OSHA THAI RESTAURANT

Mary:

I've eaten lunches at Osha before, and always enjoyed the food and the decor, especially the amount of light that enters from the wall-to-wall front windows. It gives the place a clean, crisp feeling. Someone has been overdoing the decorations (flowers and birds on the metal cut-out panels on the wall). It looks a little kitschy now, downgraded from elegant artistic.
I decided to eat off the appetizer menu. It seemed easier than trying to pick out an entree--mainly because they all sounded so good. So I had the lettuce wrap (Jesse did too, so I'll let her describe the ingredients.) The wraps were very good. The stir fried chicken and minced veggies were blended with a great-tasting sauce. The leaves of the lettuce were crisp and rounded so they were easy to fill and eat from. No juice and tidbits dripping down my fingers and arms. 

The Beef Wasabi Rolls were formed around julienned carrots and celery, with mint, wrapped with sliced grilled steak on watercress with a rich wasabi sauce poured over the top. I liked them, but they didn't quite make it to perfection. Something to do with the sauce and how it didn't blend into the other ingredients. I liked the bite and flavor of the wasabi sauce, and the best part was eating the watercress at the bottom which had been sitting in the sauce. It was more pungent and hot than what remained on the meat. The sauce on the saturated cress came just shy of opening up my sinuses. Just how I like it.

Shirley:
Osha is good corporate Thai food.  There are a bunch of them, so consistency is key. I always appreciate the thought and care given to please the eye in all their locations. Not sure I like the current trend in many restaurants toward hard surfaces that amplify sound, and I miss the dark grey mesh that separated the wall decor from the dining area. It created a subtle suggestion of depth that the black adorned grates lack. And the touch of whimsy of the "butt" chairs always tickles my fancy.

I enjoyed my meal a lot. It may be my southern background, but good peanut-butter makes me happy. So I chose two dishes that were "peanutty" and very satisfying.
The Osha Fresh Spring Rolls with tofu (you can get shrimp instead) had carrots, cilantro, lettuce, mint, all very fresh, and wrapped in rice noodle skins. The sweet & sour peanut dipping sauce was thick and tangy, with a tiny bit of heat.

The Beef Praram with peanut curry sauce and steamed spinach was served with rice. There were other options for meat (tofu, shrimp, pork, chicken) and options for rice (Brown Rice, Coconut Rice, Ginger Rice, Curry Rice or Sticky Rice). It's fun to mix and match. The beef was tender, the spinach sauted just right, bright green just barely wilted. A few slices of brocolli stem were thrown in there it give it some crunch. Altogether, a nice, well-balanced dish. And, of course, the peanut sauce was just what I needed.
The staff was pleasant and helpful. Some language confusion made for a slight challenge, but not enough to greatly hinder communication. Try asking a waitperson "What's in the shrimp-paste?" if you want to kill some time.
So, we are back to acknowledging Ray Crock for the concept of standardized menu and food prep. Osha is a chain, but one of the good ones. Give it a try on a medium-exciting day.

Jesse:

   I love the interior here. Very restive and a bit of elegance and whimsy. An orchid flower is served with most dishes.

     As usual I started by informing our waitstaff of my food allergies to see if anything I was interested in would be ok for me to eat. I was heartened by the statement at the bottom of the menu: Please advise us of any food allergies before ordering. Perfect, they are aware and knowledgable of food allergies.

     They turn out to be very helpful but as Shirley hinted at, there is a language barrier here. Their first language is not English so I could not be 100% sure that my food was really void of allergens. Here's an example. I was interested in their crab fried rice which contained shrimp paste. When I asked what was in the shrimp paste, I was told it was in the crab fried rice, and around in circles we went as if we were in an Abbott and Costello skit. 

     

So we decided on the Lettuce Wrap with Wok-fried minced chicken, red & green onion, cilantro, mint, lemongrass in sweet chili paste served with lettuce for $9.95. I asked for medium hot chili without soy sauce. It was good but had no heat at all and was pretty bland. Fish sauce and chill oil didn't even help too much.

