The first part to my San Francisco guide to eating out was posted last week, showcasing the restaurants and eateries I visited during the first day of my trip. That included Lori’s Diner near Union Square and Pier Market Seafood Restaurant at Pier 39 by Fisherman’s Wharf.
Today, we finish off the series with part two, highlighting where I ate on the second day of my trip. That makes sense, don’t you think?
Bean Bag Coffee House
601 Divisadero Street
After visiting “Full House Street” and Alamo Square Park, we walked about a block over to Divisadero Street. This looked to be a rather trendy, almost “hipster” kind of neighborhood with a number of smaller eateries. We had originally planned to eat at Mojo Bicycle Cafe, which is both a cafe and a bike shop, but we opted for Bean Bag Coffee House instead.
Shown above is one of the savory crepes, served with French fries. The crepe was a little on the doughy side of things, but it was still quite tasty. Susanne also got one of the premium smoothies, which was both fresh and refreshing.
I opted for the special of the day, which was a huevos rancheros. The giant slices of avocado were certainly appealing and there was no shortage of cheese sprinkled on top. I got a cup of coffee to go with it and I couldn’t be happier.
A word to the wise, though. Bean Bag Cafe has very limited seating (and no bean bags) and can get quite busy. Scope out somewhere to sit before you decide to order your food from the counter.
Westfield San Francisco Center Food Court
865 Market Street
After taking care of some business with Western Digital, we made our way to Westfield San Francisco. This is a reasonably large shopping center in the heart of downtown. The thing is that this food court is no ordinary mall food court.
Instead, it’s more like the food courts that you find in Taipei. They don’t serve “fast food” in the traditional sense; you get real food, served on real plates with real cutlery. There’s a Japanese grill, a steak place, a Korean BBQ and more.
Since I only wanted a snack, I opted for a couple of fried fish tacos for about $5 or $6. We also got a blended beverage from the Ghirardelli Ice Cream and Chocolate Shop.
The Old Siam Thai Restaurant
201 Ellis Street
We had originally planned to go to Smooth Thai in the Parc 55 Hotel across the street, but The Old Siam looked like it was more popular. We took that as a good sign and chose it as our final meal in San Francisco. We ordered a spicy noodle soup with seafood (tom yum) and a pan fried rice noodle dish, along with a couple of Thai iced teas.
While the food was perfectly fine, it wasn’t really anything to write home about either. Pricing was fair and service was reasonably attentive. The tom yum soup noodle was quite fragrant and they didn’t really skimp on the ingredients.
For more on San Francisco, including more food pictures, be sure to peruse through my Flickr photostream. I place Vancouver in very high regard when it comes to the variety and quality of restaurants that we have, but based on my very short visit to San Francisco, I’d say that they have a pretty great food culture too.
Those are really mouth watering. If I have a chance to go to san francisco i will surely try all these out.
All of the food really looks good Michael, except for the crepe. The only reason I say that is because there is no color contrast to the dish. It’s all gray/brown, no green, no nothing in the way of color.
As you said before, we eat with our eyes first, so unless you have omitted something in the picture then it doesn’t strike me as something I would have enjoyed.
I agree. I think there was an option for a different side, perhaps soup or salad, and that may have helped with adding a dash of color.
Its so pretty and I would like to share this page on facebook and twitter also.
Im hungry just looking @ your pictures..