Gitane Restaurant and Bar is a “modern, funky, and artistically bold restaurant” in downtown San Francisco in a hidden alley. It focuses on Basque small plates or tapas. They have a large beautiful bar area, outdoor seating, and upstairs dining room.

Beautiful Bar

Upstairs Dining area

Decor, Vibe - Modern, eclectic feel with lots of interesting colors and textures. Mostly people in their 20’s to 50’s were dining. Lots of yuppies in the bar.

Menu Pictures

Website Menu

Picks:

Eggplant asada ($10) sliced grilled eggplant, chilled and rolled with herbed goat cheese, arugula salad, balsamic reduction had 4 decent sized pieces of eggplant on top of a small salad. Quality and freshness was good.

Cordero natural lamb foreshank ($27), braised in tempranillo red wine, orange zest, coriander, with baked polenta was one big piece of tender lamb. Still a gamey but the meat came right off the bone. Polenta was too salty.

San sebastian Cocktail ($9) sagatiba cachaça, fresh lime juice, lemon, mandarin, & grapefruit slices was a potent balance drink. Not too sweet or fruity.

OK:

Ribs ($12) hill natural baby back pork ribs, honey-soy glaze, brussel sprout leaves, parsnip puree, crisped serrano ham was just too lukewarm. Sauce was not special.

Espinaca ($5) sauteed spinach, pine nuts, golden raisins was an average spinach dish.

Pans:
None

Gitane Restaurant and Bar is a very stylish and fun place. The food is average, nothing amazing. We would recommend going here for drinks and a couple small plates. Bigger meals get pricey, causing value to severely erode.

Espetus Churrascaria is a Brazilian steakhouse serving Rodizio style food. They focus on meats straight from the fire brought to your table continuously. You can stop the meat parade by flipping the table card to red. They have a salad and hot plate bar with lots of different options including asparagus, bean salad, eggplant, rice, beans, cod, and much more. Do not eat too much of this stuff otherwise you wonder have room for all the meat.
They have locations in San Francisco and San Mateo. We tried the brand new San Mateo location for dinner. It is all you can eat, with lunch going for $24.95 with 7 meat options. Dinner is $49.95 with 14 meat options. Kids are 50% off.

Interior

Bar Area

Kitchen

Salad Bar

Decor, Vibe - Brand new interior with high ceilings, beautiful lights, and modern touches. Stylish bar and lounge area with separate menu. Families, couples, and lots of people in their 30’s and 40’s were dining when we were..

Menu Pictures

Wine List

Cocktail menu

Dessert Menu

After Dinner Drinks

Brochure

Food Pictures

The cheese bread, fried plantains, and fried polenta were very good.

You are served 14 different items from the skewer; Pineapple, Shrimp, Sirlon, Lamb, Lamb chops, Sirloin with parmesan, Cubed Marinated Sirloin, Filet Mignon, Pork loin, Flank steak, Bacon wrapped chicken, chicken breast, and Ribs on a cart (You can ask for a rib). Many were cooked to medium - medium well.

The best items were:

Pineapple - lightly roasted, still juicy and a nice contrast to the meat.

Chicken Hearts - Tender and flavorful. Many tables avoided it and missed out!

Lamb - Slightly Gamey but tender and tasty.

Sirloin - Very Juicy and good flavor.

Filet Mignon - Very tender meat.

Caipirinha ($10) was a very good, well balanced drink with lots of fresh lime flavor. Not much punch though.

Mixed Berry Panna Cotta ($8.95) was a huge portion and tasted average. Not very delicate or smooth. Yes we were pretty full but someone has to test dessert.

Other Average Meat

Ask for the Rib

The service was above average then faded a little as the place got busy. Espetus Churrascaria is a fun place to dine at. It is one of those places that people need to visit at least once to try out the experience.
You will stuff yourself with lots of decent salad bar options as well as endless stream of meat. The quality of some meats was not high. As far coming back, that is a different story as prices are pretty high and I’ll remember a meat coma for a while. Vegetarians should avoid this place! Save money by coming for lunch.

Also at:
1686 Market St
San Francisco, CA 94102
415-552-8792
Online Reservations

Shalizaar is a Persian restaurant in Belmont. It moved here from a smaller location in San Mateo. They specialize in Persian Kabobs. They have an oven at one end of the dining room constantly making flat bread.

You get warm flat bread, mint leaves, walnuts and feta cheese after you sit down.

Decor, Vibe - Very fancy location with lots of expensive decor including a domed ceiling. They must make a lot of money. Big communal table in the front.
Families, couples, and bigger groups of all sorts of races were dining at Shalizaar.

Menu Pictures

Menu

Wine List

Picks:

Lamb Chops

Hen

Beef

Saffron Rice

Shalizaar, Special for Two ($40.95) A combination of three kabobs, joojeh (Cornish game hen), barreh (lamb filet), and koobideh (seasoned ground beef) served with rice and tomatoes, made for two but it can easily feed 3 adults.
The lamb was cooked to medium, it was still on the bone and very delicious. The game hen was tender and juicy, cooked very well. The beef was formed from ground beef, so it was pretty soft and mushy, but flavorful, tasty, and a little greasy. Tomatoes were slightly burned, otherwise tasted normal. You are supposed to mash it into the saffron rice.

OK:

Kashk-e-Bademjan ($6.95) Cooked pureed eggplant, topped with Kashk. (Kashk is a creamy sauce made of yogurt) and sauteed mint. A big place of it, good for dipping the bread into.

Dough ($2) is a yogurt mixed with club soda, mint, salt, and pepper drink. A fine rendition of an acquired taste. Foodies should try it at least once.

Pans:
None

Service was good, waiters were roaming around all the time. It slowed after the place got full.
If we were looking for Persian food, we would definitely have this on our short list. The place gets packed during peak times, so make a reservation.

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