In North Beach there are a million Italian places but Jane knows her stuff and recommended this one, so we tried it out. Jane and I started off with the bruschetta, which was tasty though I wasn’t very good at keeping the stuff on the bread as I ate it. The key to a good italian place is supposed to be the gnocchi, so that’s what Jane got (she’d loved it before) and I got hte gnocchi panchetta. Both were really good. Splurged on a little chocolate souffle for dessert that was appropiately yummy. That was that! The service overall was good, and most of the waitstaff was “quite attractive.” I’ve heard they will dance, but we didn’t observe any of that.
Be careful if you go here, they don’t take credit cards, but the food is great.
]]>]]>Lori’s Diner
(415) 677-9999
149 Powell St
San Francisco, CA 94102
We were meeting in the Mission before DJ Spinnerty’s gig at Skylark, and Jamie suggested we meet at this little place at 16th and Valencia called Pancho Villa. Mission is always colorful, and I got to take some of that in while I waited for Jamie and Zack to get there. Even though I had already had a burrito for lunch, the meat looked so good I decided to go for their Deluxe Burrito with carnitas, refried beans, rice, and cheese. I also had a pretty good Horchata, which is a Mexican drink with rice, almonds, cinnamon and sugar. (My favorite horchata is still in Austin at that place everyone goes during SxSW, can’t remember the name.) The burrito ended up being pretty dry, I think they used too much rice and not enough beans or meat. The chips were also a little stale, none of use ended up eating many of them. The best part about Pancho Villa is probably the crowd, it was totally packed when we were there and we also had a window seat and got to observe some interesting antics outside. Nice atmosphere, but I’m convinced there’s better Mexican in the Mission.
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I have some fond memories of Olive Garden from Houston because when I moved out of my parent’s house there was an Olive Garden almost exactly between us. So the restruant always reminds me of my family and going there ever since I was really young and devouring the breadsticks. Also some of my earliest digital photos are from when my Mom took me to OG on the last day of school. Earlier today someone mentioned the restruant on #wordpress and I got a crazy craving for those breadsticks again.
I went to their not horrible website and found the closest one is about 8 miles away in the Stonestown Galleria. The service was friendly, though sometimes not as prompt as I would have liked. They sat us at a giant table with 8 seats. First off, the breadsticks were terrible. After eating two (I was hungry) we sent them back and the second batch was just as bad. The salad was decent, though not as crispy or fresh as I would have liked. I ordered the Tuscan Garlic Chicken which is a limited time special. It came with curly fettecine and some bell peppers and garlic cloves. The drink was (of course) Dr Pepper. The chicken was tasty but a little dry, the fettecine was really good and well-spiced. I had filled up on breadsticks so ended up taking a bit home.
Overall, the food was decent but I’m inclined to give it a lower rating because the breadsticks were so bad. 2 out of 5.
]]>3251 20TH AVENUE SPACE 187
SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94132
Phone: (415) 661-6770
Fax: (415) 661-5434Sun – Thurs: 11:00 AM – 10:00 PM
Fri – Sat: 11:00 AM – 11:00 PM