     I also ordered the Crab Fried Rice, with crab claws & shredded crab, shrimp paste, green peas, carrots, egg, onions, garlic, cilantro & green onions for $14.95. No soy sauce and medium chili. It was even more bland and unimproved by liberal doses of chili oil and fish sauce. I would not order that dish again. Too expensive for too much bland. 

     The interior of the bathroom is similar in tone to the main dining area. Restive and a bit elegant. I love their floor tiles made to look like river stones.

Ratings: 1-5 stars. 5 being tops

Food: 3.5 stars 

Bathroom: 3.5 stars

Ambiance: 3.5 stars

     I would eat here again but probably just for a lunch. I would not come here for a big, celebratory meal. Their food isn't quite good enough for that.

OSHA THAI RESTAURANT Mission Street

				OSHA THAI RESTAURANT Mission Street Welcome to Osha Thai Restaurant on Valencia
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La Rondalla

Shirley:
Ah, La Rondalla, your history and reputation inhabit a friendly space in my memories. I used to eat regularly at your old incarnation, waited patiently through your remodel and drama and finally ate in the clean, spacious place you have become. Your food is great but I have some issues with both the food and the environment.
My suspicion is that this restaurant went the way of the old Roosevelt's Tamale Parlor on Mission - same place, same name, but gentrified and fusioned by different owners. La Rondalla used to be a "mom's-cooking-in-the-kitchen" kind of place, nothing fancy, just standard Mexican fare. It used to be dark, dingy, even a little dirty, with so many layers of years of decorations that you almost missed the archival photos of dead animals and fish on the walls. Almost.
It is not that now. So, I will refrain from comparison.
The Burritos Mojados De Chile Verde Y Chile Colorado (two wet pork burritos of chile verde and chile colorado topped with sour cream) were delicious. The pork was cooked to perfection and each sauce was a distinct delight, yet complimented the other. It came with a little salad with the Mexican version of Thousand Island dressing; nothing to write home about, just a little crunch of iceberg. The sauces were deep and flavorful. So, good food. Not homey Mexican good, more upscale, modern good. 
As for the interior of the restaurant, it was cavernous, cold and loud. Even the warm colors and leftover St. Patrick's Day decorations (?) could not warm the place up. Sound ricocheted off the hard walls, ceiling and tile floors, so that any conversation had to be conducted in a shout. I cannot image what the sound level is like if the place is busy because it was pretty empty when we were there and we left soon after eating, just so we could talk to each other.
So, if you want some good almost-Mexican food, it is a great place to eat. But do not go if you are nostalgic for the old La Rondalla because it has gone through a metamorphose into something not better, not worse, just different. I actually resent establishments that are trying to attract folks back to something that no longer exists. I would prefer they be open about their new interpretation of an iconic destination and not try to pass themselves off as something they are not.
Eat, drink and be merry

Mary:

I’ve been hearing about La Rondalla for a long time. It’s been shut for about ten years and whenever we walked past it’s empty self, I wondered what would become of that site. So it’s opened again, same site, same name and the manager is a relative of the original owner.

The food was excellent. I had Fajitas De Carne Asada: grilled skirt steak sautéed with tomatoes, onions and bell peppers served with sour cream, guacamole and pico de gallo. ($15.50) I ordered this dish because it reminded me of my favorite meal at the now defunct Mom is Cooking. I wasn’t disappointed. The meat was tender, and the vegetables were fully cooked and crisp…pulled off the heat at just the right moment. Very delicious. A sweet old gentleman passed by our table several times asking if everything was to our satisfaction. We muttered that it was, with our mouths full. I wish I had spoken more to him because I suspect that he was the original owner…but I was distracted by the good food. I tasted from the plates of my tablemates, and everything was good enough to consider ordering. 

The décor was bright, clean. The ding to this experience was the din. La Rondalla is large with high ceilings, so it’s almost impossible to hear the conversation at a small table for four. La Randalla is definitely a good place to savor good Mexican food. It’s definitely not a place to converse and expect to hear or be heard.

