Another destination checked off the list:
1550 Hyde!
Let's step back for a moment, though. 1550 Hyde isn't what I'd call a destination restaurant. It's very good California cuisine, but it's only one of at least a dozen restaurants in SF that offer seasonal, local cuisine prepared in a way that highlights color, freshness, and delicacy of flavor. Price points, menu items, and ambiance tend to be very similar at all these places. It becomes almost a matter of picking which one is closest to you and has a table available: tonight, that place was 1550 Hyde.
I started with a watermelon salad because I saw another table get it and wanted to eat yellow watermelon for nostalgia's sake. The salad also had purslane and cucumbers in it, and a generous topping of feta. Very nicely done. Compared to my watermelon salad, I'd say it had less acid and more olive oil.
J started with the salmon tartare. Yum! The salmon was cut into rather large pieces for a tartare, which was great because we could taste the fish. There was parsley and just a hint of alcohol in the dish to take the edge off the salmon's fishiness. Arugula and yellow cherry tomatoes were a decorative touch.
J had the Berkshire pork tenderloin, which surprisingly was beaten flat and batter fried in an oregano-heavy breading. He'd been toying with the idea of going to Suppenkuche tonight for schnitzel, so it was the perfect coincidence. If I were being extremely picky I'd say the dead center piece of the pork could have been less cooked, but I'm really grasping for straws with that one. 99% of this was delicious, and the juicy fatty parts near the bone were out of this world.
I had the short ribs in red wine sauce with a gremolata of parsley and lemon rind. That gremolata was a surprise! I couldn't stop picking at it because lemon with beef was so unexpected. Also delicious were the tomatoes, which were warmed just enough that they exploded in my mouth, but not enough so that any tartness had been released. And the polenta had a fresh corn flavor and a lot of whole corn kernels mixed in. Not to detract from the beef, which was fork tender even though it was quite lean, but I think it was the sides on this dish that really stood out. Total bill for both of us was $90 after all was said and done (two appetizers, two entrees, and a glass of red wine). Not cheap, not expensive, just a very typical example of what San Franciscans enjoy eating on any given Friday night.
We hiked up the hill after dinner to check another destination off our list:
Swensen's. It's one of San Francisco's old-time scoop shops. We shared a cone of the chewy chocolate, one of their most popular flavors. I enjoyed it a lot. Deep chocolate flavor with a hint of malt. I think I like their ice cream more than Mitchell's, which is too sugary and uses a lot of fake tasting flavoring. Plus, Swensen's is a veritable bargain at $2.50 for a small scoop in a sugar cone. Thank you to my lovely hand model: it was a great date night!
Let's step back for a moment, though. 1550 Hyde isn't what I'd call a destination restaurant. It's very good California cuisine, but it's only one of at least a dozen restaurants in SF that offer seasonal, local cuisine prepared in a way that highlights color, freshness, and delicacy of flavor. Price points, menu items, and ambiance tend to be very similar at all these places. It becomes almost a matter of picking which one is closest to you and has a table available: tonight, that place was 1550 Hyde.
I started with a watermelon salad because I saw another table get it and wanted to eat yellow watermelon for nostalgia's sake. The salad also had purslane and cucumbers in it, and a generous topping of feta. Very nicely done. Compared to my watermelon salad, I'd say it had less acid and more olive oil.
J started with the salmon tartare. Yum! The salmon was cut into rather large pieces for a tartare, which was great because we could taste the fish. There was parsley and just a hint of alcohol in the dish to take the edge off the salmon's fishiness. Arugula and yellow cherry tomatoes were a decorative touch.
J had the Berkshire pork tenderloin, which surprisingly was beaten flat and batter fried in an oregano-heavy breading. He'd been toying with the idea of going to Suppenkuche tonight for schnitzel, so it was the perfect coincidence. If I were being extremely picky I'd say the dead center piece of the pork could have been less cooked, but I'm really grasping for straws with that one. 99% of this was delicious, and the juicy fatty parts near the bone were out of this world.
I had the short ribs in red wine sauce with a gremolata of parsley and lemon rind. That gremolata was a surprise! I couldn't stop picking at it because lemon with beef was so unexpected. Also delicious were the tomatoes, which were warmed just enough that they exploded in my mouth, but not enough so that any tartness had been released. And the polenta had a fresh corn flavor and a lot of whole corn kernels mixed in. Not to detract from the beef, which was fork tender even though it was quite lean, but I think it was the sides on this dish that really stood out. Total bill for both of us was $90 after all was said and done (two appetizers, two entrees, and a glass of red wine). Not cheap, not expensive, just a very typical example of what San Franciscans enjoy eating on any given Friday night.
We hiked up the hill after dinner to check another destination off our list: Swensen's. It's one of San Francisco's old-time scoop shops. We shared a cone of the chewy chocolate, one of their most popular flavors. I enjoyed it a lot. Deep chocolate flavor with a hint of malt. I think I like their ice cream more than Mitchell's, which is too sugary and uses a lot of fake tasting flavoring. Plus, Swensen's is a veritable bargain at $2.50 for a small scoop in a sugar cone. Thank you to my lovely hand model: it was a great date night!
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