), it's a really fun dining experience. Servers bring around trays of small portions of dumplings of every kind, pork buns, snow-pea shoots, and other yummy offerings while you sip hot tea and try not to gorge on any one type of food for fear you might miss something delicious.

So we got up bright and early on Wednesday morning and enjoyed coffee and a doughnut at a bakery in a nearby hotel, then made our way to a bus stop and caught the MUNI to Geary between 22nd and 23rd, where the guidebook said we could find great dim sum at Ton Kiang. We weren't sure how crowded it would be, or whether we would have to wait in line, but as we were fairly early, we were first in the door! We had our pick of dishes as a result (though the place filled up quickly) and enjoyed pork buns, garlic-sauteed snow pea shoots, shrimp balls (which CoasterGuy said he expected to be really, really tiny - har-de-har-har) and some kind of dumpling that I don't remember at this point. It was (nearly) all very tasty, and we were full to bursting when we finally put aside the chopsticks and told the server "no more, please!".

Our plan for the rest of the day was to spend the better part of the afternoon at Golden Gate Park, and then to go back to the hotel, change for dinner, and enjoy a nice meal followed by drinks at the Top of the Mark.

We ended up walking off the dim sum - a combination of misinformation and poor choices led us to hiking most of the way to Golden Gate park from Ton Kiang and through a good portion of the park while looking for some sort of shuttle or bus stop. Finally, though, we found the Dutch windmill, which was the main thing I wanted to see at the park. The gardens were beautiful, though I wish we could have seen it when the tulips were in bloom.

Near the windmill was the Beach Chalet restaurant, which has some spectacular views of the Pacific from the dining room. Though we were still full from our dim sum excursion, we decided to stop in for some liquid refreshment and to rest our now aching feet.

Once at the bar, however, we just had to try the "best crab cake in San Francisco" with our beverages. It was a fairly tasty crab cake to be sure, but CoasterGuy and I agree that it couldn't hold a candle to the crab cakes at Phillips Seafood in Baltimore. They were generous with their liquor, though - my amaretto sour was at least 80% amaretto, with merely a splash of sweet and sour mix and ice to break it up.

Afterwards, we watched the ocean for a bit, and were surprised to see some surfers on the beach, as chilly as it was.

We decided then to take a bus back to Japantown and kick around the hotel until dinner time. The much-needed downtime was nice!








We made reservations for dinner at John's Grill, the restaurant famous for being mentioned in The Maltese Falcon as a place where Sam Spade ate, and planned for heading to the Top of the Mark for drinks afterwards.

John's Grill was very nice - live jazz in the upstairs dining room, great martinis and good food. CoasterGuy had the cioppino, and I had a ribeye with a baked potato and some steamed veggies. Again, we must have arrived just in time, because the dining room was packed to the gills before we finished dinner.







After dinner, we made our way up to the Mark Hopkins hotel for drinks at the Top of the Mark. It was a foggy night (in San Francisco? Imagine that!), so the view wasn't nearly as spectacular as we'd hoped for, but the atmosphere was very nice nonetheless with live music and great service.

By the time we made it back down the hills to a bus stop (in heels, no less! Well, heels for me - not for CoasterGuy) we were exhausted! I don't feel a bit guilty for having dessert at both John's Grill and the Top of the Mark - we did enough walking that day to make up for it!

Next time: Day 3 - Napa Valley.

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