Jesse:

     At long last, La Rondalla is back!!!! WOOHOO!!  I am delighted to see what the new restaurant is all about. In my twenties, I spent many hours, after hours actually, sitting in one of their booths after a delightful evening of dancing on Valencia St. I loved the decor. Their food was so so, but the decor and patrons were great. So many layers of Christmas decorations sparkled everywhere. I loved it. I'm a big fan of Christmas and Mexican food, but not so much the photos of the hunters, fisherman and their dead animals that also decorated the walls in this establishment. But somehow, it all worked and I was very comfortable here to eat, lounge and  watch the  people go by. Yum.

     Well, the new place is very different. Same huge interior. The bar is in the main room now and there are still two large dining rooms with high ceilings. No more lovely funky decorations tho. I didn't really expect it, but I hoped it would have some character. This place looks like all the other modern Mexican food joints. A bit boring. Clean and boring. So, hopefully the food will be better. One good thing is the kitchen is open and you can watch while they cook. I always enjoy that.

     As my friends have mentioned, the high ceilings let the place get  LOUD really fast. It was maybe a third full and it was already too loud to hear each other. 

     So we speak really loud and commence to enjoy our food, which is really, really good. Much better than the old place. The waitstaff is knowledgable and helpful with food allergies. I ordered the Tampiquena, strips of tender beef sauteed in a home - made red salsa with sautéed potatoes (french fries), jalapeno chile, onion, tomatoes and bell peppers for $13.50. Yum. Would order this again even if I had to yell to do it.

     They have two bathrooms and one has a diaper table. Boring but pretty clean.

Ratings: 

Food: 3.7 stars out of 5

Ambiance: 3

Bathroom: 3

 

Herbivore

Jesse:       

     We thought we might have to skip this restaurant. Many of their entrees were made with soy, including the meatless meat dishes. But I decided to call first before we scratched them off our list. Hey, if Dosa could whip me up something to eat when most of what they serve includes coconut, then anyone could right? Wrong. 

     I call the restaurant, and start by just asking about soy and it took all of 10 seconds for them to tell me in a very bored tone that No, there was Nothing on their menu that I could eat. Hum, I got the distinct impression that they did not give a rat's ass about accommodating me.

     Farewell Herbivore, I'm glad I didn't get to know you.

Rating:  0 

Udupi Palace

Shirley:
Ah, the Udupi Palace, another well-frequented establishment in my general work area. I like the place but be aware, the excitement scale, it ranks as "been there, done that, many times". It is a fine place, I am just a little impatient, looking forward to some gastronomic exploration in my future.
If you are extremely hungry, try a Vada appetizer. These deep fried lentil donuts (remember my philosophy on deep fried?) are excellent and will anchor you to your chair. They are dense and crisp and marry well with the sambar (soup) and chutney.

I ordered the Northern Indian Thali, which is a cornucopia of dosa and uthapams (lentil crepes, either thin or thick), sambar, curries, poori, raitia, chana masala and a sweeten rice pudding. I know this sounds like I know what I am talking about, but I actually didn't quite know which was which for a lot of different dishes, but most were good anyway. It is a fun dish if you have a short attention span and I do. I believe the entire tray is carefully balanced with the sweet-salty-hot-mild-thick-thin-/hot-cold mix. It may be based in Ayervedic traditions, but I an not an expert on that, so it is only conjecture.
And, may I say, I love stainless steel dishware. Always have, don't know why. All the trays and little dishes and the heft and shininess all contribute to a happy place inside me.
My poor friend, Barbara, was a bit discombobulated by the whole experience. The chai tea was not her normal PG Tips and she was never quite sure of what she was eating. She is a game old bird, though, and muddled through. She did not order dessert nor did she ask for the remainder of her meal be packed to take home, telltale signs that it was not her favorite place for dinner.
Our waitperson was careful and knowedgable about ingredients, only winced once when we started messing with the menu and kept watch over who was eating what. We were again in the window table, so Valencia street was its usual entertainment. Funny how sometimes I feel like I can see out but they cannot see in. Not true of course, but it does seem a little voyeuristic at times.
Try out the Udupi Palace if you want to try something a little different from your usual Indian fare. It's interesting and comfortable and the donuts are killers!

