Tag: Asian

Is the $100 pho worth it at Sunset’s new Gao Viet Kitchen?

by  on  in The Latest

Since 2018, Gao Viet Kitchen & Bar has been a San Mateo Vietnamese favorite with long waitlists, no reservations and a 90-minute table limit during peak times. It’s also home to arguably the most expensive bowl of pho: $100 Phozilla with the cheeky menu tagline of “Nobody should spend this much $$ on any bowl of pho.” Chef Viet Nguyen opened a San Francisco location in the Sunset District in December 2022, and I went in to see if their extensive menu was legit beyond the social media-worthy, $100 pho. Read more →

Staycation Palo Alto: A Spanish-Themed Hotel & Two Newer Restaurants

by  on  in Around the Bay

From recent staycations in the Silicon Valley town of Sunnyvale to the coast in Half Moon Bay, for 21 years I’ve researched and written of hotels, food and drink across the Peninsula. The Bay Area’s “south Bay” is yet another rich and diverse county in our wonderland of NorCal food.

My 10 Time Out dining recommends in Palo Alto still stand — as does a totally different getaway off the 101 freeway in Palo Alto, Four Seasons Silicon Valley. But here are three key newcomers in dining and a boutique hotel worth a local getaway. Read more →

Boundary-Pushing Asian Food at Two Newcomers: Taiwanese-Inspired Piglet & Co. & Chinese-Venezuelan Cantoo

by  on  in The Latest

This week, I share experiences at two newcomers playing with the boundaries of Asian cuisine. One is a pop-up turned hip, new Mission district restaurant hidden behind a graffitied wall, Bruce Lee films on two TVs above the bar, striking paintings of birds. The other is a fluorescent-lit, Tenderloin spot, half underground, roomy but utilitarian in design. The former just opened early January 2023, the other two days before Christmas 2022. They are dissimilar in most ways but for their surprising interplay of Asian cuisines. Read more →

Tenderheart: Chef & Bar Masters Work Their Magic at The New Line Hotel SF

by  on  in The Latest

The LINE Hotel is an uber-hip line of boutique hotels only in LA, DC, Austin and San Francisco, with the latest sleek LINE Hotel SF opened August 2022 on Market and Turk Streets next to the Warfield. The good news for food and drink lovers is that the hotel also houses restaurants overseen by talented chef Joe Hou and bar master and beverage consultant Danny Louie, who I’ve written about for a good decade, with his unique and oh-so-SF cocktail artistry. Read more →

Vietnamese Food Haven (with Cocktails) at Bodega

by  on  in The Latest

San Francisco’s Tenderloin has long been a key neighborhood for Vietnamese food, its western blocks dubbed Little Saigon. Head out to the entire half of the city that includes the Richmond, Sunset and Parkside districts and you have an array of Vietnamese restaurants, banh mi shops, pho houses and the like. But there’s nothing quite like new Bodega, from its sleek, modern diner decor to cocktails with Vietnamese food… Read more →

June Eat & Drink Checklist: 5 Standout Newcomers

by  on  in Top Tastes

These five newcomers (or new menus) cover the gamut, from Korean hot pot to Roman-style pizza. Here is what is standing out at each, alongside this month’s full restaurant reviews. And for the kids (and kid in you), hit up brand new Ghirardelli Chocolate Experience Store, tributing Ghirardelli’s 170th anniversary with much more seating options (read: no lines for locals) and chocolate-making viewing, in-house sundaes, ice cream and chocolate drinks (as always, I’ve vetted, visited or ordered from each place reviewed): Read more →

New Modern Korean Bansang Needs Honing But Shows Promise Where It Matters: On the Plate

by  on  in The Latest

Opening a more upscale, untried concept on a block that already holds three Michelin-starred restaurants — State Bird Provisions, The Progress and Avery — is ambitious, to say the least. When it is one that needs tightening up, as brand new Bansang does, it’s even riskier. But in its initial soft opening month of May (opening the tail end of April 2022), Bansang’s promise is all on the plate. Read more →

Tributing Thai Cuisine, Women, Culture & Bold Deliciousness: NARI

by  on  in Top Tastes

Call Pim the Queen of modern Thai food. Named on Esquire’s shortlist of Best New Restaurants in America after opening in 2019, Nari’s chef/owner Pim Techamuanvivit is recently one of five final nominees for Best Chef: California at this year’s upcoming James Beard Awards… Most notably, all five California chef finalists this year are AAPI… two are Thai women. Read more →