To make a long story short, I ended up at The Four Seasons for drinks with Lisa and Cathy. We started with a Hanzell chardonnay (each of them) and a Gruner Veltliner from Austria (me).I tell ya, The Four Seasons is one classy joint. The bar is gorgeous in a civilized, warm, formal, old world way. It has modern touches like amazing abstract art and simple furniture that keeps it from being overly opulent, but it's swank. It's somewhere you'd be comfortable taking your old white mustached grandfather (if you have one), but would also be a great choice for meeting your first date before dinner. Every bar customer gets a tray of kalamata olives and wasabi peanuts. The kalamata olives were appropriately low in sourness, and the wasabi peanuts were simply the best I've had--ever.
After our wines, we started sharing cocktails. The one above was a lemongrass cocktail. Good, but things only got better (and, as usual, my photography got better as the evening progressed):
A Strawberry Field: Absolut Vodka infused with fresh and dried strawberries, strawberry puree, and rose champagne. Delightful, especially because we got strawberries and a glass of whipped cream on the side. But no, not done. Below is our favorite drink of the evening:
I can't even remember what this was called. Anyone? All I know is it had grapes and Inniskillin ice wine and was absolutely phenomenal. Subtle grape flavor, just enough sweetness. Perfect, especially with a small plate of very sweet partially frozen grapes. Our only (very small) disappointment of the evening was not getting a drink in an adorable pink cup with different sized polka dots on it. The glasses here are all hand blown by a local artist. Unfortunately, someone else decided what drink he wanted before we did and we suffered by being denied the pleasure of drinking out of as many different glasses as possible. Still, we had a great time eating wasasbi peanuts and olives for four hours. The bartenders were sweeties once they loosened up a bit. A few funky things happened around us, but I'm going to choose to ignore them in favor of remembering tonight in a perfect light. Cathy and I headed to Lahore Karahi afterwards. Why? Because halfway home, we got hungry. This should not surprise anyone. We headed to Lahore Karahi, which I've been wanting to try ever since I saw it posted on bunrab.com.
A+ for service. Our waiter, Malek, was a dream come true. He was soooo nice, friendly, warm, and funny. He was absolutely thrilled that two little Asian girls came into his restaurant late at night, knew that the tandoori fish was their most famous item, and wanted to know what he would suggest as his second favorite dish. He suggested the prawn tikka masala, and was visibly giddy when we said we wanted the dish to be "as spicy as you'd eat it."
As if his friendliness weren't enough, Malek brought out a plate of deep fried potatoes, compliments of the chef. As soon as that plate of potato perfection hit the table, he won us over hearts and souls. This was perhaps my favorite thing of the evening. Perfectly fried, crispy, thin skin with warm, soft potato filling. The potatoes were subtely spiced, with a bit of a kick but mostly just mellow homey goodness.
The prawns were definitely the opposite of mellow. Drenched in a creamy, rich, spicy tikka masala sauce, the dish included several huge prawns. It was great with the rice.
Tandoori fish is what the good folks at bunrab.com rave about at Lahore Karahi. While this sea bass was nice, I didn't enjoy as much as the prawns or potatoes. It was smokey and moist, I just don't like the texture of seabass that's been grilled. I much prefer a steamed sea bass. But I could see why people love this; it's probably the best tandoori fish I've ever had. And since I recall the bunrab.com folks saying that fish tandoori wasn't always on the menu, and it was printed on the regular menu tonight, I assume it's so popular that they've made it a point to always have it.A day of nothing but great company, food, service, at both the fanciest and diviest places in SF. Who could ask for anything more? This sign we saw was pure bonus:
8 comments:
First off, missy, you are very mean girls for having gone off for more tasty treats without me!!! hrmph!
Second, DAMN! those wasabi peanuts are good! Once in awhile you'll get one w/ the wasabi motherload! Almost cleared my cold.
Cocktails: each and every one rocked but the Innskillin-vodka-grape thingy was the star.
Loved the first bartender, the one who looks like he should be named "Jimmy Rizzo" not so much.
Can't believe you didn't mention Eura, Hung Ky well-covered.
And last, I forgot that your fried chicken was in my purse. Still safe?
Jimmy Rizzo was the one who let our pink glass slip away. We do not like him (scowl).
In our weak defense, we fully intended to head straight home and go to bed like good little girls until we hit Jones Street and the smells of the Tandoorloin pulled us towards O'Farrell and Leavenworth. We were powerless to resist the lure of the 'loin.
Hm, chicken overnight in a purse? I'm going to say the jury's out on that one.
The chicken's fine. Don't waste food!
When will this world of bars with fancy drinks be open to me??? Kuai dian!!
And Pegs! That is a weak defense! Everyone know s that cravings for munchies come immediately after drinking! Even I know that!
Cravings for munchies also attack me when I'm reading your blog.
and uh... overnight chicken sounds a little shady to me.
Well, the chicken was already a couple days old to start. I did try it but it was a bit off so didn't finish it.
Actually, the chicken was fried the night before as a midnight snack, so it was only half a day old and fresh out of the fridge when I entrusted it to your care. Tsk tsk. We should have busted it out at the bar. Heck, they were rolling dirty dishwashing carts by us; it would have helped get our point across, perhaps.
I thought you made it Wed. or Thurs. from your post...
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