Blackwood

I went to Blackwood in the Marina for my friend's birthday dinner last weekend.

Rating: ★★★★

Type: American/Thai Fusion

Serves: Breakfast/Brunch, Lunch, Dinner

I ordered: One Percenter's Burger ($18) which includes a Wagyu patty, millionaire's bacon, Vermont white cheddar, arugula, cilantro aioli, and potato wedges.

I had the patty cooked medium rare, that's how I always eat beef. The burger had solid flavor. The millionaire's bacon was particularly delicious with a maple syrup taste to it. It was thick sliced and fatty. I wouldn't eat the garnishes toothpicked on top of the burger - my friend tried, then made a funny face. Salad was standard, dressing was not overpowering. I do not like potatoes or fries so I didn't eat those.

The presentation of the dishes is nice. One of my friend's plates was flaming. Sorry, didn't get a pic!

Overall: I want to try their breakfast items, since that's my favorite meal of the day. The burger is good but not amazing. Solid 4 stars.

Blackwood
2150 Chestnut St.
San Francisco, CA 94123

La Fusion Part 2

Took my friend to La Fusion yesterday. Had the rotisserie chicken. So so yummy. I ate the quarter of white meat by myself. I don't know why, and I don't know if I felt this way last time I ate there too. But I was super bloated afterwards. Maybe that's too much information. But I think it's a good FYI cause maybe you're like me and you don't like feeling bloated when you gotta walk around the city. Anyways, my friend got the pollo con arroz which is just basically the rotisserie chicken with rice instead of the bread salad. For dessert we had the flourless chocolate cake which was quite delicious. It was super soft and melt in your mouth goodness.

Thomas Keller's Bouchon

My Vegas trip this past weekend was absolutely amazing. I had a ton of fun and it was super cool to spend time with my friends from SoCal. Being with everyone made me realize how much I miss them! And how much I just miss being around people in general. Honestly, being from a big family and then living alone now can make me a little sad. But it is nice to finally have my own space!

Anyways, the restaurant is cute inside but kind of loud. We went for brunch at around 12pm and only waited 5 minutes. Tuong ordered a salmon dish. I think he was surprised with his smoked salmon. He was expecting a fillet like baked salmon or something. But I think this is the kind that you'd typically put on bagels. I ordered the chicken and waffles which were absolutely delicious. The chicken was nice and juicy. The waffles were light, crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. They had bacon bits and chives in them which upped the flavor. Along with some sweet maple syrup, it was a good mix of sweet and salty.

However, I didn't like the beignets. They were way to oily and hard. I feel like they were overcooked. The outside was super crunchy! And they just didn't taste good even when they were covered in Nutella.

Bonne Sante

Bonne Sante is a sandwich shop in Burlingame, CA. The portion sizes are huge. Nat and I shared one gigantic sandwich. We got the Sante Smoker which has beef, steak sauce, cheese, and some other ingredients that I forgot about. But yeah. Super tasty! The price is good for the size of the food. It's about $10 a sandwich.

Boiling Crab, San Jose

Boiling crab was one of my favorite places to eat back in OC. I was excited to find out that they had two locations in San Jose. Justin, Nat, and I went there at about 4pm. The wait was only 20-35 minutes which is very good for BC. Typically the wait during peak times can be 1.5-2+ hours.

I always get a pound of crawfish, the whole shebang, medium. Never get frozen crawfish though! It's absolutely disgusting.

Olea

Small restaurant. I recommend coming in 2s. Bigger parties are hard to seat. There's a bunch of two person tables and one long communal table. The challah custard French toast was delicious. It's a huge portion but so good. It's light and fluffy and not greasy like how most French toast is.

Del Popolo Pizza

The dough is quite yummy but the pizzas need more cheese. Got the margherita and bianca pizzas.

Blue Bottle Coffee

My sister got the cafe at lait. And I really wanted to try their saffron vanilla Snickerdoodles. I made them myself back when I was living in OC with all my baking things. Honestly, I did a better job. I didn't like the ones from the store. They tasted store bought... So now I know. Next time I'm just going to make them myself.

