JAKE'S STEAKS**'

Sometimes I miss the down to earth grittiness of the East coast. Or maybe it's just the greasy mom and pop fast food places I crave?

After a run through the Presidio and Chrissy Field on a gorgeous sunny day, it became clear to me that it was the food that I missed. I headed back to Jake's Steaks. The previous week, I enjoyed a great cheesesteak with American cheese, but was disappointed by the chili on the chili cheese fries. I wanted to go back to try the cheese fries made with Cheese Whiz. To make more room for the fries I opted to go bunless. The cheesesteak salad was good and a large portion, it had as much steak as the sandwich with about two cups worth of salad greens. The cheese fries were outstanding. Plenty of salty cheese coating the crisp waffle fries enough for two people. Next time I'll order the cheese fries as my meal.

PESCE***

A birthday celebration for J at Pesce in Russian Hill. He loves seafood and variety so the small plate style fit perfectly. We were immediately impressed with the warmth of the restaurant's decor and service, a nice long bar dominating the restaurant giving it a cozy neighborhood feel. We started with the Merluzzo Mantecato a grilled buckwheat polenta with cod brandade. The flavor of the salt cod matched well with the grilled polenta and was devoured quickly. The texture of the polenta was stiffened by the grilling and use of buckwheat, but we wished there was less softness and more contrast in texture between the cod and the polenta.



Next came the Polpo a warm octopus, potato and celery antipasta in a garlic vinaigrette. The braised octopus was full of a garlicky briney sea flavor which was also incorporated in the soft potato. The combination of the soft potato the braised octopus, the crunch of the celery and the savory sea flavor made this my favorite dish of the evening.



The Roasted Whole Tai Snapper was fresh and came in a simple tomato based sauce allowing the fish to shine. The fish was filet and deboned at the table which made for a nice presentation. Though dish itself was upstaged by the juicy Merlot braised lamb shank. Our mouths watered as the dark red lamb fall off the bone with the first gentle touch of the fork. I thought the lamb was excellent, but would've like more spice to the sauce. J felt the simple sauce was a good foil to the rich render meat and was the highlight of the meal.



Cioppino and squid ink risotto with grilled calamari were among the other items we sampled. I particularly liked the squid ink risotto which was thick and had a deep squid ink flavor. I understand that the restaurant is related to Antica Trattoria, which was one of my favorites when I lived in nearby. Happy to find that they've applied much of the same qualities to Pesce.

Polk near Green

KOI PALACE***'

Duck Dinner

THAI HOUSE EXPRESS**'

I usually go to Thai House Express on Larkin when I'm in the mood for some good red curry with duck and other Thai standbys. For some reason the Thai House Express on Castro has never won me over. The food is o.k. but, not as good as the one on Larkin or the Thai Chef nearby. This time I gave the Kao Ka Moo "special pork leg stew over rice" a try. The server described it as a Chinese style braised dish. Hmm. As I learned from Kasma, there are several dishes served in Thailand that Chinese immigrants brought to the country. Out came a mouth watering mound of juicy pork fall off your fork tender and flavored with the five spice anise soy sauce base. One taste and I realized it was the familiar base used in Chinese "lu-roe" and "hong sao ro." This one was good, though the five spice was not as strong as I've had at Chinese places. And there was a fish sauce based dipping sauce which had a nice sour flavor to contrast with the buttery pork. Something I'll look forward to ordering again.





Castro at 19th

WEIRD FISH*

Dinner at Weird Fish, with some weird service. After waiting quite a while, we were hoping for a good meal. We started with the fried calamari and Yo-Yo's. The calamari had a typical cornmeal crust and had a good ratio of ring pieces to the tentacle pieces to which I am partial. Yo-Yo's were pickles battered and fried with two dipping sauces, one yogurty cream tasting and one tomato based sauce. The batter was tasty and the pickles were good, we polished them off quickly. Good start.



Fish and chips is a deceptively simple dish to cook and one that Weird Fish claims as a signature dish. We had two servings of this and both came out looking quite brown, as if they were overcooked. In fact, they were perfectly cooked, the batter was crisp and not greasy, the tilapia was tender and moist. The batter had good flavor and I suspect that the dark color was due to the batter mixture rather than over frying. Are these the best? It has been a while since I had the fish and chips at Edinburgh Castle (prepared by the neighboring shop), but I think they were better than this version. The one's at Martin Macks and the Pig and Whistle are greasier than these, but a larger portion due to their use of cod fillets.

Chips-wise, I was disappointed, these chips were greasy and not very crispy. To their credit they were the shape and size of the chips served in England. The sweet potato chips were fine, though nothing special.



The grilled tilapia and the sweet potato taco were fine. The sweet potato was the better of the two tacos and had some seed (sunflower?) that gave it a nice crunch. The rice had cilantro mixed in and the beans were nothing worth noting. Overall it was a middling effort, but o.k. for the price.



The trout dishes were recommended by our server, the cornmeal crusted tilapia was reported to be o.k. though the noodles accompanying it were not to my companion's taste.



After enjoying the batter on the fried pickles, we tried for a strong finish with the fried banana dessert. We were unsuccessful. Between the four of us we were unable to eat even two of the little bananas. They were coated with something that was not batter and the consistency of the banana was actually chalky. The cookie in the middle had no flavor and just tasted of sugar, but the soy ice cream was pretty good.



I appreciate that the prices are reasonable, the menu is vegetarian friendly and that the place has its neighborhood fans. Overall, I was underwhelmed by the preparations. The ingredients seemed good, but the finished dishes unremarkable and even bland. The Yo-Yo's and Sweet Potato Taco were unique and the fried fish was decent. These items are probably not enough to make me return for more, but I'll still have breakfast at Boogaloos its sister restaurant.

A side note about the service, we waited about forty minutes on a weeknight for a four top and we saw no other people waiting before or after us. After watching a party enter and get seated before us, we came in to discover that the servers didn't communicate to each other we had been put on a wait list and were waiting outside. Disorganized service or perhaps our bad luck.

Mission at 18th