Palomino Restaurant & Bar

What’s going on everybody? School is now coming to a close and this will be my last entry for the year. I’m finally graduating college and it’s definitely a good feeling. I’m going to take a break from blogging until 2012, but before I go, I want to take you all to another one of my new favorite spots in town. It’s a little different from what I’ve been blogging about. My past six blogs have mostly been small hole-in-the-walls or just small establishments minus maybe Social Kitchen & Brewery. The San Francisco restaurant I’ll be talking about today is Palomino Restaurant & Bar. Located in the SOMA District on Spear Street in between Folsom and Harrison, Palomino is a vibrant restaurant and bar known for its Mediterranean food and an upbeat atmosphere. Palomino is right off of the Embarcadero, where you can enjoy your meal with a beautiful view of the San Francisco Bay and Bay Bridge.

As you walk toward the front of the restaurant, there a nice patio dining area with heating lamps, so people can enjoy eating outside at anytime of the day. Once inside, you could hear and see the hustle and bustle of the bar area. Since Palomino is in the outskirts of the Financial District, a lot of people who work in the area eat here with all their friends and colleagues. My family first told me of this restaurant telling me about their all day happy hour. Yes, you heard me, all day happy hour! However, the happy hour is only available at the bar and the bar area is first come first serve seating. I advise you to forget about eating on Palomino’s restaurant side because all you need to do is stay on the bar side, where they have their happy hour. The seating area is large enough for your family or friends with comfortable seating and some high-definition televisions for sports games.

Happy Hour Menu

The menu consists of some classic happy hour food, as well as some creative and imaginative items. They feature items such as potatoes gorgonzola, pulled pork sliders, thin crust pizzas, dungeness crab artichoke dip, and crisp calamari. Don’t these all just sound so delicious? Here is a sample menu, so you can see their various happy hour items, as well as their respective price. Yes, it is a little bit more expensive than the restaurants I’ve been blogging about, but this is a good place to go with some friends and have a good time out for some drinks and tasty food. They offer a decent selection of happy hour cocktails such as the cranberry mojito, pomegranate margarita, Sycamore wines, as well as a range of draught beers. All of their alcoholic beverages they offer during happy hour are at a respectable $5. I’m a beer guy myself, but I’ve tried the mojito, and it’s quite good. They have a wider selection of alcoholic beverages and cocktails, but they aren’t offered at a happy hour price.

I was with a few buddies of mine and after some time looking over the menu, we decided to order the potatoes gorgonzola, Italian sausage pizza, the crab artichoke dip, and the calamari. For drinks, I ordered the hefeweizen, which is a German style wheat beer. While we waited for the food, we were just drinking, having a good time, while also watching a basketball game located by the bar. Palomino has a great atmosphere. Everyone is having a fun time, hanging out with friends or coworkers, while simultaneously getting inebriated.

Once the food arrived, all of our mouths began to water. Everything looked so delicious. The potatoes gorgonzola caught me by surprise. It wasn’t what I thought. It ended up being better! It was criss-cut waffle fries with mounds of melted gorgonzola cheese on it! It was so good! Plus, they were also pretty generous on the portions. The Italian sausage pizza was solid. It was a thin crust pizza with great and fresh ingredients, but it was kind of small. The crab artichoke dip was divine. I don’t use that word often, but it was the only way I could describe it. It came with a crunchy pita-like bread, which was a great compliment to the dip. As for the calamari, I’m a sucker for calamari, so obviously I thought it was delicious. It has just enough breading so you can still enjoy the squid, while the dipping sauces were a standard marinara and a tasty aioli. Being all guys, we all devoured the food in an instant! We ended up staying for a bit longer, reordering the potatoes gorgonzola and going with another couple rounds of drinks.

