Not only were we seated in a crummy little side section from the “main” dining room, there was some kind of hole in the ceiling that allowed a cold breeze of 22 degree air to hit my head during the whole duration of our dining experience. Even worse, my complaints were ignored. Blatantly ignored. We were told we could not be moved because all (eight) of the tables in the main dining room were taken. Even though the waitress said she would talk to the owner about a solution for the cold breeze hitting our table directly, she never told us what the owner said. Instead, she came back to the table and said “aside from the breeze are you enjoying everything?” The answer was a big NO. I could not enjoy the food because every bone in my body was frozen. So we had to eat our meal in this ridiculously deplorable condition. I have never eaten a meal in such severe discomfort in my life. Needless to say, we left without dessert.

I have never had to deal with a restaurant being too cold before. I know that the restaurant will argue that they are trying to save money by cutting back on heating. Understandably, everyone is trying to save money during these economic times. But, to cut back money on supplying a basic need? Not smart. As a frugal diner, I am also trying to save my money. But, when I do have the money or save enough money to go to a $$$ restaurant, I’m not going to choose a restaurant that does not supply sufficient heat or has a staff and proprietor that is not concerned with their patron’s comfort. If you want to be a great restaurant, you take care of your customers. Funky Lil Kitchen is not a great restaurant because they do not take care of their customers.

Hello! It’s been such a long time since I’ve written anything. I didn’t plan on writing anything over break, but then this hot mess happened. I can’t NOT write about it.

For my brother’s 29th birthday we went to Canal Street Pub & Restaurant in Reading, Pennsylvania. I’ve been there a few times and thought it was decent. However, we went this evening and it sucked. A lot.

Problems:

1. Upon entering the restaurant we waited 5 minutes for a hostess to finally come to the front to seat people. The place wasn’t busy. The bartender didn’t make an effort to help us. We just stood there at the empty tables waiting… and waiting…. and waiting.

2. After we were finally seated in the restaurant, the hostess only gave us dinner menus. With the word “Pub” in the name of the restaurant and it being notorious for a great beer selection, a reasonable person would think that at least one copy of the beer menu would be given to the table with the food menus.

3. We waited…and waited… and waited… almost 10 minutes for the ONLY waitress serving the 6 full tables in the dining room. Seriously. Understaffed.

4. When the waitress did appear, she asked if we wanted anything to drink. We told her we did not get the beer menu, so we didn’t really know. She came back and handed us a list of the draft beer and new  bottled beer. There were highlighted marks on the sheet, but she didn’t explain what that meant, if anything at all. Also, even though we asked for the beer menu, she did not give us the official complete beer list. Or a wine list for that matter. How do you expect to sell beer if you don’t give the patrons a complete beer menu? One can only it is because the bar does not actually have the beer that it lists.

5. The place was freezing. We asked if the heat could be turned on. Our waitress said that she would fix it. Nothing happened. She lied to us. She didn’t turn the heat up or on for that matter. In fact, it got colder as the night progressed. This is probably what bothered me the most. My whole table was uncomfortable. I had to put on my winter jacket. Eating dinner in a parka is not enjoyable.

6. The waitress didn’t tell us the specials for the day. We had to ask her after she had come to the table and asked us if we were ready to order.

7. There was a 20 minute gap between dinner salads and entrees. When the waitress has to apologize for slow service there is a problem.

8. My table tried to order beer, but the two different beers we selected from the menu were both unavailable.

9. The waitress improperly cleared a plate in which a knife fell to the floor, splashing food onto the table and almost onto my clothes. The waitress showed no concern about the consequences of this action and didn’t even clean up the mess she had made on the table.

I understand why people would like this restaurant and would try to defend it saying that my family went on the wrong night. But, there should NEVER be a wrong night. The owner needs to hire more staff and turn on the heat. In the end, I don’t care about it because I’m never going back.

After a long walk in the botanical gardens, my friend and I walked down Haight and found Magnolia Pub and Brewery. It was a godsend that hydrated our souls (dehydrated our bodies) and lifted our spirits. Delicious homemade cask conditioned ales brewed in the basement of their Pub! Total drinkability.

