Ron and I had a quick dinner at Shalimar Restaurant. We tried their chicken masala, garlic naan, okra, and a mango lassi.
The chicken masala was yummy with the naan although the chicken was a bit dry but there was plenty of sauce to soak it. I didn’t really like the okra though, a bit too mushy. The mango lassi nice and creamy.
Shalimar Restaurant
1409 Polk Street
http://www.dosasf.com/df_index.html
After a really long week of work for both of us, Vicki and I decided to meet up to vent and enjoy a good meal. I made a reservation on Opentable at DOSA on Fillmore. The only reservation times they had were for 5:45pm and 9:30pm for a party of 2. Not sure if this is the regular thing but possibly all the reservations were already taken up. So I chose the 5:45pm reservation.
Vicki kindly came to pick me up from work and we headed to the restaurant. We were lucky to find street parking right around the corner.
As we walked into the restaurant, I noticed the super high ceilings and the restaurant had really cool lampshades and very calming color. It was early so the restaurant wasn’t bustling yet but by the time we left around 8pm, it was starting to get crowded with people waiting and also a bit noisy, difficult to talk even at a table for two. We were seated upstairs immediately upon our arrival and it was nice to be seated near the windows to enjoy the seldom sunshine of San Francisco.
The menu looked delicious and we could have ordered everything but settled on three dishes.
Prelude to the meal were these fried thin cracker-like things which had caraway seeds. Very appetizing although maybe a bit oily if you eat too much.
We shared a bottle of wine as recommended by our server that would go well with our duck dish. This is an Italian wine and I must say, it was surprisingly smooth and easy to drink (I’m not very good at drinking red wine…).
We actually ordered the Bhel Puri which was supposed to be a diced green mango salad but I think the waitress didn’t hear me correctly so we got this organic green salad with mangoes and goat cheese instead. I didn’t realize it until we got the bill that it was the wrong salad. We were probably too hungry to notice. The goat cheese surprisingly was very yummy, smooth and creamy.
A token picture of myself. Vicki asked me why I’m never in my pictures? Usually because no one offers to take one for me… so thanks V!
This is the Paper Masala Dosa served with Indian potatoes, sambar (a spicy lentil soup) and tomato chutney & fresh coconut chutney. This is almost a meal in itself! It was so good though, we kept on munching on it even though we knew we needed to save room for our second course. (This is on the list of 100 Things to try before you die.)
Last entree, duck spinach masala & paneer with lemon rice. We each had a bit of rice, a duck leg, and some cheese and that was it. I really liked their paneer, it had some texture (not too hard and not too soft) but the duck for me was only okay. The rice was really good. We asked them to pack the rest but when we left, they didn’t bring it to our table so dunno where it went 🙁
After all that rich food, we wanted to have something sweet. Today my extra stomach for dessert was in full force… so we ordered the Sweet Pongal, rice pudding with raw sugar cane juice and cardamom cream plus some nuts and fruits mixed in. Oh so good! I love cardamom cream. I made cardamom whipped cream once for a dessert and it was oh so good.
Needless to say, we were stuffed and happy (the wine helped with that). I’m sorry to the waitstaff if I under-tipped, I tried to do the 10%+5% of the bill but was in a rush so might not have added correctly, I like it when restaurants have the suggested tip amounts on the bottom of the check so dorks like me don’t have that problem. Or Ron suggests I should just get an iPhone and get the application to go along with it.
I’d definitely go back again, I think Ron would enjoy it too. I’d highly recommend making a reservation on Opentable so you don’t have to wait!
DOSA on Fillmore
1700 Fillmore (at Post St)
http://www.grubhub.com/sf/darbar-restaurant/
We had Indian food delivered to work for lunch. One our nurses really wanted to try this restaurant called Darbar.
I had heard that the wraps were good so I ordered the seekh kebab wrap but in hindsight, I should have ordered the chicken one. I’d forgotten that their beef kebabs are ground meat put on a skewer then cooked on the rotisserie. I didn’t like the texture of the meat. The wrap was also a bit soggy since I didn’t have time to eat it right when it was delivered. It probably would taste a lot better eaten at the restaurant. Their mint and tamarind sauces were yummy though.
I ordered the mango lassi and although quite fluorescent in color, it actually had a good flavor. In real life, it sort of looked like kool aid orange color. They probably use some strained mango puree rather than blending their own mangoes because I didn’t detect any pulp in the drink.
The wrap was $6.99 and the drink was $1.99 and delivered free.
In trying to look for their restaurant website, I found a site called GrubHub which lets you looks up restaurants that deliver… kind of cool. Here is the menu for Darbar.
Darbar Restaurant
1412 Polk St
Today I had a nice relaxing day at the spa. The girls got together and went to Burke Williams to celebrate the end of our friend Susan’s finals. I had a wonderful 80 minute deep tissue massage… and I still wished it was longer… I can’t believe how time flies when you’re getting a massage.
The thing I love about Burke Williams is that you can enjoy the facilities afterward… the jacuzzi, cold and hot steam rooms, sauna, shower, parlor, tea, lemonade, fruits… so nice. It’s worth the expense once in a while.
After enjoying our spa day, we went for dinner at Chutney… Pakistani and Indian food. It’s not in the best neighborhood of SF but that’s generally where you can find good eats for cheap.
We ordered too many things to name… my favorites were the biryani and okra. I think we have eight plates of food along with 6 pieces of naan and it only cost $13 per person and we were stuffed!
Best to go with a group or for takeout I think.
Chutney
511 Jones Street