Rooftop Bar

These pics were taken at the Rooftop Bar in Newport Beach. I went before I moved. Just forgot to upload the pictures. They have awesome mojitos. My favorite being the champagne mojito. Go for happy hour to get half off drinks (which admittedly is still pretty pricey). But they have a spectacular view. My friend and I got to see the sunset.

La Fusion

Went here for a belated Valentine's Day dinner. The food is pretty good. We had the mixed ceviche and half a roasted chicken. For dessert: caramel apple empanadas. Super small and cramped restaurant but I think most places in SF are like that. I still think it's uncomfortable being so close to the next table, they can hear your entire conversation even if they don't want to.

Feasting with Justin

Peeps! For Easter. My dad usually gets me the chocolate dipped peeps and some Cadbury eggs for Easter. This will be my first Easter away from my family. It'll also be the first time I missed my family's birthdays. My sister just turned 18 on Saturday and she got accepted into UCSD. I'm super proud of her :) I'm glad my siblings are doing so well in school.

Justin and I went to an all you can eat sushi restaurant. That also happened to have dim sum. So much dim sum these past few weeks! I think I've had it every weekend for 3 weeks straight. And twice this weekend. I'm all dim summed out. Anyways, super duper stuffed today. Justin and I had to practically inhale our food since he had to hurry home to his family. We were supposed to eat at boiling crab but the wait was 2 hours... So we decided to just rain check it.

Those 60th anniversary vanilla creme peeps were disgusting though. They tasted like artificial vanilla. I'd just stick with the chocolate dipped ones.

Sushi Sam's

This place has good sushi. I went there a long time ago and now I'm finally updating this post so I have no idea what I ordered. I just remember that my favorite thing was something called Blue Shrimp. Or some version of that name. It's like sweet shrimp (amaebi) on crack. Like a thousand times better. So delicious!

Ramen Dojo

This is a small ramen shop in San Mateo. Pretty good quality. The noodles were the appropriate texture, not too squishy not too firm. The waiting line is horrendous however. I definitely recommend getting there early!

I got the spicy garlic ramen? Not that spicy. But I find Japanese restaurants in general just aren't that spicy.

Kincaid

Pricey yet subpar food. That's all I can really say.

Delfina

Good Italian food. Liked the pasta more than anything since it had a nice texture. They also have a good rabbit appetizer that you spread on crackers. Parking is heinous and made me a half hour late for dinner. By the way, I left to get to the restaurant an hour before dinner was supposed to start.

La Boulange de Burlingame

They have really good almond croissants here. Macarons are ehhhh. I prefer 'Lette macarons. Or the ones I've had in Paris.

Honey Berry

Roti bun from Honey Berry with cream cheese/yogurt filling I believe? Pretty good cause it was fresh and soft. It just needs some more filling though!

Beard Papa's

I've been to quite a few Beard Papa's back home in Orange County and in Los Angeles. I think the cream puffs are pretty whatever. I think they'd taste better if they were super fresh, like right off the press fresh. But otherwise, it's eh. The vanilla filling is the best tasting one out of the ones I've tried, which include chocolate and green tea. I got the mini puffs this time because I was craving something sweet after my lunch. I originally ordered 4 vanilla and 2 chocolate, since they come in packs of 6 (or 12). But the girl working there accidentally messed up my order and gave me 6 vanilla because she forgot my chocolate ones. So I ended up getting 6 vanilla and 2 chocolates. Free food is always awesome.

Vanilla Filling

Mini Puff

Chocolate Filling

Ahi Poke

Ahi poke! Nice and fresh tasting. Got this from a super market that sells Hawaiian food. I want to go back and try their Portuguese sausage musubi among other things.

Banh Mi

I was craving a banh mi. I found this place, Cherimoya Vietnamese Cafe, through yelp. There was some weird sweet sauce on the vegetables though that I really didn't like. I might give this place a shot again if I don't get that sweet sauce. But it doesn't compare to the banh mi I've had back in Orange County. And there was definitely not enough meat and pate in this sandwich. Sad.