Blue Bell Bitter

Gallows Hills Porter

Magnolia Pub and Brewery
1398 Haight St
San Francisco, CA 94117-2909
(415) 864-7468‎

I was able to experience my first Southern Indian food! At Udupi Palace, a restaurant named after the city in South India notorious for the vegetarian cuisine, I ordered the Channa Batura. The channa part is the spicy chick pea curry and the batura (sometimes spelled different, like bhatoora) is a puffy fried yogurt bread. The bread was soft, chewy, sour and paired perfectly with the heat from the curried beans. Win.

Udupi Palace
1007 Valencia St
San Francisco, CA 94110-2405
(415) 970-8000

Bi-Rite Creamery is:

• the ice cream shop to the amazing Bi-Rite Market
• organic and local ingredients
• cups and spoons are biodegradable
• tastes done with silver spoons
• made of Strauss Family Dairy
• rarely more than 5 ingredients (nothing artificial)
• daily changing, creative flavors
• delicious

Clockwise from top left: Vanilla Lavender (honey and lavender freshly gathered from nearby Mint Hill), Salted Caramel, Coffee Toffee (made with local Ritual coffee beans), and Creme Fraiche. All were outstanding, but I fell in love with the Creme Fraiche. Yum.

Bi-Rite Creamery
3692 18th St, San Francisco, CA‎
(415) 626-5600‎

Although completely unplanned, my first morning meal in San Francisco was in China Town at my friend’s favorite Dim Sum restaurant, Dol Ho. Unfortunately, I don’t know Dim Sum well. But, I do know that I did enjoy this Dim Sum.

Having spent a good hour traveling, I was ravenously hungry. So I didn’t really write down the names of everything we had at our table. I know we had a lot of shrimp dishes though. My table did agree that the vegetable dumpling was the best.

Below on this dish is a fried shrimp ball (left) and some sort of eggplant shrimp cheese delightfulness. I love eggplant, period. So to add two other great ingredients: cheese and shrimp. It’s a trifecta of perfect.

Dol Ho
808 Pacific Ave
(at Stockton St)
San Francisco, CA 94133
(415) 392-2828

A spice that is used in both savory and sweet dishes results into a warm, inviting, subtly spicy, and nicely sweet ice cream flavor. Yum. Check out their many other unique flavors too! Like Saffron, Rose, Falooda, and Kesar Pista.

Bombay Ice Creamery
552 Valencia St
(between 16th St & 17th St)
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 861-3995

The first restaurant my friend and I ate at was the Salvadorian Mexican restaurant, Panchitas (No. 2). I have only had Salvadorian a few times before in my life, but this little gem reminded me that I should have it more often.

Of course, Salvadorian Suprema Beer. A pale lager. Delicious!

Pupusa De Chicharron Con Queso (Pupusa with pork meat and cheese) AND Pupusa De Queso Y Loroco (Cheese pupusa). Mmm… pupusas. Cheese and just about anything is good in my book.

Platanos Con Crema (Plantain with cream). This was my favorite! I could eat this everyday. Yummy!

Yuca Con Chicharron (Yucca root with pork meat) - Mmmm, yucca root! I prefer them over potatoes.

Panchitas No. 2
3091 16th Street
San Francisco 94110
(415) 431-4232

Matzo Ball Soup - Simple and delicious. It came with oyster crackers.

Chicken Chow Salad - I love this salad. Romaine lettuce, grilled chicken, grilled vegetables, feta cheese, avocado, cucumbers, and tomatoes. I could eat this everyday.

Coconut Ice Cream Ball - Vanilla ice cream rolled in toasted coconut served with chocolate syrup on the side. I never enjoyed coconut until recently, but it is as if a whole new world of delicious combination possibilities has opened up. Usually when I “share” with my boyfriend, he takes a bite and puts his utensil down. This was not the case, but instead turned into a barbaric spoon scooping war. Seriously. Chocolate syrup was shed. On the table, on the plate, on the floor, and on the face. Everywhere.

Blue Plate
1415 Montana Ave
Santa Monica, CA 90403-1711
(310) 260-8877