2184 Union St (At Fillmore St)
San Francisco(415) 563-1853
Plenty of outdoor seating is a nice feature on sunny days.
Wi-Fi here is free.
Cuisine:
Traditional American
Buchanan Beet ($8)
Roasted beets, arugula, mixed greens, goat cheese, candied walnuts & tangerine vinaigrette
I ordered the small salad for ($8.) It was quite large actually. The large salad ($12) could probably feed me for two days.
I'm a sucker for beet salads, so I may not be the best person to consult for this item. This salad had both the golden beets and the red beets, in small cubes with globs of goat cheese splashed in. The perfect amount of everything, enough that you can get a bite of the good stuff (beets, candied walnuts or cheese, or all of them in one bite) with each splash of the arugula. The goat cheese was great too; there were no extra herbs or spices in the cheese itself. It seems to me there are some goat cheeses that have too much of an overpowering flavor, this one was very subtle, and smooth, very spreadable. The salad also had a light dressing, and by light I mean light, just the way it should be, not dripping off your arugula or drowning your salad. Just enough to give the lettuce a little more flavor than it has on its own, you barely know it's there, which is exactly how it should be when you have a salad like this with so many full flavored ingredients.
Quinoa Salad with cucumber, grape tomatoes, feta cheese
This, excuse my language, was fucking amazing. I can't believe I've gone my whole life without having quinoa. I didn't even know how to pronounce quinoa. Which by the way, the pronunciation is: \ˈkēn-ˌwä\ or keen-wah, I have no idea if it tastes this good all the time every time, or if this is a one time deal. A little history about Quinoa, it's been eaten for over 6,000 years. So yes, I am far behind the times here. It's actually an editable seed. And, delicious I might add to that edible.
This salad had what tasted like a balsamic dressing on it, the salad was moist. Not dripping wet, but moist. The quinoa was crunchy. Like I said never had it before, so I don't know if it's usually served crunchy or can be soft, but it was great crunchy. It reminded me of caviar, which I would never eat, but it was like a vegetable caviar. Little, tiny, beady, crunchy pops of yumminess. I could have just had a plate full of this stuff with the dressing, screw the cucumbers and cheese...although they were an added bonus to each scrumptiously lucky bite that managed to find them hidden inside it.
Portabello Mushroom On Toasted Ciabatta with hummus, cucumber and sprouts ($9)
Served With Your Choice Of Quinoa Salad, Mixed Greens Or Kettle Chips
I had the kettle chips with this sandwich. The kettle chips were typical, yummy, and extra crunchy. Lots of them. I expected the mushroom to be warm (for some reason) so my expectations tainted my experience. I've had amazing portabella mushrooms, which could easily rival a good steak, so I think I was expecting that. A very flavorful mushroom with some toppings on some bread. What I got was very flavorful hummus sauce, and flavorful bread, with a less flavorful mushroom. The cucumbers where a nice addition, I liked the crunchy feeling of the cucumbers with the less firm feeling of the cold mushroom. The sandwich it self was a bit small. But I guess that's to be expected with a mushroom as the "burger". The bread was tasty, but reminded me more of a sourdough than a ciabatta. But what do I know. It was tough on the outside, soft in the middle, kind of sour (maybe that was from the hummus sauce??), with a floury coating, and shaped like little buns. I don't usually think of ciabatta that way, but again what do I know. There was a lot of bread compared to my little mushrooms; I ended up having to pull some of it off because there was just too much bread and not enough innards to go around. Kinda like the hotdog not fitting in the bun. Overall it was a decent sandwich, had I not come to the table with expectations like I did, perhaps I would have loved it. Compared to other items on the menu, not for me.
Tri-Tip Sandwich On Toasted Baguette ($11)
Served With Your Choice Of Quinoa Salad, Mixed Greens Or Kettle Chips
This sandwich surpassed anything and everything I could have wished. It was heavenly. Of course it helped that this was also where I was introduced to the quinoa salad, as this was my choice of side. No need to discuss that see my review above. This sandwich was first of all HUGE. I'm from Minnesota and I grew up on meat and potatoes and I like to pride myself on knowing and appreciating good red meat. This was divine. The meat had so much wonderful flavor, I wanted to strip it out of the bun and eat it on its own. I actually did with one half of the sandwich. There was enough meat on that sandwich; it could have been a meal on its own. I'm not entirely sure what kind of "sauce" was on this sandwich, it had a sour flavor to it, maybe a mustard sauce of some sort, whatever it was, and I'll be happy to go down and have another one of these puppies to figure it out, it was perfect. There was also what looked like cream cheese, well, it had the texture of cream cheese anyway. I actually think it was a goat cheese of some sort, because it didn't taste like cream cheese. There was mixed greens on the salad also, and what reminded me of a pico de gallo salsa. Chopped tomatoes, onions, and maybe even cilantro. That was tasty too, as it spilled out of my sandwich, I just topped it on my tri-tip and kept on eating. I really needed to pay more attention, but I was so distracted by my surprise at how scrumptious it was I forgot to take notes.
Here's their website, but clearly they need to update it since the last post was during the superbowl:
http://jovinosf.com/
I'm not a huge fan of their website.
When I go to a website, I want pictures of food, an easy to find address, and maybe a phone number. None of that stuff on this website.
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