So, it was a TUESDAY and I thought I would sneak in a quick lunch at Geta around 1:30pm (assuming the lunch rush was over), but I get there to find a completely full restaurant, people standing outside, and no room at the bar. Whaaaat?!! I had to wait about 10 minutes… since I was alone I grabbed a seat at the sushi bar.

The miso soup at Geta is totally legit. I’ve had a lot of bad miso soup in my day and this soup is freaking awesome. Can’t go wrong with the miso soup here.

I looked up above the sushi bar and saw this… Darn, didn’t try anything on any of those signs.

This is the fish in front of me.

…it’s almost sushi time!

Wahahahaha my favorite roll, the classic shrimp tempura. The only thing I wouldn’t mind leaving out is the lettuce. Since when do they put lettuce in sushi? Weird to me.

Spicy tuna roll, mmmm….

Here’s the outside.

Geta Japanese Restaurant
165 41st St
Oakland, CA 94611

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I really love this place, so much that I was even on the fence about even sharing it. The best thing though is the Tuesday special, $7 cheeseburger and fries! It’s printed on the table tent that sits on each table, otherwise you wouldn’t know about it unless you read…

Here’s the beautiful cheeseburger and fries! The burger is pretty darn big and the fries are crispy crinkle cut.

The french fries are crinkle cut – glorious, crispy, hot and salty. My very favorite kind!

The cheese is cheddar. It comes with a side of mayo.

Here’s a shot of the inside. It’s a real classic place, lots of locals, really laid back and really good food. All of the people who work there are very nice and friendly. I’ve never had anything I don’t like here, will definitely have to Fryhole some more stuff soon (the cheesesteak, the club, the danish meatball sandwich… omg).

The Lighthouse Cafe
12 Tamalpais Drive
Corte Madera, CA 94925

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My friend and I decided to try it out for lunch last weekend, and boy am I glad we did!

Here’s the outside. The Star is on Grand Ave, probably the last exciting thing on the street before it turns residential. Parking can be quite hellish in this neighborhood, just an FYI. You might have to park up the up the big hill on Elmwood (free) if there are no spots on Grand.

This is what it looks like when you walk in… There’s another dining area directly to the right (not pictured), that faces the street.

We started off with the Greek salad. It’s salty and tangy, and big enough to share.

They have roasted Brussels sprouts on the appetizer menu! They come covered in parmesan cheese and sprinkled with bacon.  They’re sooo good (I ate the whole bowl), I’m a huge weirdo for brussels sprouts.

You can order a personal size pizza during lunch hours, so I ordered a personal sized Golden Gate pizza. The Golden Gate features meatballs, ricotta, onions, and fresh mozzarella.

The pizza came out piping hot, plenty of steam. The mozzarella is baked into the crust, then the meatballs are sliced flat underneath the globs of ricotta. The meatball is sliced pretty thin and there’s a meatball slice on each piece of pizza.  The meatball itself is on the denser side. As you can see, the sauce is very thick. The sauce is sweet and savory, and chunky. I probably should have eaten my pizza with a fork and knife, but I picked it up and ate it with my hands (no shame).  The amount of sauce was a little overwhelming so I scraped some of it off… the crust is thick, crispy, sweet, corny and amazing.

Would I return? Definitely.

Have you been to The Star? How did you like it?

The Star on Grand
3425 Grand Ave, Oakland, CA 94610
www.thestarongrand.com

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Like clockwork, I usually order the same thing when I go to this restaurant, and I always have the same reaction (I don’t know what’s wrong with me). I order the chilaquiles verde, because I really like the sauce and I love how they serve scrambled eggs on top, but i can’t stand how soggy they are! I swear I’ve ordered them before and the chips were crunchier, or maybe my particular dish on this particular day sat under a heatlamp for too long, but really, they were very soggy and I could not finish them. This is consistent though, it’s nothing new – they are always like this, so just be warned!

