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!