Sake Lab
492-498 BROADWAY • SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133
Phone: (415)837-0228
http://www.sakelab.com
Food: 8 / 10
Presentation: 8 / 10
Atmosphere: 9 / 10
Service: 6 / 10
Price: $20 per person (1 drink per person)
Remember those futuristic bar scenes in Blade Runner, with everything drenched in a blue hue? You can now go to the future--it is at Sake Lab.
The decoration is amazing, and the music is tastefully turned down to just the right volume. You can talk without screaming, and yet during those pauses in conversation you can just listen to the pulsating dance beats.
Usually, you'd expect crappy food at a place like this. Not this time. The sushi rolls that we ordered were fantastic, albeit awkwardly named. The cocktails, all mixed with some sake, were smooth. Even though each one we ordered was a derivative of a common cocktail, every sip we took still tasted more exciting than usual.
We ordered these items...
Drinks:
Sneaky Ninja: best drink we ordered. Kinda like a Cosmopolitan, but more crisp.
Rising Sun: tasted like a Hurricane served on Bourbon Street
Gwan Yin's Tear: Blue Lagoon in disguise
Sushi:
ruby pixel (spicy tuna, scallions): spicy tuna roll. fresh tasting.
phoebic (soft shell crab, avocado, cucumber, sprouts wrapped with soybean paper): big pieces, nicely done.
dragon string theory (eel, cucumber, tempura shrimp): fancy lookin' roll: really looks like a dragon
Other:
Oceanography Robata: best thing we ordered all night. Smoked scallops wrapped with bacon. Yum!
Butterfly
Pier 33 & Bay St., San Francisco, CA
Phone: (415) 864-8999
www.butterflysf.com
Food: 7 / 10
Presentation: 7 / 10
Atmosphere: 7 / 10
Service: 6 / 10
Price: $45 per person
When you first step into this waterview restaurant, the first thing you'll think is "my, it sure looked bigger from the outside." At least that was what I thought. Yep, it's actually quite cozy inside, but the proprietors have managed to fit in all the essential pieces. You have a crowded bar with a very alert and active bartender, an open kitchen buzzing with activity, and a jazz 3 piece jamming in a corner. It's small, but I like the way it looks and feels.
Our reservation got us a table immediately: if you plan on going I suggest you make a reservation as well. It did get quite crowded at around 8:15PM. The service was surprisingly casual and non-attentive. I had to wait a long time for my iced tea and water refills, and the wait time between appetizer and entree was about 20 minutes too long.
Some of our friends told us that the small dishes / appetizers here are superior to the entrees. So we made sure we tried a few small dishes. Overall, our friends were correct: some of the small dishes are memorably delicious. The small-portioned entrees, though exotic looking (check out the "Crispy Fried Whole Fish"), are not really worth mentioning and were probably the low point of an otherwise pleasant night out on the piers.
We shared these appetizers:
Sesame Coated Edamame - you'd think that there's nothing you can do to improve the natural goodness of edamame, well, you're wrong. the sesame sause coating is delightful.
House Smoked Salmon Carpaccio - decorated smoked salmon; no big deal
Fire Fried Calamari - this was good calamari; not spectacular but nonetheless mouthwatering
Ahi Tempura Roll - the best appetizer we ordered; i could have just eaten 5 or 6 orders of these for my meal
There were 4 of us, and the entrees we ordered were:
Crispy Fried Whole Fish - it looks cool, if you don't mind your food staring right back at ya
Tea Smoked Grilled Quails - these were ok but not filling at all
Soy and Mirin Glazed Black Cod - a rather uninspired fusion creation
Ponzu Grilled Hanger Steak - redefines the minimum size requirement to qualify something as a steak; my buddy wolfed down the entire dish in less than 5 minutes
We had mostly-soft drinks, desserts; the total came out to be about $45 per person.
Best Panda
4052 Balboa St, San Francisco, CA 94121
Phone: (415) 876-3298
Food: 10 / 10
Presentation: 1 / 10
Atmosphere: 1 / 10
Service: 5 / 10
Price: $8.50 per person
If you are looking for a cheap authentic Chinese meal, then you can't go wrong with this one. You can feast on traditional Cantonese dishes and pay about $10 per person AFTER tax and tips. With the big portion sizes at this place, a better deal will be hard to find here in the Bay Area. Of course it's not a nice looking place (i.e. do NOT come here on a first date), but should you ever need to feed a lot of people and feed them well, and you don't mind a little bad service or some messiness, then go to Best Panda, my new favorite family-style Chinese Restaurant in SF.
We had a party of 6, and ordered the following (all of which was delicious):
Beef with Tofu Soup
Drunken Clams (clams in rice wine sauce)
Sauteed Crab with Onions (< $13 for this dish!)
Stir Fried Spinach with Pork
Stir Fried Green Beans
Sweet and Sour Pork
Salted Spicy Chicken Wings
Steam Rice
Tea and Water