Jesse:

    Again, at 5:30pm, we were the first patrons to arrive so we were able to grab a table by the window. By 6pm, the palace was about half full tonight. The ambiance was warm, comforting and interesting. They're playing pleasant Indian music that fits nicely with the Indian instruments displayed on the wall.

     Our waiter was very friendly and helpful with my list of food allergies. On their appetizer menu they actually serve a donut I can eat!  I haven't eaten a donut of any kind for many years. These are called Medhu Vada, you receive two donuts made from fried lentils served with sambar and chutney. Everyone loved them. We ended up eating two orders between the four of us. Later we regretted eating so many donuts  as we were a bit full and couldn't eat quite as much of the entrees as we would have liked. But we happily groaned and soldiered through. The kitchen made a special dipping sauce just for me and the waiter was very protective by cautioning me to not eat any of the other sauces, which I appreciated very much. 

     My entree was the Masala Dosa. A huge dosa, two foot long, made of crispy rice. Luckily their dosa batter does not use coconut and I could safely eat it.  All of our food came on metal lunch trays with impressions for several sauces. My dosa had a small metal bowl inside filled with a delicious spicy mix of potatoes and onions. I would definitely order this again.

     Everyone was having a good time during our meal. Being big fans of South Indian Cuisine we appreciate when it's done well.

     Well, time for the bathroom review:

     I was surprised to find it a bit littered. It was generally clean but looked a bit ragged around the edges. It could use a little paint here and there, but their nice use of tile kept it from looking too funky.

Bathroom rating:   2.5 out of 5 stars

Udupi Palace rating:   3.5 out of 5 stars

Mary:

This is the third Indian restaurant in a row that we have reviewed. So it feels that I am comparing Udupi Palace with Dosa and Aslam’s Rasoi more than with other kinds of restaurants. For example: dosas. Dosa, of course, specializes in them; Udupi offers them and other South Indian cuisine, but in a Hindu meatless style. I liked Dosa's dosas better because they were lighter, thinner, and were infused with a light coconut flavor. Udupi’s dosas were thicker and not as crisp.

I ordered sag paneer: spinach with cheese. Always a favorite of mine, and I was not disappointed.

The donuts took up a lot of space in my belly. Beware heavy donuts! We tasted off each other’s plates and I enjoyed sampling the delights in Shirley’s thali. It brought back images of eating this dish in Kovalam Beach, India, in the traditional way. The tali there was served on a large piece of banana leaf and was eaten without silverware. It was made more delightful by being served in a restaurant outside with sand under my feet and palm trees over my head. But it tasted the same here at Udupi Palace as it did in my memory of India.

The sauces were excellent; the spices pungent and well blended. The service was good. The décor was typical for an Indian restaurant. My palate, however, was a little jaded. I look forward to another type of cuisine…then maybe a return trip to one of these three Indian restaurants.

DOSA

Mary:

DOSA

This was a more than pleasant experience, beginning with calling for reservations, which was done through an answering service, and done well—right through dessert and paying gladly for the mixture of cuisine and waiter and atmosphere. I felt very well taken care of.

The food was great. The first edibles on the table were papadoms, and they came just in time. We arrived hungry, and were joking about gnawing on each other’s shoulders but the thin tasty wafer bread, made from garbanzo bean flour and therefore edible by both Jesse and I, kept us from being inappropriate at the table. I ordered Paneer and Pea Dosa…toasted just right like a quesadilla so that the melted cheese and crisp dosa made a great crunchy texture as I bit into it. The taste was a thoughtful blend of flavors. The dipping sauces were good too…several different ones to choose from with differing degrees of heat. The side order of raita, besides being a good treat, helped to cool my mouth when it got heated up by the spices.

Our friend, Barbara, was with us, and she liked the taste of the lamb korma she ordered, but it proved too hot for her. So I traded one of my dosas for half of her korma, and enjoyed the high taste of blended spices (coconut, ginger, garlic and cardamom) in the traditional sauce covering well-cooked lamb cubes, (too often they are overcooked.) Excellent. And good with the raita.