I think in the back of my mind I have an inner ray of hope that they will arrive on the crunchier side, since I really like their regular tortilla chips, but perhaps the authentic way to serve them is soft and floppy? Please, someone tell me so I can manage my expectations and order something else next time I go there!

Above is the menu in all its glory! Below is my dish, as it looks after it arrived at my table.

Very beautiful placement and food styling… love the avocado and the layers. The tortilla chips (should I call them chips or just tortilla triangles?) are tossed in green verde sauce which is tangy and has a spicy bite (not too hot).  The eggs are fluffy and make this dish an awesome breakfast meal.

Oh no, my ultimate soggy nightmare. I can’t even… sorry. I love this place, I really do – they have bomb ass margaritas and drinks, the dinner entrees are fantastic – and this dish is delicious minus the sogginess of the tortillas. So please, for the love of gods, be warned if you order this dish because the tortillas are NOT crunchy and crispy – they are soggy and they will flop on your fork.

If you’re in Berkeley, I highly recommend a trip to Doña Tomás’ sister restaurant, Tacubaya, which is more in the style of a tacqueria. I always appreciate their awwesome crunchy salty homemade tortilla chips!

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Here’s the menu and place setting… you can see they serve a small bowl of fried spiced chickpeas which are very crunchy and tasty.

We started with an appetizer of the Totopos con Chile (tortilla chips, salsa de arbol, cotija cheese, onions, cilantro, crema and lime). The chips are coated in the salsa (which is extremely spicy) – it’s the closest equivalent to nachos meets chilaquiles.  I enjoyed the totopos very much, and couldn’t stop eating them despite being so spicy my eyes were watering and my face was red and hot and my mouth was on fire.

Here are the carnitas! I ordered this dish because it got amazing reviews and I wanted to see what all the hype was about.  As you can see it’s quite a large piece of meat, served with coleslaw and hot sauce.  This is the menu description: Braised pork, orange, bay leaf, milk, cinnamon, beer Cabbage salad, pickled jalapeño and salsa de tomatillo.  The dish is also served with a few hot tortillas.

Here’s a closeup!

The meat is tender and juicy with some charred bits that are super tasty.  I ended up making mini tacos with the meat, tortillas and slaw (“cabbage salad”)… I had to order a second order of tortillas and ate a total of about 5. Yummers!

When the check came they brought little mexican cookies – kind of nutty with powdered sugar on top.

That’s it!  Have you been to Nopalito? What did you think?

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If you haven’t been to Homeroom yet, it is a mac and cheese restaurant. It’s really good and you should definitely go!

Here’s the outside. There’s usually a line, even on really hot days. I’m always surprised because it can be in the 70s and sweltering hot, yet people are still waiting around to stuff their gullets with creamy mac n cheese… I don’t get it, but whatever lol!

I start off with an iced tea. It’s house-brewed and has a floral essence to it… really good.

Ahhhhh the TRAILER MAC, my FAVORITE. Mac and Cheese mixed with hot dogs and topped with a generous handful of potato chips. BEST. In the spirit of my fat kid soul, I usually start inhaling this by the forkful – a few chews, but mostly so good I end up swallowing it whole before the heat wears off. I don’t suggest doing this – if you can, try to slow down and enjoy it.

OMG, the homemade oreo cookie. I don’t usually crave baked goods, but this cookie is too good to be true! It is NOT a cookie for sharing, get one of your own!

Homeroom Oakland
400 40th St
Oakland, CA 94609

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Some background… one night Hav and I were watching tv and we saw a feature on KoJa Kitchen on the Food Network (I think?) about this place… I remember them talking about the rice buns and how they had the molds custom made… and the special hot sauce had a ton of ingredients. The buns were what initially peaked my interest. So we decided to go to the Off the Grid at UN Plaza in SF to check it out. I was so excited… !!

We got there right before lunch time so we just missed the long lines (whew), and as we were looking at their very high tech food truck (they have tv displays with the menu, whoaaa), I saw it….

