New Restaurant Favorites

After a streak of disappointing restaurant experiences in the Castro and Noe Valley last year (I’ve heard this area described as San Francisco’s “culinary wasteland”), I am pleased to report the discovery of two excellent new restaurants in the neighborhood. This means I can finally get a satisfying meal within walking distance! I can’t underscore this enough: this is huge.

DOSA
South Indian
995 Valencia St @ 21st St
(415) 642-3672

I have the perfect excuse not to like DOSA: they lost my reservation! Even for a new restaurant, this was quite an unpleasant surprise.

Hearing that it was a popular place, I had reserved a table for our group of five a few days in advance by email, and promptly received a confirmation. Yet somehow this information didn’t make it to the hostess, who was completely unaware that the email conversation had taken place. Our party waited out in the cold while the she did her best to bump us to the top of the wait list. To her credit, she managed to seat us only a half hour past our original reservation time, despite the huge Saturday night crowd.

As it turned out, our meal at DOSA was well worth the wait. The restaurant itself is warm and inviting, and the South Indian food they served was top notch. Here’s what we ordered:

• Idli Vada Sambar
  DOSA’s sambar packs plenty of heat, and this was a great way to start the meal.
• Chennai Chicken
  Small pieces of chicken, lightly fried (similar to pakora) and incredibly spiced. Hands down my favorite dish of the evening.
• Masala dosa and paper masala dosa
  The best dosa I’ve eaten (admittedly, this is only my third or fourth time). Spicy? Yes. Yummy? Definitely.
• Paneer & peas uttapam
  First time I’ve had uttapam. Excellent. Served with great chutneys and spicy sambar.
• Tamil lamb curry
  Another standout. Great flavor and extremely tender. This is what I’ll be ordering on my next visit.
• Kulfi and coconut sorbet
  Even the desserts were great. I love this place.

Kiji
Sushi
1007 Guerrero St @ 22st St
(415) 282-0400

I think Kiji has surpassed Tsunami as my favorite sushi restaurant. Tsunami might be more “hip”, but Kiji wins on quality.

On a Thursday night Kiji was packed, and we had to wait about 10 minutes for a table. Inside is a great chill-out atmosphere: black tables, chairs and place settings lit by a warm red glow with some great Latin jazz and samba music playing. Dim but not too dark, and not too noisy either. Service was excellent and the staff speak Japanese (always a good sign).

Most importantly, everything we ordered was delicious:

• Grilled Chilean sea bass marinated in miso and sake
  A tad salty perhaps, but still satisfying. The accompanying salad and miso soup were surprisingly fresh and yummy.
• hon-maguro (Blue-fin tuna) and aji (Spanish mackerel)
  Easily some of best I’ve had of either fish. Melt-in-your-mouth goodness, and great rice to boot.
• Eddie cucumber roll
  Tuna, avocado, sprouts, shiso and tobiko wrapped in cucumber with spicy sauce. The shiso was a bit strong, but wow this was a great roll.
• Guerrero roll
  Yellowtail, avocado, eel and tobiko. I’m having a hard time deciding which roll was my favorite.
• Gyoza
  Incredibly juicy, lots of pork and fresh veggies. Best gyoza ever? Or pretty darn close.
• Green tea ice cream with red beans
  I’m normally not a fan of the green tea ice cream, but this was spectacular. Creamy, and without the bitter tea flavor. The fresh red beans on top made for a perfect sweet/savory balance. Yum.

Did I mention Kiji is within walking distance? This is going to do some serious damage to my credit card statement.