Jamba Juice’s website describes this flatbreadas:

A thick and crispy crust topped with BBQ chicken, smokehouse roasted sweet corn, black beans, poblano chilies, red bell peppers, and a combination of mozzarella and cheddar.

First of all, the description does hold true however it’s not really a flatbread… it’s a freakin pizza, freakin A!  And this pizza was pretty much the biggest disappointment of my TGIF.  After I ordered the pizza, I saw the guy go into the back and walk out with a tiny round frozen pizza wrapped in cellophane.  He had to unwrap it before putting it into the oven, which took about 3 minutes to heat up.

A small 7-8″ or so pizza box was handed over to me with a tiny baby pizza inside.  I couldn’t wait to get back to the office to eat it so I set it on top of a huge tree planter outside the Jamba Juice building to take a pic of it before it got slammed it down my fryhole.

I wish I had something in the photo to help show scale.  I think this pizza is only about 6″ round.  It’s pretty tiny, no wonder there are supposedly only 300 calories.

Here’s another pic, closer up.  Sorry the quality is off, iPhone camera to blame (I doctored the pics up a bit before they made it in into the blog tho).

Yeah, so the pizza looks all hot and cooked through however it was hardly lukewarm when I took a bite.  The pizza was gone in about 2 minutes, more or less… since I was freakin starving.  I finished it while walking 1 San Francisco block.  The flavors are all there but the crust is kind of airy and dough-y.  It’s not super flavorful (maybe it’s because it wasn’t too warm) and again the size really threw me off.

For some reason from all the photos of these pizzas, I kind of got into my mind that they were cornmeal crust or something – THEY ARE NOT CORNMEAL CRUST, they just have the shape of most cornmeal crust pizzas (like the ones at Trader Joe’s anyway).

I probably won’t be eating another one of these pizzas in the near future… sorry Smokehouse Chicken Flatbread, I’m still hungry.

74 New Montgomery Street
San Francisco, CA 94105
(415) 597-5546
www.jambajuice.com

The post Jamba Juice: Smokehouse Chicken Flatbread appeared first on Fryhole.

Muffins Muffins is a tiny hole in the wall on 2nd between Mission and Howard.  You have probably walked by it a thousand times… in fact it took me about a year before I went in for the first time (for their fro-yo).  Today I ordered the Vientmase sandwich with chicken.  The woman who works there is friendly and pleasant, and a few people came in and out while I was waiting.  They are CASH ONLY!

Sorry the photo quality is bad today – I used my iPhone for this one.  I would usually wait until I have my nice camera with me but I felt like this sandwich deserved to be Fryhole’d.

This sandwich was excellent!  You can’t tell from the pic but it’s actually a pretty big sandwich.  There is a lot of chicken on it and the chicken is mostly white meat which is nice – the only difference between this sandwich and other vietnamese sandwiches I’ve had is this place added mayo (see it near the top).  I’m not a huge mayo freak but on this sandwich it worked because it was put on sparingly.  The carrots could have been a tad more pickled (or maybe just a little more fish sauce) but overall there was the perfect amount of sweet (sauce on chicken), fresh (mint) and heat (jalapenos).

I’m giving my sandy 4 fries!  The only thing holding it back from 5 fries is as I mentioned, it could’ve been a little pickley-er, and also the bread was a just a toasted soft roll, not french bread as in the traditional vietnamese sandwich (I like my french bread on the softer side tho, not the rock hard stuff).  I probably would’ve skipped the mayo too.

123 2nd Street
(between Minna St & Mission St)
San Francisco, CA 94105
(415) 882-7355

The post Muffins Muffins SF: Vietnamese Sandwich appeared first on Fryhole.

Here you have it! The Portico Meatball Sandwich.  It wasn’t bad!  The bread was soft (just a normal soft roll), and the meatballs were hot and there was alot of cheese inside.  If the sandwich had just a tad more sauce it would’ve been perfect, but overall it was good, and I would probably get it again.

Portico
245 Market St
(between Drumm St & Main St)
San Francisco, CA 94105
(415) 777-9950

The post Portico: Meatball Sandwich appeared first on Fryhole.

Here’s what we ordered this time… I’ll go item by item…

These are Shanghai dumplings.  It’s the house special and they are DEE-LISH to the millionth.  They are little steamed dumplings with a soupy liquidy and kind of meaty center.  Literally soup inside the dumplings.  You need to pick them up very carefully with your chopsticks otherwise you will break them and the liquid will come spilling out.  They are seriously to die for and I could eat like 10 servings of these little babies.  Sometimes I go to Yank Sing just for these dumplings…

These are fried shrimp coated in batter with pieces of green onion in the batter.  They’re really good and it’s pretty incredible how big the shrimp pieces are… I mean, “prawns”.  (I always forget that west coasters call shrimp “prawn”.  It’s weird to me, us Pennsylvanians just call it shrimp).  These are good though – they’re not my favorite but they always end up on the table.

