Adam "Who 'Dem Saints?" B.'s Profile

I'll make this simple. This may just be the best Chinese food I've ever had. Anywhere.

I was given a recommendation to check this place out by an ex-SF local who knew the area really well. Told me the place next door is a tourist trap with long lines but this dive is the place to go.

Sure enough, I get there and the House of Nanking has a long line and Jia's? Nothing. Walked right in to a table. Started looking at the prices and you could've thought you were at Panda Express. Seriously, the prices were that low.

Started with the Wonton which was a special wonton which even included beef. Beef in Wonton soup? But it worked. My table then shared the Veggie Egg Rolls and I've never had Egg Rolls like these. Different type of tempura-like batter with great taste. Then after reading the Yelp reviews, we all decided to try the Onion Cake. Very good call. It was like a big potato pancake. Only no potato. Just the onion sliced in six slices like a pizza would. Great flavor and so far, I could've had all this for a meal.

Glad I had the meal.

We ordered three entrees to share amongst us family style. One dish was two different styles of prawns. Both of which were very satisfying. A veggie chow fun was also excellent. But the real fun was about to come with the dish I selected.

Peanut Butter Chicken.

Now I have to explain I'm a major PB addict so as soon as I saw this, I had to have it. Incredible. Simple pieces of chicken breast in a peanut buttery sauce accompanied by Sweet Potatoes and Brocolli. I know I was sharing it but I sure didn't want to! The peanut flavor coming from the Skippy was potent and powerful. Everything was cooked well and to order. And the price? How about $5.75?! Seriously. Panda Express prices but a zillion times better than Panda Express.

So where's the fifth star?

Well, I'm picky and while nothing disappointed, the fact no chow mein noodles came with the soup was very dissapointing. I always like pouring them into the soup as well as eating them dry. The staff didn't even know what I was talking about. Huh? So really this place should get 4.9 stars but I can't do that.

Still, one of the best restaurants I've been too in the four years I've been Yelping? Yep. A must in San Francisco.

Can they keep expanding Moscone? Soon there will be Moscone NorthCentralWest or Moscone SoutheastCentralMidwest or maybe it could extend all the way down to Austin and then we could have MosconeSXSW.

Nevertheless, this is a basic Convention Center that you've seen before. Nice, but nothing special. No true WiFi across the Convention Center. Instead the conferences themselves must set it up. This is San Francisco. A tech town! So this is pretty much inexcusable. Security is tight but nothing like the main Moscone Center. Still, pretty ordinary. You want a great Convention Center? Go to San Diego.

I've driven by their location in Hollywood many times but never stopped in until I finally walked by their downtown San Francisco location and checked it out. No doubt about it, this is for the wine geek. About 95% of this store is wine. With description and well organized aisles. My problem? I'm not a wine guy at all. So I was looking to see what else they had. They have a small area for spirits and there's some pretty interesting choices you own't necessarily find at BevMo. As for beers, practically none. There was one cooler with a few six packs at the bottom but little else. Funny since their magazine does have a couple of beer articles in it. Maybe the SF location is too small and their other locations stock more. Still, this is for the wine afficianado and the rest are just side dishes by comparison. So if you're into wine, you've hit the right spot. The rest of you? Keep looking.

I learned about this place after reading it won Best bottle beer selection in the SF Weekly. So naturally, the beer snob in me had to check it out. Odd spot just a block away from all the nudie bars in the Mission District. This place is much, much smaller than I expected but the quality does show. There's a couple of refrigerated beer chests and a couple of shelves with bottle after bottle of microbrewed and imported beers. None of which come from Golden, Colorado. You can drink your bottle immediately but you have to pay a $1 corkage fee. Since when does beer have a cork? Better option is to sit at the small bar and drink from one of their five taps. There's a blackboard situated from the opposite end of the bar informing you of the five beers and styles as well as alcohol content. Prices range from $5-10 which considering the brews you're getting, it's a fairly decent price. The staff definitelt knows what they're talking about and all the conversations focus on the sudsy stuff. Overall, a worthwhile lace. Just too bad it's not bigger.

Who opens a super fancy nightclub....in the Mission District? Just a block away from all those seedy XXX rooms. I was just relieved to find out my car hadn't been broken into. This area may be worse than the Tenderloin.

As for the club, it's OK. Nice and big with decent acoustics. I was happy with that. What I wasn't was the bartender who twice got gave me the wrong beer. They only have two taps (Stella and Guiness) so I looked at the bottles and saw they had Sierra Nevada Kellerweis, which I hadn't tried yet. So I ordered that and I went upstairs only to realize I got an Anchor Steam! Now I like the Steam but that wasn't what I ordered. Went back down, pointed it out and got my Kellerweis. It was good and I went back to the bar to get another. This time, I got the Sierra Nevada....but it was the Pale Ale! So once again, wrong brew. By now it was almost midnight and I wasn't about to go through this mess again. So I gulped it down and prayed my Prius wasn't in 100 pieces. I heard later on that same barkeep was rude to a female friend of mine. Well, at least it's cross-gener. Mezzanine might be a good club, in another part of town. But it's in the wrong place and the service is too rude. Not going back.

I had a couple of friends who thought we were going to the offices of slide, the Facebook app developers, rather than this nightclub tucked next to Ruby Skye. This slide has two ways to go down to the club, steps or yes, wait for it...an actual slide. Haven't seen that option since I went to Ruslter's Rooste in Tempe five years ago. Place is a little small and gets crowded fast. So it's pretty loud although I didn't feel I had to talk at the top of my lungs. Bar is OK. No beer taps so it's strictly bottles and not a lot of choices. I ended up with a Pilsner Irquell. Place is underground so a lot of cellphones weren't working too well. That'll eventually kill this spot. This is San Francisco after all. Pretty OK place but nothing you'd want to rush back to.