KAMIKAZE FRIES. OMFG. So I ordered the KoJa combo with the beef koja and the kamikaze fries.

Here it is!! The presentation was amazing (that’s the vegetarian koja on the right… holy crap I couldn’t find a place fast enough to sit down and dig in!!

The Koja sandwich was AWESOME!!! The garlic rice bun was toasty and kind of crispy on the outside but still sticky rice-like on the inside. It was really good and a super unique alternative to traditional buns. The beef was very tender and flavorful! It was so good I ate every last bit.

Now for a truly life changing moment… THE KAMIKAZE FRIES. Let me just say that it has been almost 2 months now since I’ve had these fries and they are still a) on my mind almost daily, and b) have saved me from awkward situations as the topic of many conversation starters. When I’m bored and thinking about what I’d like to be eating at any moment, the kamikaze fries are either 1st or 2nd on my mind.. I’m not kidding.

If you didn’t know, I freaking love french fries. They are my favorite food EVER and it’s been a real challenge out here on the west coast to find a) good fries and b) disco fries of any kind. So hail to the fry gods, lord fry is here!

Take a good look at the fry pic. I know it’s not that good. That’s because I was so eager to eat that I just took a few really fast pics after I received the food from the window (because a long line was forming around me)… When we finally sat down I was too impatient and started eating right away so I messed up my opportunity to take amazing photos… but that’s ok because I know I’ll be back.

Anyway, back to the fries. They are WAFFLE fries and are topped with – or should I say drenched in korean bbq beef (ground up), sour cream, hot sauce, green onion, and probably some other stuff that I can’t remember – but it doesn’t matter because it’s A-MAZING and you’ll be snarfing this little paper tray of fries faster than you can breathe. The waffle fries are perfectly fried and crispy. I don’t know what kind of oil they fry them in but whatever it is, don’t change it!

Basically KoJa Kitchen is the freaking BOMB… you need to go there asap. Holy shiitake! Since experiencing KoJa Kitchen for the first time in Oct, I’ve definitely found myself first in line at 10:50am waiting for fries… need I say more?

KoJa Kitchen travels around the Bay Area – they’re always somewhere different everyday… so follow them on Facebook and Twitter to find out where they will be next!

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Holy shitake this sandwich is simply a gift from the gods… The meat is soooo good, tender, salty, juicy, and they give you a bowl of au jus that is just as salty and awesome… but what really makes this sandwich BOMB is the fact that it is served on a soft onion kaiser roll. What gives?! OMG it’s so hard to find places that serve sandwiches on a kaiser roll let a lone an onion kaiser. Geez! Amazing! If you can’t tell from the photo, the sandwich is LARGE. I eat a lot, but I couldn’t finish this sandwich, not after latkas and french fries.

Here are the latkas (potato pancakes). They were extremely good. Not enough applesauce.

Here are the fries. From the look of them they look good, but when they got to our table they were just luke warm, and they weren’t fried long enough so they were a bit on the soft side… which is definitely a fry turnoff. I ate them anyway.

I can’t wait to go back to Miller’s and try another sandwich. Seriously, I’ve been living in SF for so long and never knew this place existed…

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This time I planned on getting there early enough to get a seat! Swan Oyster Depot opens promptly at 10:30am. We arrived at 9:50am on a Thursday. We were the first people there! So we walked up the street and got a cup of coffee and walked back to the Swan to officially get in line. It was about 10:10am and we were still the first people in line… but not for long.

People began to appear and suddenly the line was about 20 people deep. Apparently this was a “slow morning”.

Here’s a guy setting up the windows. The sun was beating down so he had white paper covering all of the fish until the sun wasn’t so direct.

This shot was taken right after they put all the stools down… 5 minutes before this shot all of the stools were piled up in sets of two against the wall. This is it though, this is the entire restaurant. One main counter with stools. It doesn’t seat many people, hence why there is always a line to get in. It’s awesome, old school, authentic and everything you’d hope a seafood diner would be.