Oooh yum, these are Scallion Rolls.  I usually have to special order these because they don’t really keep them stocked on the rolling carts.  So if you ever go to Yank Sing and don’t see them, just ask for them and they will bring you an order.  These are my 3rd favorite item at Yank Sing… they are phyllo flakey dough filled with a scallion-y kind of spinich-y center and rolled up into those cool donut shapes.  They’re really good and I usually dip them in my special mix of soy sauce and hot peppers that I mix up beforehand… heaven!

These are bacon wrapped shrimp and asparagus.  It’s good but I kind of wish the bacon was a little crispier.  they usually only cook it enough to hold it all together, it’s not crispy, and it’s not thick and smokey like Canadian bacon.  It’s good though…

Next up is my 2nd favorite item at Yank Sing – the sticky rice and bbq pork in a banana leaf.  It’s sooo freaking good and when they give it to you the banana leaf is all wrapped up.  They slice it open when you get it, and all this steam comes out and it’s so hot and yummy…check out the next pic!

Here’s the leaf/rice cut open.  It’s so amazing… the rice is sticky rice, and the center is filled with bbq pork.  I believe it’s the same pork that they put in the steamed pork buns.  This dish is seriously so good though, if not the shanghai dumplings, the sticky rice!

Here’s a mini order of scallion dumplings.  I think there’s shrimp inside too, I can’t remember… but they’re good.  Not super filling though.  I only get these on a whim because they’re not savory like the other good greasy stuff.

Yank Sing has an entire dessert cart.  It’s filled with things like Sesame Balls (above), Jello, pie, cake, sweet buns, etc.  I always end my meal though with an order of Sesame Balls.  They are flled with red bean paste and they come smokin hot.  The server snips them open when you order them and they are sweet and nutty at the same time.  My favorite way to end a yummy dim sum meal!

The only downside to this place is that there are no prices on anything so you dont really know how much you’ve spent until the bill comes… and sometimes it’s a bit shocking (myself and a friend have spent over $100 for the meal).  I usually mentally prepare myself for a big bill before I sit down because some things are more expensive than others.  I think it’s worth it though, especially if it’s your first time eating dim sum (or in my case, my hundreth+).

Yank Sing
101 Spear St
(between Howard St & Mission St)
San Francisco, CA 94105
(415) 957-9300
www.yanksing.com

The post Yank Sing: Dim Sum (yum yum!) appeared first on Fryhole.

I ordered the Meatball Sandwich.  I also arrived at an off-peak lunch hour so there was no line which was nice.  The sandwich was ready in about 5 minutes, during which I had time to pick out a bag of chips and grab a soda.  I will blog about the chips in another entry, as they were 5 fries themself!

Ok so here’s the sandy:

It looks like any old meatball sandwich.  Actually, the meatballs were small, and you could tell there was more bread or filler in the mix than beef (or it was just shredded up ALOT) because the consistency gave the meatballs that softer, “smooth” kind of bite vs. meaty/chunky kind.  Actually, they look frozen, like the cafeteria kind… (they’re probably from costco) – I hope I never find out the truth!

Anyway, I thought the sandwich was amazing.  The combination of the softish meatballs (which were very flavorful btw) with the really good marinara sauce on the toasted soft roll was to die for.  The roll was kind of sweet, and they toasted it just enough so that the outside layer had a little crunch, but soft enough that it was easy to bite into and chew.  The marinara sauce was on the sweeter side and there was the perfect balance of tomato and spices.

Another thing, it’s very rare to find a good sandwich that is heated up so much that the cheese is actually soft enough to ooze out.  This sandwich was perfect and the mozzarella was melted perfectly and strings of cheese did ooze out when I got near the “inside” of the sandwich.  It was awesome. This meatball sandwich was heated perfectly and you could even see the steam waffing out of it up til the last bite.

Overall, this sandwich rocked and I really can’t think of anything that would make it better.  I finished it pretty quickly, as it was so good that I couldn’t resist slowing down for fear it would cool off too much… i didn’t even get around to drinking my soda or eating my chips, it was THAT good.

…this sandy was HISTORY!

Here’s a shot of the cool wall of toasters:

…and lastly a shot from outside.

The Toaster Oven
145 2nd St
San Francisco, CA 94105
(415) 243-0222
www.thetoasteroven.com

The post The Toaster Oven SF: Meatball Sandwich appeared first on Fryhole.

I’m definitely a corn-ie and will rarely refuse anything with corn in it.  The Cream of Corn soup is pureed very finely (there are no whole pieces of corn in it).  They use alot of butter also so it is buttery and corn-y with a smooth n silky texture, yum!  (I actually went to Zebulon two days in a row to get this soup).

