When you're on vacation, it's pretty easy to find out where the hip new restaurants are. You
can pick up a local magazine, search restaurant review sites online, or just drive through a
trendy neighborhood and watch for the overly-done-up-in-a-casual-way twentysomethings
waiting outside the door.
But where do the real people eat? On a recent trip to California, we relied upon the advice of
locals to send us places we would never have stumbled onto by ourselves. In San Francisco,
the destination of so many pilgrimages, and a town where restaurants pop up on every
corner, like tulips in the spring—and just like spring tulips aren't very long lasting—it's hard to
keep track of restaurant openings even if you live there.
We started out by requesting a Chinese restaurant located in the nation's largest Chinatown.
Sure, it's touristy, but plenty of locals eat there too. Grant is the main tourist street, but just a
block over, away from most of the tourist shops, are a myriad of authentic places, both
cheaper and homier than what is geared to the tourist trade.
We were sent two blocks off the main drag, and I'm not sure if that means the R&G Lounge
(631 Kearny Street, 415-982-7877) was twice as authentic, but there were plenty of Asian
diners, speaking other languages, and they seemed quite happy. Don't be put off by the name.
The R&G Lounge is not a bar, but a restaurant—two actually. Upstairs, you'll find a more formal
and extravagant setting geared towards mostly foreign businessmen on expense accounts.
Go downstairs, and you'll find a sprawling, noisy, bright multi roomed space, and a hostess
waiting for you, since the front desk on the main level calls ahead as you descend the stairs.
No time is wasted, as you are promptly seated, given tea, menus, and give your hasty order to
hurried servers, who nonetheless take the time and patience needed to assist less savvy
diners.
Pictures on the menu help, but diners will also find familiar dishes, like Kung Pao Chicken, Mu
Shu Pork, and Mongolian Beef. But, go ahead, and be more adventurous. Our server steered
us clear of too fried, slender eggrolls in favor of a minced, light Chinese Chicken Salad, and
then on to the Diced Chinese Winter Melon Soup. A clear broth, the soup was filled with pieces
of winter melon, shrimp, scallops, pork, crab, and dried scallops.
We were curious about so many of the entrees, from Prawns with Scrambled Eggs to Sya
Sauce Duck Tongue and Ox Tail Stew in a Clay Pot, but opted for a lighter and healthier
selection of Tender Greens in Supreme Broth, although the topping of shredded Virginia Ham
was a tasty and guilty surprise. Roasted Chicken was an entire bird, roasted whole, and
served with a sweet barbecue dipping sauce.
The next night, we wanted something more familiar, and more gay. Squat & Gobble (3600 16th
Street, right at Market and Noe, 415-552-2125) was the immediate recommendation. While the
restaurant's name may conjure up an assortment of unappetizing images, the Castro
neighborhood restaurant is really a comfortable hangout for a quick lunch or dinner, with plenty
of healthy options. Atkins Diet fanatics can find an all-day selection of omelettes and other egg
and meat dishes, like Huevos Rancheros, Eggs Benedict, and an oversized Croissant
Sandwich, filled with scrambled eggs, ham, and cheddar, and served up with plenty of
potatoes. The salad offerings include a caesar, Baby Spinach Salad with candied walnuts,
Gorgonzola, and Poppy Seed Dressing, and an Oriental Chicken Salad, which mixes together
bean sprouts, romaine lettuce, carrots, green onions, cilantro, peanuts, crispy noodles, and a
sesame dressing.
If you crave a sandwich, your choices are mostly familiar, such as Tuna Salad, Turkey and
Provolone, and Chicken Salad, but you can also find Roasted Eggplant with red peppers,
mozzarella cheese, and pesto, served on focaccia, and even a Grilled Salmon Sandwich,
topped with Dill Weed Aioli, baby spinach, and tomato. The best part of any meal is dessert,
and the Squat & Gobble specializes in crepes. While you can order a savory crepe for your
entree, with fillings ranging from Hawaiian (cheddar, onion, pineapple, ham, sweet and sour
sauce) to Mediterranean (cheddar, onions, pesto, eggplant, red peppers, feta, olives,
artichokes, tomatoes, pine nuts), dessert crepes are where it's at.
Try Nutella Chocolate, Fresh Strawberry, Almond Peach, or Strawberry Blintz (ricotta and
cottage cheese, strawberry preserves, orange zest, sour cream, strawberry sauce). Best of
all, the highest-priced dessert crepe is $5.50, comes with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream,
and has a boatload of calories that don't count, because you're on vacation.
Night number three was a challenge. We asked to be sent to a Chinatown destination that
wouldn't tempt us with anything familiar.
The Pot Sticker (150 Waverly Place, 415-397-9985) was that place. Sure, the name sounded
awfully familiar, but as soon as we found the desolate two-block-long street that had only a
closed barbershop with a cat in the window for competition, we knew we were in for a
unique dinner.
While our server didn't speak great English, she was able to assist with the selection of
several dim sum offerings. We had to have pot stickers, so we opted for Pork and Vegetable.
Eight plump, pan-fried greasy good treats later, we knew we'd ordered too much.
Nevertheless, we slogged through doughy Barbeque Steam Buns, Green Onion Pancakes (a
flat dough stuffed with an omelet), and sticky, slimy Rice Balls filled with a super sweet
spoonful of black sesame paste. No Chow Mein for us.