Yay, they finally opened and we took our seats about halfway down the bar, directly in front of the menu on the wall. I ordered what I had the last time I was there – the combination seafood cocktail and a bowl of clam chowder.

There was a huge bowl of oyster crackers every 3 feet or so… we were lucky enough to sit right in front of one! When you sit down you also get a big hunk of bread and butter, but I forgot to take a photo of that…

My view from the bar…

Ahhh the combination seafood cocktail! It’s served in a little sundae dish and it looks small but boy does it pack a big punch. The bottom is filled with lump crab meat, it’s topped with a jumbo shrimp and an oyster. And you get a big dish of cocktail sauce to dip everything into. It’s pretty mild and ice cold which is yum.

The first time I had this clam chowder I remember it being the absolute best clam chowder I’ve ever had. This past time I beg to differ but only because it was slightly luke warm… but I’m going to blame it on the fact that it was 10:30am and we were the first people in line. It was still very good and I ate almost the entire bread chunk they gave us.

What makes this soup so tasty is the fact that the broth is super flavorful and isn’t not super chunky… it’s definitely creamy but on the thinner side which makes dipping bread into it completely OCD and oyster crackers absorb the broth faster.  It’s really, really good.

So, long story short, place is great. Despite all the hype surrounding this place, I still think it’s worth going (if you have time). The seafood is super fresh, nice and cold, and the ambiance brings me right back to the diners of Pennsylvania and New Jersey.  You really don’t find many down home places like this in San Francisco. I love everything about it, except the super long line.

Swan Oyster Depot
1517 Polk St
San Francisco, CA 94109

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The place is literally a window down the middle of Ritch St. which is kind of near the ballpark, off 3rd street. It’s really a hidden gem – unless you know it’s there, you would never go there.

The guy working the window was really nice, and I liked him even more because he was wearing a Phillies hat!

Here’s the window, so cute!

They had a tiny skillet of 1.25″ buttons… I took one of course.

Here’s the menu…

And here’s the little area next to the food window where the hot sauce and other condiments are.

I preferred the honey jalapeno hot sauce on the right… omg so good – sweet and spicy!  So for my meal I ordered the chicken and waffles with 2 pieces of chicken.

OH MY GOD. This is the BEST FRIED CHICKEN IN SAN FRANCISCO.  Actually no, it’s the BEST FRIED CHICKEN IN THE WORLD.  I’ve never had such good fried chicken in my life. The first bite sent me right over the edge… I took a bite of the wing first.  The meat was tender and juicy and the skin was super crispy and thin (no chewy bits, not soggy), it was seasoned absolutely perfectly. Turn on the vacuum, this box of food is ready to get inhaled.

The skin was awesome because it wasn’t oily and greasy like a lot of fried chicken. It was absolutely perfect – thin, not too much breading, the seasoning was flavorful, and I ate it all down to the bone. I usually don’t go so far as to eat every last crumb of breading, but I couldn’t stop myself.  The chicken was really good to dip in the hot sauce, in between bites of waffle (I preferred the green one).

The waffle was also very excellent. It was crispy on the outside and soft and moist on the inside, which was perfect for the syrup, which was absorbed right away after pouring it on. The waffle was savory and filling yet it was not heavy and soggy, even after being covered in syrup. Together with the chicken it was the perfect combination.

There’s not really anywhere to sit and only a 3ft counter to stand at… but there’s a loading dock across the street that people sit on to eat… everything’s to go so you can either sit there or go back to your car or office.

So, the chicken is like a DRUG.  It’s been a day now and I’m still thinking about it… I definitely see myself measuring all future chicken and waffles against the chicken and waffles from Little Skillet… paradise in my mouth! I can’t wait for this chicken to get back in my body, it was that good (holy crap!).

Little Skillet
360 Ritch St
San Francisco, CA 94107
website

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