I have spent time in Kovalam Beach in South India, and I am used to and enjoy their particular foods, which differ from the food I eat when I am in Bombay. I thought Dosa did an excellent job of bringing this ‘southern’ cooking to the American table.

Barbara and I were the only ones with any room when we finished our main courses, so I went off my minimal-sugar and carb diet (first time I have been tempted to do so at one of our blog dinners) and split a pot au crème with her. Good, creamy, probably should have done without it

.

The waiter was excellent and worked hard to make our meal memorable. Loved the hanging light

Taj Hotel in Bombay. I've had afternoon teas there.

shades and the way the décor was done: elegant street chic melting into the background. Nice photograph montage of the Taj hotel in Bombay on one wall. For some reason this was the easiest restaurant to hear ourselves talking at our table, even when the restaurant was full. I felt like everything possible was done to make the diners and their dinners the centerpiece; and to send them out the door feeling well taken care of. That’s how I felt when I left.

Dosa in the evening light when we left.

Shirley:

Even the water was good!

I have always had a great meal at Dosas. It is southern Indian food at it's best. Although there are the usual curry, lentils and rice found in an Indian restaurant, there are many unique and delightful additions to the menu.

Any time dinner starts with a bowl of crispy papadam, I am happy. And I was not kidding about the water - it's filtered through coconut husks and was noticeably good. I am usually just fine with tap water, kind of a "water is water" girl, and thoroughly enjoyed the drink.

I ordered the Paneer & Almond Kofta (veggie “meatballs” made of parsnip, squash, potato, mint  with a side of the recommended coconut rice. This was so good that I groaned a bit with every bite. The creamy sauce was plentiful and delicious and the balls  had a velvety, rich texture. It was all great.

My friend Barb tried the Lamb Korma (boneless, dried coconut, ginger, garlic, green cardamom) with lemon rice. The waiter was careful to ask everyone about their heat preferences and the kitchen was very careful to get it right. Still, Barb is an ex-Brit and even the mild heat was a bit too much for her. Too bad for her, really good for Mary and Me. Mary's Paneer & Peas (like an Indian quesadilla) was perfect for Barb, so we swapped some plates around and we were all very happy. And all the little dips that came along with Mary's plate were great.

So, the food was great, the water was great and that is just the beginning. I have never experienced the high level of care and knowledge that was brought to the table, not just from the waiter but from the entire staff. We had some challenges to get everyone exactly what they wanted, but everyone worked together that night to make everyone happy. In fact, they went out of their way to accommodate some tricky obstacles to a great meal.

It is a pleasant environment, the people taking care of you are considerate and smart, and the food is fantastic. Go try it and see if it isn't a great restaurant!


Jesse:

 As person with so many food allergies, I was impressed when the woman we talked to taking our reservation asked if anyone had any food allergies and asked for a list of them. Unfortunately the food allergy information did not reach my waiter so it wasn’t very useful but it turned out that the restaurant did take food allergies seriously. When I informed my waiter of my allergies, I was brought a separate menu that listed all Nut, Dairy and Gluten allergies. It looked very helpful but I found it a little overwhelming trying to order from a graph. Plus I am allergic to all those ingredients plus coconut and coconut is in all their Dosas,  Curries and  Uttapams, which comprise 85% of their menu. Coconut husk is also used to filter their water. I was told the water was delicious but their menu left little for me to eat and left me thinking maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.

 It seemed from my chart/menu that only a couple of vegetable dishes were ok for me. Our waiter turned out to be fantastic and really came through. He worked with the chef who made a non-coconut curry from scratch and cooked up a Kuttanadan lobster tail, rice and the Shikampuri Kebab lamb sliders, allergen-free as well. Our waiter’s name was David and we voted him best waiter of Valencia St. He even gave us an education of Southern Indian cuisine and the items on the menu.

      I was able to eat the Papadam. Yum. Delicious on the first bite and then a couple of seconds later comes another wave of great tastes.

