I've heard about and seen a lot of photos of the food at Darwin Cafe and was very excited to try their kale salad for lunch today. Hidden in a tiny alley, the cafe itself is very unassuming and had it not been for the large lunchtime crowd, I would have totally missed it. The majority of people seemed to get take-out so despite the crowd, we were able to get seats easily. The kale salad was huge! The salad was topped with parmesan and prosciutto which gave it a nice saltiness. Next time, I want to try one of their sandwiches.
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| Kale Salad at Darwin Cafe: kale, radicchio, lemon, garlic, parmesan, prosciutto, aged balsamic |
For the past year, friends, coworkers, and classmates have been raving about the amazing salads at Blue Barn Gourmet. I was always really confused because I mean, how great can a salad possibly be?! So for dinner, I walked up Polk Street to Blue Barn to check it out for myself. The salad and sandwich menu is really extensive and the u-pick salad option means that everyone can have the salad of their dreams. I went with the spicy tuna salad that comes with a slice of herbed bread. I thought Darwin Cafe's salad was huge but this salad was perhaps even larger because I had trouble finishing it. The soba noodles added a nice crunch and if a salad has avocado in it, I'm sold. I had a bite of my friend's bun me sandwich (grilled organic salmon, nuoc cham cucumber-carrot salad, herbs, garlic aioli & sriracha on a ciabatta roll) and while tasty, there was way too much aioli on it. I think next time I'll either go for the tostada salad or one of their sandwiches.
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| Spicy Tuna Salad at Blue Barn Gourmet: mixed greens, chicory chop, spicy ahi tuna, avocado, mango, snow peas, cucumber, scallions, sesame seeds, soba noodles & miso-ginger vinaigrette |
After our meal, we headed just two doors up to WOODS Polk Station, a fairly new experimental bar. The space is small but their beers are amazing! I started with the morpho herbal ale: "yerba mate, hibiscus, and bay leaf give wine-like fruit and berry notes with a refreshing tart finish. No hops!" How cool is it that the beers are infused with yerba mate?! Next I tried the pancakes & syrup saison and wow, it was incredible how the beer truly smelled and tasted like pancakes and maple syrup. I tried my friend's evil twin yin and one other selection that I can't remember the name of but both were very dark and had hints of chocolate and coffee. I really like this tiny bar for its eclectic selection and like that they also offer El Porteno's empanadas because those are delicious. Trying these unique brews makes me want to explore some of San Francisco's breweries.
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Pancake Saison: "a griddle-charred crust, a fluffy sweet center, and a hearty swirl of syrup: the perfect flapjack stack, in a glass"
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