Outerlands is everything I love in a neighborhood restaurant. The main menu is straightforward -- fresh wholesome food that nourishes and comforts soups, sandwiches and stews.
The heirloom tomato soup was well balanced with a strong tomato flavor and spicy tap at the end. A side of grilled cheese was made with thickly cut pieces of crusty bread, crunchy and perfect for dipping into the soup. We also loved the spicy and soothing ginger cider.
The food is comforting and matches the beautiful interior of reclaimed wood. Enjoying a meal at Outerlands feels like taking relaxing trip to a cabin in Big Sur sipping cider and eating hot soup in front of a fireplace. It is that warm atmosphere and friendly service that makes me wish I lived around the corner.
Tartine for lunch - Three Cheese Tasting Sandwich, Frangipan Tart, Ham and Tomato Croque Monsieur. The three cheese tasting sandwich had Bellwether Farms Jersey Carmody, Straus Cheddar and Idiazabal a truly decadent grilled cheese sandwich on crunchy well charred and pressed walnut bread with enough butter to taste, but not so much as to make it greasy. The tart had currants on it which was a nice sweet tart note to the almond paste.
Frangipan Croissant chock full of sliced almonds and almond paste.
I've had four different pies at Mission Pie: the Strawberry Galette, Giant Berry Galette, Walnut, and Banana Cream. All were good, with the walnut being my favorite. The strawberry is a great combo of sweet and tart with a good crust that is not too buttery and compliments the whole thing very nicely. The walnut is like a pecan pie flavor with the sweet gelatinous layer holding the walnuts to the pie crust. The crust on the walnut tartlette is a little thicker than the galette and works really well against the sweet layer. Banana cream is nice as well. Even though banana is not a fruit I particularly like, I happily finished off a slice. It is very banana tasting and has a nice thin layer of cream on top of the banana custard layer. I'm sure it would be a winner for banana fans. Personally, I think it could use a little crunch to it, perhaps adding some nuts on top -- so that it would have a similar flavor to banana nut ice cream. I wouldn't say that this is great pie, but it's good. Let's face it, SF isn't exactly brimming with pie shops. This shop is unique both for its focus on pie and for its social mission.
After a great run down the Bear Valley Trail, I headed to the Pine Cone Dinerin Point Reyes Station for my reward. The diner is an old school place complete with booths on one side and counter service on the other. The menu is the familiar diner fare, but this is Marin, so of course there were some uppity elements like organic ingredients and high prices. For example, an organic mixed green salad with balsamic blue cheese vinegrette which was an ordinary salad with a very good dressing. The coffee was good and the refills came quickly because I was sitting right there at the counter. The service was a little cold as described on their t-shirts: 'good food, prickly service.' Hmm, seems like an excuse to give bad service which is what I saw other people getting. Good thing I didn't sit outside because those people weren't really getting any service at all. The Housemade Corned Beef Hash hit the spot. Good corned beef in one inch chunks with some potatoes mixed in here and there -- very meaty. I asked for the menu to see if they had a corned beef sanwich too, but they don't which is a shame. The menu also stated that they had daily cobbler and pies etc. When I asked them what the dessert was, the server said all we have is one piece of banana blueberry cobbler left. What about pie? We don't have pie, the only dessert we ever carry is cobbler -- this, despite the sign immediately behind her that says "fresh pie order on Wednesday pick up on Friday". I guess the pie is pre-order only? Anyhow I got the cobbler which was slapped into a bowl straight from the refrigerator, not heated or anything. It wasn't really cobbler, it was more like a bread pudding with blueberries, all soft and mushy. So, I was disappointed by dessert which should be one of the best things at any diner. At least the coffee was good and all of the food being brought out of the kitchen looked good too. Next time: stick with breakfast items, skip dessert or maybe skip the place entirely and get some cheese from Cowgirl Creamery across the street.