Overall, the food there was very good. It was definitely the highlight of my experience there. The drinks are about the same price as you can find at other bars and restaurants. The service was okay and wasn’t anything special. However, its understandable because the bar area is constantly busy. There is never any downtime for the waiters and servers, so try to be a little patient. When trying to find seats for you and your friends, make sure you hawk out for seats because there is always a constant queue of people trying to sit down. Also, another tip for all of you is that if you don’t want to take Muni, they have a parking garage below and the restaurant offers parking validation. That is pretty rare for a restaurant in the Financial District, where metered parking comes at a premium. I can’t remember if parking is free with validation, but I know that it is less than two or three dollars. I thoroughly enjoyed my experience at Palomino. It is a great time to catch up with friends or just for a good time in the city. If you end up coming here, don’t forget to comment on my blog. I want to read your thoughts and see if you enjoyed your time there. Hope you all have time to check it out! Happy holidays and see you next year!

Philly Cheese Me Please.

Hello readers. I’m back to you with another joint, Philly cheesesteaks baby. Who doesn’t love cheesesteaks? They are probably one of my all time favorite comfort foods. I’ve loved cheesesteaks ever since I was little when my parents introduced me to them. There are a lot of great Philly cheesesteaks out there, but there are a lot of bad ones as well. You have to be careful where you try them because there are many copycats, fakes, and wannabes. I preferably only have Philly cheesesteaks at places where my friends and family recommend me to go to. I suggest you all go here. Metros Caffé is yet another great San Francisco staple that many people don’t know about. Not to be confused with Metros Café, Metros Caffe is located in the Lower Haight area on Filmore Street between Haight and Laussat Street. This place is that local neighborhood joint to get your semi-greasy but awesome sandwich fix.

Metros is a family owned operation where they emphasize using high-quality ingredients. They use top grade ribeye beef and make their burgers and cheesesteaks a la minute, and have three different types of offerings: appetizers, burgers, and cheesesteaks. Their appetizers consist of a multitude of food such as hot dogs, hot links, fish and chips, and corn dog. They also have french fries, fried zucchini, and tater tots! These are the perfect compliments to their burgers and cheesesteaks. Their burgers and cheesesteaks are made from quality Niman Ranch natural beef, which is high quality beef from cattle fed with a 100% vegetarian diet and had never been given antibiotics or growth hormones. I hear they’re very good, but with their cheesesteaks don’t allow me to order anything else. The cheesesteaks are truly the highlight of this joint. They offer a variety of cheesesteaks such as the their standard metro cheesesteak with grilled onion, hot and sweet peppers. They also have BBQ cheesesteak, mushroom cheesesteak, and my favorite, the bacon cheesesteak.

Walking into Metros, I could smell the beef sizzling on the grill, with the sweet smell of onions and peppers. I walked up straight to the cashier looking at the menu that I just described above, and my eyes were automatically drawn to the bacon cheesesteak. What’s better than prime ribeye beef and bacon? Nothing I say. Aside from that, I also decided to get some tater tots. Tater tots have always been an all time favorite of mine, first tasting this wondrous food at my elementary school cafeteria line. Ever since then, I’ve been hooked! The food took about eight to ten minutes to prepare and came to my table piping hot. It looked like any standard cheesesteak, but the moment I took a bite, I understood what all my friends were talking about. This was the bomb! I could taste the juicy ribeye and the sweet onions with the crispy bacon topping it all off. The tater tots were extremely well seasoned, super crispy, and not overly oily. No lie, it was probably one of the best tater tots I’ve had.

Metros is definitely one place to remember. It is a very unassuming place. There’s nothing fancy about it and they let the food speak for itself. Metros gave me one of the better cheesesteaks I’ve ever had. It wasn’t the best, but I cannot deny its deliciousness. Metros is a pretty tiny location, so if you don’t like close quarters you may want to get it to go. Also, don’t forget your cash! I hope you all enjoy this place as much as I did.

On a side note, there is also an awesome ice cream place across the street called Three Twins Ice Cream. It is an organic ice cream shop uses a simple and high-quality ingredient base. This shop is almost like a Ben & Jerry’s. I recommend you going here after eating at Metros. It’s the best way to top off a delicious Metros cheesesteak.