Came here for the Yelp Elite event and my original +1 didn't want to go. Turns out she'd been there and didn't like it. So I came with a bit of trepidation. After all, I already got a thumbs down from someone I really trusted.

Boy, was she wrong.

Place is Hermosa's answer to the uber-hip West Hollywood/Santa Monica sushi bars ala Katsu-Ya or Sushi Roku and it shows in the interior of the place which once was Club Sushi and a bunch of other places and a pharmacy way back to the '30s. Got to sample a wide variety of sushi and nothing disappointed. All full of great flavor and texture especially the hotter ones. But even the simple California Roll shined here. Seaweed Salad was very good and then their was their take on the Mozzarella Stick. Yes, an Asian-style Mozzarella stick using a thick flat slice of the gooey stuff with a tempura batter.

A nice plus is every table gets a complimentary bowl of Edamame. A nice surprise and the only place I can think of that also does this is Love Sushi in Canyon Country although I'm sure others do as well. The only problem I have with the Edamame is it is way too salty. Got to the point I wanted to slather mustard on it since it's essentially the Asian equivalent of bar food like pretzels. Speaking of the bar....

The bar is small but the bartenders know their stuff. Strong but not stiff drinks that won't necessarily make you order a second because you won't need it unless you want to pass out. OK, you're probably not gonig to pass out from two drinks but these are stronger drinks than most bars you'll find to be sure. Yes, this is one thing they didn't copy from WeHo. Thankfully.

And then there's dessert. Mochi? Oh, they have that but what Asian restaurant offer Chocolate Peanut Butter pie? Well, they do at Rok! And it does. Turns out the wife of the owner makes her own desserts and this is one of them. Good flavor and if I had any complaints, I'd like it to be a bit denser. But that's my taste. It's still a winner.

Turns out that the owners also own Mama D's diagonally across the street and also in Manhattan Beach which is one of my favorite Italian haunts in LA County. Hmmmm.....maybe pasta sushi should be next? For this esoteric place, that might not be out of the question.

While I don't come to Hermosa very often, I would definitely keep Rok in mind as a place I'd like to go prior to a show at the Comedy and Magic Club or just meeting up with South Bay pals. The owners told me that a lot of people think a uber-hip sushi bar won't make it in Hermosa. Here's hoping those skeptics are wrong.

First sampled the food from the Den at the 2010 Yelp Prom at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood. Then finally went over to it for a Twitter mixer/meetup and since most people were at the bar getting drunk on free drinks, me and a friend went to the back where there were plenty of empty seats. Menu is small so I stuck to combining an appetizer with their triple dipped fries. Good call. Their Pork Belly Tacos were incredibly juicy and hit the spot for flavor an texture. I had the Yukon Gold fries which were great but my friend got the Sweet Potato Fries and immediately I realized my mistake. These fries looked incredible with a unique crust and somewhat thick cut, but not like steak fries are. Flavor was great and the only thing missing would've been garlic for me. The burger my friend ordered came on a very attractive brioche bun and I would order it next time I'm at the Den. Drinkwise, their Honey Blonde is surprisingly very good. Service is spotty at times but it's a small, crazy bar with a restaurant added in the mix. The Den is definitely a great spot in WeHo and a nice surprise on Sunset. I'd go back for the fries alone.

Came here after reading about it in the LA Times' Brand X rag and also after learning about the Mofongo dish (crushed plantains, cracklings, garlic, shrimp) I was really intrigued to try it out. Came with a large group so we were all able to try a lot of dishes. Started out with the Relleno de Papa which are also called Potato Circles in English but in reality they should be called Potato Balls and yes, you need some to try this. It's kind of strange with the crunchy breadcrumb texture of the outside with the softness of potato inside. We also ordered Sorullitos de Maiz which are CornSticks and they kind of look like fries. Pretty much anything fried there was overcooked and dry. Good flavor but overcooked to be sure. The Shrimp Mofongo had incredibly intense flavor but again the plantain/cracklin' crust was too dry. Was also able to taste the Bistec Encebollado which is strip steak, onions and rice with pigeon peas. Steak was seasoned well but again, too dry and not juicy enough. The Pechuga Asada which is a flattened breast of chicken was again, filled with flavor but I'm not a huge fan of flattened chicken since a lot of the texture is taken out. Notice a trend? Plantains were great but get the sweet. The crunchy ones are again, too dry and too crisp to really get any plantain taste out.

Service was slow at points. Not awful but slow. Took awhile at times to get drink refills. Place is very small so make sure you make a ressie in advance like we did. Bathroom is really tiny but cute.

Mofongo's is a great concept and I'd like it to succeed but they need to work on getting the dryness out of all these dishes. Especially the fried ones. Do that and this could hit four stars. For now, five stars for flavor but two stars for texture.

Been wanting to try this unusual ice cream for awhile and I had a Screaming Coupon worth ten bucks so I knew I could get my fill. Still a two scoop waffle cone and a small smoothie and I barely hit my limit? OK, not the greatest value in the world but this is not your typical 31 flavors. The ice creams here are very unique including everything from Green Tea to a honey butterscotch like flavor. Good texture and tons of flavor. Waffle Cone was a bit too light. It broke too easily. Not sturdy at all. Tried the mango banana smoothie which is made with their yougurt. Pretty good but not as good as Jamba or Juice it Up. They also do coffee drinks too. Overall, great ice cream but not a great value.