My lobster, curry and rice dish was really good. Really, really good. I haven’t been able to relax around a curry for a long time and here, I am 100% sure I can eat it without problems, which meant a lot to me. The lamb sliders were two small disks of lamb and herbs that were screaming spicy hot. It came with a delicious sauce of red peppers and garlic, also very, hot. I had forgotten to ask for the spice/hot level to be adjusted. The sliders were overcooked but everything else was delicious.

We ordered a second bowl of Papadam to sop up all our leftover delightful sauces leaving nothing on our plates.

      

After dinner I made it a point to thank the chef who made sure I was able to enjoy my food without any health issues.

Well, on to my least favorite section of my review but nonetheless important to many. The bathrooms. There are two here and one has a diaper changing table. Yay! An important and helpful item. They also had kleenex dispensers which came in very handy. After eating the hot, spicy food, my sinuses were cleared out and watering. I do have to say that I was very surprised to find one bathroom dirty. The floor needed mopping and there was toilet paper strewn about. And this was at the beginning of the evening which does not bode well. They were modern, a bit boring but managed to have a bit of warmth.  I give the bathrooms a 2.5 out of 5 stars. 

   

Overall, tonight, my friends and I were excited when our food arrived and continued being excited and happy while eating. These are the best of dinners out with friends. A good restaurant with it's great food and lively, warm ambiance is like live theater, heartwarming and sensorially stimulating. Fulfilling in many ways.  

I give Dosa  4 out of 5 stars and happily recommend it.

Aslam's Rasoi

Jesse:

Tonight is the first of many Valencia St. restaurants that offer Pakastani and Indian food. Yum.

     We walk into a large main dining area with a full bar on the right. Warm colors everywhere. On the tables, walls and even the individual drop lights over each table. Straight back is a large window, which looks into a well lit kitchen. The individual drop lights give each table a lot of light without overwhelming the rest of the restaurant. The overall effect is a warm, moody, low lit atmosphere.

     We arrive at 5:30 pm and are seated by the window, looking out onto Valencia St. Nice.  There is one other table occupied in the somewhat large restaurant. Judging from all the to go bags lined up at the front counter, many people use this place for take out.

     The waiter is nice and I ask about which dishes would be ok for me with my plethora of food allergies. I always wince a little asking this question but this guy is great. He checks with the kitchen and tells me the chef would be happy to create a dish just for me called Seekh Kebob, with ground chicken and prawns for $20. I was delighted!

     The ground chicken was made into cylinders and put onto a skewer to grill with the prawns. They covered the whole dish with a medium hot, brown, curry sauce. We were all asked how spicy hot we wanted our food and it came back pretty accurate.

     My special dish was a disappointment. The brown sauce over everything didn’t make the prettiest dish I’ve seen but that was ok. What I didn’t like was that the ground chicken tasted like baloney. My friends all agreed, chicken that tastes like baloney is weird. The sauce was pretty bland too. I could taste the curry and the heat but that’s about it and I’ve had much better curry. Too bad, I was so happy they were making me a special dish I could eat. It turned out lousy and they charged me a few more dollars for it too. Rats. Really, that’s the best you can create for me?

     My baloney chicken came with white rice, which included tiny slivers of carrots. It was fine. Your basic white rice, nothing to write home about, it got the job done.

     The bathroom was ok. Clean and boring. I give the bathroom  2.5 stars.

      Aslam’s Rasoi gets 2 out of 5 stars from me. I will not return. They gave me no reason to.

Shirley:

I have worked in this neighborhood for about 15 years and am very familiar with the food choices. I have my favorites and I have my "this will work" and I have my "never again" categories. Aslam's is Indian/Pakistani food that is consistently better than okay, including the service and decor. It is not my first choice, but have no problem accompanying someone who wants to eat there. 

