The first time I went to Maria Isabel, I ordered the tasting menu and vowed I would come back for the à la carte menu I’m glad I did! Laura Ozyilmaz puts her spin on many dishes including guacamole with caviar, asparagus salad, crab sandwich in a chile arbol sauce, chicken Milanesa, duck enchiladas with mole, and desserts that include a masa waffle taco with corn ice cream. I can’t wait to return again to try the rest of the menu!
Of all the restaurants that opened in the last year I was most excited about Maria Isabel by Laura and Sayat Ozyilmaz of Dalida. I wasn’t disappointed. I tried the Mexican tasting menu that included a salad with shaved nopales and chayote with a prickly pear sorbet, smoked mussels sope, cod and shrimp in a guajillo sauce, duck carnitas, ribeye taco and smoked vanilla ice cream with banana cream.
I walk by Quik Dog, across McCovey Cove from Oracle Park, daily not knowing that it serves one of my favorite salads from Trick Dog: kale with avocado, pepitas, an egg yolk based dressing and a snow flurry of Parmesan cheese. It’s a great deal for $13 and I added fried chicken nuggets for an additional $6.
When I learned that Delfina was bringing back their roasted chicken with mushrooms and mashed potatoes for the fixed-price Restaurant Week menu ($60), I was there! This is a truly great dish and it has been off the menu since the restaurant’s remodel more than three years ago. There was also hanger steak, a choice of salad or chicken liver crostini and their famous panna cotta or profiteroles.
David Barzelay of Lazy Bear creates a French vibe at his new restaurant Jou Jou: mussels, gougeres, pate, pork chop, Petrale sole, caneles, and tarte tatin.
No one does eggs better than Foreign Cinema: a bright, vegetable infused Heavenly Scramble or a fluffy omelet made with Champagne. And I can never pass up the “pop tarts” and German chocolate cake for dessert.
A great way to celebrate our current sunny weather is lunch at Waterbar overlooking the Bay Bridge and feasting on fish and chips, salad and coconut cream pie.
RT Bistro is a great follow up to Rich Table! Evan Rich’s dishes always offer few surprises. The menu includes Bay shrimp Louie, steak tartare, caviar, crudo, a bistro burger and pork cheeks on potato puree. And don’t forget to order the lemon icebox cake!
It’s become a tradition to go to A16 on February 14 for their special menu, not because it’s Valentine’s Day but because it’s the restaurants anniversary. This year it was 22 years and the food remains consistently excellent and captures the Italian spirit.
