Food: 3 Days in San Francisco

As a long-time Yelp Elite, a question that I’ve often been asked is, “Do you pick your dinner off of Yelp?”

Yes, but no.

I do take the Yelp rating into consideration, but I usually tend to prefer restaurants in the 4 star range.

5-star places are often bland and overrated. Just because a restaurant is popular doesn’t mean that it’s good.

I mean, just look at McDonald’s– they’re super popular, and their food is mostly terrible.

Since I don’t eat out very often, I try to choose my restaurants carefully. I don’t want to waste an opportunity to eat something delicious and unique. Each dining out experience is special to me.

So, when I found a hole in the wall Japanese place in Inner Richmond (San Francisco) with great looking pictures and a solid 4 Star rating on Yelp, I thought, “perfect.”

I ordered a chicken katsu curry, to go. As I was waiting for my food, my mom texted me, “Are you near any of the good Asian places?”

I sent her a picture of my curry, and she responded, “I don’t know what that is, but I’d probably eat it.”

For anyone who is not familiar, Japanese curry is super simple to make. It’s one of the first things I learned how to cook well.

So, if the restaurant’s curry was better than mine, I would automatically be impressed.

Chicken katsu is basically fried chicken that has been pounded out thin, seasoned, and encrusted with panko.

Japanese curry is, essentially, S&B curry in a roux with veggies.

The curry gravy tasted great, but didn’t have as many vegetables as I would like– there were just a few pieces of carrots and potatoes.

They were, at least, large pieces. I noticed that the carrots were cut Rangiri style, which is traditional for Japanese curry.

Volcan’s curry was a little sweeter than I would make myself. I think they may have added something sweet like grated apple, or perhaps a hint of milk chocolate.

The chicken was not heavily seasoned, but was fried to perfection, and tasted very fresh.

I agreed with Yelp’s 4 star score. Maybe not the best curry I’ve ever had in my life, but really good. It was definitely cooked to order, the ingredients were all fresh, and the flavor was complex.

The day before that, I’d stopped by one of my favorite pizzerias in the city: Slice House Haight Ashbury.

Slice House is the biggest and most successful restaurant chain owned by world pizza champ Tony Gemignani.

Haight Ashbury is world famous as a hippie, stoner, rock and roll, counterculture neighborhood. There is a lot of great food on that street.

Having recently tried the brand new Slice House location in Folsom, I wanted to go back to Haight to make sure I liked it better.

I was surprised that they didn’t have any of my favorite pizza: Purple Haze. Instead, I ordered the Sweet Gino without pepperoni.

It was heaven. The crust and sauce were so much better and more nuanced tasting than their Folsom counterparts. The basil and mozzarella were perfect.

This shop was running a special: buy a large pizza, get a free bottle of balsamic vinegar. But, I only wanted one slice.

I couldn’t take any leftovers back with me, because there may have been a rodent living in my vehicle. But I’ll write a separate post about that.

I will also end up writing a separate post about how I’ve been learning to cook at my campsite, which is what I did for dinner that night.

Before I became homeless, I was already a great cook, but I’m just learning about camping. The struggle has been real.

When I get sick of trail food, a bowl of Ramen noodles can sound like a gourmet treat. I’ve recently mastered the task of boiling water outdoors, which has made Ramen more accessible.

I love these Laksa Curry bowls. They’re about $3 each, easy to make, and hard to spoil. The flavor isn’t as good as a restaurant or home cooked meal, but it’s decent.

The next day, once again, I found myself in Inner Richmond. In this case, I did pick a restaurant off of Yelp.

Yelp has a feature called “collections” (formerly known as “lists”) which I use to make lists of places that I want to try in various cities.

This sandwich shop called Lou’s Cafe on Geary had been on my list for some time. I ordered an Amocado (pastrami, salami, and avocado) with everything.

I ate the first half at some nearby outdoor tables, and carried the other half down to the Sutro Baths with me (since I have gallbladder disease, it’s better for me to eat smaller meals more frequently).

The hour or so in my backpack made a significant impact on the sandwich quality. It was still good, but nowhere near as mouthwatering as it had been back on Geary.

Outside of the coffee shop in Inner Richmond, I’d thought that this was one of the most amazing sandwiches I’d ever tasted.

It wasn’t huge, but the price was decent given the quality and the current economy. The flavor was all there.

The Lou’s sauce and pesto were what really made this sandwich better than the rest.

Back at my campsite, after several more hours of hiking, I had another bowl of noodles.

This time, it was the new birria Ramen from Tapatio. These are incredibly salty– which is perfect for a night between long urban hikes.

I tend to expend a lot of electrolytes on my hikes, and I don’t want to become hyponatremic. (For anyone who doesn’t know, being too low on salt can be very dangerous out on the trail.)

Before leaving San Francisco, I googled, “what’s free today in San Francisco?” And was reminded that Japanese Tea Garden admission was free between 9-10am.

So, I stopped by, and decided to try a new kind of tea: genmaicha. I chose this tea because it was described as nutty and sweet, but not too earthy.

I tend to love drinks that are nutty and sweet. I’m certainly not a tea or coffee connoisseur, but pistachio and chestnut drinks are my favorites from Starbucks.

I loved the Genmaicha so much that I considered buying a bag of it, but ultimately didn’t want to take any food to go until I’d dealt with the potential rodent in my car.

After several hours of walking around the Botanical Garden, Tea Garden, and Academy of Sciences, I was famished.

I was laughing at myself for choosing Slice House again.

It’s just so good! And I love comparing the locations.

This slice of pizza was the perfect finale to my weekend.

It was the slice of pizza I always dream about, but rarely find.

The Original Tony’s in North Beach is a hot spot for local Italians. It’s located right next door to Tony’s– which, surprise, is also owned by Gemignani.

I had actually wanted to eat there, but had not realized that reservations are required. Someday, I’ll eat there.

For now, a slice of the Hot Tony from Slice House.

I prayed she would give me a piece with a huge dollop of ricotta. She gave me one with three– although one was sadly lost when it fell to the street.

Out of all of the Slice House locations, this pizza was the best. This pizza made me feel like, “Yes, it does make sense that I just paid eight dollars for a single slice of pizza.”

It’s the same price for a whole Italian pizza at Little Caesars, but Tony’s is worth it.