It’s small. No seating inside. You can see that there’s an outside-facing coffee window (for order pickup). There’s a little seating area out front with a couple of picnic tables and benches.

Here’s the inside. We arrived at the perfect time because there was no one in line and no one behind us which allowed me to take these photos, yay! Well, I still was like, whatever, it’s just another hipster coffee shop with pastries and subway tiles, meeeh…

They serve De la Paz coffee.

…I started reading the pastry signs. OMG. WTH kind of place is this?!! This is NO ORDINARY bakery.

Some options included:

• Bostock with almond frangipani (not sure what this is but it sounds good)
• Chocolate Claw
• Pistachio Blackberry Twice-baked Croissant (whaaaaat)
• Ginger Pull-apart
• Butter Croissant
• Coffee Spice Cake
• Hazelnut Brown Butter Cake
• Ham and Cheese Morning bun (almost got this one)
• Everything Croissant
• Mushroom Tart
• Veggie Tart (veg and goat cheese)
• Sauerkraut smoked cheddar peppadew tart

I was emotionally taken by the diversity of these offerings and naturally chose the  more obscure one – the SAUERKRAUT TART. OMFG. Really?! Sauerkraut in a pastry?! This cannot be…

Here’s the beautiful creation on a plate, still inside, just after I paid.  You an see some pepper bits peeking out and cheese baked in the dough, and it’s sprinkled on top with sesame seeds.

Here’s a shot taken from the coffee window while I was waiting for my latte.

Very nice latte foam art!

We got a spot at one of the picnic tables. Here’s the tart again. It is so beautiful and intricately made, I really appreciate the attention to detail. Definitely makes it worth every cent of $3.50.

The first bite was mostly just pastry, didn’t reach the sauerkraut yet. The outside was crispy, flakey and buttery with a hint of cheese and a little tiny essence of the sesame seeds.  The inside was softer than the outside, and I could tell it was going to be great. At this point I couldn’t tell if the sauerkraut was going to be mixed in the dough or the actual filling…

But then it happened (see below). The inside is sauerkraut. It’s definitely tangy sauerkraut, but for some really weird reason it goes perfectly with the outside.

I was very impressed by these fancy pastries and decided to buy an assortment to take to my friend’s baby shower.

Here’s one of everything they got in one box!

The everything croissant looks soooo good…. will have to try that next time.

If you’ve reached the end of this post, congrats! I hope you visit

Neighbor Bakehouse next time you’re in the Dogpatch neighborhood of San Francisco, it is unique, freaking awesome, and I can’t wait to go back!

Have you been there? What’s your favorite thing?

Neighbor Bakehouse
2343 3rd Street Suite 100, San Francisco, CA 94107
www.neighborsf.com

The post Neighbor Bakehouse: Sauerkraut Smoked Cheddar Peppadew Tart appeared first on Fryhole.

Here’s the outside… there are chairs and tables where you can sit outside on the sidewalk or inside the gate by the door.

View from upstairs…

My latte! The latte’s here are always good, hot and foam is nice and velvety.

I forgot to take a photo of the upstairs, but there is a large area upstairs with tables and sofas where you can sit and drink your coffee or work on your laptop. There’s a bar area that overlooks the downstairs with stools and the row of tables along the wall are laptop-free for certain hours in the day, so look at the little table sign before you sit down.

That’s about it. I’ve been coming to Coffee Bar for years now and it never disappoints!

Coffee Bar 1890 Bryant St, San Francisco, CA 94010

The post Coffee Bar SF: Latte appeared first on Fryhole.

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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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…

The post Miller’s East Coast Deli appeared first on Fryhole.

Inside you’ll find an ice cream counter to the right and and desserts straight a head full of pies and cakes. I couldn’t decide what to get so I went for something totally different and ordered an affogato.

See all the old nostalgic toys in the back on the shelves and on the wall? They’re all for sale if you’re looking for some fun vintage goodies.

Cool old rocket gumball machine.

A fun pony!

Here’s my affogato. It was really tasty. We sat in a really cute little booth against the wall which I forgot to take photo of.

If I lived in this neighborhood I could see myself hanging out at this place regularly. It was nice, simple, colorful, not pretentious at all and had really friendly employees. I even got a chance to chat with the owner (whose shirt matched the green walls perfectly) about pizza and eating in general.  Really nice guy!! (Hi if you’re reading this)

Toy Boat Dessert Cafe
401 Clement St
San Francisco, CA 94118

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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

The post Swan Oyster Depot – Seafood Cocktail and Clam Chowder appeared first on Fryhole.

I love the garlic bread, it’s soooo good…

Here’s the spaghetti and meatballs. The sauce is the thick and tangy kind, not overly spiced. The meatballs are LARGE and provide just the perfect amount of meat for the dish.  You don’t feel like scrappin the spaghetti because there’s no meatball left.  These balls are big.

This place is good if you have a strong hankering for basic spaghetti and meatballs.

The post Emmy’s Spaghetti Shack – Spaghetti and Meatballs appeared first on Fryhole.

Here’s the outside… very cute, retro.

When you walk in, this bar area is straight and to the back. You’ll see it against the back wall.

It was after lunchtime when we arrived so the place was empty. We sat down at the bar in the back and had the place to ourselves.

Like any good shake purist, we decided to try the Orange-Sicle and a I got a good ol’ root beer float.

The orange-sicle is “Fresh orange juice, tangerine and vanilla extracts, cream, turbinado syrup, citric acid, soda”. Everything is made by hand, step by step, the old-fashioned way. The girl making our drinks was wearing a white paper hat. There were small bottles of liquids that were used in some of the drinks, just a drop or two. Never saw anything like this before.

Ahhhh the Orange-Sicle. Light and frothy, creamy and citrus-y.  Very good.  I know it’s probably extremely offensive to compare this creation to an Orange Julius, but I can’t help myself… it was really good, and had that lightness like an orange julius (sorry).

Here she is toasting the marshmallow that goes on my root beer float. Cool!

Overall, the root beer float was really good, and the toasted marshmallow really was an extra special touch! The only thing I would change is make it slightly more carbonated. I’m weird when it comes to flat-esque sodas. But it was great and I would love to go back and have another one!

I must admit, I grew up in Pennsylvania drinking Stewart’s Root Beer and also sometimes Boylan’s and A-Treat… we used to go to Stewart’s Drive-In in New Jersey.  Root beer, birch beer and sarsaparilla are a big deal in PA.. kind of spoiled in the root beer department.

The post Ice Cream Bar appeared first on Fryhole.

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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I love bubble tea! The “bubble” is the chewy tapioca balls that are in the drink, sometimes places call them “pearls” or “boba”. They usually come in small or large size. I prefer the large size because it’s more fun to drink with the huge straw.

My ultimate favorite bubble tea is the almond milk tea with tapioca. Instead of regular milk (obviously), they use almond milk, their concoction of powder (not sure what it is) that gets mixed in and the tapioca balls. It’s kind of sweet and nutty and is kind of gritty.. I think it’s from the tapioca.

Anyway, this is one of my favorite “snack” drinks. It’s loaded with sugar and it’s NOT HEALTHY, even though I got the almond milk flavor haha.

Quickly has a huge menu of tea flavors – you can even get it regular or frozen.

Quickly
709 Larkin Street
San Francisco, CA 94109

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