Houston's, SF
Beginning of Nov: Saw a little jazz band thru the window, and thought, why not. How many times have we just zoomed by this place by the Embarcadero, and ignored it? Still needed food after getting pissed off at the freaking Hog Island assholes and their next-door kin.
Impressively packed on a Thursday night around 9pm, and were told 45 min wait by the friendly hostess, which was fine by us, since we weren’t quite hungry yet. Stood at the bar, cocktails while waiting. Beautiful polished dark wood everywhere, warm and inviting. Everyone was so friendly, service was very attentive and professional, which really overlaid the shitty people experience over at HogI.
Half hour later we were seated down from the bar side, so unfortunately we couldn’t see the fireplace or hear the live jazz at the other end. But there was an outdoor fireplace that I had an unobstructed view of, so that was lovely. Noise level very high, but very nice layout, so we were still able to have an intimate dinner. Cajun snapper (kinda plain, but cooked well) with VERY tasty baked squash, and the best french dip I’ve had anywhere, stuffed with tender pink beef. Maybe just a bit more au jus, but minor point. Hubby even liked it, that's how good it was. Apple walnut cobbler (?) was great, even if there was waaaay too much fresh walnuts in it, easy to pick off. I'm not fond of nuts, but a walnut fan would find this dish heaven.
RE: Hog Island Ferry Bldg experience - we got there 10 minutes to 8pm, and stood by the sign saying 'stand here', and 'we're open' or something to that effect. Lots of people still eating. The counter did say 'counter closed', so we thought just the seating area open. And stood. And stood. And stood. This asshole waiter running back and forth from us ignored us, but then on his 4th pass, he suddenly swings the sign around to say 'closed' in our faces, and rushes away. ?!?! How fucking hard is it to say 'sorry, closed' to us? We weren't sure if it was just the left side or HogI too, so Hubby finally had to run down another waiter to ask. Literally run down a waiter, because he was doing his best to rush off. Finally find out that they close at 8pm. Maybe they've got a policy to seat up to then, but since they were so eager to close, they REALLY didn't want to seat us. Then shouldn't someone have changed the signs or said something to us? Grrrrr.
Impressively packed on a Thursday night around 9pm, and were told 45 min wait by the friendly hostess, which was fine by us, since we weren’t quite hungry yet. Stood at the bar, cocktails while waiting. Beautiful polished dark wood everywhere, warm and inviting. Everyone was so friendly, service was very attentive and professional, which really overlaid the shitty people experience over at HogI.
Half hour later we were seated down from the bar side, so unfortunately we couldn’t see the fireplace or hear the live jazz at the other end. But there was an outdoor fireplace that I had an unobstructed view of, so that was lovely. Noise level very high, but very nice layout, so we were still able to have an intimate dinner. Cajun snapper (kinda plain, but cooked well) with VERY tasty baked squash, and the best french dip I’ve had anywhere, stuffed with tender pink beef. Maybe just a bit more au jus, but minor point. Hubby even liked it, that's how good it was. Apple walnut cobbler (?) was great, even if there was waaaay too much fresh walnuts in it, easy to pick off. I'm not fond of nuts, but a walnut fan would find this dish heaven.
RE: Hog Island Ferry Bldg experience - we got there 10 minutes to 8pm, and stood by the sign saying 'stand here', and 'we're open' or something to that effect. Lots of people still eating. The counter did say 'counter closed', so we thought just the seating area open. And stood. And stood. And stood. This asshole waiter running back and forth from us ignored us, but then on his 4th pass, he suddenly swings the sign around to say 'closed' in our faces, and rushes away. ?!?! How fucking hard is it to say 'sorry, closed' to us? We weren't sure if it was just the left side or HogI too, so Hubby finally had to run down another waiter to ask. Literally run down a waiter, because he was doing his best to rush off. Finally find out that they close at 8pm. Maybe they've got a policy to seat up to then, but since they were so eager to close, they REALLY didn't want to seat us. Then shouldn't someone have changed the signs or said something to us? Grrrrr.
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