The sandwich on the other hand was just good.  Nothing spectacular about it.  My general complaint with most hot sandwiches is that they could be hotter (don’t just toast the bread and broil the cheese down, heat up the meat too, geez!), and this sandwich was no exception.  The sweet potato fries were excellent as usual – sweet, crispy and chock full of yam.  The sweet potato fries are magnet that keeps pulling me back to Zebulon, I could eat them everyday and every night for the rest of my life.

Overall, a good lunch.

Zebulon
83 Natoma Street
(between 2nd St & James Lick Fwy)
San Francisco, CA 94105
(415) 975-5705
www.zebulonsf.com (this place is now closed)

The post Zebulon SF: Soup & Sandwich appeared first on Fryhole.

Overall, it was a good sandwich. Moist, filling and leaving you feeling light and refreshed.  Also, the fries at Ayola are some of my favorite in the city – they are chock full of potato!

This was a good lunch. The fries are so good they keep me comin back for more…

Ayola
118 New Montgomery Street
(between Minna St & Mission St)
San Francisco, CA 94105
(415) 348-0808

The post Ayola: Chicken Shwarma & Fries appeared first on Fryhole.

As you can see, these babies are little greaseballs.  No, that’s not the glare from lights above, it’s shiny griddle grease.  The fries are all fresh cut and Flames only uses Niman Ranch beef (antibiotic free).  The mini burgers came with bbq sauce, bacon, cheddar cheese, an onion ring, and lettuce, tomato and onion.

Now back to the french fries.  As I said before, these are fresh cut.  When I worked in a restaurant back in PA, I learned that you don’t change out the oil in the fryer very often – and that is what gives the fried treats their yummy flavor.  I think Flames changes their oil too much, because the fries (although crispy and chock full of potato) are kind of flavorless.  They taste like potato, but there isn’t anything buttery flavor and the assumed fry-like feeling wasn’t there.  They’re kind of like the fries at In-n-Out… how they taste so fresh cut or something?  Maybe that is my problem… maybe I only like crap fries and haven’t acquired a taste for fresh fries… but I’ve had fresh cut fries before at other places (T-Rex, for example) that were really good, so I think it all goes back to the oil.  Also, the potatoes that they use are small, so almost every french fry has one side that’s full of skin, and I’m not really into that.

…A cross-section of the burger.  It was good, greasy and had just the right amount of bbq sauce and bacon on it.  I usually don’t eat full on hamburgers because they leave you feeling like a big load afterwards, but I was really hungry on this day.

Flames
88 2nd St
(between Jessie St & Mission St)
San Francisco, CA 94105
(415) 896-5084

The post Flames: Western Mini Burgers & Fries appeared first on Fryhole.

So after my disgusting lunch the other day I was still really hungry so I went to So Green, the new frozen yogurt place in the Crocker Galleria.  It’s downstairs on the bottom level across from Tully’s coffee. It’s very clean and modern looking in that plastic kind of way – there are cool blue tile walls and plastic chairs.  There is a large selection of toppings too for the fro yo.

As you can see, this cup of frozen yogurt and raspberries looks very delicious.  And it is.  I think I would’ve enjoyed it more though if it were warmer outside… it was very cold out and cold weather+frozen yogurt is not a good thing.  The frozen yogurt if your’e wondering, actually tastes like regular yogurt from the refrigerated section frozen.  It’s kind of tart, cold and has a weird sweetness to it that is unlike vanilla or other flavors.  You should try it if you haven’t yet… it’s pretty good.

Dessert was good, yummmm.

So Green Yogurt
Crocker Galleria
50 Post St #10, Level 1
San Francisco, CA 94104
(415) 391-7933
www.sogreenyogurt.com

The post So Green: Frozen Yogurt w/Raspberries appeared first on Fryhole.

Yesterday was a really cold day and I was dying to eat something warm and filling so I thought I’d give the Chili Up a shot.  I didn’t really want anything too heavy (like beef) so I opted for the chicken and corn chili, which was really rice and chicken, covered in sauce, covered in cheese, topped with a big handful of chopped red onion, cilantro and a lime.

Mmmm, doesn’t it look good?  Well it doesn’t taste good, that’s for sure.  This was the warmest blandest spoonful of grossness I’ve eaten in ages.  Frankly, it was like putting a spoonful of warm, tasteless mush in your mouth…. no flavor, only the strong pungent-ness of the cilantro and onion.

Five hours after I finished eating this dish I was still burping up onions and tasting them in my mouth.  Gross!  I dont know what was in this “chili” but I will never eat it again!!

Here’s a shot of Crocker Galleria from the top floor.

Lunch: thumbs down!

Chili Up!
50 Post Street
Crocker Galleria
(between Kearny St & Lick Pl)
San Francisco, CA 94104
(415) 693-0467

The post Chili Up! : Chicken Breast ‘n Corn Chili appeared first on Fryhole.