We were pretty much the first to be seated again. The place is huge but we picked a spot by the window, which gave us a more intimate ambience. The menu is fairly typical northern Indian fare, plenty of choices, moderately priced and the choice of heat is always queried by the waitperson.
I ordered an appetizing gobi pakora - seasoned cauliflower dipped in chickpea batter and deep fried. Hard to go wrong with deep fried. It was good but a little bland.
My my main course was Saag Gosht - boneless lamb with creamed spinach, garlic, and ginger, with a side of rice. I love good creamed spinach, from any culture. Don't know why, it never showed up at my childhood table, so it is not a comfort food. I was first introduced at a French restaurant in New York during the Columbia riots (the university, not the country). It had been sauted with minced leeks, in a ton of butter. So good. And the Russian Renaissance Restaurant has a great version, with just a hint of nutmeg. Yum!
So, the saag is a natural choice for me, either with the fried cheese or a meat. In this case, the lamb was tender and the spinach revealed a lovely coriander undertone. I asked for the heat to be "American", or mild. I like spicy food, but I do not want it to blast out the other flavors. Because I had found Aslam to be a little under-salted and spiced, I went for less heat. 

One of my favorite dishes was the papdam that I snitched from Mary's plate. The lentil wafers were perfectly deep-fried and tasty. Could have made a meal of them, with their tamarind and yogurt dips.
The entire experience was pleasant. Would go again with a little time lapsed.

Mary:

This is the first time I’ve been here; and was surprised at the size of the place. We were early, and got a window table (always my first choice). The service was attentive, informative, and not overbearing but friendly. Also my first choice. I barely noticed the interior because the street scene was active and drew my curiosity. When I looked at the design more attentively, it seemed that they had handled “cavernous” fairly well by creating lots of seating and lighting that was low enough to dispel the enormity of the place and high enough to read the menu well.

I ordered two appetizers. Gobi pakoras (cauliflower) for $6. These were good. And Papadum for $2, which I always relish and these were up to being very appreciated. For a main dish I had rasoi’s rogan josh, a classic lamb curry with ginger, garlic, onions and saffron for $14. This was classic curry, amped up a bit from average American palate as I requested. Nice bite. But the lamb was a little overcooked.

I would give the service the highest rating, the food a medium plus. Aslam’s Rasoi is a place I would return to to try out other things on the menu. Having spent a lot of time in India, I can compare the curry to many that I had in Bombay restaurants and it comes out authentic and good.

It would be a go-to, medium range restaurant to share with friends who like spicy food.

Garcon

Jesse:

Garcon:

     Tonight I found myself with some considerable resistance to dining at a new restaurant. I found this curious as I had been enjoying the restaurants we recently discovered. But here’s the rub. I wanted to go back to the restaurants that I loved. I didn't want to take a chance on a mediocre restaurant when I knew where to get a Great meal a few blocks away.

     But now I see the excitement in my friends’ faces and know I can’t let them down.

     I also know that I have a tendency to get stuck in a very comfortable rut. Do you? If you are like me, dare yourself to be a little uncomfortable and try something new. Maybe it will work out, maybe not.  You’ll at least have a new story to tell your friends, and at most, you’ll have a new place that you love. A great meal, like a great love, is worth kissing a few frogs to find.

     Garcon wasn’t exactly a frog but it didn’t make my all time favorite list either. The food was good, very good, but not great in the way that excites a dinner party and makes it memorable.

     The interior was nice. Many large windows to enjoy the action of a Friday night on Valencia St. Tonight we were treated to a beautiful sunset with red raspberry clouds.

     Candles on the tables, lots of dark wood, tasteful lighting, it was nice, very nice but not particularly distinctive. It reminded me of a good steakhouse.

    Garcon opened at 5:30pm. We arrived early  and had the place to ourselves, yet the host asked if we had reservations, saying it was best if we did because it was a weekend night and it could get busy. They did seat us and it very slowly became full around 7:30-8:00pm. But I have seen this place not at all busy on a Friday night, which partially explains why I was resistant to trying this restaurant.

     Well, on to the food, the reason why we go to all this effort.

     Our waiter arrived, and at some point in the conversation, we told him we were very hungry, but to our dismay the bread took quite a while to arrive. Durn. I can tell you that when the bread did arrive, it was very good. Yay!

      Now for the next (and my least favorite) major test, I let the waiter know of my food allergies and would he kindly double check with the chef regarding some ingredients. He frowned at first but ended up being pleasant and thorough which is always a big relief.

