Grand Palace Seafood Restaurant is a Cantonese Chinese restaurant in downtown South San Francisco. This restaurant opened in 2005 and is located on a street with a wide variety of different restaurants. They are best known for dim sum lunch and wedding banquets, but we were nearby at dinnertime and decided to give them a try. The restaurant is about 3 blocks from Highway 101′s Grand Avenue exit.

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Roam Artisan Burgers is a new Burger joint on Union Street in the Marina district. They focus on humanely raised, grass feed meats, sustainable produce, organic ice cream salted caramel milkshakes, wine on-tap, and agave-sweetened sodas. Even their menu is printed on 100% post consumer recycled paper or using green energy. All their packaging is hundred percent compostable. Read the rest of this entry »

Wayfare Tavern is a new restaurant from celebrity chef Tyler Florence that opened earlier in the week. It is located in Rubicon’s old Financial District location. He is also opening Rotisserie & Wine in Napa and El Paseo in Mill Valley. Michael Thiemann is the chef de cuisine by way of Merriman’s in Hawaii and the Hapuku Lodge in New Zealand. They focus on local and sustainable ingredients for their American cuisine. Read the rest of this entry »

Paradise Kabab House is a family run Persian restaurant in downtown Redwood City. They emphasis is on healthy home style cooking on an open fire. As they put it: “No deep frying, no artificial flavoring, no precooked foods and no canned products!” Read the rest of this entry »

Ame Restaurant in San Francisco’s St. Regis Hotel serves up seasonal New American cuisine, blending of flavors from southern France, northern Italy and especially Japan. No sushi here though. Hiro Sone and Lissa Doumani are also chefs and co-owners of Terra Restaurant in St. Helena. They received One Michelin Star in 2010 and have been open since 2006. Read the rest of this entry »

Jeffrey’s Hamburgers is a popular burger joint in downtown San Mateo open since 1997. They also have a location in Menlo Park. They serve American fast food including burgers, hot dogs, fish and chips, salads, fries, and shakes. Seems like every town has a place like this, San Francisco has its Mel’s Drive in.. We have been here several times over the years and find them pretty much during lunch time. Read the rest of this entry »

Ramen Dojo recently opened in San Mateo at legendary Santa Ramen’s original location, no doubt hoping to capture some of its good karma. In fact it’s owned by the same people. They focus on spicy ramen, specifically Sutamina Ramen (aka Stamina Ramen) that is served in a couple restaurants.

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Gourmet Village is a Chinese restaurant that opened in April 2010 on Millbrae’s Broadway Street. The chef used to work at the well-respected The Kitchen restaurant.  We came once for lunch and once for dinner.
Decor, Vibe – Gourmet Village has bare-bones Chinese restaurant decor with just a couple artifacts on the walls and some seafood tanks in the back. Mostly locals were having lunch when we were dining. Dinner was another story, with the place jam packed. Asians seem to like trying new places.

Menu

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5A5 Steak Lounge is a contemporary take on a Steakhouse, and is located in San Francisco’s Jackson Square area. They serve , 100% natural beef with no antibiotics or hormones. Executive Chef Allen Chen formerly cooked at Cupertino’s top rated Alexanders Steakhouse, so you see a lot of similarities here.

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Hakka Restaurant is a family run Chinese restaurant in San Francisco’s Outer Richmond District that opened in early 2010. It has garnered some foodie attention on chowhound. While they serve a wide variety of Chinese dishes, they are known for their Chinese specialties. Read the rest of this entry »