     Lots of yummy dishes on the menu. I chose a molasses brined pork tenderloin with cranberry beans, Andouille sausage, mustard greens and celery root for $24. 

     Even with very few customers in the place, it took 30 minutes for our food to arrive.  Not too happy.

     Luckily, when my food did arrive, the pork was perfectly cooked, very tender. Lots of mustard seeds drizzled on top. I really enjoyed the combination of cranberry beans and the mustard greens. Actually, all the flavors on my plate tasted great together.

      I was really enjoying my food when I found what looked like quite a large fish bone in my greens. It was a good 3-4 inches long. I showed it to the waiter and he took it away without saying much. Later he told me it was a stem from a  thyme sprig. That’s it. No apology, no concern, no free dessert or coffee, nothing. I was not impressed by the waiter. What impressed me was the large “twig” in my food.

     On to the restroom review. It was clean enough. A bit dark and uninspired, but ok. I give it 2.5 stars.

  

     Overall, I give Garcon 3.75 out of 5 stars.

Very good food on the edge of great but not quite there.  The kitchen was sluggish and the service cool and a bit distant.

Shirley:

Garcon ( with a cedilla, of course) is an okay french bistro, with classically trained wait staff, where I have eaten before, so there were few surprises. It's a nice place, nice food, nice people and as you can tell, not all that inspiring for me. I do like their deserts, but I tend to like deserts pretty much anywhere I go. 
I think they use good ingredients, always a plus, and they favor a European/French tradition to their menu, which can go either way, sublime or static.  To sum up the overall food experience, I believe they put too much emphasis on how many flavors they can manage in one dish and not enough on each element along the way. 

I ordered duck confit, lentils du puy, grilled frisee with vermouth vinaigrette , crispy poached egg. The frisee was raw, not grilled and the vineagrette was missing, but that was a relief because there was enough going on without it. The duck was good, the lentils my favorite. I think the egg was added to make up for the tiny portion of duck, because the crispy outside matched the crispy frisee and the creamy quality of the yolk was lost on the creamy quality of the lentils.
Now, that can sound picky, but when offered a picky menu, one should pay attention, yes?
Lentils du puy happen to be my favorite lentil, and again, they were fine. Perhaps I am more used to more robust flavors, being a denizen of the mission, but everything tasted just a little bland.
But, the desert was grande; profiterolles with cinnamon gelato, dark rum crème anglaise, fleur de sel, chocolate sauce. The dark rum crème anglaise was missing, again not a loss. Do you really need rum along with all the other flavors? It just confuses eveything.
The staff were polite, informative and responsive to our requests. Pomposity was kept to a minimum. We were allowed to wait inside a few minutes before they opened. And, $40 for a main course and desert is pretty good. I recommend that you try it for yourself. I cannot give it a yeah or nay, just an okay.

Mary:

The interior of Garcon is highly polished glass and wood, well lighted, with a small but stylish bar and comfortable seating. It had a high-class cozy feel to it. We got to see all this clearly because we arrived 5 minutes early and they allowed us our request to wait inside, out of the cold, until they opened. They handled our food limitations with grace, and there were many things on their menu that I could eat. 

 I chose two dishes, the parsnip and cauliflower soup that was on their specials, and grilled octopus.

The presentation of the soup was nice. The waiter brought a soup bowl with prepared almonds mounded in the center and poured the puree around the center until the bowl was full. I was set up to like it. We were all intrigued by the combination of ingredients, so I requested spoons for everyone so they could have a taste. The reaction around the table was unanimous. We were disappointed. It was flat; difficult to taste either the parsnip or the cauliflower in it.  For the high-end cost I would expect more impeccable cooking.

The octopus was good, well grilled.

The polish of the place was deceptive. When I used the bathroom, (there were two and I used the lesser one) very plain and not so clean, I thought…It’s classy in the dining room. Needs more work in the kitchen, and  in the bathroom. I wanted to be impressed. I was set up for it with the ambiance. But I wasn’t.

GARCON
1101 Valencia Street
401-8959